AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you thought about taking a ride on his surfboard?” Natalie asked, with a cocked eyebrow, wanting all the juicy details.
Apparently, I lack a poker face because when I didn’t answer, both Evelyn and Natalie squealed, then laughed, delighted. Ididn’t get into all the details, but it didn’t seem to matter. The history Cooper and I shared played out across my face like a movie.
Somehow, we fell down the rabbit hole of what happened between me and Cooper all those years ago, how’d we’d kept it from Tess and how I’d ended up with Marcus.
“Don’t you see, my dear girl?” Evelyn chided me gently, “you chose Marcus thinking he was a safe bet because he was boring and predictable. But you never really let him in, so if things went south, you wouldn’t be hurt.”
I hadn’t thought about it like that before, and she made a decent point. I almost married a man who was cheating on me, and yet walking in on him with someone else barely caused a sting. Sure, I was mad as hell, but once that passed, I felt a whole lot of nothing for him other than regret over wasted time.
“I can see what you’re saying, and honestly, the biggest pain from my breakup with Marcus is having to dodge all these reporters wanting their scoop,” I admitted.
Natalie jumped in, “Girl, I’d take every dollar they threw my way and sing like a canary.”
I smiled. “I know, some of the offers are pretty tempting, but that would require having cameras on me and I can’t think of anything I’d hate more.”
“How in the world were you in love with a professional athlete and about to marry a politician when you can’t bear the limelight?” Natalie asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess I never thought about what being with them really meant for me and my privacy.”
“Well, I’m glad you've begun to move on and are making friends in town,” Evelyn said. “If you’re not careful, we might make you the next permanent resident of Hanalei,” she teased.
“Beware of this one... always trying to recruit new people to the island,” Natalie piped up.
“What? There’s nothing wrong with fresh faces,” Evelyn sniffed.
“You just want fresh gossip and man, you hit the goldmine with this one!” She laughed.
“Don’t say that about our new friend,” Evelyn scolded her wife, but I was enjoying their interaction. They were so comfortable with one another, and I wanted that too.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m just happy to have some nice people to talk to, and the sordid details about the runaway bride aren’t a secret. And as for Cooper...”
“That information will never leave my lips, don’t you worry,” Evelyn assured me. “However, if you ever decide to dip into the cookie jar, so to speak, with your handsome neighbor, I must be the first to know,” she insisted, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.
“Good God Evie, what do you want her to do, roll off him, then immediately text you?” Her wife teased.
Evelyn smiled at me mischievously. “I mean, that would be ideal.”
The rest of our evening was wonderful, and I went to sleep that night with my bedroom window cracked open so I could hear the waves lapping against the shore and the warm breeze drifting between the curtains and caressing my skin. The relaxation of the night with my new friends and the sweet memory of Cooper's nervous behavior from earlier lulled me.
Tomorrow I would spend the evening with Cooper and I felt as giddy as when he and I first started dating.
Except this is not a date, Haley.
I pushed the thought aside. Right now, everything in my life was going well, and I didn’t want my mind to complicate things, so for once I let it go. I did not know what the next day would bring, but for once, I wasn’t going to worry ahead of time. I was going with the flow like the waves.
“Okay everyone, I think everyone is here, so gather closer so you can hear me,” Mayor Kahale boomed from a small stage in the middle of the town square.
“We could hear you from the moon!” another resident called out to a smattering of laughter.
Mayor Kahale made a face, declaring, “there’s always a comedian.”
Cooper and I moved closer to the stage with the rest of the crowd, which also closed the distance between us, and I felt relieved. Since he’d picked me up, he’d been careful to keep a respectful distance. It was as if he was afraid if he got too close, he’d catch fire.
I’d thrown on another swishy sundress and spent way too much time on my hair and makeup, but when I’d opened the door for Cooper, I caught his pupils dilate, and knew the effort was well worth it. Then his jaw hardened, and he announced we better get going before we were late.
I kept watching him from the corner of my eye as we walked through town, making small talk and asking him questions about various things that caught my eye.
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Cooper? Is everything okay?”
