Free Tidal by Emily Snow Page B

hair, blue
    eyes, a giant grin, and a shot glass lifted
    up high. I still remembered bits and pieces
    of the night I took this picture of Jessica.
    Speak of the boozy devil.
    9:18 a.m. : Where are you staying???
    I was on vacation in Ibiza. I want to see
    you, bitch!!!
    I began typing a response to her,
    barely listening when Miller said, “Hey,
    Willow . . . I was wondering if we could
    talk about days off.”
    “The weekend,” I blurted, and I heard
    him shuffle around, probably to turn his
    head in my direction. “The weekend
    because I don’t need to go out. Seriously,
    if I ask to go out, stop me.”
    Because my text to Jessica read, I
    wish we could hang out but I’m in
    Hawaii for a part! Sorry.
    “What? With physical force?” Miller
    asked, snorting.
    “I’m weak,” I said, adjusting my
    ringer to silent. That way she couldn’t tell
    me about what she’d done, and who she
    partied with, in Ibiza. That way I wouldn’t
    get jealous. That way I wouldn’t wish I’d
    been with her, getting so fucked up the
    universe failed to exist for me.
    “I don’t want to go back to rehab or
    jail or any of that. I’m not going to go
    back,” I whispered.
    There should be other reasons why
    you don’t want to get screwed up , my
    conscience muttered to me.
    I paid attention to the winding road
    ahead.
    “Nobody wants you to either,” Miller
    said quietly. But I closed my eyes and saw
    the flashing lights and the headlines
    behind my eyelids. He was wrong, so I
    didn’t respond.
    When he parked the car on Cooper’s
    curb, I hesitated before getting out. I
    pulled my hand away from the door handle
    and gazed back into Miller’s dark brown
    eyes. “What are you going to do when
    you’re off?” I asked.
    He looked surprised. “Something part-
    time . . . to help with the expenses when I
    move.” Yesterday, during our all-day tour
    of Honolulu, he’d told me about his
    girlfriend. The assignment as my
    bodyguard would be his last before he
    moved to live with her on the East Coast.
    My gaze slipped to the front of
    Cooper’s stucco house, and then back to
    Miller’s face. “Another security job?”
    Miller opened his mouth to answer
    me, but then seemed to think better of it.
    His face wrinkled into a frown and he
    flicked the tip of his tongue over the tiny
    gap in his front teeth. “Willow, are you
    stalling?”
    Yes. And I wasn’t about to admit
    aloud—or even to myself—the reason
    why. Letting my shoulders sag, I pinned on
    a smile that was probably more creepy
    and robotic than bright. “I’ll text you when
    Surfer Boy and me are done.”
    A second after I stepped inside the
    empty shop area a couple minutes later,
    Eric padded in through the doors behind
    the surfboard counter. He had a half-eaten
    energy bar in one hand and a giant bottle
    of water in the other. “What if I said
    you’re stuck with me today?” he asked,
    hitching an eyebrow.
    I pretended to be interested in a t-shirt
    for sale, though I could still easily see him
    out the corner of my eye. “What exactly
    are you going to teach me? And by the
    way, I met your girlfriend.”
    He took a long gulp of water and then
    shrugged his shoulders. “Paige knows my
    flirting is harmless.” When I rolled my
    eyes, he added, “What can I say, I’m star-
    struck. What would you do if Brad Pitt
    walked into your house?”
    I scrunched my face. “Not shit because
    he’s two years older than my dad.” Then a
    thought hit me, and I shifted an eyebrow
    up. “You’re not much of a bum if you’re
    up this early each morning.”
    “It’s to see your beautiful, famous
    face. But really, not even I sleep past
    9:30. I’ve got to polish those”—he
    pointed to three surfboards resting against
    the wall on the far side of the room—“and
    go to the grocer. I’m kind of your
    boyfriend’s bitch.”
    “There is nothing going on between
    me and Cooper,” I said through gritted
    teeth. Then, taking a long, calming breath,
    I walked