Chapter Four

Isaac had sat silently, aware of every breath Leanne took, but pretending to not be. He waited until she eventually left, him having nothing more to say. He supposed she didn’t either, considering she didn’t wait around too much longer before leaving.

That was not how he’d managed their reuniting to go. So many times he’d imagined them running across the sand toward each other, like in the movies, and he’d sweep her up in his arms. They might even tumble to the ground, kissing passionately as the waves washed over them.

But what had just happened?

That was the opposite of passionate kisses in the ocean. It was…burned toast that had been tossed into the ocean. And then eaten by a shark, only to be spit back out again. And then eaten by a child, who found it after it had washed up on the sand. A gross, soggy version of what it had once been.

It had been that bad.

Isaac knew it was his fault that their reuniting had self-imploded. His muscles, and his heart, had frozen up. All of the sudden everything he had thought didn’t matter, were the only things that did. And he couldn’t just let them go. Isaac desperately wanted to, but Leanne’s sudden presence had unleashed every moment he’d felt fear, and anger, and resentment toward her.

Yes, she’d come back. But she’d also been the one to leave Starlight Ridge in the first place. Leanne had left him, because Hollywood had been able to offer her everything that he couldn’t.

Isaac nodded, satisfied that he’d been in the right and Leanne had been in the wrong. She deserved the silent treatment. It had been her who had stopped talking to him eighteen months ago, after all. Not that he’d been keeping track. Or waiting for the day when he’d hear her voice again.

Funny how he’d thought it would affect him differently than it had. The voice that had once filled him with warmth and longing, now made him feel lonelier than ever.

Isaac glanced at his phone, hoping his shift was nearly over. He had a new text from Caleb.

Stuck in the shop. Bree will be the one to bring dinner.

Right. It was Tuesday night, one of the few evenings he got to eat decent food. At least something was still right in the world.

It was only another minute when he saw Eliza walking toward him, ready to take over his shift. He climbed down the ladder just as she strode up.

“Hey,” she said as she pulled her blonde hair up into a high ponytail. Her expression was wary, which told Isaac right away that she knew who was back in town. To her credit though, she didn’t ask. She instead pulled out the safest, and most boring, topic there was. “Looks like there isn’t much action around her. Guess that means I can work on my tan.” She smiled, but it too was cautious.

“Yup,” he said. Isaac started to walk away, but Eliza just couldn’t help herself.

“I swear I just saw Leanne walking across the beach,” she blurted out. She immediately looked like she wanted to take it back, but the harm had been done, so she followed it up with a hesitant, “Was that really her? Because if it was…she isn’t wanting her old job back, is she?”

Leanne had had Eliza’s lifeguarding position before she had left for greener pastures, and it made sense that Eliza would be worried about her own job security. It wasn’t like there were a lot of employment options in Starlight Ridge, though from time to time Leanne had talked about taking over her parents’ bed and breakfast. Isaac offered Eliza a small smile to show there weren’t any hard feelings. It had been an innocent question, though no doubt borne out of the insatiable curiosity that permeated every corner of Starlight Ridge.

“I have no idea,” he said, then turned and left Eliza to ruminate for the next few hours about Leanne’s sudden reappearance. Isaac had hoped he could make it back to his bungalow without having to talk to anyone else about his ex-girlfriend, but he had been fooling himself if he’d thought it would be that easy.

He had just stepped onto the boardwalk when a hand grabbed his arm. Isaac’s head whipped toward the owner, and his heart fell to his shoes. Jessie. Sweet, well-meaning Jessie.

“I need to tell you something,” she said, her gaze darting side to side, like she wanted to make sure no one was listening in. “It’s going to be a shock, but I feel it’s in your best interest to find out sooner than later.”

“Jessie—”

“It was just as much a surprise to her mother, you know. She didn’t see it coming.”

Isaac wished he could hurry along home, but Jessie’s hand was clenched around his arm so fiercely, he’d have to drag her with him to get away. “Jessie, I already—”

“Two years away and she didn’t bother telling her own mother that she was coming home. Of course, we all knew she’d be back one day. A sweet girl like that can’t survive in shark infested waters, and from what I hear, the girl was surrounded by them.”

That gave Isaac pause. He’d never stopped to think about why Leanne was back. Or what she might have experienced that would cause her to leave the big city behind. “Thanks for always watching out for me, but I need to—”

“I haven’t even told you the craziest part…” Jessie pushed on, acting like this was a reality TV show, and she was the host. Though living in Starlight Ridge was much more similar to a reality show than Isaac cared to admit.

“I already know that Leanne is back in town,” Isaac interrupted, his voice loud enough to talk over whatever Jessie was still trying to say. She fell silent, and he immediately knew he’d hurt her feelings. Jessie was one of the kindest people in Starlight Ridge, and he usually let her talk through whatever she needed to, but right then Isaac couldn’t handle it. He didn’t want to hear about Leanne or how hard the city life had been on her, and how she had finally come back home where she belonged.

Because he’d gotten over Leanne. It had taken most of the time she’d been gone. But he’d done it.

Sort of.

Until Isaac had heard her voice. But he didn’t want to feel like he did before she’d left. Like, without her, his world would stop turning. Like his heart would beat out of his chest, just at the thought of her taking his hand, or her lips on his…

“I-I…didn’t realize you already knew,” Jessie stuttered as she stepped backward, as if looking for an escape route. “I had just found out myself.”

That was another way of saying that Leanne had barely gotten to town and Jessie couldn’t imagine someone else had the resources to find out news before she did. But Isaac hadn’t gone searching for news of Leanne—she had come finding him.

Why? Had she expected to pick up where they had left off, like the past two years hadn’t happened?

Isaac stepped forward and offered a smile, hating to see Jessie’s turned down lips. He hadn’t meant to be rude, and he could usually put on a good show for everyone in town. But his heart and mind were both currently in shambles, grasping for any semblance of sanity that might still exist in the world. How could he expect to keep up his happy-go-lucky front, when inside it felt like he was dying?

“I’m sorry, Jess,” he said. “It’s just that it was a bit of a shock for me too.”

Jessie’s hurt expression shifted so it now seemed more compassionate, than sad. In fact, she looked like she felt sorry for Isaac. He hated that feeling—being pitied. But he supposed if anyone deserved pity in that moment, it was him. Jessie took his hand in hers and patted it, as if he were a small boy. “If you need anyone to talk to, you know you can come by my place anytime, day or night. You might be on your own now, but everyone in town is as good as family.”

Isaac pulled Jessie into a hug, no longer annoyed at her, but grateful. She spoke the truth. He’d grown up with every person in Starlight Ridge, and they’d all be there for him. He wasn’t alone. “Thank you.”

He stepped back, but Jessie’s hand lingered on his arm. Her gaze met his, her eyes warm. “It will take time to adjust, of course, and I don’t envy you, but once you two find your rhythm again and you’re ready to start thinking about the wedding, you let me know. I’ve always said I’d make your cake, and the offer still stands.”

Isaac choked on his own spit. “W-wedding?”

Jessie’s expression hadn’t changed, but he now realized he’d read it wrong. She felt sorry for him because the wedding had been postponed and they would have to go through a little bit of an awkward phase now that Leanne was back. But in Jessie’s mind, there was no doubt that they would get back together, like old times.

“I know, it’s too soon to be thinking about it,” Jessie said with a little wave of her hand. “I’m just saying that when you’re ready, I’ll be here.”

Not knowing what to say, especially because it was Jessie and he had already hurt her feelings once, Isaac managed a weak smile and waved good-bye, then dashed up the path that would lead to his small bungalow. He barely registered the plants that had gone wild, taking over the path. He merely stepped over them, absorbed in his own thoughts as they too spiraled out of control.

Isaac hurried inside his home and went straight to the medicine cabinet that hung over the bathroom sink. He didn’t even need to look at the labels of the various pharmacy containers, knowing exactly where the one he needed was. Second from the right. He popped open the lid and tossed one of the small blue pills into his mouth. He didn’t even bother with water to help wash it down. He paused. Better take another one, just for good measure.

“Knock knock,” a voice said from the front of the house. The screen door slammed shut.

Oh, shoot. Bree was early.

Isaac straightened and walked out into the front room, all smiles. “Hey. You don’t have to keep bringing me dinner, you know.” In reality, they both knew that if the food stopped coming, Isaac would probably starve to death, but he figured it was polite to act like his life didn’t depend on it.

Bree wore oven mitts and held a casserole dish. She grinned and walked past him into the kitchen. “Every Tuesday evening, and you can’t stop us,” she said. Isaac heard the thump of the food being put on the counter, and then Bree reemerged with the mitts tucked under one arm. “If you’d just learn to cook, we wouldn’t have to make sure you had a healthy meal once in a while. I’ve lost count of how many times Caleb has offered to teach you.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Not to brag, but Caleb has given me lessons, and I’m practically a master chef now.”

It probably seemed to them that Isaac was too lazy to learn something like how to cook for himself. The issue wasn’t that he didn’t know how—he actually did. But he had to be up at dawn if he was going to get any surfing in before taking up his lifeguard post, so it always ended up being breakfast on the go. And in the evenings—well, they were just hard. Once that sun went down, it was like when Dr. Jeckyll transformed into Mr. Hyde. Okay, that was a bit extreme. But it still wasn’t good.

Leanne—she’d kept his Mr. Hyde at bay. She hadn’t known it, but she had been the antidote.

Since she had left though, once that clock hit six o’clock he was barely functional.

Things were better in the summer. The sun was up longer, and the town buzzed with excitement as tourists filled their small town. Surfing helped too. Sometimes it was the only thing that helped.

He’d never admit any of those things to his friend though, so instead, Isaac gave Bree a crooked smile. “Why would I learn to cook, when you do it for me?” The front door had been left open, and a cool breeze now circled through his small home. It felt good. Normal. Like this conversation. And Heaven knew he needed normal right now. “I think you and Caleb secretly like cooking for me, which is why you enable me. If you stopped cooking for me, I wouldn’t have…” he sniffed the air, “…enough lasagna to last me through the next week. Which reminds me…” Isaac walked into the kitchen and grabbed the cooking dish that had been brought over the previous Tuesday. He walked back out into the front room and handed it to Bree. “I washed it and everything.”

She chuckled. “You always do.”

Isaac sobered for a brief moment. “It’s because I’m grateful.” He hoped Bree heard the sincerity in his voice. Without them cooking for him…well, he wasn’t going to go down that road. His meds were starting to kick in and he had a little more control over his thoughts now. “But if you sneaked green chile into my food again…”

“That was one time,” she said with a laugh.

“Three times, actually. I had to guzzle down an entire cup of water after each bite.”

Bree patted him on the shoulder as she walked toward the open doorway. “Considering how many hours you sit out there in the sun, a little more water probably did you some good.”

“I spent the next eight hours peeing.”

With an unapologetic shrug, Bree stepped out onto the porch. “I grew up in New Mexico, what do you expect?”

Isaac followed her outside. “For my face to not burn off every time I eat your cooking.”

Bree threw a smirk at Isaac. “You’ll get used to it.”

Isaac very much doubted that. Though, despite his mouth bursting into flames whenever they cooked with green chile, it was a weird kind of delicious torture that he kept coming back for. Of course, he’d never admit that to Bree. He didn’t want to encourage her. “Well, thanks again,” Isaac said with a small wave, ready for some time to himself. He would eat his lasagna and read a book and pretend that everything really was normal—that everything was okay.

He needed that, even for just one night.

Mostly because he knew the worst was yet to come.