Trent leaned his head back against the seat and pulled his car onto the highway. Sea air streamed in through the window, bringing back memories. Patterson’s Bluff was already his home. So why had he been so afraid to make a commitment by finally getting started on his house? Why did the thought of him chasing after what he wanted fill him with ice-cold fear?
He pushed Cora to chase her dreams, saying she deserved encouragement. He believed she could do anything and that she didn’t need anyone’s approval.
“Easier to give advice than to take it,” he muttered to himself.
The ute zipped along the coast, eating up the distance, and before too long he was easing onto the off-ramp, entering Sorrento.
Sorrento was kind of like Patterson’s Bluff’s older, more popular big sister. It was a wealthier town, with a bustling tourism industry, streets dotted with fancy sports cars, and shops selling random trinkets and foodstuffs that were hideously overpriced simply because someone had slapped a label on it calling it “artisanal.” It was a beautiful town, but not really Trent’s kind of scene.
Today, however, he was here on business.
Personal business.
Nick had pushed him into setting up a meeting with an architect whose specialty was designing modern homes with a coastal twist. Their company mantra was all about sustainability and protecting the environment, which Trent appreciated. And while he’d resisted the meeting, eventually he’d broken down and looked at the website. Nick was right, their designs were amazing.
How can you tell Cora to go for it and then hold yourself back?
He couldn’t answer that question without sounding like a hypocrite. Being with her, seeing her battle against her fears and grow her confidence, had shown him something important—it was easy to stay still. To be stagnant.
To let the past bind you to one spot.
It was harder to push through all that and be honest about what you truly wanted. And after talking out in the open about his big secret, after being with a woman whose courage inspired him, Trent could honestly say that he wanted more.
More from life. More from himself.
He parked the ute in front of a row of sleek shop fronts. The architect’s office was on the second floor, apparently right above a jeweler. He walked along the quaint strip, past the fashion boutique and an antique store and a hipster coffee place full of dudes with man buns.
Then he found the jewelry store. To its right was a single glass door leading to a staircase. But something caught his eye in the glittering window of the shop. There were clusters of fancy-looking things—diamond rings the size of marbles and watches that probably cost more than he spent on his first three cars combined.
But it wasn’t any of that flash that got his attention. It was something far humbler. At the bottom right-hand corner of the display was a cluster of gold necklaces so fine, a subtle breeze might snap them in two. Each one had a thin gold disc hanging from it, with a simple image engraved. There was one with a flower, one with a seashell, and one with a star and moon.
But it was the one with the caterpillar that had him rooted to the spot.
Metamorphosis. Change. Growth.
These were Cora’s ideas, and the things he’d shied away from in the past. But she’d shown him that it was possible to keep moving, even in the face of bad things, while he’d clung to his unaffected smiles and flippant charm as a way to keep the world at arm’s length.
I don’t want her to go.
The words circled around in his brain, chasing themselves like a puppy chasing its tail. What if Trent took a leap this time? What if, instead of pretending he didn’t care or that he wasn’t affected, he told the truth?
What if he told Cora that she meant something to him? Like, really meant something? Not sex or laughs or a fun time. Not a temporary fling. But something more. Something…real.
Looking at his phone, he knew he was going to be late to his meeting. But the architect would have to wait. Trent had to make a purchase.
…
He waited until Cora’s last day in Australia, oscillating between blurting out his desires and driving back to Sorrento to return his gift. But, for once in his life, Trent wasn’t going to take the easy route.
“Don’t think about the negatives, think about the positives.” He looked around at what he’d created—the