Page 68 of Sunrise

New Linly is tired of her shit. Wrong place, wrong time, Jessica.

"You know nothing. You are just pissed he wanted me and not you. You are angry he pushed you away when you tried to flirt right in front of me. He's not here to tell you himself how ugly he finds you inside and out, so you decide to come and make yourself feel better by being a bitch to me. Hope it makes you feel better because no one likes it or you. No. One," I bite out.

"Kade could never love an ordinary girl like you. You are going nowhere, trapped in this tiny town. No man could love a girl like that. Why do you think Travis left?" She sneers.

She is so lucky she is halfway across the room, or I'd have punched her in her face. Dale is smart enough to be at her side now, and I don't even get a word out before another voice fills the room.

"I left because I panicked. I loved and still love Lin more than anything. I was too young to see what a blessing her parents’ leaving this inn to her was. This is the dream she and I had been talking about, and it was handed to her, and I was too stupid to see that then," Travis says and offers me a shy smile.

When he turns back to Jessica, his face goes cold, and I see the old Travis who would protect me from anything. The one who stood up to the mean girl at school for me and Brynn, the one who punched Jeffery in the face when we were little and happily sat grounded the rest of the summer.

"I suggest you take your bitchy attitude somewhere else. You talk about being stuck in this town? We all know why you never left, about the baby you gave up. Oh, wait, we weren't supposed to talk about that, right? Linly could move to Hollywood and flourish but chooses to carry on her parents' legacy. What have you done with your life other than sleep with every single tourist who passes through, mooch off your parents, and drop out of college?" Travis hits her where it hurts.

Small towns always have the gossip that is whispered about but never brought to the light of day. Jessica being pregnant at graduation and then visiting her grandma for the summer is one of them. Travis, though, never played by those rules, and right now, I'm glad he doesn't.

"Dale, escort her out. Also, this is your one legal warning. Don't step foot on Sunrise or Sunset's property again, or we will have you arrested. I will be informing the sheriff and all the staff. You have exactly sixty seconds to get off the property." I nod to Dale, and he moves to take her arm, but she yanks it from him and makes a beeline for the front door without another word, thankfully.

"Thank you, Travis," I say, turning to him.

"Every word I said was true, Lin. I was scared and a coward. I was looking forward to nightclubbing with you, not having to be an adult overnight. I did it all wrong, and I would do anything for another chance."

"Travis. I can't. Kade made me realize what we had wasn't love," I say, then the truth hits me like a ton of bricks.

What I had with Travis wasn't love because what I felt with Kade was ten times stronger because I'm in love with Kade. It may have been a fake relationship, but it felt so real, and it doesn't make my feelings any less real. Lots of good that did me. It's hard to breathe, so I steadily make my way to the couch and sit down.

"Well, can we at least be friends?" he asks. "I feel like friends is a good place to start."

"I could always use more friends on my side," I say and don't bother adding that there is no place for us to go from there. He will figure it out. Even if there is no Kade in my future, I don't see a future with Travis either.

"You ready for the season?" he asks, making small talk.

"Season is three weeks away, but we have people checking in this weekend and are booked solid through Labor Day."

"Thanks to Kade, huh?" Travis asks.

"Yeah, they want the ‘Kade Markson Experience' as Brynn calls it. She wants to market it as a real thing, but I'm not ready to do that just yet."

"You and Kade really break up?" he asks.

"Yeah, there is no way to make it work. Hollywood and Hummingbird Island are worlds apart, and I don't see how to close the gap. If we could have made it work, I'm not sure we would have, anyway. Our lives are totally different. I hate being in the spotlight, and he thrives off it."

"I remember it being a huge battle to even get you to take a picture with me at prom." Travis smiles.

"What about you, Travis? What’s going on with the SEC?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

"I was talking with my lawyer, and it looks like the investigation on me led to them finding some bigger fish to fry, so they are going to slap me with a heavy fine, and I can't work with stocks or other people's money again," he says.

"How big of a fine?"

"Quarter of a million," he says as a light pink covers his cheeks.

"Ouch, what are you going to do?" I ask.

"Well, I have most of that saved up. I can pull from retirement to pay the rest. I'm going to help my parents out for the season as I figure out my next moves. Basically starting over, I guess. My dad wants to buy a second boat for the season, so he's going to have me run it."

Travis's parents run the fresh seafood market in town. His dad owns a fishing boat and takes tourists out fishing in the summer while his mom works the market. They buy the seafood from the fishing boats that come in and sell it to the public and all the restaurants that come in.

You wouldn't think with such a small island that there would be a large market for it, but many boats from the mainland go out and fish and come here just to sell because they get better prices here.

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