On the Rocks (Last Call #1)(71)
“Love you,” he says as he turns over in bed to go back to sleep.
“Love you, too.”
I tiptoe back through the house, because I assume John is still sleeping, and I pray that I don’t run back into Sasha. The coast seems clear, and I literally trot down the stairs high on life.
But when I get to my truck, I come to a dead stop because I see her standing there. She’s still in her robe and leaning up against the passenger door. Gone is the smug look on her face, and rather, I see an interesting array of confusion and earnestness.
“You didn’t tell Hunter what I did,” she says matter-of-factly. “How come?”
I walk up to stand before her. “Because it was unnecessary. I didn’t believe you, and I didn’t want to get Hunter upset.”
She appraises me a moment and, for the first time, I don’t feel like she’s looking at me like a bug that she wants to crush. Instead, her face gets softer and her voice is genuine when she says, “I misjudged you.”
“I think so,” I tell her. “I’m just not sure what you hoped to accomplish by that. You had to have known you might have driven me away if that little scheme had worked, but there’s no way Hunter would have ever taken you back. Not after what you did.”
Sasha gives me a sad smile. “Gabby… I didn’t do that to get Hunter back. I did it only to push you away.”
I blink at her, stunned by her words. “Why? I don’t understand.”
Gabby looks up at Hunter’s house, a wispy smile on her face, and then turns back to me. “I care for him a great deal. I may not have shown it all that well, and I screwed things up with him when I demanded he leave the tour to be with me. I know that, and I accept that. And while I may have misjudged you, I have never misjudged Hunter. I see how in love with you he is. So I’ve known from the get-go that Hunter would never go back on the Tour. There was no way he was going to leave you.”
“You tried to drive me out so Hunter would go back on Tour? I still don’t get it… what do you stand to gain?”
“Nothing. I’d gain nothing, but Hunter would gain everything. And I still care for him. Always will. I don’t want to see this opportunity slip past him, and while John is too laid back to push Hunter one way or the other, I’m not.”
I move past Sasha and lean up against my truck, staring at the ground while I digest what she said. I sort of believe her… that she doesn’t want anything for herself, but wants him to have another shot at the world title.
“Gabby, you don’t know Hunter the way I do… at least not the Hunter that is a professional surfer. And you don’t know what it’s like… to be out there in the heat of competition, never knowing what type of wave Mother Nature is going throw your way. It might be a small set, making you hone in and focus on your skills. It might be a massive barrel, so big it could crush you on the coral below, and your heart is in your throat as you coast it out. Either way, the adrenaline high when you drop in to ride that bitch is like nothing you can imagine. It’s like touching Heaven with your fingertips. Forget for a moment the fans screaming his name, and forget the money that will fatten his bank account. Hunter was born to be a legend. This opportunity, to walk away from a career and then literally be begged back by all the biggest surfing retailers in the world, this isn’t offered to everyone. It’s not even offered to the number one guy right now. It’s Hunter they want, because it’s Hunter that has the ability to hit the top, but more importantly, he has the ability to stay at the top. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and trust me, he will regret this until the day he dies if he passes it up.”
Her words slam into me hard, and even though I’ve heard plenty of talk of endorsement deals and seven-figure paychecks, no one has made me consider the intangibles of what this might mean to Hunter. No one until his ex-girlfriend, who stands before me and explains to me how truly special this offer is.
“He’s made his mind up,” I whisper. “I’ve not pushed him either way.”
“Then get him to change his mind,” she says.
“I can’t,” I tell her, casting my eyes to the ground.
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
Her words are hard but not overly harsh. I look up to her and say, “I can’t. I want him to stay, trust me. But not at the expense of him passing up an opportunity that could haunt him later in life. I’d never want that. I think… no, I know… I really want him to take this shot.”
“Then get him to change his mind.”
Shaking my head, I push away from my truck. “I don’t know how, Sasha. I overheard him talking to Brody. He said I’m more important than the Tour… than surfing. I don’t know how to change that.”
Sasha steps toward me, angles her head in, and says in a quiet voice, “Then you make yourself less important.”
The power of her words overwhelms me, and my body jerks. The only way I could possibly make myself less important is by breaching our trust… our loyalty… our love. The thought of it makes me want to vomit, because I’ll be sacrificing myself and hurting Hunter immensely. He’ll ultimately get to go back to his surfing career, but I’ll be a wreck when he’s gone.
Part of me wants to cry out to the Heavens that this isn’t fair. It shouldn’t be up to me to be the sole bearer of responsibility when it comes to Hunter’s welfare and happiness. But then I realize that it is not a responsibility that I would entrust to anyone else either. The one thing that is more important than how this will affect me… is how this will affect Hunter and his future.