Page 73 of Broken Hearts

Mom: You were meant to stay, Sage. I’ve had you for twenty-two years and now your dad gets you. Carry on his legacy. I love you.

I read her message again and again, my eyes welling with tears. What the hell is she talking about? I can’t stay.

Or can I?

I quickly begin to type out a message to her, my fingers moving frantically. How can she just tell me to stay without anything more? I need her to tell me why. I need her to tell me she’ll be okay without me, and that I’ll be okay without her.

But then I feel Nate shift beside me, and the way he moves against me when he sleeps, I don’t need to know anything more.

This is my home. This is where I’m meant to be.

I can’t even believe I’m thinking this. It’s only been a few weeks, but everything about it feels right. It’s intense and all-consuming, and I love it. I don’t care that it has all happened so quickly. Finding Nate amongst this chaos is all I need to know.

But I don’t even know how to go about this, and then my phone chimes out again. Hoping for some more of my mother’s random insight, I quickly look at the screen.

But this time, it’s a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hi Sage, I got your number from Tanner. My name’s Mike, and I’m your father’s lawyer. I’d like to set up a time to meet with you before you head back to the mainland. Let me know when you’re free. I can come to you.

Shit, this has been a lot for this early in the morning, and after the day I had yesterday, I don’t know if I can process any of this right now.

Without responding to either message, I toss my phone back on the nightstand, curling my body around Nate’s and let the warmth of him lull me back to sleep.

I’msurprised at how late it is when I wake up, the sun high in the sky, streaming into the apartment as Sage sleeps beside me. Yesterday and last night had been exhausting, probably more than I expected it to be. I always knew saying goodbye to Mitch was going to be hard, even if Hawaiian tradition says we celebrate life over mourning death. But with Sage here, with everything that has happened between us, it was somehow way harder than I thought it was going to be.

I roll over, burying my face in Sage’s hair as I press a kiss to the back of her neck. She stirs a little, but doesn’t wake up, and I just lie here, holding her in my arms, wishing I could stay in this moment with her forever.

I’m glad her mom came yesterday, that she’d been here for Sage too. I can’t even imagine how hard all of this is for her, knowing now, the guilt she carries for not being a part of Mitch’s life when he was alive. But her mom being here was also a reminder of what’s to come.

I inhale, trying to remember her scent, knowing that with Mitch’s memorial now done, my time with Sage is running out. It doesn’t matter how much I want her to stay or how much I wish I could hang on to her, I know it’s not going to happen. We are from different worlds and no matter how much I wish I could change that, I can’t.

“Shit,” I mutter, exhaling before I carefully slip out of bed. Pulling on some clothes, I grab my phone, slide my feet into flip flops and head downstairs to walk over to the coffee shop. Along the way I send a text to both Tanner and Alana.

Me: What time are you guys coming by? Sage is gonna come too.

Tanner: We’ll be there in 30 mins.

After I’ve bought our drinks, I head back up to the apartment to find Sage still asleep. Smiling, I leave the coffees on the nightstand before leaning over, brushing the hair back from her face as I kiss her cheek. “Wake up, sleepy,” I whisper. “We gotta go soon.”

Sage mumbles something as she rolls over so she’s facing me, and I lean down and kiss her lips. “What time is it?” she asks.

Chuckling, I brush my thumb across her mouth. “Time to get up,” I tell her. “I bought you a coffee. I’m gonna head home and take a shower.”

She groans now as she sits up, holding the sheet across her chest as she blinks her eyes open, trying to focus on me. “Hey,” she says, giving me a sleepy smile.

“Hi,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss her again. I want to kiss her every day. Forever. “Get dressed, I’ll be back soon, okay?”

She nods, and I stand, grabbing her coffee and handing it to her before I pick up mine and head downstairs to my house to shower and change.

Sage and I are waiting outside the front of the shop when Tanner rolls up in his van, Miles sitting in the front passenger seat, Alana and Kai in the back.

“Yo, yo, yo, lovebirds,” Kai calls through the open window, a huge smile on his face as he smacks his hand against the side of the van. I’d sort of forgotten about how everyone saw me and Sage together yesterday and now knew something was going on with us.

“Fuck me,” I mutter as, beside me, Sage laughs.

We climb in, taking the bench seat at the back of the van, Kai turning to face us, a huge smile on his face as he rests his arms across the back of his seat. “So,” he starts.

I shake my head, even as Tanner calls from the driver’s seat, “Leave it, Kai.”

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