Zara shook out her hands, her performance swimming suit on, along with her cap and her goggles. Her nerves zipped through her with the crackling speed of electricity, and she hoped her parents hadn’t had too hard of a time parking.
They didn’t like coming down to the beach, but the venue was partly outdoors, and there wasn’t a lot of parking. If they’d park over by Your Tidal Forever, there’d be a shuttle, but her dad complained about those too.
Hopefully one of her grandparents had just dropped them off.
Zara couldn’t believe her thoughts were consumed with her parents and their parking woes. At least they were here. Noah had texted a few times and called once to say that he wouldn’t be making it to the show.
Her disappointment still tasted bitter on the back of her tongue, coated her throat as she tried to swallow.
“You ready?” Suzie asked, wearing the same swimming suit as Zara.
“Yes,” she said, pushing her parents and Noah and everything out of her mind. She needed to focus and put on the performance of her life. People had paid a lot of money to come see this show, and she’d rehearsed for hundreds if not thousands of hours to give them something to talk about.
“You’re up,” Suzie said, and Zara pushed out of the locker room and made her way into the pool, securing her nose clips as she went. She dove down to the platform and grabbed on to the handle there. She held her breath and fluttered her feet slightly.
The platform jerked, and she went with it, her feet slamming into it as it moved up, up, up and out of the water. It rose about ten feet, and then a man named Beni joined her, his smile as wide as hers.
Then the platform ascended again, the acrobats and swimmers around them climbing and flipping and creating beautiful, three-dimensional art with their positions.
The music crescendoed, and right at the height of it, she and Beni pushed off and leapt into the air. She flipped and twisted, straightening out about halfway toward the water. She entered the pool cleanly, a definite slap of water against her senses, but she could still hear the applause.
Or maybe she was hallucinating. She wasn’t sure.
But when she pushed herself out of the pool and waved at the crowd, they definitely cheered louder for her, the female high diver that had started the show with a bang.
She slipped back into the water and got in formation with the other girls, their synchronized movements so familiar and comforting that Zara forgot about the empty house she had to go home to, the lecture she’d probably get from her mother about the high cut of her swimming suit, and the fact that Noah was probably never going to get permission to leave Triguard.
Okay, so that last one didn’t get completely forgotten, but at least it took up space in the very back of Zara’s mind, leaving her room to focus on the show.
After the show ended, Zara wrapped herself in a robe and went to see her family.
“You were wonderful, Zara,” her mother said, drawing her into a hug. “Just wonderful.” She kissed both of Zara’s cheeks and beamed at her. “How you wear that swimming suit, I don’t know, but that dive. Oh.” She put her palm over her heart and looked at her husband. “Wasn’t she wonderful?”
“So good,” he said. “Just so good.” He embraced her too and all of Zara’s sisters came forward. She appreciated their support, and her emotions swirled and made her choke up a little. Thankfully, she didn’t cry, and after all the congratulations and all the hugs, she went back into the locker room to get packed up.
Her body hurt, and all she wanted to do was go home. In that moment, under the bright fluorescent lights in the locker room, she realized she didn’t have a home.
Not really.
The mansion on the bluff wasn’t hers. She’d given up her apartment.
“Coming to dinner with us?” Jill asked, pulling her swim cap off.
“Yes,” Zara said immediately. The cast usually went out together after shows, and she was thrilled she could prolong the solitary drive up to the bluffs. “I’m starved.”
Jill laughed and started changing. She and Suzie accepted Zara right back into the group as if she hadn’t abandoned them for the past month while she and Noah dated. As she walked with them out to Suzie’s car, she couldn’t help checking her phone.
Noah knew what day it was, and she expected to see a text from him. A quick note of luck. Something.
Her screen was blank.
Triguard was eleven hours ahead of Getaway Bay, and surely, he was out of bed by now. In fact, she’d never known him to sleep much past five o’clock in the morning.
But he hadn’t texted, and Zara’s heart withered a little as she got in the backseat of Suzie’s sedan. She shoved her phone in her pocket when Suzie said, “So, I’m seeing this guy named Ryan….”
Zara didn’t hear from Noah in the morning, nor did he text or call on opening weekend at all. She was beginning to think he’d fallen off the face of the Earth, or that he’d been a mirage on this island when she’d needed someone the most. Or that he’d been lying to her this whole time about who he was.
So Monday morning, she sat down with her laptop at the kitchen counter where she’d eaten his cooking dozens of times. She pulled up a search window and put his name in. The results exploded down the screen, and he definitely existed.
Relief sighed through her.
Not only did he exist, but he was also a prince. Double sigh.
And if the pictures and headlines could be believed, he was currently on an engagement tour with his sister Louisa, and her fiancé Eric.
Exactly as he’d told her he would be. He hadn’t mentioned that he would be completely unavailable or that he’d forget about her the moment he stepped foot back on his home island country of Triguard.
Zara tried to push away the negative feelings. She slammed her laptop closed with a little too much force, her frustration at his complete silence digging into her in the most uncomfortable way. But he’d known how hard she’d been training for this show, and he’d seemed genuinely upset that he wouldn’t be able to use his tickets.
With nothing to do until later that afternoon, Zara suited up and wandered out to the pool. She’d thought this summer would be one of relaxation with fruity drinks, and it hadn’t been that way very often.
But today…today, she was going to spend the morning poolside, with that strawberry mango smoothie and the hot Hawaiian sun beating down on her.
And tonight? Tonight, she was inviting all the cast members to come to the mansion for a midnight pool party. Thinking fast, she swiped open the app on her phone and started tapping to order a few groceries. Soda and chips, salsa and dips, sub sandwiches, and a veggie platter should do the trick.
After all, she couldn’t spend all her free time pining away after Noah. The pictures she’d glimpsed on the Internet were enough to know he certainly wasn’t shut away in a castle tower, moping about.
No, he’d been wearing expensive suits, and waving to the crowd, and signing autographs. She glanced at her phone. Maybe she could just call him. It would be evening in Triguard, and maybe he could talk for a few minutes. She went back inside and distracted herself by making the smoothie she wanted. But back by the pool, her phone taunted her.
In the end, she sent off a quick text that said, Opening weekend went great! Hope you’re having fun on the tour.
He didn’t answer, and Zara smoothed sunscreen over her exposed skin, knowing the last thing she needed was a sunburn. An hour later, after she woke from her catnap, she texted Suzie about the pool party that night, opened the door when the grocery delivery guy arrived, and checked her phone obsessively.
Noah still had not answered, and her frustrations were starting to morph into worries. Maybe something had happened to him. Maybe he’d lost his phone. Maybe it had been damaged from a stampeding herd of women, chasing after the handsome, eligible prince-bachelor.
Zara disliked the poisonous thoughts in her mind, but it sure seemed as if Noah had forgotten about her already. And as much as she wished that idea didn’t sting her to the core, the fact was that it did.
As she went through her swim bag one last time to make sure she had everything for that night’s performance, her phone finally chimed.
The message said it was from Noah, and Zara’s heart tap danced inside her chest.
I am having fun on the tour.
Zara started at the words, trying to make sense of them, when another text came in. Prince Noah seems to be as well.
Prince Noah. Zara’s fingers tingled and she felt a little removed from her body as the realization that someone else had Noah’s phone hit her. Who is this? she typed out and sent.
Katya.
Zara stared at the single word. No last name, as if Katya was as famous as someone like Madonna or Cher.
What in the world was Noah doing on his sister’s engagement tour with the woman who’d ruined his reputation?
Had he been lying to her this whole time?
She checked the time—she was about to be late—and saw that it was almost two-thirty. So it was one-thirty in the morning in Triguard. And Katya had Noah’s phone.
Zara’s stomach twisted and turned over, making her feel like she was about to throw up. She didn’t want to keep talking to Katya, but she had no guarantee that Noah would ever get his phone back.
She stuffed her phone in her back pocket, shouldered her bag, and stormed out of the house. She had a show to do. A party to put on. And sleep to get.
Then she’d figure out what was going on with Noah and Katya.