Page 74 of Broken Hearts

Kai rolls his eyes, the grin still on his face as he looks over at Alana, letting out a quick laugh before he turns back in his seat to face the front. Sage glances up at me, but I just drop my arm around her shoulders, pulling her close as I press a kiss to her temple.

The drive isn’t long, and when we pull up to the small dock where Tanner keeps his boat, Sage turns to me and says, “We’re going out on a boat?”

“Yeah,” I say with a laugh. “Mitch would want his ashes scattered at sea,” I tell her.

“Oh, I know,” Sage replies quickly. “I just assumed we’d surf or paddle out or whatever.”

Tanner lets out a chuckle as we all head down the dock toward the shittiest, most beat-up, ancient, barely afloat boat here. “Nah, we’re taking the Luna Mae out,” he says, smiling at Sage. “Your dad and I spent hours fishing on this boat, he woulda loved this for a final send-off.”

Sage blinks, her eyes turning to the boat and then back to Tanner. “Who’s Luna Mae? Is she…I don’t know, like someone important to my dad?”

Tanner and Kai laugh at this, Miles actually cracking a smile as Tanner shakes his head and says, “Luna Mae is my wife, this is my boat.”

“You’re married?” Sage blurts out, her cheeks instantly turning red as we all laugh now.

“Uh huh,” Tanner says, jerking a thumb at his sons. “How do you think I ended up with these two?”

“Oh my god,” she mutters, burying her face in her hands. “How did I not know this?”

Laughing, I pull her close, dropping a kiss to her head before we all get on the boat.

Tanner takes us out to one of their favorite spots, a small bay that doesn’t get any break and so is pretty much shit for surfing.

“This feels like a good spot,” he says, killing the engine.

Alana walks over with the urn in her arms, holding it out to Sage. “You can keep some if you want. We just thought…well, we thought Mitch would like it out here.”

“Yeah,” she says, nodding as she looks around. “Yep.”

There’s nothing ceremonial about what we do or how we do it. The six of us each take turns tipping some of Mitch’s ashes into the sea as the boat bobs silently beneath us. No one says anything because everything that needed to be said was said yesterday.

When we’re done, maybe half the ashes are left, still in the urn Sage now holds in her arms.

I watch as Tanner blows out a hard breath, his eyes on the horizon as he sticks a cigarette between his lips, lighting it before taking one quick inhale and then throwing the cigarette overboard as he blows out the smoke.

“Later, buddy,” he whispers, swallowing hard before he turns back to us. Behind him, Miles steps closer, resting a hand on his dad’s shoulder. Tanner smiles, his gaze moving over all of us as he says, “What do you say we go have some fun?”

We head back to the shop, but for the second day in a row, we don’t open, instead grabbing our boards and heading over the road to the beach.

“I thought you said this beach wasn’t for newbies,” Sage says as she walks beside me, her board tucked under her arm and almost looking like she knows what she’s doing.

Chuckling, I reach over and grip the back of her neck, squeezing gently as I say, “Not in the mornings, no, but you’ll be okay now.”

“Are you sure?” she asks and when I turn to her, her eyes are fixed on the waves, which I guess probably look huge compared to the ones she first surfed.

I stop, pulling her around so she’s facing me, everyone else heading down to the water’s edge. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, Sage.”

She looks up at me, licking her bottom lip before she pulls it between her teeth. “Promise?”

I step closer, closing the distance between us as I drop my lips to hers, kissing her softly. Sage’s hand moves to my chest, her palm flat against my bare skin, right above my heart. Her touch drives me crazy, a million little shocks of fire lighting my skin beneath her fingers.

“Sage,” I moan, my mouth against hers.

“Nate,” she whispers.

My tongue traces her bottom lip, sliding against hers as her lips now part, our kiss deepening. The two of us forget all about the others who are probably paddling out to where the swell breaks. I don’t even care about surfing, and I know if right this second Sage asked me to turn around and walk back across the road and head upstairs, I would.

The sound of catcalls and whistling from the water is what breaks the spell, though. The two of us pull back slowly, even though I can still feel her breath on my face.

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