ELIZA
There’s an inferno in the sky, brushed with neon reds and oranges, and it blinds me every time I lift my head from the water for a breath. It’s just beginning to fade as I emerge from the water and step into the cool morning air.
All my As, studying, and successful internships, and I didn’t know the sky could look like this.
Maybe the sun has always put on this show in the city, and it’s the high-rises and office lights that dim its blazing hues.
Or maybe I’ve always spent my early mornings taking in the bluish glow of my laptop screen.
Or maybe I’ve just never had the bandwidth to pause, breathe, and look up.
At this hour, the marina is at its prettiest. The gentle morning glow softens all the chips and stains and ugly lines, while water gently laps against hulls. It’s serene.
Until my phone buzzes on the seat beside the cabin.
Water pools on the deck as I wrap myself in a towel, toss my new swim buoy aside, and retrieve my phone. Mother stares back at me.
I consider leaving it, because my morning has been going well. My swim was strong, Michelangelo just painted the sky, and I get to tag along with Grayson today. But my mom will just call every hour until I pick up. It’s more efficient to handle her now.
I sit down and put it on speaker.
“Eliza.” From the way she says it, you’d think I just entered a boardroom for a meeting.
“Hi, Mom.”
“How are you?”
I recognize the question for the formality it is. “Great.”
“That’s good.”
There’s no gladness behind her reaction, and I’m not expecting any.
She doesn’t blame me for my lay-off, but she’s made it clear how much she disapproves of my decision to leave the city.
In her mind, I should be chasing down every door with the slightest crack in it, or at least attending networking events.
It doesn’t matter that Kyle upended my personal life.
For all her frigidity, she’s asked enough questions over the last year to figure out Kyle and I were no longer in love. To her, him cheating was almost a favor to me. Not a betrayal, an embarrassment, or a giant elephant in what was supposed to be my close friend group.
“How is the job?” she asks.
“Fantastic,” I recite, though the jury’s still out on that statement’s accuracy. “I’m certain I’ll receive strong references from the CEO when the contract is over, and I’m glad to add some diversity to my resume.”
“I trust Suzanne has been sourcing opportunities for you?”
“Yes. We’ve submitted several applications.”
I don’t know why she’s asking. Suzanne updates her regularly, as if I’m not an independent twenty-six-year-old, but some prodigal child.
“You’ll be back at it in no time, then.”
I don’t know if she’s trying to comfort herself, or me.
Finally, she gets to the point of her call. “Your brother’s commencement ceremony is in two weeks. I know you’ll be there, but I need to know if you’re joining us on Friday night. I’m making reservations.”
I’d almost forgotten about the event. Or maybe that was me trying to preserve my sanity. James, the family prodigy, my parents’ most prized child, is graduating from law school. He already took his final exams and landed at the top of his class.
“I’ll be there Saturday.”
“Why not Friday night?”
“I’m attending a virtual conference,” I lie. The last thing I want is to have my face rubbed in my brother’s success while my parents have unfettered access to me—their current disappointment—for two nights in a row.
“Well, we look forward to seeing you on the Saturday. We’ll circle back that week to determine your arrival time.”
I watch water drop from my hair onto the phone screen, distorting the letters of her name. “Sounds good.”
“Talk soon.”
She hangs up before I can tap the red button.
Slouching back with a sigh, I gaze at the water that’s still calm enough to reflect the cloud-speckled sky like glass.
As Grayson said on Saturday—and seemed to genuinely appreciate—my early metrics are looking promising.
In two weeks, I might be able to report major milestones to my parents, when they inevitably ask for specifics over dinner.
My ride-along today should help with that.
If someone told me two weeks ago I’d be stuck on a small boat with Grayson for an entire morning, I would have thought I’d been arrested and this was my prison sentence.
But I’ve actually been looking forward to the ride-along all weekend.
And no matter what I tell myself, it isn’t just because it’s a content goldmine, but because the thought of Grayson is no longer accompanied by loathing.
Now it comes with something lighter and more energizing than hatred, and the memory of his steady reassurance as I gasped for breath.
Hero worship, maybe?
I get ready quickly, not wanting to be late.
Grayson might owe me this, but anyone can see how long and hard he works every day.
The last thing I want is to get in the way of his productivity, which is why I leave extra early, giving myself plenty of time to stop at a coffee shop I discovered my first week here.
They serve nothing but the basics, but everything feels like a warm hug, and the staff are always smiling.
The bell jingles as I step into the homey space—right in front of an elderly woman who’s too busy looking at the tray of drinks in her shaky hands to notice me.
I try to step back, but it’s too late. Moth balls assault my nostrils as the woman trips into me. I catch her but miss the drinks, and they hit the floor, ice clattering on the wood as dark liquid runs everywhere.
The shop freezes, then everyone jolts into action.
“Eliza! Nancy! Are you alright?” It’s Joy, Grayson’s bookkeeper, bustling toward us with two other customers and a barista.
“I’m okay. Are you?” I ask the woman, Nancy.
Her arms are fragile in my hands as I set her back on her feet. “I am so sorry. So sorry. Oh, what a mess.”
Her face is completely distraught, like she’s just run over a deer, rather than spilled a few drinks.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” I reassure her. “Everyone is fine. It’s just coffee.”
“But look at this mess!” A wavering hand motions to the coffee that’s currently being mopped up. “And your shoes!”
“It’s almost cleaned up already. And my shoes are brown. You can’t even notice the drops.”
“Nancy, dear, just calm down.” Joy thankfully steps in, because Nancy seems on the verge of losing it, and I’m not entirely sure what to do. “Here, let’s take a seat while they make you some new drinks.”
As Joy guides her to a table, I grab more paper towels and help on the floor. Two minutes later, it’s like the accident never happened. Nancy’s given two new coffees, and the weathered wood floors are dry.
“Let’s walk you to your car,” Joy tells her.
Nancy’s hands are visibly trembling as she apologizes again.
“I’ll help,” I offer.
Joy carries her drinks to her car, parked in the handicapped space, as I give her my arm and walk her to the driver’s door.
Joy bustles over. “I’ve got it from here. Thank you, dear,” she says with a grateful smile.
As I step away, I hear Nancy say, “Now that is a lovely girl.”
“She works on the farm—with Grayson.”
“What a wonderful young man! So handsome, too.”
“Wouldn’t they be…”
I remove myself from the vicinity and pull out my phone to check the time—and realize I’m about to be late to my ride-along.
Swearing under my breath, I forget about coffee and hop in my car, pushing the pace to the farm and wishing I had Grayson’s number so I could give him a heads up. It’s buried somewhere in my hiring paperwork, and I never thought to add it to my phone.
Two minutes past nine, I whip into the lot. I shove the car in park and hurry to the docks, where Amanda’s carrying two buckets off a boat. Grayson’s nowhere to be seen.
“Hey!” I call out to her. “Is Grayson still here?”
“He just left,” she says, glancing over her shoulder at the water, where a skiff retreats into the distance.
I stare at the Grayson-shaped figure behind the wheel, all my hope and happy anticipation collapsing like a house of cards.
I’m two minutes late. Two minutes.
And he…left.
That asshole.
“Was he…not supposed to leave?” Amanda asks cautiously.
I lick my lips, head wobbling in stunned disappointment. “He was supposed to take me with him. We had a deal.” And I thought he was starting to respect me.
Maybe…maybe there was an emergency? Something that required his immediate attention?
When I ask, Amanda purses her lips. “Not that I know of.”
My disappointment expands into a ball in my throat, and the sensation triggers a swell of anger.
Because that sensation feels a lot like when I learned that Kyle cheated on me, that Jane and Sami still spoke to him, that I’d been laid off.
I’d come to Garnet Shores to get away from all that. And Grayson had done just enough over the last week to make me think he wasn’t such an asshole—setting me up perfectly for this pathetic fall, right here.
“What the hell is she doing down here?”
Apparently my day is on the greatest upward trajectory of all time because Mark, the farm’s oldest team member, marches toward us with a scowl plastered on his grizzly face.
Everyone else on the farm has acknowledged my existence at least once, even offered a “hello” or an introduction.
But Mark treats me like I’m trying to infect them all with chicken pox.
“Just doing my job,” I reply plainly.
He grunts. “Do it somewhere else. Far away.” He grumbles under his breath as he brushes past us.
“Don’t take it personally,” Amanda advises.
“I won’t.” With Mark, anyway.
With Grayson? I’m taking this so personally it’ll be written into my obituary.
Never mind that we had a deal, or that I thought we were edging away from enemies and toward, I don’t know, whatever it was he’d been stirring in my gut. The reality is, the content I’m no longer getting today is going to impact my entire workweek.
Grayson just screwed me.
“You look like a very dangerous person right now,” Amanda observes, studying my face.
Good.
I am.
Because Grayson Gold doesn’t know the ins and outs of my mind.
He doesn’t know that I’ve been toying with a content idea from the first day I saw him, in all of his rugged, grouchy glory.
An idea I’d shoved away because I knew how much he’d despise it, though the results would undoubtedly please Anson.
An idea that’s now slithering to the front of my mind.
I smile at Amanda, who’s growing more wary by the second, and head back to my car.
I have some planning to do.