Page 83 of Reckless Hearts

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not really sure what to feel or even what I should be doing right now.”

I pull her closer, brushing my lips against hers in a soft, slow kiss. “Right now, you don’t need to do anything. I’m going to take care of it.”

“But I need to respond to this complaint,” she says, putting her phone on the bench. “I can’t just ignore it. What if they kick me out of Pipe? Oh my god, this could be over before?—”

“Alana,” I say, the word firm but soft as I take her face in my hands. I wait until she looks up at me, wishing I could take away all of the pain and fear and worry I can see in her beautiful blue eyes. “They aren’t going to kick you out of Pipe. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“We’ve done nothing wrong,” she immediately says.

I give her a small smile. “I know we haven’t. This, us, has nothing to do with Jade, and deep down she knows that. She’s just...”

Alana nods, like she gets it. “Who were you speaking to just then?”

“Her dad.”

She makes a face, her eyes widening a little. “And what did he say?”

Chuckling, I drop a quick kiss on her lips before pulling her in so she’s half sitting on my lap. “He was pretty cool. I think he knows she can be a bit of a loose unit at times. This certainly isn’t the first time she’s called him. It’s just the first time...” I trail off, not needing to finish my sentence.

Alana slides her hand onto my cheek, turning me toward her. “Are you still her coach?”

I huff out a laugh, shaking my head. “Yeah, her dad would never get rid of me. I think he thought maybe I’d rub off on her. Not that that’s happened. I guess Jade could technically still fire me though.”

As soon as the words are out, a feeling of relief washes over me. At the idea of being free of Jade and all of her bullshit. At not having to hide my relationship with Alana.

At being able to stay.

“She’s not going to do that,” Alana now says. “She knows she’s onto a good thing with you, and this is just her lashing out because she’s jealous and hurt.”

“Dunno why she’s jealous,” I mutter. “I never, ever gave her the impression there was anything between us.”

She smirks now, pressing a kiss to my jaw. “Because you are hot as fuck, Flynn Roberts. You’d have to be blind not to be jealous.”

I grin, gripping her chin in my hand. “Hot as fuck, huh. Is that all I am to you?” I’m teasing her, and she knows it.

“It’s notallyou are,” she replies playfully.

Laughing, I pull her close, kissing her hard, wishing we could forget about this shit and go back to bed. “I gotta call Danielle,” I mumble against her lips.

“Danielle?”

“From ISA,” I clarify. “I’m gonna sort this out, Alana, I promise you.”

She nods, and I grab my phone, scrolling through to Danielle’s number before putting it on speaker and then putting the phone down on the bench as we both listen to it ring.

“This is Danielle Thornton,”a woman’s voice says, sounding nothing like I expected. I don’t even know what I expected. Maybe someone who is a hardass and ready to crack down on all the wrongdoings of the surf world.

“Hey, Danielle. Flynn Roberts returning your message,” he says without the least bit of hesitation or concern in his voice, and I can’t help but admire how he’s handling this.

As much as I know we haven’t done anything wrong, I’m still worried about how this will all go down. Jade can be incredibly convincing, and right now, she’s looking to get her way, even if that means ruining my career, and Flynn’s for that matter.

“Oh, hey Flynn. Thanks so much. How’s the swell out there in Maui?” she asks like she’s chatting with an old friend.

“Epic as always. How long has it been since you’ve been out here?” Again, with the casual conversation, and I want to tell him to just get to it. This call to her could end all this nonsense. That’s what it is, nonsense, and Jade knows it. But there’s no getting through to her, and she thinks she’s doing the right thing.

Or maybe she knows it’s wrong, and that’s her whole point. Wasting the resources of the ISA and asking them to investigate something that will never appear as anything more than a relationship between consenting adults.

“Gotta be at least six years, maybe longer,” she responds, letting out a laugh. “Don’t do much surfing these days, to be honest. Mostly just taking my kids out and showing them that their mom was once pretty good. Never a world champ like you, though.”

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