The Coast is Clear (Breakaway Shores #1)

Zander

The Coast is Clear

“So, tell me about this bench?” I asked Izzy, sitting on the other end. I didn’t want to press my luck. I’d messed up. She’d been quiet when I’d arrived at the house, and I’d wanted to drop to my knees and explain it all, but instead, she asked to go for a walk on the beach. We’d each walked side by side, in silence, through the brush, and then she stopped at this bench.

Izzy didn’t look my way. Her eyes stayed forward. Her hands folded together on her lap. Her chai cup was empty now, sitting next to her. “There’s a little inscription on the back of the bench. It says, The coast is clear .” I leaned backward, and she was right. There was a small metal plaque containing those words and nothing else. “I don’t know what it means or who put this bench here. I tried to ask the locals back when I was a teenager. But I’ve created this whole world of stories around it in my head. And after Jack died, I thought of a couple. One dying but holding on, so they didn’t leave their spouse too soon. They were older and gray-haired, and the spouse who wasn’t dying told them to go. Told them it was okay. That the coast was clear, and I love that. I…” She drifted off. “I just wish I could have spoken to him before. That I’d had the chance to hold his hand or kiss him before he was really gone. I wish I’d had the chance to tell him that I’d be okay, that the boys would be okay.”

The waves crashed against the shore ahead of us, the wind rustling between the thin blades of glass. A thick layer of clouds covered the sun, but it wasn’t cold. The temperature was comforting. “Izzy, about the house—"

“You don’t have to explain it, . I honestly don’t even know if I want to hear it. I knew you were moving. We both did. We just…” The anguish in her voice crushed my chest, and I scooted closer to her.

“No, I want to explain. Yes, I bought a house in North Carolina. My mom worked so hard for me after my dad died. And then, when I went to the league, I wanted to buy her something big. I wanted to do what people do when they make it and say thanks to the people who helped them get there, but she flat-out refused. She didn’t want some big lavish house, especially when she was helping me with Dee.” I could still hear her lecturing me about money and how I needed to save everything I could. “I bought her one, finally. She was looking at houses with me when I was there, and she adored this cute little cottage. It’s modest, nothing extravagant, but at least she won’t have to worry about her mortgage now.”

Izzy turned her head, her eyes so beautifully brown in the cloudy light. “You bought it for your mom?” Her tone was almost annoyed.

“I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. I’d just signed it all, but we hadn’t had a moment alone.” She turned away from me again, and I wanted to reach out to her, but I couldn’t. I could just see the look on Natalie’s face turned to the side as we fought the last time, and this felt too much like that. But I didn’t want it to be the last time we fought. I wanted to fight with her a thousand more times if it meant it was her I was fighting with. “Izzy.” I moved closer to her, putting my hand over top of hers. “I’m not going anywhere. I know we’ve been skirting around what we are really going to do at the end of summer, but I will do whatever you want to. I’ll rent a house here, and you can still move into the house. Or we could move in together. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

The words left my mouth, my heart beating in my chest, and I could tell by the way Izzy pulled her hands out of mine that I said something wrong. I just didn’t know what.

“, I didn’t expect this.” Her voice shook, and she avoided my eyes.

“Expect what?”

“You. ”

I let a beat sit in between us, a gust of wind rustling around us. “Me?”

Izzy shook her head a little bit and let out a deep breath. "I think that I sort of expected to never have to be in this position again. I did this already, the big love story, you know? I had it, the so-called happily-ever-after, but it wasn’t. I just never expected to fall in love again. I don’t know if I can do it.”

I sat back, my shoulder just barely brushing against hers. She’d fallen in love with me. I had known that because I’d been falling in love with her, too. But we hadn’t really said it yet. “I fell in love with you, too, Izzy.”

“But I know what happens at the end of the story. You think they live happily ever after, but then someone dies. Something terrible happens, and everything you know is ripped away from you. I just don’t know if I could survive it twice.” Her cheeks were wet with tears.

I got off the bench, twisting around so I was kneeling in front of her. My hands found her knees, and her misty eyes met mine. “I’m not going anywhere. This is exactly where I want to be. I know I can’t make promises because I’m sure Jack made the same promises about nothing ever happening to him. And then he died in a car crash. But I’m here. I love you, Izzy. I want to be with you, to be your partner, and to help with Christian and Kingston. I want this life with you because even though we don’t know how it’ll end, it’ll be the best damn life I could ever imagine.”

“You love me? ”

“Yes, silly,” I chuckled and pulled her closer to me, our faces at the same level. “I love you.”

“And you’re not moving to North Carolina?”

I brushed her hair behind her ears. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Izzy placed her hand on my neck, and the softness of her fingers made me tingle. “I love you, too.” We took each other in for a moment, and then I kissed her. A kiss that was the perfect amount of passion and love. I wanted it to never stop, but I also wanted to take her back to the house and show her how much I loved her in every way I could.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my job or my career. But I sure as hell knew what I’d be doing with the rest of my life.

The rest of the day had been bliss. Izzy and I had made love a couple of times before taking a nap. We managed to wake up with enough time to shower and look presentable before the boys got back with Jack’s parents.

They were kind and friendly as we talked to them. They were leaving that night, driving back to Portland, and flying out. But it was great of them to come. The boys had been happy.

We were just lounging now. Christian was putting a puzzle together while Izzy had gone to the corner store. She’d needed some fresh air. Kingston had insisted that I watch this dinosaur show with him. It was full of dinosaurs with neon colors painted all over them, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but he seemed enthralled. My phone rang, buzzing against the wood of the side table, and Kingston jumped off my lap. “Someone’s call you.”

I patted his shoulder, wondering if I should correct his grammar or not because it was honestly just too adorable to hear him talk that way. I grabbed the phone, and he put his head back down on my leg. It was my agent, Rachel. Weird, we hadn’t spoken in months because I wasn’t really looking for any opportunities. “Hello?”

“Zand, how are ya?” Her bright voice buzzed in my ear.

“Doing great. It’s been a while,” I tried to keep my voice on the quieter side, not wanting to distract Kingston from his show.

“It has, but something just came across my desk that is specifically for you.” She had her salesy voice on, and something inside me bristled.

I wanted to say no right there. I’d just told Izzy that I wasn’t going anywhere. I’d meant it. But I didn’t. “What was it?”

“They want you to join the Thursday announcers. They’ve got an opening coming up due to some PR issues, and your name is the top pick for replacements.”

It was even worse than I thought it would be. And by worse, I meant amazing. Tempting. Something that I’d been waiting for. Something that would be just for me. Not for Dee, for my mom, or for anyone else who needed me to take care of them. I could just talk football and get paid to do it. It sounded incredible, but it couldn’t work. “So, traveling to each game once a week for the season?”

“Exactly, starting with Thursday next week. But it’s close by. Rebels at Victors.” When Rachel got salesy, she got short. Not angry but just concise with her words. She wasn’t trying to influence me too much. She hated that.

“Can I think on it?”

Someone murmured on the other end. “I can get you twenty-four hours before they need to move on.”

“Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

She hung up without saying goodbye, another thing she did, and I felt anxiety spread through me. I was going to tell Izzy as soon as she got back, just inform her. That’s what people do in relationships, right?