Chapter Five

 

* MEGAN *

 

I had a rare morning off today. The whole town did, in fact. Today was a funeral day, and on Driftwood Island, life came to a standstill to honor a life that had passed on.

I had conflicting feelings about today’s funeral. I’d seen both the best and worst of old Mr. Miller. Trent’s father had done some good in his lifetime, but he’d also been horrible to the one person who truly needed him: Trent.

Still, Mr. Miller had been a local, and we locals honored each other in death, even if the one who’d passed away hadn’t been exactly perfect. I knew Trent would probably be livid if he knew I was going to his dad’s funeral, but what did it matter? Trent had made it clear that he wasn’t part of the tight-knit family of locals anymore, and my loyalty had to lie with the locals. Once my grandma passed, my Driftwood Island “family” would be all I had left. Besides, Trent wasn’t likely to show up for the funeral, even though I thought he should. Mr. Miller had been awful in many ways, but he’d still been Trent’s dad.

“Ugh. Why can’t I stop thinking about Trent for two seconds?” I asked the question aloud to the empty patio, but of course there was no answer. Grandma was inside snoozing after eating her breakfast. Her caretaker was coming a little late today, since I was here in the morning for once. I felt a pang of guilt that I wasn’t here every morning, and every night. But I knew Grandma understood, even if she couldn’t communicate with me very well anymore. I was doing what I had to do to hold things together and pay at least enough of our bills to keep the bank from showing up on our doorstep.

I took a deep breath, and reminded myself that this was a temporary season of life. Things would eventually get easier, and besides, things weren’t all bad. I was healthy. I had a place to live—a place with a beautiful view of the ocean. I had friends who loved me. I had two good jobs, and even though I was tired as heck all the time, I was thankful for those jobs. And I still had my art. Even if it was going through a slump right now, I had faith that I would find another place to sell my art soon enough. I just had to keep plodding forward one step at a time, and I would get to where I needed to be.

I looked down at the paintbrush in my hand and smiled. Even if no one ever bought another painting of mine, I would still keep painting anyway. Painting made me happy, and it calmed me. And I was damn good at it. I looked at the painting I’d been working on this morning and my smile widened. I was painting a stormy ocean scene. Every now and then, huge storms rolled through Driftwood Island, and I’d always thought they were spectacular. The tourists all complained when it stormed, but I loved it. There was nothing like lightning streaking over the ocean, lighting up angry whitecaps.

“Wow. You painted this?”

The voice startled me so badly that I jumped and dropped my paintbrush. Cursing, I bent to pick up the brush, thankful that I’d taken the time to put a drop cloth down over the patio’s pristine white wood. I turned around slowly, thinking that the voice couldn’t possibly belong to the person it sounded like it belonged to.

It had.

Trent stood on the top step of the patio stairs behind me. The stairs that led directly into the garden and out to the driveway.

Flustered, I glared at him to cover up the strange cocktail of confused emotions that was suddenly filling me. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”

“I did knock. On the front door. No one answered, so I came around back to see if you were out in the garden. Which you sort of are. And really, did you paint that? Because, wow.”

“I did paint it,” I said shortly. “What are you doing here?”

Trent took in a loud, noisy breath and went to sit on the porch swing a few feet away from me. I tried my best not to notice how good his skin looked in the early morning sunshine, or how muscular his calves were. He was wearing swimming trunks and a plain white t-shirt which accented the tan on his arms. His dirty blonde hair was perfectly mussed up again, and I found myself wondering if he actually put work into making his hair look that way, or if he just woke up that way. Then I realized that I was supposed to be mad at him, and I got control of my thoughts again.

“Are you gonna answer me?” I asked. “What are you doing here? You can’t just waltz up to people’s back porches like you own the place.”

He gave me a sidelong glance. “Why not? I used to do it all the time when were teenagers.”

“We’re not teenagers anymore. I think our fiasco of a date Sunday night made that pretty clear.”

He winced. “Ouch. That’s what you’re calling it? A fiasco? It wasn’t that bad was it?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “If that wasn’t a fiasco, then what was it?”

To my surprise, he grinned at me. “A learning experience.”

“Okay, fine. And what did you learn?”

His expression turned quite serious all of a sudden, and I felt a wave of warmth pass through me. As much as I told myself not to be turned on by him, I couldn’t escape the heat in his eyes.

“I learned that I’ve been an idiot by staying away from you all these years.”

“Trent,” I groaned. “I won’t deny that there’s some chemistry between us, but I think we established on Sunday that things between us are never going to work. You’re not interested in being a local on Driftwood Island anymore, and you know I can’t support someone who is going to sell off his property to the local resort and hightail it back to California.”

“Well, that’s okay, because I’m not going to sell my property to Zach, and I’m not going to hightail it to California.”

I blinked a few times, trying to process what I’d just heard. “You’re not?”

“No. I’m not. I honestly don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with my dad’s property, but I promise you I’m not selling it to Zach. And I’m not going back to California.”

My jaw dropped. “You’re not?”

“No. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this since you stormed off on me the other night.” He grinned sheepishly. “And also, I flipped a coin. Heads I go, tails I stay.”

“And it was tails?” I asked in a whisper, almost scared to hear the answer.

“It was tails. Although to be honest with you, if it had been heads, I think I would have cheated and flipped that damn coin as many times as it took to get to tails.”

The warmth in my body had once again turned into an inferno. “Trent, I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll give me another chance to be a local. I might have changed, and I might have a bit more money in the bank than I used to, but I’m still Trent. I still want to be your best friend—”

“Best guy friend,” I corrected. “No one ever takes Julia’s place.”

“Right, of course. Best guy friend. I’m not gonna lie, I’m crazy about you. You’ve always meant a lot to me, but when I came back to this island and realized that the girl Megan I knew is gone, and that the woman Megan has taken her place, it was quite an eye-opener. I understand if you’re not ready to take a step into any kind of romance right now, but I hope you’ll at least keep an open mind and allow our friendship to blossom. Who knows where things will go from there?”

I felt like I was suspended in time as I stared over at his hopeful blue eyes. Everything he was saying felt like a dream. It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? He was going to stay here. He wasn’t going to sell off his property to the resort. And he wanted me. Me. Megan Reed.

Part of me thought I should make him really work for this. I should make him prove to me that he really meant it: that he was really staying and he was really committed to being part of the family of locals once again. But then, part of me thought that if I didn’t kiss him right then and there, I was going to explode from the inside out with all the passion I felt.

I took a step toward him, my eyes locking with his. The air between us crackled, just like the air before one of those island storms I loved so much. But this storm was going to be stronger and more spectacular than any of the hundreds of storms I’d witnessed in my lifetime. This storm was us. This storm was the energy that had been building between us for years, without our even realizing it. This was the storm of a lifetime.

My heart pounded in my chest as he stood from the porch swing and took a step toward me. I took another step toward him, the fire in both of our eyes growing with every passing second. Just a few more steps, and our lips would meet. And from there, who knew?

And then, my phone rang. Its loud, shrill tone cut uncaringly through the moment, and I groaned.

“Don’t get it,” Trent said, reaching for my arm. “It can wait.”

Ordinarily, I would have agreed with him. But these weren’t ordinary days. These days, my grandmother was sick and could face life-threatening complications at any moment. I had rigged a button by her bedside that would call my cell phone if she pushed it. I’d explained the button to her at least two dozen times, and I still wasn’t sure whether she actually understood its purpose. But I wasn’t taking chances. If there was a possibility that my ringing phone was her needing help, I had to check into that possibility.

“It might be my grandma,” I said as I turned and rushed toward the small table next to my paints where my phone was sitting. I snatched up the phone and glanced at the caller I.D., then my eyes widened.

It wasn’t my grandma, but it was my grandma’s caretaker, and it was ten minutes past when she was supposed to be here. I hurriedly answered the phone.

“Hello? Susie?”

“Hi, Megan. Is everything alright? I’m at your place and knocking on your door but no one is answering. But your car’s here so I wasn’t sure…”

“I’m here. I’m sorry I was out on the back patio and lost track of time. The front door should be unlocked. Let yourself in and I’ll come meet you in a minute.”

I hung up the call and quickly started closing up tubes of paint. “That was my grandma’s caretaker. I didn’t realize it was already so late. I need to get cleaned up and get going to…”

I faltered, realizing that there was now no way to go to Trent’s dad’s funeral without Trent knowing. In fact, Trent realized where I was going before I even said anything. His eyes darkened at the realization.

“You’re going to his funeral, aren’t you?”

“You should go,” I said softly, setting down the bottle of paint I was holding and turning toward Trent, whose eyes only darkened even more.

“Hell, no! How could you even say that? You know better than most how he treated me!”

“I know. And nothing excuses that. But…you know how it is with the locals here. It’s important that everyone’s funeral be attended, no matter what their flaws were. When you’re part of the family here, you’re accepted, shortcomings and all. And your dad tried to say sorry at the end. You know he did. That’s why he left you the land.”

“It’s too little, too late. I don’t care about the stupid land. I wanted a father when I was growing up. When I actually needed a father.”

“I know. But at this point holding onto that hurt will only hurt you. Look, I’m not even saying you have to forgive him. But he’s your only parent, and this is the only funeral he’ll ever have. Just go. Be the bigger man and go. If nothing else, it will go a long ways toward showing the locals that you’re still a local.”

Trent looked down at his clothes. “I’m not exactly dressed for a funeral.”

“I don’t think anyone here cares. This is an island town, remember?”

Trent sighed, and chewed his lower lip for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he looked up at me and nodded.

“I’ll go,” he said slowly. “But only if you sit next to me for moral support. You’re the only one who truly understands how hard this is for me.”

I nodded and took his hand. “Of course. I’ll be there for you, through it all. Just like I always have been.”

Just like I always will be. I wasn’t sure exactly how Trent’s future was going to play out here on Driftwood Island, but I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to be part of that future.

For now, I wanted to get him through this funeral. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I also knew it would be a healing experience for him. I still knew Trent better than anyone, and I knew this final goodbye would do him good.

And if he needed comforting tonight, then I’d be there to comfort him.