Page 70 of Reckless Hearts

“She’s a chick who surfs, Flynn,” Nate says, laughing. “How bad can it get?”

Shaking my head, I scrub a hand over my jaw. “You have no idea,” I say, my eyes now moving to the dog she randomly decided to get this morning.

What the fuck possessed her to get a pet when she actively travels around the world for her job, including to several countries with strict quarantine restrictions, is beyond me. Jade’s home is in South Africa, which is where she’s from, and I’m assuming, like Australia, they have some kind of restrictions in place for bringing animals in.

But as usual, this is not something Jade has considered, assuming that someone else, most likely me, will sort all of these problems out for her. As far as I’m concerned, organizing her new dog’s travel schedule is not in my job description, so she’s either leaving this thing behind, or she is in for a rude fucking shock when she tries to get on her plane at Honolulu airport and thinks the dog counts as carry-on.

“Hey, everything good?” Sage asks, walking over from the table she’s set up by the surfboards that span an entire wall of the shop.

Nate hooks his arm around her, pulling her close. “Everything’s good, babe,” he says, kissing her quickly. “But heads up, Jade doesn’t know Flynn’s staying here, so keep it on the downlow.”

Sage’s eyes widen as she looks from me to Jade and back to me again. “Okay, no problem. You want me to tell everyone else that too?”

“Thank you,” he murmurs, giving her another kiss. “That would be awesome.”

Sage nods, reaching over to squeeze my arm as she gives me a knowing look, probably because she knows Alana and I are hooking up and Jade knowing where I’m staying could seriously fuck with that. Just as she moves away, presumably to word Owen in, Alana walks through the door, our eyes locking thesecond she looks my way. She gives me a small smile, and I can’t resist returning it, my heart flipping in my chest at just the sight of her, before she turns and makes her way over to the table where Jade has taken up residence.

I watch as she looks up at Alana’s arrival, the flash of scorn that crosses her face when she realizes she’s actually sharing the table with Alana. There are stacks of surf magazines and other paraphernalia on either end of the table, and even though Jade knew Alana was taking part in this, I’m sure she assumed it wouldn’t be like this.

“Excuse me a sec,” I say to Nate before making my way over to the table.

“Flynn!” Jade cries, standing the second she sees me and plastering a smile on her face as she throws her arms around me in a hug. Beside her, her new dog lets out a tiny bark, and as I disentangle myself from her embrace, I see Alana crouch down to pat it.

“Hi, baby,” she croons, cradling the dog’s head in her hands. The dog, which is actually kind of cute, lets out another tiny bark before jumping up and down and attempting to lick Alana’s face as she laughs at it.

Beside me, Jade stiffens, her smile disappearing as she reaches down and snatches up the dog. “Mochi, this is Flynn,” she says, holding the dog up to me. “Flynn, this is my little baby, Mochi.”

“Hey, fluffball,” I say, ruffling its head before turning back to Jade. “Not sure what possessed you to do this, Jade, but you know you can’t just travel with this thing in your bag, don’t you?”

Jade laughs, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she says, “Of course I know that. It’ll be fine, Flynn, and besides, I’ve got you to help me with him, don’t I?”

I exhale, pinching the bridge of my nose as I try to stay calm. Up until last year, all this sort of shit was handled by Jade’s dad.But the second she turned eighteen, she told him she didn’t need him traveling with us anymore, that she was an adult now and could handle things on her own.

Not sure when she was planning to start acting like one though, but it sure as shit hasn’t happened yet. In fact, her behavior has only gotten worse since her dad stopped touring with us, and I’m not sure if this is her just going through her rebellious streak or if she legit was always kind of a bitch, and he just managed to keep her in check better than I do.

“No, you don’t,” I say, glancing at Alana, who is actually smirking at me and this ridiculous conversation. “Like I said before, Jade, I’m your coach, not your assistant. What you do with this thing is your problem, not mine. But just a heads up. That comp in Margaret River is gonna be tough. Australia has pretty strict quarantine laws, you know?”

Jade pouts at me, jutting her hip out as she says, “But Johnny Depp took his dogs to Australia when he was filming.”

I can’t stop the eye roll, scrubbing a hand over my face as behind her, Alana snorts out a laugh before slapping a hand over her mouth as though she didn’t mean to. “Yeah, and that was done illegally,” I say, my words laden with sarcasm. “They were actually deported as a result of that.”

“Johnny Depp was?” she asks.

“The dogs,” I deadpan. “It was that or they were gonna be destroyed.”

Jade lets out a gasp, crushing the dog in her arms against her chest as she buries her face in its fur. Risking a glance at Alana, I see she’s silently laughing now, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she listens to this entire conversation.

I hit her with a look that’s supposed to convey that she isn’t helping, but this just makes her laugh even harder and, in the end, I turn back to Jade, changing the subject.

“Okay, this signing is gonna go for an hour or so. It’s probably going to be locals, but you never know who might show. I already know some of the sponsors are in town, so be nice, okay?”

Jade looks up at me, a look of indignation on her face as she says, “I’m always nice.”

I raise a brow, silently reminding her of the countless times she’s said the same thing, only to do the exact opposite. She doesn’t need me to spell out the time she walked out of a press conference when a reporter questioned her technique or how she left a promo thing early because they didn’t have the drink she wanted or the million other times she’s been a pain in the arse.

She knows because this is all behavior she’s been pulling ever since her dad stopped touring with us. And she knows how much it pisses me off. It’s not just her reputation that’s at stake here, it’s mine too.

“Be nice,” is all I say, pointing a finger at her before I turn to Alana. “Hey,” I now say, giving her a smile.

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