Read Online Rough Waters by Nikki Godwin - Free Book Online

anyone is going to talk about at
the sale this weekend,” I say. “So much for celebrating Logan’s
arrival. Everyone’s going to be too busy talking about coffee
tables.”
    “Shit!” A.J. says. “Turn off the TV!”
    Topher clicks it off and resumes his employee
position behind the counter. He crumbles up the tabloid and tosses
it away just as Vin enters the store through the back. That was
dangerously close.
    Vin stops and looks at us for a moment, as if
he knows we’re totally up to something. Then he folds his arms over
his chest. Yeah, he totally knows we’re up to something.
    “What’s going on?” he asks.
    A.J. shrugs and glances to Emily and me for
an answer. I completely freeze. Luckily, Emily came prepared.
    “We were just talking about the sale this
weekend,” she says. “I helped Miles pass out flyers yesterday in
Horn Island. We sent some to the music store with Jace. Should be a
good turn out.”
    And just as I think Vin is about to disappear
into his office, Summer Snow Alex bursts into the store.
    “I got ‘em!” he yells.
    In his moment of pride and excitement, he
stumbles on the metal under the door, and the load of papers in his
arms burst into a firework of tabloids. They litter the floor of
Drenaline Surf, and Colby Taylor becomes the new tile.
    Vin slowly walks across the store, reaches a
hand out to Alex, and helps him up. Then Vin pulls a paper from his
pocket, unrolls it, and holds it up.
    “Sorry, kid,” he says to Alex. “But you
forgot one.”
    Emily buries her face into her hands next to
me. A.J. pats her on the shoulder in condolences. She crosses the
room to help Alex clean up the tabloid mess on the floor as Vin
walks back toward us. He simply shakes his head before going back
into the office.
    I refuse to let him accept defeat this way.
There has to be some way I can help. There has to be something that
Vin needs done that he can trust me with. He won’t live to see
twenty-five if he keeps going at this rate. I follow him back to
his office. I half-expect him to kick me out, but he simply looks
over his shoulder and turns back to the wall.
    “This is officially going to be the Wall of
Shame,” he says, tacking Colby’s tabloid cover to the wall. “I
wonder how many of these he can collect before his contract is
up.”
    Vin sits in his spinning chair, and I find a
seat on the corner of his desk. Something has to give. Now.
    “Look,” I say. “You can’t handle all of this
on your own. I know, you think you can, and you’re stubborn, and
you don’t want to make anyone else suffer, but this is ridiculous.
You have too many people who want to help Drenaline Surf to keep
pushing us away.”
    Vin sighs and props his elbows on the desk.
He buries his face in his hands, just like Emily’s defeated actions
moments ago.
    “As much as I want to let Taylor out of his
contract, I can’t,” Vin says to the desk. Then he looks to me. “I
don’t see any other way out of this mess. He’s the weak link that’s
dragging us all down. I can’t manage him. He’s out of control.”
    “Then let me,” I say. I’m not sure why I
didn’t come up with this idea sooner. “I can be like your public
relations person. Or an agent of sorts. Let me manage Colby and his
career. I can go with him to appearances and interviews, make sure
he says the right things, give press statements on his behalf. And
he’ll listen to me. I can even help with Miles and Logan if you
need me to.”
    It’s crazy how I came here a year ago, hoping
to find Colby and learn all of his secrets so I wouldn’t have to be
a CEO slave to a company I hated. I had dreams of frame shops and
driftwood, but these days, all I want is to be right here in the
heart of Drenaline Surf. It’s bittersweet how dreams change with
life experiences.
    “I don’t know,” Vin says. He twists back and
forth in the chair, analyzing me in his head. “I don’t want you to
get sucked into this place like I have. It’s my