Eversea A Love Story

reserved for past lives and soul mates. We were just a boy and a girl who recognized each other across the deep blue universe. That corner of my mind found it hard to remember all the reasons that would preclude us being together. Like the fact he was a movie star and I was ... not, or that he had a baby being carried by another woman.
    The second corner called into question any real relationship at all. It was all based on lust and chalked me up to being blinded by Jack’s celebrity status, his attractiveness, and his role as Max. This second corner had the added barbs of calling into question my role as anything more than a shallow groupie and willing female in the dark period of his life. In this corner, I only remembered our physical attraction. I wondered whether we had any connection at all. I couldn’t believe I would have been that shallow. But the evidence was pretty convincing.
    The third corner was deepest of all. The third corner simply stated that we were star-crossed lovers that should never have met. But we did. And in that game the evil jester called fate liked to play, we were attracted in an instant. The potential for love ... for eternity ... was, in a split-second, acknowledged, catalogued, realized, and set on a collision course with never . I could almost hear the snort of derision. Ain’t never gonna happen.
    A ripple on the fabric of fate. A joke that might have ruined my potential for any future happiness.
    Now, I wanted it all. I knew I wouldn’t settle for the sweet and steady Colton Graves’s of the world.
    No corner of my mind was a comfortable place to settle into. And now Jazz was stirring it all back up.
    Her yellow car arrived in my driveway with a spurt of white shells. Flinging open the door, she climbed out. “Boot up the computer, we need to look through this together.” Not pausing for breath, she marched up the stairs in her jeans and boots, her blonde hair flying all over the place in the wind.
    “I don’t want to know, Jazz!”
    “You do. I promise. At least you can stop thinking he’s been fine while you’ve been moping.”
    “I’m not moping.”
    “It’s true you’ve been better. Okay, look, if you won’t look yourself, just listen. That fight I emailed you about was confirmed on three different sites, but an ‘insider’—”
    “Dammit, Jazz, you know better than that.” I turned my head away and stood up. An ‘insider’ —Jack had told me once that was code for someone who wants to make up shit about you.
    She grabbed my arm. “Listen! Something big went down. Even his agent’s been fired.”
    “I don’t care!” I yelled.
     

 
    T H I R T Y – S I X
    I couldn’t remember the last time I was mad at Jazz. If ever. After about twenty minutes of us arguing back and forth, Colt strolled outside and immediately pulled the kayaks from under the house.
    “You wanna go for a paddle?” he asked, pointedly ignoring Jazz. It was chilly out, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do more right then. I smiled at him gratefully. And in about five minutes flat, we were peeling out of the driveway in my truck leaving an open-mouthed Jazz on my porch.
    It was cold on the water, but since we were both in jeans and sweaters and life vests, it wasn’t too bad. Our bare feet were pretty cold though. Neither of us thought paddling in our cowboy boots and loafers respectively was very wise.
    “You want to talk about it?” Colt asked as soon as we were out on the water. I shook my head. Jazz’s words were pounding through my mind, and all I wanted was for them to be quiet. I had shut her down as spouting trash, but in my gut I knew it was true. I had run through a million permutations in my head of what I’d feel in this scenario. Now that it was here, my reaction was not pretty. Rather than the surge of hope I thought I’d experience when I fantasized that Jack and Audrey’s relationship would finally run its course, I felt absolutely terrified. I was filled with ... dread, and I had no idea why.
    It was beautiful and peaceful out on the water. And I found a little more peace inside me with every pull of my paddle. We glided and pulled through the marshes for over two hours until the combination of hunger, choppy water, and icy toes sent us heaving with exertion back to the dock at Broad Landing.
    We arrived back at the house hungry and ruddy-cheeked to see Joey had arrived, and he and Jazz were talking in circles around each other. The tension