Page 23 of Broken Hearts (Hibiscus Hearts #1)

I spend the entire day with Nate at the shop, sneaking kisses here and there when the crowds die off, a smile permanently plastered on his beautiful, tanned face. His happiness is infectious, and I can’t stop grinning either every time I look at him.

“What’s with the smile?”

Nate asks me, and all I can think is this stupidly adorable man is making me feel all sorts of things I never expected.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to show up here, bitter and angry, mixed with a little bit of guilt, and leave none the better. But it’s not like that at all.

“I love it here,”

I say, swallowing hard because this isn’t my home, and eventually I’m going to have to leave. I have a life to go back to. I have to finish college; it’s literally waiting for me to come back. The semester is starting soon, and I like to think my mom would be against me staying, but with her, everything is an adventure. School can wait, but I feel completely different about that. Moving to Hawaii on a whim is something she’d encourage.

“I love having you here,”

Nate replies, this cute little blush appearing on his cheeks with his admittance. He’s so damn gorgeous it makes my chest ache, and this is a side of Nate that no one else gets to see, a side that seems to be only reserved for me.

But I don’t dare destroy this thing that is happening between us by mentioning reality. We’re in this bubble right now, this little world that has me on a vacation with real life lingering in the background. This is Nate’s real life, and I’m just living in it for now. I can’t even begin to think about leaving, especially with everything he’s said to me.

Breaking his heart doesn’t feel like an option.

Ever.

“Will you be in my bed when I get home tonight?”

I ask playfully, my hand snaking down his taut torso, coming to rest against the obvious bulge in his boardshorts.

“How late are you planning to be at Alana’s?”

he quips back, a bit of a shocked tone to his words. “I figured it would be a thirty-minute thing, and you’d be naked and in my bed.”

He doesn’t let me answer, his mouth colliding with mine, and now I want to say fuck going over to Alana’s. He can take me right here on this counter.

His kiss is ravenous and desperate, and my knees go weak, all the air leaving my lungs as my heart pounds hard against my chest. And when he finally pulls away, I suck in a deep breath, willing myself not to faint from a lack of oxygen.

“Go to Alana’s and meet me in my bed,”

he practically demands, and I nod, my words trapped in my throat, still recovering from the assault of his kiss.

I’m so fucked.

Never have I wanted someone the way I want Nate. I want him to consume me and possess me and take everything he can from me, but it all feels so damn scary.

“I gotta go work on some reorders,”

Nate now says, catapulting us back to reality. “You think you can handle the shop till Owen gets here?”

He taught me how to run the register and clued me in on a few things that keep this place up and running. It’s nothing major and if someone comes in asking for advice on boards or wetsuits, I’m out of the question.

But this of course has my mind wandering, wondering if I could make a career of this, if I could take over this place and keep it running like my dad did. I have zero experience and obviously, this is not an option. It’s a dream…a pipe dream.

“Yeah, yeah, all good,”

I tell him, pushing up to give him a quick kiss. “Go do your boss things, boss.”

I giggle as I say it and Nate swats my ass as he walks away.

He disappears behind the curtain that blocks the storage room and office from the shop. I’m left alone, taking in the ocean view from the front window, watching the surfers catch waves, the sun shining the way it only does here.

This place is a literal paradise.

I’m daydreaming when the bell to the back door sounds, and I hear voices. Catching Nate sounding like his typical self. Chill and aloof, and it makes me smile. There’s something about the effect I have on him that turns me on.

“Sorry, man, class ran late,”

the voice says, and Nate responds with, “No worries.”

Seconds later, a guy dressed in a pair of boardshorts and no shirt appears on the other side of the curtain. He’s the epitome of a surfer guy. His T-shirt is tucked into the hip of his boardshorts, hanging there loosely, a deep tan covers his skin, and his hair is disheveled, curling at the nape of his neck.

He quickly grabs his shirt, pulling it on over his head, The Pipe Dream logo emblazoned on the front as he makes his way over to where I’m standing.

“Hey,”

he says, a playful flirtation to his word.

“She’s Mitch’s daughter!”

Nate yells from the back room, and I cover my mouth, stifling the laugh. It feels like that’s his go-to line now, almost a way to tell everyone I’m off-limits. Now it feels like it’s his way of staking his claim to me, and he doesn’t have a damn thing to worry about.

“Take it easy, dude,”

the guy calls back, rolling his eyes. “You already told me that.”

He shakes his head, letting out a chuckle. “Not sure if you remember meeting me, but I’m Owen. Guessing you’ve met a lot of people over the last week or so.”

He’s friendly, and sweet and when he gives me this gentle reminder, I do remember him.

“Oh yeah, you came in with the group that did the surf lessons, right?”

I scan my memory for him, a vague remembrance of our meeting. He’s right. I have met so many people since I arrived, between friends of my father’s and people Nate knows and people who work for my dad. It’s a lot.

I feel a little guilty that I don’t fully remember him, but he brushes it off.

“Yep, that’s me,”

he says. “And I cover a few shifts here too when I’m not doing lessons or in class.”

“You’re in school?”

I now ask, finding something in common with him. “For what?”

“Environmental engineering,”

he says, and all I can think is that this is the perfect place to major in something like that. The landscape is like nothing else.

“That’s awesome. I’m going to school to be a teacher, biology, to be specific.”

“No shit,”

he quips, smiling boldly. “We could have a lot to talk about.”

I swear everyone I’ve met here has been so welcoming, and it’s not hard to see why my dad wasn’t jumping at the chance to move to the mainland.

I quickly glance down at my watch, catching the time and realizing I need to head over to Alana’s. The shop is open later tonight since it’s a Friday, and the lessons crew will be checking in soon, but also all the locals will be flocking in after work too. There are quite a few boards that were being repaired that need to be picked up, and a new one that was just finished.

I give Owen a heads up on all of this, and he just nods casually, leaning back against the wall taking it all in.

“Sorry, I’m meeting up with Alana in a little bit, but Nate’s in the back…”

I trail off, and Owen chuckles, clearly understanding why I stopped. “Never mind all of that. I’m pretty sure you’ve got things under control.”

“Yep, all good,”

Owen says, not acknowledging that I literally tried to tell him how to do his job, a job that I’ve been doing for all of five minutes. “Do me a favor?”

He pauses, waiting for me to reply.

“Sure. What do you need?”

“Tell Sloane I said hi if she’s around.”

He smirks, this cute grin plastered on his sun-kissed face.

I don’t respond right away, letting his words and the look on his face sink in, but then we’re interrupted by Nate calling out, “Dude, she hates you!”

“No, I don’t!”

I squeal, shaking my head. “Nate, what is wrong with you?”

“Not you, Sage. Sloane hates Owen. He’s trying too hard.”

“Dude, mind your fucking business. I wasn’t talking to you,”

Owen shouts, dragging a hand through his unruly hair.

“Yeah, I’ll tell her,”

I say to him quietly, giving him a wink, and he hits me with one back.

I head toward the stockroom, pulling back the curtain, I find Nate sitting at the little desk tucked in the corner. He’s typing away on the keyboard in front of him, and my breath catches in my throat.

How can I take this away from him?

This is everything he’s ever known, and my dad would never have taken it from him. If he were still alive…

My thoughts trail off, realizing that if my dad hadn’t passed away, I wouldn’t know Nate. None of this would be happening and I’d still be in New York, living the life I’ve grown used to, a life that didn’t include my dad.

“Hey,”

Nate says, looking over his shoulder, his smile fading when he takes in my face. “You okay?”

He hooks his finger at me, calling me to him, and I go without question.

“Just thoughts of my dad,”

I say, swallowing back the threat of tears.

“He’d be proud of you, Sage,”

Nate tells me, and that doesn’t help the tears, spilling from my eyes now and down my cheeks. The pad of his thumb captures the tears, swiping them across my cheek. “The fact that you’re here and you’re…”

Now it’s Nate who stops talking, his arms wrapping around me, holding me to him as I rest my head on his shoulder. He’s been the best thing about this trip, helping me come to terms with all of this.

“Go visit with Alana. Have fun, and I’ll be here when you get back,”

he tells me, pressing a soft kiss to my hair.

Alana’s house is only a ten-minute walk from the shop, and I make my way over there quickly, taking in the gorgeous scenery as I do.

The island is a funny place. It’s gorgeous everywhere you turn, lush and green, turquoise blue waters, flowers of every color, but this side of the island, far from the tourists, while still stunning, has some areas that show their age.

Alana’s house is old, a small little cottage with a cute front porch, but it is in dire need of maintenance, not that I expect her to do that on the money she makes working at The Pipe Dream. I’m guessing it’s a rental, charging far too much because that seems to be the way it is.

She’s sitting on the front porch when I walk up, wearing a pair of cut-offs and a bikini top. Her deep brown hair is piled high on her head.

“Hey!”

she calls, hopping up, her infectious smile on her face. She’s the kind of person you can’t help but be happy around, radiating this energy that gives life to anything ordinary.

“Hi, you ready to teach this city girl how to make a lei?”

I tease, and she claps her hands, holding the front door open for me.

Sloane and Daisy are sitting at the kitchen table, scrolling through their phones when I walk in, and the three of these girls together could give anyone issues with self-esteem. With their tanned skin and lean muscles from surfing, their hair perfectly sun-kissed, they embody everything that people think about when they think of Hawaii.

“Come on in,”

Daisy calls, motioning for me to sit down. The table is covered in yellow flowers, with greenery scattered around.

Sloane is sitting cross-legged in her chair, a string and a needle now in her hands as Alana comes in from the kitchen holding an orange plant.

“Hala for the memorial service,”

she tells me. “It’s what we use to honor someone, but we also have some yellow hibiscus because it was Mitch’s favorite.”

“It’s my favorite too,”

I respond, picking up one of the flowers and smelling it.

“They don’t smell,”

Sloane says, pulling her blonde hair into a messy bun. She smiles at me as I press my nose to the flower again.

“My dad used to tell me the same thing, but they do smell. At least to me they do. I guess living in a city all my life, you pick up on the little things,”

I comment, letting the flower rest in my hand.

“Yeah, I get that,” she says.

“By the way, Owen told me to tell you he says hi,”

I say, directing my comment at Sloane, and all this seems to do, is cause Daisy and Alana to burst out laughing.

“That boy,”

Sloane mutters, tossing her middle finger up in Alana’s direction as she shakes her head.

“Speaking of boys,”

Alana starts, her brows arching, “tell me what’s going on with Nate.”

And it doesn’t even take her five minutes of me being here before she starts fishing for gossip, and all I can do is unload it all on her.