Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I’m ready for Alex’s bachelor party. His send-off. A true celebration.
He found the one.
Ariel, who was the first woman I noticed when we got to the island. She asked me to make love to her that first night.
I turned her down.
It took all my willpower, but I’m glad I did. She belongs with Alex.
I’m happy for them. Really, I am.
But all I want to do is drink until none of this hurts anymore.
I go to the minibar and pour two fingers of bourbon. Down it in one shot. It burns, but it doesn’t do shit to warm the hollow inside me.
I pace the room. I wish I had my phone to text Sienna. Tell her I’m sorry again.
But she asked for time.
And Jake? I left him on the beach to go after Sienna. God knows where he is now.
Maybe I’m the one who needs to disappear.
I think back to the first time I kissed Sienna on the beach.
She was distraught over Leroy, and I told her to go back to him. To try to work it out. Then I accompanied her to the airport…and we ended up fucking in the back of the car.
It was electric.
I knew then we had something rare—two hearts still aching from old wounds but drawn to each other with a pull too strong to fight. We weren’t just healing. We were falling. And what we were building was deeper, stronger, more powerful than anything we’d lost.
Then…
Enter Jake.
My first love. For many years, I thought he might be my only love.
Both are pulling at me.
Jake feels like home, like being wild and free.
Sienna feels like the future. I could build a family with her, father her children.
And here I am, stuck between two versions of myself. Two lives. Two loves.
I go to my window and look down into the courtyard.
People are beginning to gather.
The parties.
Time to fake it until I make it.
There’s a knock at the door. River’s voice follows it.
“Brett. You ready?”
I open the door. He looks sharp—black shirt, denim shorts, leather sandals.
“Am I talking to you?” I ask him.
He nods. “I get it. But I love you, man, and I’ll explain everything. But tonight is for Alex.”
I don’t respond.
He eyes me. “You good?”
“No.”
“Well,” he says, “it’s whiskey and bad decisions time. Let’s go toast Al and his lady.”
“And you found yours?” I ask. “You and Emily?”
“We’re all good,” he says.
And I want to punch him again.
But I don’t.
Riv deserves happiness. He’s a good man. I believe that in my heart. He had a good reason for keeping Jake from me. From all of us.
And after the party tonight?
He’s going to spill every bit of it. He and Jake. I want the damned truth.
“Let’s go,” I say.
We step into the corridor.
“We’ve got a minute, Brett,” he says. “Talk to me. Yell at me. Fucking belt me again.”
I sigh. “What good would that do?”
“Then talk.”
“About what? The woman I love walking away from me? The ghost of my past kissing me on the beach? Or the fact that I might still love both of them, and I have no idea what the hell to do about it?”
“Damn,” is all he says.
“No shit.”
He stops walking and turns to face me. “You ever thought maybe you don’t have to choose?”
“Say what?”
“Look, I’m not saying it’s simple. But maybe it’s not about picking the right person. Maybe it’s about figuring out who you are now that everything’s out in the open.”
I let that sink in.
Who am I now?
Someone fractured. Someone cracked open. But maybe that’s not all bad.
We walk again, this time brushing past staffers until we reach the back deck. Laughter, glass clinking, the low beat of music that promises too much.
“Let’s get drunk,” I say.
River grins. “Now you’re talking.”
And for the first time all day, I let myself move forward without looking back.
EPISODE 238
BORN TO RUN
Misty
I don’t say anything right away. Just stare at the screen, letting the words settle like poison in my bloodstream.
You were always good at running, Misty.
He’s not wrong. I ran for years. From him. From what he did. From who I had to become just to survive it.
I guess I’m still running.
I came to the island to meet the guys, to find out about my birth mother.
Instead, I found a brother.
And I’m no longer running.
Not anymore.
Evangeline makes a soft sound beside me, but I can’t look at her. Can’t speak. My heart is pounding too hard, filling my ears with a roar. The air in the room feels thinner now. Like he’s already here, stealing it from my lungs. He was good at that, depriving me of air.
“I… I need to get back downstairs,” Evangeline says quietly. “The bachelorette party… There are vendors arriving. Security protocols to approve. I’ll have security with me.”
She’s rattled but trying not to show it. And I get it. She needs the structure, the order, the normalcy. That’s her shield. Planning things to death. Making sure every detail is perfect so nothing can fall apart.