Page 57 of Reckless Hearts

I could take the blame for it all if we’re caught. It will have no effect on his job if I tell the surf commission it was all on me. Jade wouldn’t even have to know.

It sounds ridiculous even in my head.

“Honestly, I could be banned from competitive surfing. Think about it like this, what if Flynn was sharing training secrets with me, giving me coaching advice in a bid for me to overtake Jade. And not just that, we could work together to throw competitions, arrange betting and gambling.”

“Yeah, but you’d never do that,” Daisy chimes in and while she’s right, people in the competitive surfing circuit don’t know this. There’s a code of ethics and I need to follow it.

“And Flynn wouldn’t either,” Sage says. “I don’t get it. This is your personal life, and you should be able to date or sleep with whoever you want.”

I let out a laugh. She doesn’t realize this has been my exact thought since Flynn told me who he is. Fuck the surfing commission and anyone who thinks they get a say, but again, it’s not that easy.

“Yeah, I know, but again, say nothing. No one is to know about this. At least until Maui Pipe is over, and then after that, it may be different.”

“Different how?” Sage asks.

“If I fail to place or move on, then it doesn’t matter. This is my last shot at professional surfing, and if it doesn’t work out, I don’t have to worry about sleeping with Flynn. It won’t be a conflict of interest anymore.”

They all fall quiet, and I know what they’re thinking, making me laugh out loud.

“It’s not happening, girls. I’m not throwing Pipe so I can sleep with Flynn!” I call out, covering my face with my hands as my cheeks flush pink.

“So you’ve thought it too, huh?” Daisy teases, sticking out her tongue followed by a cheeky smile on her face. “He must have been damn good in bed for you to think it.”

“You have no idea.”

We chat for a little while longer, until we’re all exhausted. It’s late, and Sage crashes on the couch, and Daisy, Sloane and I head to our bedrooms.

It feels freeing to have finally told them and to have them respond the way they did. They understand, but they also want me to be happy.

Flynn makes me happy, and it’s in a way I’ve never felt before. I liked having him all to myself, and I’m pissed that Jade has shown up and ruined things even more than it already is.

But I also know I’m on a dangerous path, but finding where that danger lies is harder than I thought. Is it with Flynn or is it because of Jade?

I roll over, the glow from the moon sends a sliver of light through the curtains, and oddly enough, it falls right on the letter from Mitch.

Picking it up, I hold it in the line of the moonbeam, trying to read it through the envelope.

But nothing appears.

I run my fingers over the press of the ink. My name is almost now embossed on the front.

It’s funny to see Mitch’s handwriting. It’s something I saw almost every day for years, and never gave it a second thought.But now, here in my bedroom, the scrawl on the white envelope in the moonlight, I realize how much I miss seeing it on all the paperwork at The Pipe Dream.

Really, how much I miss him.

It’s then that I open the letter, my heart hammering in my chest, the tears already pricking at the corners of my eyes when I see my name. It’s perfectly written at the top of the letter, and I can hear him say it in my mind. The way he used to yell it from the shore when I did something he didn’t like, or the way he’d shout it from the back of the shop. It was always done with this air of love to it, never mean or harsh.

The tears begin to spill down my cheeks as I read it.

Alana,

I’ve never met anyone like you. So happy and confident. So alive. You made my life better having you in it.

Be bold. Be loud. Make a scene. Because the world deserves to know who you are. You were always the easy one. Nate took the prize for being the most difficult. And now, no matter how old you are or how much you’ve accomplished, there’s always more to achieve. Take that risk, Alana.

Put your happiness above everything else because for so long, you’ve put everyone else first. It’s your time now.

Love you, kiddo.

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