Page 37 of Broken Hearts

“I just meant like, where do they find the people who take the lessons?” I try to keep the sarcasm out of my own tone, realizing Nate tends to be a little harsh when things are uncomfortable for him.

Setting down a highlighter he picked up, he lets out a hard sigh. “Your dad has a contract with several of the hotels in the area. It’s something he worked really hard for,” Nate replies, the last part seemingly added for my benefit.

“That’s really cool. How come they don’t just work directly for the hotel?” I’m hitting him with a lot of questions, something I can tell bothers him, but I want to know about my dad. Nate is the one person I can hit with the questions and learn what my dad did here.

“Because the hotels are assholes. They charge like two hundred bucks an hour and the instructors get like ten percent of that.”

“That’s shitty.”

“Yeah, super,” Nate says, settling in a little. “So Mitch, your dad,” he corrects or adds, “was able to create a contract with several of the big-name hotels to be the middleman. Basically, Mitch pays the wage for the instructors and handles all the scheduling and hiring and organizing so it’s out of the hotel’s hands.”

“And they all live here and work for my dad?” I ask, thinking about the guy who showed up here not long after I arrived, wanting me to sell off The Pipe Dream.

“They work for you, Sage,” Nate says, catching me off guard. “You’re the owner of The Pipe Dream. You are the one paying their paycheck now.”

It’s like he can read my thoughts, pushing me to understand what happens if I choose to sell The Pipe Dream.

I swallow hard, guilt taking over, but I try to tell myself that I have to make the decision based on what works for me, and not what works for everyone else. Selling The Pipe Dream would set me up for the rest of my life.

After Sageand I close up the shop, she heads upstairs to get changed or ready for her dinner with Alana or whatever it is she needs to do, while I head back to my place. I should be finishing these designs for Tanner before I go surfing, but I also need to get the fuck out of here before I walk upstairs to the apartment and beg Sage not to go out tonight. To stay here with me so we can finish whatever the hell that was we started last night.

Not that it was anything. How could it be? She doesn’t even live on the island. We can’t be anything when in a little over a week she’s probably going to sell this place and disappear back to the mainland. Leaving my life a fucked up mess all over again.

For so many reasons.

“Fuck,” I breathe out, changing into some boardshorts before grabbing my board and heading over to the beach.

Malo and Owen are already out in the water, and as I walk down to the beach, I see both Miles and Kai getting ready to join them.

“Yo, Nate,” Kai calls, a huge grin on his face. Miles offers me a tip of his head and a smile, practically the polar opposite of his loud-mouthed older brother. I like both of these guys, but Miles is more like me, preferring minimal conversation and zero questions.

“Hey,” I say, board tucked under my arm as the three of us head into the water.

We paddle out to where Malo and Owen are, the two of them grinning at us before all five of us line up to catch a wave. The exhilaration of surfing is unreal, never gets old, and from the second Mitch taught me how to do this, I was hooked.

Didn’t matter how many times I fell off my board or got dumped by a wave, I got right back up and tried again. I’m not a natural like Alana is, but I eventually picked it up and now, I can barely let a day go by without getting out on the ocean.

“So, Nate,” Malo says as we all hang out beyond the break, sitting on our boards as we take a quick break.

“So, Malo,” I throw back at him, already knowing what he’s going to ask. It’s amazing it’s taken him this long.

He chuckles, glancing at Owen before he turns back to me and says, “Sage, huh. She’s nani loa, man.”

I roll my eyes because of course he’s noticed that and of course he has something to say about it. “She’s Mitch’s daughter,” I say, repeating my previous statement as though that somehow changes things. I don’t know why it should, it sure as shit didn’t stop me last night.

“How long you been wanting to hit that?” he now asks, and Kai laughs.

“Since the day she arrived would be my guess,” Kai says.

I flip them both off as I say, “Fuck off.”

Kai just laughs again, turning to Malo as he says, “He’s got it bad and I mean I get it, she’s?—”

“Dude, fuck,” I say, cutting him off. “She’s Mitch’s daughter. Have some fucking respect.”

Kai, Malo and Owen are all grinning at me, while Miles sits quietly on his board, observing but not saying anything. I’m tempted to suggest he and I go further down the beach so we can surf in peace, but I know these idiots will just follow us.

“She’s here for the memorial service, okay? And to figure out what to do with the shop. She’ll be gone in a week or so and then…” I trail off, shrugging because I have no idea what happens then.

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