All Madison wants for Christmas is the same person who once wanted her. Free from the shackles of her broken heart, she's finally ready to give love another shot. But is Madi too late to win back the man of her dreams?
SEQUEL to The Heartbreak Hypot...
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Home should be constant. It should be stable and reliable, an anchor in the storm. A place where you can come and go, grow and change, but return to find everything in its rightful place.
The exterior of Capri was never changing, but the people in it couldn't be trusted as a source of stability. At least, that's what I thought until I saw my ex-best friend sitting at our old spot in the lifeguard tower—a relic of time, of a past that we inescapably shared.
I removed my shoes to navigate the sand, letting it burn the bare soles of the feet that had been absent for too long. It was like home was punishing me. You left. You changed. You're not her anymore.
No, I wasn't her anymore. I was stronger. And I no longer craved stability. I craved change. I wanted to move forward.
Lola's profile had always been striking, just like every last part of her. While Elijah and I were the golden couple of our high school, Lola Sinclair was the reigning beauty of the entire coast. Her flawless, snow-white skin rivaled the smoothness of silk. Her hooded eyes were so hypnotic that they could lure the most resilient of men in sweet, dulcet tones.
But that December day, as she crouched in the tower with her slender legs to her chest, her sharp, cutting features were merely a painted mask. Her silver hair was uncharacteristically unkempt, tucked into the hood of an oversized sweatshirt that concealed the perfect curves that she was usually proud to show off. And even though her face wasn't fully visible, I could see the blank stare veiling her usually penetrating gaze.
She was a shadow of the girl I once knew. Of the girl who'd been my best friend since kindergarten. Somehow, it was fitting.
It was also so sad that it pricked my healing heart.
"Madison?"
I'd been observing her so closely, but I'd missed the moment that her eyes left the horizon to find mine. I peered at her through the railing of the tower, salt and sea hitting my back as waves crashed on the rocks framing the shore.
"Hi."
She raised her head from her knees at the sound of my voice. Up close, everything that I'd noticed from afar was confirmed. I didn't think it was possible, but Lola Sinclair looked like shit.
I didn't know much about my former-best friend anymore. Strange, to suddenly know less about a girl I'd shared my life with than I did about three guys I'd just met. But our mothers were still in touch, and mine had told me that Lola deferred university for a year. That made sense. She was never the academic type. She was always destined for billboards and magazines, not for some stuffy classroom training for a nine-to-five.
But she wasn't jet setting yet. She wasn't working runways or selling protein powder on Instagram. She was still in Capri, still as broken as the last time I saw her in my dad's old ice-cream parlor, both of us crying over the boy we both loved. I sensed it from my bedroom window, and it was even clearer now. Something was tethering her spirit to this place, keeping her Louboutin-clad feet bolted to the sand.
