“I liked her. I mean, what’s not to like? She’s beautiful, talented, famous. I’d been holding out hope that I’d be able to find Melody, but it had been so long that I was taken by Ana. I don’t know if I’d say it was love, exactly, but it checked all the boxes. I didn’t believe I could ever find the same kind of intense connection that I had with Melody ever again,” Nash recalled. “I really, really liked Ana, though. And it was so easy to get swept away by that world. It was all so new for me.”
As his star continued to rise, Nash’s publicity team tried to prepare him for the spotlight. “They really did everything they could,” Finn recounted. “I just don’t think anything can prepare you for fame like that.”
“Ana was great for Beckett at that exact moment in his life. She understood about celebrity. She knew how tonavigate it, and he needed that. It wasn’t a huge shock to any of us when he proposed to her,” stated Fine.
Things weren’t all roses and sunshine for the pair, though. Despite the tabloid media and reports that theirs was a “whirlwind love,” Nash recalled it differently. “Ana was about to leave on a world tour,” he said. “I already lost someone I loved dearly. I didn’t want to risk that happening again. So I proposed, and she said yes.”
“Analise is a hopeless romantic, and Beckett’s a naturally passionate person,” Howell added. “They absolutely made sense on paper. At first, when all this stuff blew up about Melody Adams and the plagiarism, she really didn’t pay it any mind.”
“I’d assumed—wrongly—that Ana read my book,” Nash shared. “But she hadn’t. And when she left for Brazil, apparently she brought it with her. It was the strangest thing. Melody had resurfaced because of the whole plagiarism thing, and by that point I was engaged. I didn’t know what to do. But then I went to see Melody. I couldn’tnotsee her when she got back in touch with me; I’d waited for so long for the opportunity to explain myself to her. And it was literally during the one hour we spent together that I got a phone call from Ana,” he remembered. “She broke up with me. She said it was obvious that the story I wrote was in pursuit of someone else. Ana’s a good person, and she believes in true love. She told me I deserved to be with the girl I wrote it about.”
It Ends With Us
Nash asked Renda’s team to keep their split quiet, knowing that he would be speaking withPeoplemagazine. “I appreciate Ana more than anyone will ever know,” Nash expressed. “She’s an understanding, compassionate human, and I’ll always care for her as a person. But she wasn’t wrong. I’m still in love with Melody Adams. I tried to tell her my side of the story through my novel, but that kind of backfired. Originally, she was supposed to do this interview with me, but she bowed out because she didn’t want to ruin my relationship with Ana.”
Nash continued: “Now that I’m officially single again, I’d like to go on record and say that I would very much like to make Melody Adams my girlfriend. I don’t know if she’ll be interested after everything we’ve been through, but when you love someone the way I love her, you’ve got to try.”
“Mel always said, ‘Fiction is just the truth, hiding in plain sight,” Nash stated. “Melody Adams is my truth. She’s in every word I write. I don’t know if that’ll ever change.”
I’m still in shock as I board the plane. My mind is swirling. I need to call Evan. I should call Beckett. I’m not sure what to do, but there’s a smile plastered to my face.
I never envisioned the article looking anything like that. I was sure it would be impossible to face him. Impossible to relive everything we’d been through. I couldn’t imagine taking him away from Analise Renda. Why would he ever leave that kind of fame and fortune to be with some low-level nobody author?
I wish my mom were here. She would know exactly what to do.
I take my seat, 22A, behind the wing. Next to the window, where Momwould have wanted to be.
I’m careful to keep the tote bag with me. I slide it very gingerly under the seat in front of me.
The plane’s going to take off soon, and I don’t want to start something with either Beckett or with Evan that I can’t finish. So I decide I’ll reach out to them once I land in Aruba.
This time, I sprung for the international calling plan. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s the importance of being able to communicate no matter where you are in the world.
I pull out the magazine again and get lost in the photographs. Rereading the article, I can’t believe he did this. And Evan! That rat! I can’t believe hekeptthis—
“Excuse me,” a voice says.
I look up, even though I know the sound by heart.
“I think you dropped this.”
Beckett Nash slides into the seat beside me. He holds up a bracelet.
My bracelet.
I’m speechless. There’s so much to say, but no words come.
“I see you’re already wearing one that matches it,” he continues. “You know how it saysbon bini? That’s a language called Papiamento. It’s native to Aruba. It meanswelcome.”
“So what does it mean if I’m wearing two of them?” I manage to ask, playing along. I hold out my wrist to him. “Welcome welcome?”
He shakes his head and wraps the chain around me. Clipping the clasp shut, he looks into my eyes, satisfied. “I think it meanswelcome back.”
Chapter 38
My second visit to Aruba is more remarkable than I could have dreamed.
Some of it is routine, sure. I know the island now, so I expect to spend my days lounging by the pool, swimming in the Caribbean Sea, visiting the Renaissance private beaches. I think about the nesting flamingo and wonder how she’s doing.
