Her Paradise

Derick looks over at me and gives me a look like I’m crazy. “Are you kidding? Why do you think I brought you home?”

“What are you saying?”

He shakes his head like I’m an idiot. “Damn, maybe my sister can do better if you’re this thick-headed.” He casts his reel again and then looks backs over at me. “Cyrus, I knew you would fall for her. She’s just like you, but pretty.” He laughs at his own joke and I roll my eyes. “The two of you were meant to be. I knew it when I met you. You’ve just got to figure out how to stop making her mad.”

“I thought I was being funny,” I say, shrugging. She’s been playing tricks on me since I got back here. I thought maybe I should do one on her. Might get her attention.

“Are you serious right now? You pretended to be shot. You had the whole place at Red Din in on it. You shot off blanks and lay on the ground with people giving you CPR. She thought you were dead.” He puts his head in his hands. “In what damn world did you think this would make her finally want to be with you?”

“She said she loved me,” I say, shrugging a shoulder. Might have been the wrong way to get the I love you, but I wasn’t giving that shit back.

“I can’t talk to a brick wall,” he says as he gets up from his chair and walks to the edge of the dock.

“I admit it wasn’t my brightest idea,” I confess.

I’d had it all planned out with everyone there. Derick told me it was a bad idea, but I thought she’d appreciate a grand gesture. So, I pretended to be shot so she’d come running to my side and tell me she loved me. Then I could tell her I loved her and we could quit all this bullshit about not being together. But my genius plan backfired and she ended up kicking me in the nuts before she stomped off. That was a week ago and she hasn’t spoken a word to me since. At least before she was yelling at me all the time. Now I get nothing. It’s like I really did die.

“All I want to know is, do you have a plan?” Derick looks over his shoulder at me and then shakes his head. “I didn’t think so.”

“I’m working on it.”

My walkie-talkie goes off and I wait a second to hear the code. It’s a non-emergency and the officer on call is going to take it.

After that first visit home with Derick it was absolute hell every time he got a letter from her. She always sent him care packages but nothing for me. I’d hope she might have a change of heart and understand why I said what I said that day in her room. She was too damn young and my will power was paper thin. I had to stay away from her and I had hoped over time she might realize that. Every time he got something I waited nearby just to be hit with disappointment once again. But I never gave up on her. That’s why the second we got out I came straight to the island. Derick told me about the sheriff job and said it was mine whenever I wanted it. The only place I ever wanted to call home was beside Sammy.

“Nothing’s biting today,” Derick says as he reels in his hook again.

“Mosquitos are.”

My walkie-talkie goes off again. I listen and hear the dispatcher say it’s for a call over at the Mermaid. I grab it up and hit the side button.

“I’ll take it, Sue,” I say and start to pack up my stuff.

“What it is?” Derick asks as he leans against the railing of the dock.

“Don’t know. Said they had a call and wanted an officer to respond. Cameron is on duty tonight and there’s no backup. I’ll ride by since I’m close.”

Derick throws his hand up in a wave as I leave. “Tell Nikki and Liam I said hey.”

“Will do.”

“She won’t be there,” he calls out as I turn my back on him.

I clench the tackle box in my hand tight because he knows me too damn well. Of course, I’m going to take the call because Sammy and Nikki are best friends. I’m always hoping to run into her, though, so it wasn’t much of a guess as to why I’m headed that way.

“She might!” I call out and get into my sheriff SUV.

It’s only about two miles away, so it takes me no time to get to the Mermaid. The little boutique hotel is set back into the palm trees on a prime piece of real estate. When I get there, I jump out and walk towards the lobby.