Page 10 of Broken Hearts (Hibiscus Hearts #1)

I’ve been in the shop maybe twenty minutes when Sage finally comes down. I was half expecting her not to show, having changed her mind about spending the day with me, but when she walks in, she smiles at me and asks, “Okay, so what should I do?”

I return the smile, unable to stop myself. She’s fucking beautiful and she so rarely smiles at me, that it almost disarms me when she does. I mean she’s beautiful even when she’s not smiling, but when she does smile, holy shit.

Not that I can blame her though, because I’ve basically been a dick to her pretty much since the second she showed up here. I don’t want to be like this, but it felt like an automatic and uncontrollable reaction when I found out the guy I’d always looked up to had a daughter I knew nothing about.

And truth be told, now I’m just fucking scared. Scared about what she’s going to do. Scared she’s going to sell this place and take away the only sense of comfort and safety I’ve ever known. The only real home I’ve ever had.

“Well,”

I say, blowing out a breath, “this morning, we have some orders coming in, so you can help with that. And this afternoon…well, this afternoon we kind of have a lesson thing happening.”

“Lesson?”

she asks. “Like a surf lesson?”

“Uh huh,”

I reply, chuckling a little.

Sage lets out a small laugh. “Well, clearly, I can’t help with that, but I can?—”

“Oh, you can,”

I tell her, smiling at the confused look she gives me. “You’ll see,”

I add with a wink, just as the door to the shop opens and Tanner walks in.

“Hey,”

he says, grinning as he steps up to the counter and claps his hand with mine.

“Hey, man,”

I reply, before turning to Sage and doing something I should’ve done last night instead of acting like a dick. “Tanner, this is Mitch’s daughter, Sage. Sage, this is your dad’s best friend, Tanner.”

Neither of them says anything at first, and I’m not sure if that’s because they didn’t expect me to introduce them like that, especially after last night, or because they aren’t sure what to say to each other. Tanner knew about Sage, but as far as I know, he’s never met her.

“Sage, hey, nice to see you again,”

he suddenly says, a huge grin on his face as he holds out a hand to her.

Okay, apparently, he has met her before.

She glances at it, before shooting a quick look at me. “We’ve met before?” she asks.

Tanner laughs. “We have, yeah,”

he says. “You were smaller,”

he adds, holding his hand at about waist-high, as though to indicate how small. “I think it was probably the last time you were here.”

“Oh,”

she says, swallowing hard. “Sorry, I don’t um…I don’t remember you.”

“Why would you?”

he says with a laugh. “I was just some crusty old friend of your dad’s. But it’s nice to see you again, and of course, it goes without saying that I’m really sorry for your loss.”

Sage nods at that, glancing at me again before she says, “Thank you, and I’m sorry too. I know he meant a lot to you too.”

Tanner tips his head in acknowledgment. “Thanks, he did.”

The shop falls silent for a moment or two as the three of us acknowledge once again that Mitch is gone. I know for Sage it’s probably a really different feeling, but for me and Tanner, it’s like a huge empty void in both of our lives and this place that I’m not sure can ever be filled.

“Well, you wanna see how those boards turned out,”

Tanner eventually asks, clapping his hands together as he grins at us. “And I’m also ready to see your ideas for Alana’s board, too. If you’re ready?”

“Awesome,”

I say, feeling the weight of Sage’s gaze on me. “You want to grab the boards first?”

Tanner nods and turns to walk outside. Sage and I follow, and I grin when I see Kai leaning against the side of the van that’s emblazoned with the words Olsen Boards, their company’s name.

“What, you didn’t want to come in and say hi?”

I say, grinning at Kai as we give each other a half-hug, half-handshake thing.

Tanner snorts out a laugh, and Kai chuckles as he jerks a thumb toward a couple of girls standing by a car, giggling and looking over at us. “Attending to other matters,” he says.

“Of course you are,”

I say with a laugh before I half-turn, gesturing to Sage who’s hanging back a couple of steps. “Kai, this is Sage, Mitch’s daughter. Sage, meet Kai, Tanner’s oldest son.”

Kai’s grin widens. “Hey again, pretty lady.”

“Hi,”

Sage replies, her cheeks flushing a little.

“Tanner makes boards, and we, well, Mitch sells them in the shop,”

I say by way of explanation. “He does customs too and Kai and Miles, his other son, help him out.”

Sage nods. “And he said something about Alana’s?”

she now asks, a nervous edge to her voice.

“Yeah, Tanner is making her a board for Maui Pipe.”

Sage nods, even though I know she had no idea what Maui Pipe was until I told her. “Are you designing it?”

I laugh, shaking my head as I say, “No, I don’t design boards.”

“But he,”

she starts, casting a quick glance back at Tanner. “He said he wanted to see your ideas?”

She’s blushing again and fuck me if it isn’t kind of adorable.

“Nah, I don’t design boards,”

I tell her. “I just design the decals for them, that’s all.”

The back door to the van opens, and Tanner starts handing boards to Kai. I watch as Sage turns to see, her eyes widening when she takes it all in.

“And you…you did these?”

she asks, pointing to the boards Kai is now carrying toward the shop.

“Uh huh,”

I tell her as I make my way around to help. “I like to draw. Tanner likes my designs. It’s no big deal,”

I add, shrugging, even though to me, it’s a fucking huge deal.

To have my design on an Olsen board is seriously next level, and I have no idea how or why Tanner agreed to it, but holy shit, I am not wasting the opportunity. I will draw anything he wants if it means my name gets attached to the boards he makes.

Sage steps over to the back of the van, holding her arms out now as Tanner hands her a board, a huge smile on his face. It’s clear she’s never held a surfboard before because she holds it across her forearms, rather than tucked under her arm. But when she doesn’t move, I watch as her gaze drops to the pattern that’s been put across the bottom of the board.

“You did this?”

she asks, her words low, her eyes tracing the lines of a giant orange octopus whose tentacles are stretched out across the bottom of the board, one half stretching right to the tip, the other half stretched down to wrap around the fins.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Wow,”

she murmurs, almost to herself. “It’s…”

She trails off, lifting her eyes to mine. “It’s amazing.”

I shrug, trying to act like it’s no big deal even if her words have my heart pounding in my chest. “I mean, it’s cool, yeah, having them on their boards.”

“No, Nate, it’s…you’re, like, really talented,” she says.

I laugh as we turn and head toward the shop. “Thanks.”

“Did you, like, study art or something?”

I let out another laugh, louder this time. “Fuck no, I barely finished high school,”

I tell her. “Drawing’s just something I really like to do.”

I watch as her eyes drop to the board again and she swallows hard. She doesn’t say anything more, and I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking. If she’s maybe thinking that this isn’t just a surf shop that Mitch set up and made money from. But it’s an avenue for Tanner to sell his boards, an opportunity for me to get my designs out there. A place for me and Alana to work.

I mean, sure, if she sells it and we lose the shop, Tanner will still be fine, but will I? Will Alana? This isn’t just a job for us, and I really need Sage to see that.

“Okay, so Alana’s board,”

Tanner says after we get all the boards inside.

I try really hard not to laugh as Sage maneuvers the board she holds inside, eventually showing her how to hold it under her arm. She blushes again, nodding a silent thanks as she tucks it under her arm and walks in.

I follow her inside and over to the counter, pulling the sketchbook I keep stashed under there out. “So, I’ve got a couple of ideas,”

I tell him as I flick through the pages, not missing the way Sage steps in beside me, the scent of vanilla and honey now filling the space between us.

“She seen these?”

Kai asks, leaning against the other side of the counter.

I shake my head as Tanner says, “Nah, it’s gonna be a surprise. Mitch put this together, wanted to give it to her as a gift because she got an entry to Maui Pipe.”

I know he’s only saying this for Sage’s benefit because, of course, Kai would know about Mitch secretly commissioning a board for Alana. The only person who doesn’t know about it is Alana.

“My dad bought her a board?”

Sage whispers, her words barely audible.

I flick to the page that has my favorite design before I turn to her. “Yeah,”

I say, giving her a small smile. “Alana doesn’t have much, but she got an entry into Maui Pipe as an amateur, which is like, really fucking cool.”

Sage tilts her head in confusion and my smile widens. “Maui Pipe is a professional comp. They only let the top-ranking amateurs for the hosting country enter, and only if they are good enough to qualify. That’s Alana, she did.”

“Seriously?”

she asks, her eyes widening.

“Yep,”

I say with a nod. “Your dad was coaching her for it,”

I add. “He was so fucking proud of her when she made it, he wanted to get her something to celebrate that.”

Sage blows out a breath, shaking her head slowly as she mutters, “Wow.”

I’m kind of surprised by her reaction, especially given Mitch is her dad and he’s doing all of this for Alana, an employee in his shop, while his daughter, who lives a million miles away, apparently got nothing from him.

But maybe it’s not about that. Maybe it’s more that Sage is starting to see what Mitch is really like. What he did for all of us, for those of us who didn’t have anything. The way he helped us.

“Yeah,”

I eventually say. “It sucks he’s not gonna get to see her reaction when we give it to her.”

Sage nods, swallowing hard as her gaze drops to my sketchbook. “When is this Maui Pipe thing again?”

Kai chuckles as I say, “Couple of months from now.”

She nods again and I wonder what she’s thinking. She’ll be back in New York by then, long gone from here and having done god knows what with her dad’s shop, his whole fucking life.

“So, is this what you’re going to put on her board?”

she now asks, pointing to the sketch.

We all turn to the page, to the drawing of a girl in a bikini riding a surfboard, a hibiscus flower in her hair and a smile on her face as she glances back over her shoulder at us, her left arm extended as she flips off the world. Beneath it is the sketch for the bottom of the board, a simple design with the words The Pipe Dream and the shop’s logo.

“I don’t know,”

I eventually say, looking up at Tanner. “What do you think?”

Ultimately, it’s his decision which design he uses. They’re his boards and all he does is pay me to create designs for them. Some he uses, some he doesn’t, although it’s never been because he doesn’t like them, they just aren’t what he envisioned for that particular board.

Boards are always personal, and when you make them, every board has a story. Tanner is the one creating that story; I’m just here to help him tell it.

I watch as a slow smile spreads across his face, and he nods. “Fuck yeah, this is it. Shit, Nate, this is perfect,”

he adds, clapping a hand on my shoulder.

I bite the inside of my cheek, trying to stop the huge smile that wants to break out. It doesn’t matter how many times I hear it; I can never get used to the praise, can never fully believe he means it.

“Cool,”

I say, really trying to act cool. “I’ll get it scaled up for you,”

I add with a nod.

After Tanner and Kai leave, Sage and I work in silence as we get the boards stacked in the racks. It’s a comfortable silence, though, and as we work, I realize I’m not angry anymore, and more than that, I no longer resent the fact she’s here.

I like that she got to meet Tanner too, got to see what he did with her dad and what he does for this shop. Because while he might sell his boards all over the island, Mitch is the only one who gets his custom boards. And that brings in a business that you just can’t put a price on.

“So, what’s the story with the surf lessons this afternoon?”

she eventually asks when we get all the boards put away.

I smile, walking over to where the body boards are stacked. “It’s a bunch of kids,”

I tell her, grabbing one of the boards.

“What?”

she asks, clearly surprised.

Laughing, I hold out the board to her. “Mitch had this thing with teaching kids to surf,”

I say. “He starts them on the beach and then they get one of these, and eventually, they get a proper board. It’s the best way to learn,”

I say with a shrug. “Gets them comfortable in the water.”

Sage blinks rapidly, almost like she’s trying to blink away tears she doesn’t want me to see. “Is that…”

She trails off, swallowing hard before continuing. “Is that how you learned? Did my dad teach you?”

Clearing my throat, I shake my head, my gaze dropping to the floor. “Nah, I mean yeah, Mitch taught me to surf, but I was…well, I wasn’t a kid, so…”

I don’t finish my sentence, not sure I’m ready to go there with her yet.

We might have had a good day together, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to tell her all about my past. About how fucked up and broken I was and how her dad is the only one who ever gave a shit about me.

I look up to find Sage watching me, an unreadable expression on her face. She doesn’t say anything, just watches me, almost like she’s trying to decide if she should ask me about it. Eventually, though, she smiles, nodding as she says, “So like, how old are these kids then?”

Chuckling, I exhale in relief, grateful she isn’t pushing it as I say, “Yeah, so how do you feel about a bunch of seven-year-olds?”