Page 80 of Reckless Hearts

She’s always wanted a dog. It was something she talked about when she first moved in, telling me she can’t wait to have her own place so she could get one. Holding out until she finished school so she could be home more often. But Mochi is seriously so damn cute, and Jade would have lost interest in himanyway. We can give him a better home with the three of us living there.

Flynn’s phone starts to ring, and he takes it from his pocket, tossing it onto the island. Jade’s name is lighting up the screen, and he lets it ring, watching it, waiting for it to stop.

And when it does, it only takes a few seconds before it chimes with a notification of a voicemail.

“You ready for this?” Flynn asks me, a humorless smile on his face as he picks up the phone.

Scrolling to the voicemail, he hits play, and it’s Jade crying, begging him to call her back and how sorry she is.

He looks over at me, shaking his head. This child is unhinged. That’s what she is, a child, and I have no idea how we’re going to get away from this. She isn’t going to let it go.

“That’s a voicemail from when I was driving back from her hotel,” he clarifies. “There are six more, and I can tell you exactly how they go.”

He lets out a hard sigh. Leaning back against the counter, he chews on his bottom lip, mulling over everything. I want to tell him to let me go. It will make things easier, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” he now says, a sadness to his tone, and it breaks my heart.

“You didn’t drag me into anything. I want to be here with you.”

He presses play on the next voicemail, and this one is nothing like the first one. Jade is screaming at him, swearing like a trucker, and calling him every name under the sun. The message gets cut off, and there are still more, but he holds the button down, turning the phone off.

“It’s just going to be more of the same, back and forth, her crying, and then her pissed off. She’s already called her lawyer for advice. That seems over the top,” he mutters, and I watch histhroat, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. “I have no idea what’s going to happen, and I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. You have no control over what she does, and maybe once she sleeps on it, she’ll settle down.”

He laughs now, shaking his head as I walk over to him. His arms open, and I step closer, filling the space, letting him hold me. His embrace is warm and comforting, and I burrow my face into his T-shirt.

I love the way he smells—like surf wax and the ocean. It’s everything that I love, everything that brings me peace, and everything I can’t live without.

“She’s not getting the dog back,” I now say, cutting through a bit of the seriousness as I look down at the little ball of fluff, all excited and sweet.

“He is pretty damn cute.”

I wakethe next morning to my phone going berserk on the nightstand.

Not that I’ve actually gotten much sleep, having spent most of last night lying awake, staring at the ceiling as every possible scenario with Jade played out in my head.

It’s not like we’ve technically broken any rules because there is nothing about who you can date or whatever, but I know how it looks. Right now, I coach Jade Whitlock, world champion surfer who is competing in Maui Pipe.

I also happen to be sleeping with Alana Hale, amateur surfer who got a special entry into Maui Pipe off the back of her win here in Hawaii. Oh, and she currently doesn’t have a coach on account of her former one having passed away.

I know what will happen. People will question where my loyalties lie. They’ll think I’ve been helping Alana, possibly telling her secrets that could help her beat Jade. Maybe they’ll think I’ve been giving information back to Jade too.

But worst of all, they will doubt Alana. They’ll watch her surf, if she still gets to surf, and they’ll wonder if she’s there becauseshe deserves to be or because I helped her. And that is the worst part about all of this, the part I hate the most.

“Fuck,” I murmur, the word muffled as I scrub a hand down my face.

“What’s wrong?” Alana asks, her voice husky from sleep.

She curls into my side, and I wrap my arms around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Nothing,” I breathe out.

She pokes me before resting her hand on my stomach. “Bullshit nothing,” she says, her face buried in the crook of my neck. “You barely slept last night and now you’re muttering to yourself.”

I huff out a laugh. “I’m not muttering to myself,” I say, dropping another kiss to her temple. “And I’m sorry I kept you awake all night.”

She shuffles closer, pressing a kiss to my neck. “It’s okay,” she murmurs, just as my phone vibrates on the nightstand again. “Maybe you should check your phone?”

Groaning, I reach over to grab it, not really wanting to, but knowing she’s right. I rest it on my chest for a minute, my eyes still closed as I soak in this moment for a little while longer, knowing that when I check my phone, all this shit is going to start up again.

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