Page 79 of Hearts Adrift
Also, after our whole end-of-summer scandal and the stunningly effective way Brooke handled it, I sorta worked something out with my agent, and unbeknownst to Brooke, she is about to be offered an official position on my team. It won’t pull away from her duties here at the Hopewell Fair, but might kick open about a dozen other doors for her in terms of broadening her career even further.
She’s gonna die. I can’t wait to tell her.
Speaking of siblings, I was surprised the other night by a call from my brother Mason. First time in over a year. I’ll admit, the conversation was a bit stiff and awkward. We’ve been on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to so much in our lives: how we each handled growing up with an alcoholic mom, how we managed with a deadbeat dad, the direction our lives took when I pursued acting—a path my brother first sneered at, thinking I was irresponsible for wanting a life in the arts instead of a more “practical” job. Even after my breakout role in the firstWingless Angels, it still didn’t seem enough to convince him that his point was wrong; he doubled down and said I was just lucky, like my talent and hard work is a fluke.
We’re not perfect yet. We may never be. But when my brother choked at the end of our chat and finally managed to get the words out: “I miss you, Riv.” I suddenly caught myself fighting off tears when I, after a fortifying breath, said, “How about we grab dinner next time I’m in town?” I heard the smile on his lips when he said he’d like that.
So I guess I’ve got my brother back, too.
My family seems to be growing by the day lately.
Here in Dreamwood Isle, my family has multiplied to include the whole town. There’s not a single face I come by that isn’t friendly. I think after the way we handled the whole “fiasco that could’ve been”, the locals here see me in a new light, like I earned their respect somehow. I’m not sure how that happened, considering all the heavy lifting was done by social media guru Brooke, Decoy Theo, and Lexi coming forward on live stream, but I’m grateful for it.
Home is where the heart is.
And my heart is with Finn, the man I cuddle up next to when the sky’s dark, standing at the very end of the pier under a wide and sweeping curtain of stars. Others are back here too, awaiting the Saturday night fireworks show, but even with everyone elseall around us, it feels like the only two people in the world are me and him.
We can’t seem to peel our eyes off of each other.
“It’s good to have you back,” murmurs Finn happily. “I have to admit, a tiny part of me … feared you’d regain a taste for the West Coast when you went to finish filming.”
I nudge his nose with my own. “Going back there only reminded me exactly why I belong here with you.”
He kisses me right then. Above our heads explode the fireworks—the real ones, as well as the other kind you only feel in your heart. I’m not sure we can tell the difference.
Who knew that the greatest role of my life wouldn’t be on the big screen, but right here, the one I’m living.
Finale - Finn
I take my coffee outside, morning air on my face.
Gulls draw wide, sweeping circles overhead, floating on the warm air currents. The Fair, still asleep, as the water whispers and giggles at its feet, like the whole Hopewell Harbor is still dreaming. There’s a boat out in the water, far away, perhaps a fisherman, or just someone out for a quiet morning on the calmer waves.
“Never was a morning person,” grunts River. Oh, did I mention he’s next to me? “This is your fault.”
I smile and nudge his side. “Look at what you’ve been missing, sleepyhead. Isn’t it nice out here?”
He turns his grumpy eyes onto me, then cracks a smile and throws an arm over my back, pulling me close. “Only ‘cause you’re here, Finny.”
Yeah, that’s a thing that happened.
Finny.
I don’t know where it came from. How it came. I’m not even surewhenit came. He snuck it in once, then snuck it in again, and suddenly it’s what he calls me now.
I guess it’s low-key cute.
My life, in many ways, feels the same. I check up with my people at the Fair, tend to my duties, stock, training and new hires, type away on a computer in the office, run my errands around the island. But now, something else lives under the surface of these otherwise mundane day-to-day activities,something electrical and bright.
Something that makes my life feel fresh and new.
Something called a romantic, sometimes overdramatic, but overall adoring man named River Wolfe.
Whose actual last name isPeters, by the way.
I didn’t even have to read up on all his public info out in the open on the internet, which I’m never usually on anyway—despite Brooke insisting that I should startright nowand hashtag everything as #RiverIsMyBoyfriend. I’d have a million followers overnight. I could give diet and workout tips. Dance badly. Give deliberately terrible video reviews roasting River in his own movies—lovingly, of course. It would kill, she insists, and River could even do a cameo in some of them.
I bookmarked that idea for now.
