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number on the display. My ex-boyfriend, Tim. It had been a month since I’d caught him lying to me, after which I immediately broke up with him. If there was one thing I didn’t tolerate, it was lying. That went double for my romantic relationships. And that was a tough rule to live by when you had to kick a funny, smart guy like Tim to the curb, but I couldn’t do it no matter how much he begged and pleaded. And believe me, he had begged and pleaded. Even after the countless times I’d told him the very same thing, it seemed that he just couldn’t compute . . . or maybe he was just that stubborn. Who knew? Pressing the accept button, I held the phone to my ear.
    “Tim, you have one minute. There are waves.”
    “Babe,” he started out. “I am so sorry. You gotta believe me. I don’t want us to be apart. I am missing you so bad, it’s killing me.”
    “You should have thought about that before you did what you did,” I replied, the hurt no longer coursing through my veins as it had the first few days after his betrayal. I was over it and he should be too.
    “I’m sorry, Emma,” he said again, his voice sounding genuinely mournful. “I know I told you I was a model, but I just wanted to impress you. Please forgive me.”
    “I wouldn’t have cared if you were a janitor,” I said, the hurt returning a little. I really liked him when we first met. Tall, handsome, and his great sense of humor had swept me away immediately. It was disappointing, really, that he couldn’t carry his outward appearance to the inside. “I would have loved you anyway. But now, Tim, I can’t.”
    “Aw come on, Em,” he started. “It’s just one little white lie. You can’t end the entire relationship, everything we had together, because of one little white lie.”
    “One lie,” I said firmly, “is more than enough. If you would lie to me about something as trivial as a job, there’s no telling what else you would lie to me about. Now lose my number and do not call me again.”
    “Emma, don’t you hang up on me,” he said as I pulled the phone away from my ear and pressed the end button, tired of his excuses. I didn’t have time for that. I needed someone who was going to be honest and truthful with me, someone who realized I didn’t have to be impressed by a big job and loads of money.
    With a sigh, I cut off the phone and tossed it into my glove compartment, pushing my bag under my seat out of sight before locking the car and placing the key in the hideaway box underneath the bumper. It was time to hit the waves.

Chapter Eight
    Cooper
    “Oh, my! I never thought I would see anything like this. Coop, just look at that sparkling water! It’s beautiful!”
    I smiled at Mom’s excited tone as I maneuvered the rental car up the hill leading to my Aunt Sophie’s house. After the scare with the gang at the bar, I was completely certain I had made the right decision to get both Mom and myself out of the neighborhood. I turned over the day to day operations of the bar to Jane. She had always been more than qualified for the job she did behind the bar. In fact, she’s the one who trained me when I started. Then I packed Mom up for a trip out west to visit her sister. I didn’t tell her about the incident with the masked men at the bar, and if she suspected anything was wrong, she wasn’t saying anything . . . which usually meant she didn’t suspect a thing. All she knew was I was taking her on a surprise trip to see Aunt Sophie.
    We flew one way out to California and then rented a car to drive to Malibu. I wasn’t sure how long we might stay. All I really knew was that I needed to get away and think about what was going to be the best thing for the both of us and our future.
    “Remember, Mom, I know Aunt Sophie is family, but I’d rather not tell her about the money just yet. Let’s just enjoy our visit first. We can tell her later, just at the right time.”
    “I’m not five, Coop,” my mom replied, rolling her