Page 49 of Reckless Hearts

Alana swallows hard, nodding as she fumbles with her keys before eventually climbing into her car. I watch by the side of the road until she drives off, not moving until she disappears.

When I get back home, I’ve got five messages from Jade waiting for me on my phone.

Jade: Where are you? I want to come and see your place.

Jade: Let’s hang out, I could do with checking out the break I’ll be surfing.

Jade: Wanna grab breakfast?

Jade: Flynn?! Seriously, where are you?

Jade: You know you can’t just ignore me. You are my coach.

“Fuck. Me.” I say, throwing my phone onto the bed as I do ignore the messages and head into the bathroom to take a shower. I don’t know if it’s everything that’s going on right now and all the ways I wish things could be different, but Jade seems a million times more annoying than normal.

After I shower, and once again jerk off to thoughts of Alana, I get dressed and head over to the coffee shop next door to The Pipe Dream. I’d love to just hang out at the shop all day, but I already know Alana is working, and I kind of figure it would be pretty obvious and possibly shitty if I show up and hang out there with her.

I place my order and take a seat at one of the old wooden tables to wait, and about five seconds after I sit down, someone is calling my name.

“Flynn, hey.”

Turning, I see Owen grinning beside the table, his hand out waiting to fist bump me. “Hey, Owen, how’s it going?”

Owen laughs as he sits down across from me. “It’s going good. How are you?”

I let out a laugh, shaking my head as the barista calls my name. Grabbing my coffee, I return to the table, taking a seat as I say, “Um, yeah, I guess it’s going good.”

Owen laughs again, his head tipped to the side. “Well, that sounds like bullshit.”

I shrug. “Meh, maybe.”

He raises a brow. “This got anything to do with your surfer showing up yesterday to Keiki Chaos?” He laughs at the look I give him, jumping up to grab his coffee now before he joins me again. “I kinda saw the whole thing when she showed up. Gotta say, man, you didn’t look too impressed.”

“Fuck,” I mutter, letting out a laugh as I scrub a hand across my jaw. “Look, she’s a great surfer and it’s a great job. It’s just...well, she can be a lot of work at times too, and I was kinda looking to have a holiday before Pipe and?—”

“And you’re mad crushing on Alana too, so there’s that.”

“Wait, what?” I ask, my drink paused halfway between the table and my mouth.

Owen laughs, waving a hand at me. “Dude, it’s kinda obvious you think she’s hot and hey, I sorta get it. Sorta. There’s never been anything between her and me because I’ve only got eyes for one girl, but I get it. The whole unrequited love thing.”

I snort out a laugh. “Unrequited love? I wouldn’t go that far.”

Owen grins, taking a sip of his drink as he looks across the table at me. “Well, that’s what it is with me,” he says. “I mean, not with Alana.”

“With who then?” I ask, curious.

Owen’s smile widens as he gets this stupid goofy look on his face. “My girl, Sloane,” he says.

My brow narrows because I remember meeting Sloane at the get-together back at the shop the other night. Just like I remember Owen being at the same get-together and the two of them pretty muchnotbeing together all night.

“So like...” I start, not really sure how to ask the question.

Owen just laughs. “Oh yeah, she kinda doesn’t know I feel this way. She sorta does, but well...we’re not at the same point just yet. But we’ll get there,” he adds with a grin.

“So let me get this straight,” I start. “You fancy Sloane?”

“If by fancy you mean, am I crazy about her? Then yep, I sure as hell am.”

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