She liked to trust people, but they had to earn it, just like she’d earned her parents’ over the years.
Watching her parents’ jaws drop over Eric Crest’s behavior with his younger girlfriend filled her with more sympathy for Arik. She didn’t even tell her parents the worst of it.
Nor what others at the wedding said about her and Arik on the dance floor when they were within hearing distance.
“These people don’t care what they say or do. Not everyone, but enough. Arik’s not like that. It started out as a joke, me telling him he needed an emotional support buddy there.”
“So you went as his friend?” her mother asked.
She wouldn’t lie. “We’ve been on a few dates. I went there as his girlfriend.”
“Now you’re in a relationship with a man that you haven’t seen in over ten years and has only been on the island less than two weeks?”
“No. It was kind of an assumption that we were in a relationship.”
“You lied to his family?” her father asked. “Natalie, that isn’t like you. I don’t know how I feel about your actions or that he brought them out of you.”
“Oh, come on, Dad. There was no harm. We’ve been on a few dates. No one asked how long we’d been together and we didn’t volunteer. We are going to continue dating here. Nothing inappropriate happened either.”
She didn’t want to talk about sex in front of her parents, but she also didn’t want them to think ill of her.
“That’s between you and Arik,” her mother said. “I know how I raised you and I trust you. I’m not happy you went there without telling us but appreciate you coming clean now.”
“Thank you for that.”
“What’s the next step?” her father asked. “You said he’s here for a few more weeks. This island is in your blood. You won’t leave it.”
“I’m not and don’t plan on it.” Even for love, she didn’t think she could. Or would want to.
She’d never been put to the test before.
“So you’re having fun with someone for a few weeks?” her mother asked.
“He has no set plan. I’ll talk to him about it. I doubt he’s going to stay at The Retreat the entire time, but that’s up to him. He’s trying to find something to do. I think he’s worked so hard and been under so much stress and pressure for years with those two businesses that he’s taking this time to sort out his life.”
“Most people don’t have the luxury of years for that,” her father said.
“No, but he does. He wants to talk about the island and needs here. I doubt I can help him any, but maybe he’ll come up with something. That’s on him. For the next few weeks we are going to take it as it comes.”
“Don’t open yourself up to someone who is going to walk away from you so easily,” her mother said. “I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I don’t want to get hurt. I know how to lock down when I need to and I will. A few dates hurt no one and it’s not going to now. He has to figure his life out, but I’ll be clear what my path is and I’m not venturing off of it.”
Her parents exchanged glances before her mother spoke. “That’s not good either.”
“I can’t win with either of you.”
“We aren’t looking for you to win. We want you to be happy. You weren’t at college. We knew that. You left to see what was outside of the island and Boston.”
“Not much that I can’t get around here.”
“That’s right. But you experienced it and that is more than most people do. But you’re limiting yourself by not trying and staying put,” her mother said.
“Carter found love on the island,” she argued.
“But he wouldn’t have if Avery hadn’t come here. Just think of those things. Almost everyone in the family ended up with someone who came to the island. Not someone they knew prior. Not someone that grew up here.”
She thought of what her parents had said. The only one she could think of was Rex Knight who grew up in Boston and knew of the Bond family, but not Hailey directly.
