Lovewrecked - Karina Halle Page 0,13

I’ve seen you smile. Has anyone ever told you that your teeth are blinding?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you say has anyone ever told you a lot?”

She exhales slowly through her lips. “Chris told me that. He told me lots of things, before I came home one day to make lunch and caught him having sex with an ex-coworker.”

Fuck.

I let out a low whistle. “That is rough.”

“Yeah. And, like, a few weeks before that I was let go of my job of ten years.”

“Shit.”

“Mmmhmmm.” She starts tapping her fingers along her thighs.

“What did you do? I mean, what was your role?”

Another sigh. “I was the head of marketing for an athleisure company. You know, clothes for yoga, products for wellness, that sort of thing.”

I shudder inside at the word “wellness,” one of my pet peeves. Figures.

“And so what did you do?” I repeat. “Meaning, why were you fired?”

“I wasn’t fired,” she snaps at me, her face starting to flush. “I was laid off.”

“Okay, take it easy, Gingersnap.”

“Gingersnap?”

I shrug. It’s fitting and I’ll use it again. “So company layoffs. That’s got to suck.”

“What I probably should have done is just not come here at all. Stayed at home and focused on getting another job, focused on getting over Chris.”

“You would have done that to your sister? Skipped out on her wedding?”

Her shoulders lift. “I don’t know. I don’t know if Lacey would care, to be honest. I haven’t seen her in five years, we don’t talk all that often anymore. Not like we ever did.”

She catches me looking at her and puts a big smile on her face, a practiced, easy smile, a smile that most people wouldn’t notice is fake.

But I do.

“Anyway, I’m here.” She sits up straighter, a forced chipper tone to her voice. “And I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this trip. Maybe all this shit that happened to me is a chance to start over, really find myself. You know, maybe I’ll take the advice that my old job was spewing all those years. Go on a spiritual journey and all that horseshit.”

I laugh. “Sounds like you’re heading in the right direction.”

She nods, returning the smile.

But I don’t think she believes it.

Four

Daisy

This has been, no doubt, the longest drive of my life.

I mean, four hours is pretty long no matter how you spin it, but four hours stuck in a cramped space with the grumpiest guy alive with his fresh ocean scent and big hands and growly voice, a guy that couldn’t hide his disdain for me even if he tried (and he wasn’t trying), pushed my sanity to the limit.

Not to mention a lot of the road was winding and my nausea reared its ugly head once again. Tai was probably grateful that I shut up for once, but the truth was I was trying to keep from being sick. The last thing I needed was to further embarrass myself. Can you imagine if I hurled all over his vintage truck? He’d probably have kicked me out and made me hitchhike without even a second glance.

Truth be told, I was almost tempted to do it. Just to piss him off.

Finally, we reach the cute town of Russell, with its quaint shops and people milling along the sparkling harbor with dripping ice cream cones in their hands. But we keep going and the road twists and turns again though forest until it opens on a narrow peninsula full of houses. We pull into a driveway and park.

I can’t get out of the truck fast enough, I practically fall out of it. Wedding party be damned, I hope that was the last and only time I’ll be stuck in such close proximity with Tai.

I take a moment and lean against the passenger door, immediately taking in a deep, calming breath. We’re at the end of a long gravel driveway, rolling green hills on either side that slip down to a wide, pale beach and the turquoise of the water beyond. If I had to describe New Zealand in one word so far it would be saturated. Every color, from the green of the land to the blue of the sky is vibrant and electric, almost like it’s been digitally altered.

And the air here! It’s so fresh that I think it’s curing my hangover.

I turn my attention to the big white house in front of us, and the bunch of cars parked on the grass around it. Tai gets out, reaches into the bed of the