I was in love with her. Yeah. God damn it, I loved her.
Even knowing she was fresh off a breakup. Even knowing how stupid it was to fall for someone who was still bleeding from the last one.
But I couldn’t help it.
She was chaos and comfort wrapped in one sunburned, opinionated, open-hearted package.
I’d been waiting. Trying to give her time.
But…if she’d believed my mom that day, I needed to do some serious damage-control.
Like now.
I flew off the couch, stuffed some clothes into a duffle bag, and, after making sure Pippa was, in fact, with my next-door neighbor, practically ran to my car.
Throughout the trip, she’d claimed not to be brave, while all along, I’d been the coward, the one to hesitate, the one holding back.
But now?
It was time for me to take a chance, to make a decision. To get on board.
I could only hope like hell she let me climb on. And maybe—just maybe—she’d saved me a seat.
LUNA
I cradled my coffee in both hands, just sitting. Breathing. Watching the sun crawl over the horizon, casting everything in that soft, pastel hush.
In a few hours, tourists would descend with their beach chairs, umbrellas, coolers, and kids in neon swimsuits.
But for now, the world was still.
Still enough to let old memories of gran drift in— waking me with the smell of toasted cinnamon and the rich comfort of her coffee drift in.
It was bittersweet now. Some things hadn’t changed, but so much had. Because I was the one who’d put the cinnamon rolls in the oven this morning. And I was the one drinking the coffee.
Which, by this point, had long since gone lukewarm.
I didn’t move to refill it. I just sat, rocking gently in my grandmother’s old swing, staring out at the ocean the way Gran used to—like it might tell me something if I listened hard enough.
In the distance, a man was walking along the shore. Alone. Too far to see clearly, but I tracked him anyway, without really meaning to.
I should’ve felt content.
And I did. Mostly.
I had things now I hadn’t dared to hope for a few months ago—this spectacular cottage, my own little show, a publishing deal, even a handful of vendors placing orders.
I had a future.
The only thing missing was the man I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Noah.
He had this annoying way of sneaking into my thoughts in the quiet times, but also in the loud ones.
I’d moved into the cottage two weeks ago now, and every single day, I’d hovered over my phone. Asked myself, Should I? From what Babs had told my mom, he had not, in fact, reconciled with his wife. So…
Casual. I’d say something light.
