Our Love Story

Her words pierce something deep inside of me, like a balloon in my heart, that has started to thin and is running out of air. She makes a sharp cut and I can breathe.

“Thank you. I can’t really believe I just told you all that, though...”

“You told me that because it needed to get it off your chest. But I’m not the person who you really need to be talking to. I think there are a few men out there who deserve to hear how you’re feeling. You’re not gonna figure out what to do next unless you are willing to talk to them about it.”

“And what if my truth scares them and they walk away? What then?”

Dr. Brown’s lips turn into a firm line. She nods her head and answers without compromise. “Then, Chloe, you make a new plan. But you don’t need to make a plan until you find out if the one you have right now works. It’s not the time for plan B yet.”

“I don’t know who the father is,” I tell her. Having all this out in the open causes my shoulders to drop in relief. I’ve been holding so much back.

And this is the last scary thing I’ve held back. I’m terrified about not knowing who the father is, and even more terrified of finding out. It could effortlessly break our perfect family into five jagged edges.

“But you have to speak up and find out, Chloe,” she says simply.

I smile and can’t help but laugh. There is relief in that, in the not knowing.

And right now, I didn’t need every problem solved. Maybe right now, I just needed the confirmation that it’s okay to have a problem at all.

“Are you ready to hear the heartbeat?” Dr. Brown asks.

I nod, realizing I am. I don’t know how to do this ... or even if I want this ... but I do want to make sure that the baby is healthy, growing, whole.NOAHHearing the baby’s heartbeat really threw me for a loop. Tears were streaming down Chloe’s face. Mason and Enzo were all teary-eyed too. The steady thump-thump-thump eased all of our minds to some degree. A healthy baby was the most important thing, of course, but confirming that she was, in fact, carrying a child–– a child belonging to one of us–– brought on a whole onslaught of other things to consider.

In this moment, Chloe looks so freaking happy. Maybe it was a look that registered her absolute relief that the baby was okay.

But I know there’s a hell of a lot of fear in her eyes too. But there’s something about hearing a baby’s heartbeat that can make everything hard in the world seem soft for just one moment. All of us there felt it, even Dr. Brown. She held a wand over Chloe’s flat belly as the baby’s steady heartbeat echoed throughout the room. The sound caught all of us off guard. It was fucking perfection.

On the way home, Chloe told us she wanted to talk, so we made a bonfire that night, right on the beach after Leo went back to his hotel. We brought out snacks and sparkling water– Chloe’s beverage of choice tonight. We had dried mango and trail mix. Not exactly wild and crazy, but even with all this baby mama drama, we still had jobs to do. And that meant staying in shape. We were out most days, shooting raw footage to turn into our videos.

I love it here on Oahu. We head out most mornings in Waikiki, jump in the Jeep and head to an empty beach to set up the tripod, snap on a GoPro. Sometimes pulling out a surfboard or some shit–– climbing gear or the parasail and just having a good time. In our videos, we talk a lot of shit, make jokes, shoot the breeze. Mostly we are ourselves.

Chloe thinks it’s our personalities that get us more and more views each day, and now that we’re free now, no longer held by the Black Bull sponsorship, we are freer than ever. We can say what we like, without needing to censor ourselves.

And with Chloe making magic behind the scenes, the sky is the limit. She is so freaking good with budgets and marketing but more than that, it’s like she really believes in what we are doing: showing people parts of the world they would never see on their own.

What started as a bunch of hometown boys wanting to see more than their own backyard has turned into something so much bigger than I ever imagined.

And so much of my drive right now comes from Chloe. She believes in me in ways I’ve never believed in myself. That gives me the kind of confidence I never knew I was craving. She says that’s crazy talk, that a guy like me, who makes jokes and is everyone’s good old boy, has probably never felt insecure for a day in his whole life.