Page 80 of Love on the Waiver Wire

I want her with me, surrounded by the things she finds most beautiful. The things she loves the most.

Have I always been this gushy?

I’m careful as I hang it, making sure it’s even before I snap a photo in front of it.

And I hit post.

For the first couple of minutes the only comments that roll in are women and men telling me how handsome I am and fans telling me I need to do a little better this week or we’re going to lose, as if I don’t know. Watching them come in, lead settles in my stomach. Maybe I did the wrong thing. Maybe this is me pulling a Leo, and making her art about me.

But then it happens.

Who painted that?a comment reads.

I wait a little longer, and there’s a few of them. The first comment has twenty likes.

So I comment her name, tagging her Instagram she uses to post her art.

In only a few short hours, Isla has a couple thousand more followers, and when I check her site, all of her prints are sold out.

Peaches

Thank you, Owen.

30

ISLA

I’ve barely spoken to Leo, and I’m starting to feel bad about it.

“I feel like you should answer his calls at some point,” Amara says, which is honestly scarier than the concept of talking to him about the whole situation. Amara isn’t the biggest fan of my brother, so her telling me I should forgive him feels like a stab.

“I know I should,” I say, bringing my iced coffee to my lips. “I just don’t feel like explaining why what he did sucked so much, you know?”

Mila nods, slipping an olive onto my plate as her face twists with disgust.

I grab it, popping it into my mouth. “And what, exactly, is the reason you’re so pissed about it?” Heidi asks, dipping her sandwich in her soup as she looks between the other two.

“I feel like you guys know,” I deadpan, taking a bite of pickle. It’s extra juicy, the snap sending a splash of juice onto Heidi’s face. She wipes it away with a gag.

“What? Us? We know nothing,” Amara says with a smirk.

“Okay John Snow,” I roll my eyes. “My brother wants to control my whole life for one reason, and it’s, in his opinion, to protect me. He doesn’t want me to live in his shadow. Which, that makes sense, okay? It does. I get it. I appreciate that. But what I don’t appreciate is the fact that he doesn’t allow me to make my own choices. You know, like an adult.”

Mila nods her head enthusiastically, giving me a little golf clap. Heidi snaps her fingers next to me.

“And what is this very adult decision you’re trying to make?” Amara asks, and I can see Mila’s eyes flash to hers.

“Guys seriously stop. You know it’s Owen.”

“Oh my god,Owen?”Heidi smacks her hand on the table, her jaw hanging open.

“Guys.”

“Seriously Isla? Owen from theBaltimore Cobras?That Owen? I can’t believe this. This is… this isunbelievable.”Mila throws her hand to her forehead.

“I know right? I never saw that coming at all. I would have thought she’d fall for Ian before Owen. This is shocking. The shock of the century, actually.”

“Ian literally doesn’t exist.”

---