Page 99 of Surfer's Paradise

Rosie just breathed, barely able to lift her head, too drained to fight him.

Isaac kept his touch steady, his voice low and rough, like something was crawling up his throat and he couldn’t stop it.

“I don’t deserve you,” he said, his fingers moving in slow, mindless strokes against her back. “And I know that’s too easy to say. But this isn’t bullshit. It’s just facts.”

She let out a soft, wrecked breath, eyes barely open.

“Like, who do I date?” he continued, voice thick. “Hot bitches. Easy fucks. No commitment. That’s my life. That’s what it is.”

Rosie let out a broken little laugh, hoarse and bitter.

“Yeah, no shit,” she rasped.

Isaac huffed a laugh too, shaking his head.

“You know what it’s like for me now? Going out with a real chick and admitting no, I haven’t had a serious girlfriend. No, I haven’t lived with a woman. No, I’m fucking thirty-two, and it’s pretty goddamn evident that I’m a selfish bachelor who will always be.”

His fingers kept moving over her back, his thumb tracing little patterns against the curve of her spine.

“Any chick worth her salt sees right through me,” he admitted, voice quiet. “I know what I am. I just live with it now. SEAL. Hot. Fuck. Yup. Done. Nothing serious. No. I’ll be a cool uncle.”

Rosie’s eyes flickered shut, her stomach still uneasy, but her mind was slowly clearing.

And then—

Isaac inhaled deep, his grip firm, like he was holding onto her for dear life.

“But with you?”

A long pause.

She didn’t move.

“Yeah, everything I said is true,” he said, voice raw. “You aren’t my type. And that’s a fucking compliment.”

Her breath hitched.

Isaac’s jaw ticked.

“No, I haven’t fucked you. No, I don’t want you to hate me like every other goddamn chick I’ve laid and left. Broken hearts everywhere. They all fall in love. But I don’t.”

He swallowed hard.

“I’m not gonna do that to you.”

Her heart lurched, something heavy pressing against her ribs.

“I’ve never been in love before,” he admitted, voice barely above a whisper. “So why start now?”

The words hung between them, thick and heavy, suffocating.

Rosie let out a shaky breath, gripping the edge of the toilet like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth.

Isaac kept rubbing her back, his fingers gentle, grounding.

And for the first time, she realized—

Even at her worst.

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