Chapter 13
“He didn’t even say thank you!” Isla declared as she rehashed her morning to Harper and Olivia at Aunt Greta’s over a generous helping of pancakes. She was so annoyed she opted for chocolate chip pancakes with extra whipped cream. She didn’t care if it was technically dessert; she needed a whole lot of sugar comfort, so she didn’t go back to Nolan’s and knock him upside the head.
Olivia laughed. “Oh, I can only imagine Nolan’s face when he realized you were in his bed.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t piss himself,” Harper added over her mug of pomegranate herbal tea.
“Can’t guys not pee when they have… you know.” Isla angled her gaze downward.
“Wait,” Harper said. “He was hard.”
Isla waved her hand at her. “Lower your voice before the whole town hears Nolan had morning wood, and I was there to witness it.”
“I don’t know why you didn’t lead with that,” Harper said.
“I pretended like I didn’t notice even though it was hard not to.”
Harper forked her sausage and took a bite with a stupid smirk on her face. “I bet.”
“Very funny.” Isla toyed with the small gold heart that hung from the thin gold chain around her neck. It had been her grandmother’s and made her feel close to her when she felt her life tilting off its axis, and right now, it was spiraling. How the hell was she going to go back home with Nolan living right next door after this morning’s debacle? “Enough about his appendages. What am I supposed to do? I have a hole in my wall that needs to be fixed, and he was going to help me, but I don’t even want to look at him, no less let him in my house.”
Harper took a sip of her tea, then put the mug down. “It’s not like he kicked your puppy.”
“I don’t have a puppy.”
“That’s not…” Harper held up her hand. “Never mind. What I’m saying is, he was asleep last night. He had no idea what had happened. I’m sure waking up to you in his bed was not only confusing but frustrating because he had no recollection of how you got there.”
“Why are you taking his side?” Isla asked.
“Really? I’m not.” Harper swung her gaze to Olivia. “Liv help me out here.”
“Harp’s right. I doubt he meant to yell at you. As far as the thank you, if I had to guess, you didn’t give him enough time to wrap his head around what happened. If you did, I’m sure he would have expressed his gratitude.”
Isla rolled her eyes, still riding her anger and not wanting to listen to reason. If she was honest with herself and her two best friends, she’d admit the real reason why she was so angry. “You know for a second last night, being in his arms, it felt nice. I forgot how good it felt to be held by someone, and now that I know what I’m missing out on… it hurts.”
“Whoop, there it is,” Harper said. Olivia shot her a look. “Sorry, I just knew there was more to it than him not saying thank you.”
Olivia reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
“Maybe it’s time you breakup with your vibrator and start dating again,” Harper suggested.
Isla had always thought Nolan was the one, and after she drove him away, she was too broken to try and move on. She hadn’t missed dating though, or at least she hadn’t thought she did. She was able to find enjoyment in her life through other avenues like her friends and family. She hadn’t felt like anything in her life was missing, but with Grandma gone, Mom and Dad tied up in their own grief, and Harper and Olivia finding true happiness, Isla had never felt more alone.
Maybe Harper was onto something. Maybe it was time Isla stopped guarding her heart and opened it up to possibilities.
***
Nolan met Milo at Pinot and Gogh. After his eventful morning, he needed busy work to occupy his mind, and Milo had tons of it. The studio was coming together and there were just a few things that needed to be done before the grand opening.
“Feel like swapping out socket plates?” Milo handed him a box of plates that all had hand-painted designs on them.
“Why not?” Nolan took the box and the screwdriver and was about to get to work when Harper walked in with Tom.
Tom beelined straight at him and came to a stop in front of him. He squared his shoulders and poked Nolan in the chest hard. Ouch. What the…?
“You were mean to Isla.”
“Word sure travels fast in this town.” He glanced at Harper before meeting Tom’s gaze. “I wasn’t mean to her.”
“You yelled at her. I heard her telling Harper.”
Nolan let out a loud breath. “I didn’t mean to yell at her. She scared me.”
“She’s not scary.”
No, she was as scary as a bunny hopping through a field of flowers, but waking up to her first thing in the morning with no warning was a bit jarring to his psyche. “That doesn’t mean she can’t scare me, but for what it’s worth, I’ll apologize to her.”
“Good!” Tom declared. “I wouldn’t want to have to fight you.”
Nolan respected Tom’s will to protect Isla, and more than that, he appreciated it. She needed good people on her side to watch out for her.
“Tom,” Milo said. “Why don’t we let Nolan live another day, and you can help me stock the shelves with all the new bottles of paint?”
Tom narrowed his eyes at Nolan. “I’m watching you,” he said before disappearing into the back with Milo.
Harper stifled a laugh and placed her bag on a chair before grabbing a paintbrush. She walked over to the mural she was painting and tapped her finger against her chin. She grabbed a palette and squirted some paint on it.
“As you already know, I heard about your little sleepwalking adventure last night,” Harper said as she swiped a smidge of white paint on the wall, bringing to life a lifeguard stand amongst the ocean landscape.
“Some days I think, wow… I’ve really missed this town, then moments like this make me think twice.”
“I could make you regret coming back here. After all, you hurt my friend.”
“She hurt me,” he admitted. “Must I remind you of the radio incident heard round the county?” He couldn’t help bringing it up. He didn’t like the fact that he hurt Isla, but there’d been plenty of times she’d hurt him, and he wagered to say her little stunt had hurt him worse than his yelling at her this morning.
Harper let her paintbrush come to her side and turned to look at him. “And when you left you broke her.”
“What was I supposed to do? How could I stay with someone who publicly admitted she didn’t trust me? It was humiliating and a damn smack in the face. After everything we’d been through…”
“She made a mistake.”
“You think?” He ran a hand over his face. “I get people make mistakes, we all do, but what she did…”
“Look, I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this, but I like to think I’m doing it because I love Isla and I care about her happiness.”
Nolan’s gaze swung to Harper, curiosity poking at his insides. “Tell me what?”
Harper sighed. “She’s still in love with you. I don’t think she’s ever stopped loving you. Did you know she hasn’t dated a single guy since you left?”
“But she told me—”
Harper shook her head. “She was lying.”
“Why would she lie about that?” Isla had never been much of a liar and to lie about something so inconsequential didn’t seem like her at all.
“If I had to guess, she didn’t want you to think she’s been waiting for you.”
Nolan’s head spun as he tried to wrap his mind around this revelation . He managed to keep it together before looking over at Harper. “Has she been?” It had been three years. He hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to date, but he’d been busy with work. At least that’s what he told himself.
“I can’t say for certain, but all the signs point to yes.” Harper shifted. “You’re a good guy, Nolan. You always have been. But Isla is extra vulnerable right now, and I don’t want to see her hurting any more than she already is.”
“I wanted to hurt her… in the beginning. I wanted her to know what it felt like to have her heart ripped out, but I could never bring myself to do it.”
Harper turned from the wall and pinned him with her hazel eyes. “Like I said, you already did, you just weren’t here to witness it.”
Harper’s words swirled in his head, and he tried to come to terms with them. For so long, he had hoped Isla had suffered as much as he did, and all along she had. If anything, she had it worse. She didn’t have anger to resort to and rely on that made it easy to forget. As far as he could tell, she only had regret, and regret was like an infection. If it wasn’t addressed, it would slowly kill her.