Page 59 of Broken Hearts

I press my lips to her warm cheek, inhaling her scent. “Sage, I can absolutely promise you I am not embarrassed about what happened between us. Any of it.”

“Okay,” she murmurs, nodding.

“And actually, I’d really like it to happen again,” I add, kissing her temple before I lift my gaze to hers.

“Yeah?” she asks.

Smiling, I drop a kiss to the end of her nose. “Fuck yes,” I whisper. “Do you?”

I’m suddenly worried that maybe this was just a one-time thing for Sage. Well, one night and morning thing anyway and I really, really don’t want it to be that. As much as I know it’s going to hurt when she leaves, I still want more of her.

“Yes,” she says, an almost shy smile on her face.

Chuckling, I lean in and kiss her, teasing her bottom lip with my tongue. “Well, it’s good we’re on the same page then,” I whisper against her mouth.

She smiles against me as she says, “It is. Still doesn’t answer my question about Alana though.”

Laughing, I pull her close, sliding a hand down to her ass as I say, “We could just go down there and go to work and then, I don’t know, wait and see. Maybe try and work out what she thinks she knows?” I suggest.

“And if she does know?” Sage asks, the same flash of worry crossing her face.

My grip on her ass tightens as I lean down, resting my forehead against hers. “Then I’m totally okay with that, Sage.”

I spendthe entire day with Nate at the shop, sneaking kisses here and there when the crowds die off, a smile permanently plastered on his beautiful, tanned face. His happiness is infectious, and I can’t stop grinning either every time I look at him.

“What’s with the smile?” Nate asks me, and all I can think is this stupidly adorable man is making me feel all sorts of things I never expected.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to show up here, bitter and angry, mixed with a little bit of guilt, and leave none the better. But it’s not like that at all.

“I love it here,” I say, swallowing hard because this isn’t my home, and eventually I’m going to have to leave. I have a life to go back to. I have to finish college; it’s literally waiting for me to come back. The semester is starting soon, and I like to think my mom would be against me staying, but with her, everything is an adventure. School can wait, but I feel completely different about that. Moving to Hawaii on a whim is something she’d encourage.

“I love having you here,” Nate replies, this cute little blush appearing on his cheeks with his admittance. He’s so damn gorgeous it makes my chest ache, and this is a side of Nate that no one else gets to see, a side that seems to be only reserved for me.

But I don’t dare destroy this thing that is happening between us by mentioning reality. We’re in this bubble right now, this little world that has me on a vacation with real life lingering in the background. This is Nate’s real life, and I’m just living in it for now. I can’t even begin to think about leaving, especially with everything he’s said to me.

Breaking his heart doesn’t feel like an option.

Ever.

“Will you be in my bed when I get home tonight?” I ask playfully, my hand snaking down his taut torso, coming to rest against the obvious bulge in his boardshorts.

“How late are you planning to be at Alana’s?” he quips back, a bit of a shocked tone to his words. “I figured it would be a thirty-minute thing, and you’d be naked and in my bed.”

He doesn’t let me answer, his mouth colliding with mine, and now I want to say fuck going over to Alana’s. He can take me right here on this counter.

His kiss is ravenous and desperate, and my knees go weak, all the air leaving my lungs as my heart pounds hard against my chest. And when he finally pulls away, I suck in a deep breath, willing myself not to faint from a lack of oxygen.

“Go to Alana’s and meet me in my bed,” he practically demands, and I nod, my words trapped in my throat, still recovering from the assault of his kiss.

I’m so fucked.

Never have I wanted someone the way I want Nate. I want him to consume me and possess me and take everything he can from me, but it all feels so damn scary.

“I gotta go work on some reorders,” Nate now says, catapulting us back to reality. “You think you can handle the shop till Owen gets here?”

He taught me how to run the register and clued me in on a few things that keep this place up and running. It’s nothing major and if someone comes in asking for advice on boards or wetsuits, I’m out of the question.

But this of course has my mind wandering, wondering if I could make a career of this, if I could take over this place and keep it running like my dad did. I have zero experience and obviously, this is not an option. It’s a dream…a pipe dream.

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