Free Sunshine Beach by Wendy Wax

out the passenger window hunching into herself in an attempt at privacy, something that was pretty much unachievable within the confines of the Mini Cooper.
    â€œNaw, I’ve mostly just been sitting out here thinking,” he said.
    â€œAhh,” she said. “Doing a little therapeutic fishing, are you?”
    â€œI am.” There was a smile in Will’s voice, but there was something else there, too. “I heard from a guy at Aquarian, my old record label. They want to come down next week to talk.”
    â€œAbout what?” she asked, barely seeing the Gulf Boulevard hotels whizzing by.
    â€œRecording ‘Free Fall.’” He said this as if trying the words on for size.
    â€œOh.” Her stomach went into a free fall of its own as she thought about what that might mean. “Are you going to do it?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he replied. “But they’re throwing all kinds of stuff at me.” There was a wry chuckle. “I forgot what it was like when they want you.”
    â€œWhat kind of things?” She hoped the list of incentives didn’t include women.
    â€œWell, when I said I didn’t want to travel they told me we could record in Miami. Then when I said I didn’t want to work with studio musicians they told me I could bring anybody I wanted to record with me.”
    â€œOh,” she said, looking up to see the Don CeSar Hotel looming ahead.
    â€œWhen I told them I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything with the song, they offered me an obscene amount of money.”
    The Don’s thick pink walls and white-trimmed windows whooshed by. A few blocks later they passed the massive hedge that she now knew hid the Sunshine Hotel.
    â€œHow obscene?” Maddie finally asked. After all, there were levels of monetary obscenity. Will had been a big name for a lot of years. He might have pissed away most of what he’d earned, but a fortune to her might not be enough to entice Will to walk across a street.
    â€œObscene enough to take care of the money I owe the bank. And to run the sober living facility for a year. I could subsidize a good number of residents who can’t afford the stay.”
    â€œThat would be pretty hard to say no to.”
    â€œYeah.”
    Avery cut over to Gulf Way. The beach flitted past.
    â€œWhen do you have to decide?” Maddie asked carefully. She did not want to picture what sort of temptation might be thrown in his path if he put himself back in the public eye. Or think about how that temptation might color how he saw her.
    â€œI told them I’d let them know by tomorrow.” He sighed and she heard him settle in the boat. “But I’m interested in knowing what you think.”
    Maddie fixed her eyes on the beach just beyond the row of parked cars and the low concrete wall that edged it, but she was picturing Will in the flats boat out off some small island.
    She was ashamed of how much she hated the whole idea. How small she felt for wanting to keep things exactly as they were. How desperately she wished she could keep him all to herself.
    â€œWell,” she said, determined to kick her own wants and needs to the curb. She’d vowed to always tell him the truth even when it was hard. “As a longtime fan, I . . .” She paused to weigh her words, her insecurity at war with how much she knew the song meant to him and what it could do for the facility. “The songis fabulous.” She swallowed and pushed forward. “And I think it would be a damn shame to keep it to yourself.”
    Nicole’s legs had turned to rubber. Her chest heaved and the orange juice she drank for breakfast sloshed in her stomach as she jogged along the stretch of hard-packed sand. Her breathing turned ragged and it took everything she had to resist cutting her pace.
    Footsteps sounded behind her. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket. Glad of the distraction, she pulled it