Page 22 of Hearts Adrift
I take the folder from her and lean in. “I recommend you keep your eyes wide open, because there’s a chance he mightnotbe as much of an emotional wreck as you think.”
After filing away the folder, I head for the door. Before I make it out, my sister asks, “What’s the new tenant like? Brooke said you met him a few days ago.”
I’m still angry. My voice can’t hide it. “He’s fine.”
“Just fine? Not sure how far I’d trust some person who doesn’t use his real name, demands not to be disturbed, and overpays—with money routed through some shell LLC. Is that not ringing odd to you? Sure, more money for us, but the last thing we need is our name and business dragged into some drug deal scandal or whatever he’s hiding.” She looks over at me. I’d hesitate to call the look in her eye concerned, but her voice is soft when she says, “Be careful if you have to stop by there again.”
I grip the doorknob so tightly, I could crush it like a ball of tin foil. But my voice reflects the softness in hers when I reply, “I’m always careful,” before heading out.
Always careful, I hear myself say.
After chasing a guy I don’t know down the rocky slope of our north beach in the pitch dark.
Try as I might to ignore my sister’s words, they follow me the rest of the afternoon. They follow me to the gym as I’m on the treadmill, literally trying to outrun them. Then they have thenerve to mock me when I go too hard on the overhead presses and pull something in my shoulder. I go back home with an aching neck and shoulder and still hear her words as I fix my shake and down it while staring out the window at the bungalow.
I know a few more truths than my sisters do. He’s not a drug dealer or a dangerous guy. He’s a lonely actor in need of a place to stay. He’s requesting a bit of solitude because he’s tired of the cameras and paparazzi, obviously. What’s more human than wanting an escape from the stresses of your life and hiding away in a remote beach town? All the more power to him to do exactly that.
I wonder where one escapes to when they liveinsaid beach town.
I won’t be able to sleep a damned wink tonight.
It’s the evening when I drive down to the Quicksilver Strand—exhausted as fuck—then park and walk my sleepy ass to the Easy Breezy. Not for a drink or cheat-day basket of fries. I go for the warm advice of the beach town daddy that is Cooper, everyone’s second father figure, the owner of the Easy Breezy who has, in more situations than I can count, been the voice of reason when I’m struggling. It’s an ideal night to talk to him, too, the bar slow with just a few people in and out from the beach and the waning sunlight.
And for the second time this week, he’s fucking busy with his boyfriend and totally not here.
“Seriously?” I explode at poor Chase, whose big eyes grow bigger at my outburst. “This … bar … isCooper’sbar!Cooper… should be atCooper’sbar now and then!”
He reaches over the counter and rubs my shoulder with care. “Youreallyneed to get yourself laid. Like, tonight.”
I shrug his hand off. “Stop. Hurts. Pulled something in my shoulder at the gym earlier.”
“Dude, you’re as tense as a boulder.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“More than because of your workout. Your attitude is like … a solid-ass … rocky … rock. You need a massage. Do you still get the hookup from Armando at the Elysian?”
Not since his last masseuse got bold and tried to give me a happy ending, but I don’t mention that. “There’s a lot going on. I needed Cooper tonight. I really needed to talk to someone who isn’t related to me.”
“I’m not related.”
“You’re also not helpful.”
Chase whips out his phone with a sigh. “Well, when I get stressed, I download a new game and play the fuck out of it. I like the little cute chiming sounds. Relaxes me.”
“I’m not a gamer.”
“I end up only playing it the once, then I get bored and delete it. All the games are the same anyway.” He frowns. “Shit. I just depressed myself. I go through games the way Adrian used to go through guys.”
Adrian is a mutual friend of ours who used to have a reputation for being a player until he recently settled down and, to everyone’s shock, got married. Adrian has three brothers and likely would understand my need for talking to someone who isn’t one of my sisters, but he’s just about as difficult to get alone as Cooper is, wrapped up in his work at Thalassa or his new married life with his hubby.
“Dude, it just gets worse and worse,” laughs Chase, a hand over his mouth as he thumbs through his phone. “You remember that viral video earlier this week? I know,” he quickly says, “you don’t do social media, blah, blah … but dude, I can’t get away from it.”
“Just delete your apps,” I mumble, fighting off a yawn.
“Like, this actor knocks out his director, no one knows why, people are speculating. First, everyone thought there was somesecret baby situation, but that proved to be a dumb rumor. Now all the pieces are being put together, and it turns out the actor is this totally argumentative, difficult, conceited nut job …”
“As fun as it is to gossip about people,” I say, lifting a hand, “unless you lived it, no one knows the full story.”
