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Haggard and Sophia, as well as Shine and Iris, were too far away to hear me talk quietly.
I wasn’t really sure who I was talking to.
Cannel, maybe, because she was being so damn obvious in the way she was trying to warn me off.
She didn’t like me.
I got it.
I just felt that she should know that I wasn’t looking right now.
Maybe in a few months…
“There were a lot of red flags.” I paused. “I’m the queen of ignoring red flags. I ignored the way he chose what I ate, when I ate, and how I ate. I ignored how he carefully distanced me away from my best friend and made it to where she couldn’t go to our wedding. I ignored the way that he maneuvered me into doing things that I usually would never be comfortable doing. And honestly, I ignored the way he made me give up years of my life, prime dating years when most people are finding love and even getting married.” I hesitated. “I should’ve known, should’ve seen it coming, what he was going to ask of me. But I didn’t. And when I left him for the final red flag that was just a little too blatant for me to ignore, my best friend told me that she’d decided that she wasn’t fighting her cancer anymore.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
There was silence and then Price said, “You want to tell us that last red flag?”
I snorted. “No.”
Price gritted his teeth, and I saw muscles in his temple jump at the action.
“I’m sorry to hear about that,” Cannel said, sounding a little bit softer.
I shrugged. “Didn’t tell you because I wanted sympathy. I told you because I wanted you to know that my mind’s not in the right place.”
I didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t need me to.
Her gaze connected with mine before she sighed and looked away.
“One!”
“That’s us!” Will said, surprising me with his nearness, since he hadn’t said a word. “Let’s go.”
He sounded desperate. As if he wanted to get away from the conversation as fast as his feet could take him.
I didn’t blame him.
Hearing a stranger’s life story, whether it be good or bad, was always awkward.
“Let’s go get some rolls thrown at us,” Price said, throwing his arm around me and guiding me to the front door.
We ignored the glares as we passed, and I was thankful that we were seated in one of the best spots in the house—away from nearly everyone, and right next to the roll station.
CHAPTER 9
She is happier putting on new sheets on the bed than going out after she takes her bra off. FYI.
-Price’s secret thoughts
SABRINA
“You want to play volleyball?”
I looked up from my contemplation of the sand and saw Price there, holding a ball in one hand and wiggling it at me.
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
“It’s raining,” I said quietly.
It’d been raining all week.
Other than the one nice day after the hurricane, every single part of my day I’d spent under the porch of my rental house, staring at the gloomy day.
Which matched my thoughts and mood.
So it worked.
“So?” he asked. “Literally, it’s done nothing but rain. We have nothing else to do because they still don’t have the television working again. Come on. Let’s go.”
“Okay,” I said.
I’d spent the last few days hanging out with Price on our porches. Him on his, me on mine.
I hadn’t gotten much done other than that.
And I couldn’t complain.
It’d been five total days since Faye had passed away, and all five of those days, my heart healed a little more and a little more.
It wasn’t an open, gaping, and sucking wound anymore.
It was one that was no longer profusely bleeding.
But I knew this particular wound would never heal. It would always be there, and I doubted it’d ever get better.
But I’d learn to live with it.
“Sure.” I paused. “What should I wear?”
I didn’t know whether to wear a bathing suit or a pair of shorts.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was ready to wear a bathing suit in front of the men.
The only one I had was a modest black one that covered more than most because Cole didn’t like when I wore anything revealing.
Then I thought… why not?
Why was I so worried what other people thought?
Once upon a time, Cole would’ve had a conniption had I come out in a bathing suit and nothing else.
But Cole wasn’t a part of my life anymore.
So… fuck it.
After not waiting for a reply, I hurried inside and slammed the finicky door behind me.
I slipped into the black bathing suit, for the first time in years comfortable in my own skin, and arrived back outside to Price in a bathing suit… and nothing else.
The bathing suit was nothing too extreme. An American flag print that ended about three inches above his knees. But it was his torso that drew my attention and kept it.
