On the Outside (Caught Inside #3) (18 page)

Chapter 36

Well, the trip to Mistcoast wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Besides having to ride in a rather small plane that was a bit too susceptible to turbulence—damn drops!—the closest airport was about an hour or so away and required me to drive yet another rental car to reach the small town.

It was 7:08 p.m. by the time I rolled into the sleepy beach town. To my pleasant surprise it was even prettier than the TV show made it out to be. I began to wonder why I'd kept putting off visiting.

I gripped the steering wheel and leaned forward, peering out the front windshield. “Wow…”

The sun was dancing on the horizon, casting a pinkish lavender glow against the beautiful buildings. Everything seemed so serene and
relaxed.
I didn’t realize it until that moment that I desperately craved relaxation.

I followed the main road toward the strip and nearly skidded to a stop.

Riley.

I’d only seen pictures of Riley’s store through text messages, but seeing it in person made me realize those tiny pixels clearly didn’t do it any justice. The store was completely Riley’s style, lit up with a flashing neon pink sign and geometric borders. The front window was decked out with a ton of her clothing stretching the whole length of the store! The real kicker was the huge photo of her captioned:

Riley—the Spring Line Now Available.

Despite the rift between us I couldn’t help but feel my heart swell with pride.

“She did it…she really did it.” A tear rolled down my cheek. “Wait to go, Riles.”

Somehow amidst the inner anguish of seeing Riley’s store but knowing I couldn’t go inside along with passing by Kacy’s restaurant I successfully made it to my hotel, which was conveniently at the edge of the beach. One would think after months’ practically living, breathing, and bleeding the beach I’d be sick of it, but I guess the beautiful scenery is something I didn’t want to say goodbye to.

All the more reason for you to relocate to California.

I lugged my luggage to the front desk, this time minus the squeaking wheels. Having finally received my paycheck from the movie, I decided to splurge and buy a few nice things. If you don’t treat yourself nicely, who will?

“Welcome to Mistcoast Hotel, are you checking in?” A beautiful woman with waist length hair greeted me. She looked like a mermaid fresh out of water. I had to blink twice to make sure she was real.

Guess it’s a Mistcoast thing to be absolutely gorgeous.

I cleared my throat. “Erm, yes. Margot Harpsinger.”

The woman nodded, busying herself on the computer, which gave me ample time to gather my thoughts.

So I’m here. Now what? Xavier still won’t talk to me. Then again, I did beat his sister up. Can I really blame him for needing some time to think? Okay, get on track, Harper. You have to figure out what to do
…
and I think I know
…

“Um, excuse me?”

The woman peeked up from behind her cat eye glasses. “Yes? Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Do you…Is…” I took a deep breath and shook my head, trying to compose myself. “This is a small town, right?”

She blinked in confusion. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Ugh, did she really just call me ‘ma’am’?

“And you guys all practically know each other?” I prodded, eyeing the woman, who looked to be around my age.

She straightened herself and looked at me curiously. “Yes?” She forced a smile and shook her head. “Besides the tourists, all of us basically grew up here together. We’ve gone to the same schools all our lives.”

I tapped my fingers against the mahogany desk excitedly. “So do you know Xavier Greene?”

I swear the woman visibly swooned. Cheeks reddening, she nodded. “Xavier? Who doesn’t?”

Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to ask.

She fanned herself—let me repeat,
fanned
herself—and grinned. “He was just one year ahead of me and all the girls loved him.”

“I bet they did,” I replied glumly.

To my relief her exuberance changed to a scowl. “Of course he never had time for any of us. He was all about the grades, the work…oh, it’s a good thing, of course, to have such a level head at that young of an age, but he never gave any of us the time of day. Kinda sucked, if I were being honest.”

I couldn’t help but let a tiny smile peek through. The woman must have noticed and cocked her head to the side.

“Is there a reason why you’re asking about him?” She arched an eyebrow.

“Oh!” I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Uh…we work together…and um, I’m in town on business and I needed to meet with him to discuss some…some scripts!” I let out a small laugh.

Really, and you call yourself an actress?

I shook my head and pursed my lips. “Unfortunately, I lost my phone on the flight and I stupidly don’t know his phone number or address…I was hoping you could point me in the right direction?”

“You mean that phone peeking out of your purse?” With a smirk she pointed to the bright pink phone case peeking out of the front pocket.

“Err…” My face was burning hot.

Smiling knowingly, she said, “He lives in the Rancho Mar part of town. The baby blue bungalow with the surfboards and bicycles in the backyard.

Isn’t that every house in California?

“Awesome. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Pushing a plastic card toward me, she added, “You are in room 111, right off the sand.”

“Perfect.”

“And Miss Harpsinger?”

I gulped, feeling utterly exposed. “Yes?”

“Good luck getting him, and I mean that sincerely.” She threw me a wink and motioned to the person behind me to step forward. I hung my head low, wanting to hide under a rock.

Chapter 37

“This is not working!” I stood up and kicked a mound of sand, jumping up and down like a tiny kid. Unable to sleep, I decided to take an early morning walk to the beach and tried my hand at sunrise meditation to center and calm myself. Unfortunately, I don’t think New Yorkers took to anything Zen too well. Feeling more riled up—
ugh, Riley!
—than I already did, I fell back onto my butt and decided to lie down on the cool sand. It seemed that passing out was the only way I’d reach enlightenment.

“Hey, Betty! Anything wrong?” a ‘Surfer’ accented voice called out to me.

I pried my eyes open and spotted an older gentleman, who looked as ripped as those Kung Fu grandmasters you see in movies, walking toward me. I frowned when he plopped down next to me and threw a weird smelling backpack beside my face.

Though I didn’t really want to be impolite, there was no way I was up for any sort of company. “Um, I wanted to be alone?”

“Oh. That’s nice.” He proceeded to open the ratty knitted knapsack and pull out some foiled lumps.

I rolled my eyes. “Not to be rude, but I kind of meant alone like
now.”

The man pushed back his grey sprinkled hair that hung to his chin away from his face. “And I say you need company. The name’s Limbo.”

“Limbo?” I looked at him in confusion. “Please tell me you’re my fairy godfather.”

He burst out laughing and shoved a rancid smelling lump of aluminum in my face. “No. I come bearing fish tacos, not glass slippers. Eat this, you’ll feel better.”

“It’s six o’clock in the morning. I don’t want a fish taco.” I grimaced, smacking my tongue as if to get rid of the non-existent fish taste in my mouth.

“Trust me, it’ll be good…
but
it looks like you’re not a local, so it might take you some time to open up to the delicious palate that us Mistcoastians possess.”

“Am I that obvious?”

His bronze shoulders shrugged. “A bit. So tell me, Betty…what’s the ma-
tah
?”

“You do know my name isn’t Betty, right?”

“I also know that you didn’t give me your name.”

Though I didn’t know this strange man bearing fish tacos from Tom, Dick, or Harry, I didn’t get that gut feeling to stay away, so I answered, “Harper.”

His mouth curled up in surprise.

I groaned, covering my face with my arms. “Don’t tell me you know who I am.”

“Small town. I know everyone here. Besides, I’m practically everyone’s mentor—their advice giver.”

That caught my attention. “You wouldn’t happen to have spoken to Xavier Greene, did you?”

“Nah.” He unwrapped a foil clump and proceeded to bite into the beige wrap. My stomach heaved watching the sight. “He’s a bit of a stubborn one. Those types don’t usually care for outside advice.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“And he is also a do-it-yourself smartass. He doesn’t need my help. I have, however, spoken to his sister. I speak to her all the time.”

“Really?” That was surprising.

He nodded proudly. “Yup.
All the time.”

“She seems like a do-it-yourselfer herself. Are you sure we’re speaking about the same girl?”

His dark eyes twinkled. “Sometimes the most headstrong people are also the most insecure. Trust me; she is as human as they come.”

“Wow…”

“So tell me. How can I help you?”

I removed my arm from my face and shook my head, feeling the cold sand hit my cheeks. “I don’t even know you. Why do you think I’ll tell you my problems?”

“If it’s about that Aaron jerk, I already know.”

Okay, now he had my undivided attention.

I sat straight up and gasped. “Did Kacy tell you?”

“No…but Riley did.” He leaned forward, peering into my eyes. His own eyes darted back and forth as if he were trying to get a read on me. It felt like he was trying to interpret some unknown ‘eye’ language that I wasn’t fluent in. “Did you talk to her yet?”

“No…what did you tell her, anyway?”

“Ah, Betty, that’s confidential information.”

“But you’re not a real counselor.” Okay, I admit it was a lame attempt at trying to find out gossip, but I needed to know what my old best friend said about me.

He eyed the fish taco that I had carelessly thrown to the side and frowned disapprovingly. “Eat and I might consider telling you something—not everything—but something.”

My stomach heaved. I cringed but knew I had no choice. Riley meant more to me than a stable stomach did. “Okay, fine.”

Swallowing the sour spit in my mouth, I picked up the lump and slowly unwrapped the shiny silver metal. To be fair it didn’t smell as bad as I initially thought, but again it was six in the freaking morning! Who wanted to eat cilantro this early in the day?

I held the package up to mouth, inspecting the pieces of cabbage and mango that began falling out of its soft shell. Taking a deep breath, I quickly bit into it before I could change my mind.

“Mmm,” I mumbled with a full mouth. “Good.”

It reminded me of mothers trying to coax their toddlers into eating broccoli by faking their enjoyment.

Limbo waited for a bit, most likely making sure I didn’t spit the food out before speaking. Once I swallowed the first bite, he motioned for me to keep going before he started his story.

“Riley came here after the whole debacle first happened. Everyone in Mistcoast goes to the beach to calm their mind. There’s something about the ocean, you know? It’s full of energy and also full of purification. People tend to loiter by the shore when they’re deep in thought.”

I fought back a gag and swallowed again. “And what did she tell you?”

“That she was hurt thinking that
you
could hurt her. After all she really cared about you. She knew you apologized and she received all your messages, but someone who disrespected her didn’t belong in her life. She’s had her share of those kind of people in the past and wanted her bright future with Blake to only be filled with positivity. She’s on the verge of a spiritual awakening, you know?” He sounded like a yogi master.

I nodded my head. Riley had been more than happy.

I bit my lip. “Does she know I didn’t mean to do it?”

“Yeah, but again motive and reasoning is sometimes overshadowed by the fact that something happened. It’s why trust is hard to regain after it is lost.”

“So she doesn’t trust me.” Great. How was I supposed to recover from that? Realizing that Xavier probably felt the same way, I felt my airways constrict.

“I think she does…or at least she will…but sometimes on a journey to Zen and positivity, you have to cut back those who invite negativity.”

“Invite negativity? I never wanted these bad things to happen to me!” I snapped angrily.

“You may not want them to and you may not like it, but you definitely invite it without knowing.”

The sun had now fully risen behind us, and suddenly feeling a bit hot, I blotted at some sweat on my forehead. “I do not invite bad things to happen.”

“Okay, think of it this way. What did you do when those scandals happened in your life?”

“I sulked,” I admitted.

“How?”

I shrugged. “The normal. Shut myself away from the world and wallowed in misery.”

“So you didn’t do anything constructive.”

“I…” Oh shit. He was right.

As if hearing my thoughts, he nodded. “Okay, after the thing with Aaron happened, what did you do?”

“Tried to call Riley to apologize.”

“And what happened afterwards?”

I scratched my forehead in thought. “My manager called and sent me on auditions I knew I wouldn’t get.”

“So you didn’t continue trying to get a hold of Riley?”

“She ignored me!” I argued.

“Okay, that’s fair, but back to those auditions. So you said you were sure you wouldn’t win any of those roles. Did you get any of them?”

“Just
Cali Break
, the movie where I met Xavier.” Ha! Take that. Even with negative thinking I was able to score one.

“What was different about that audition than the rest?”

I let out a stale laugh. “Truthfully, I don’t even know…I don’t remember…I…” My mouth dropped open as the realization hit me. “It was a small audition with nice agents who didn’t shun me like the rest. They made me laugh and made me forget I was even auditioning.”

“So the difference was that you smiled,” he said knowingly.

“Yes…”

“And when Kacy and you got into a fight—”

I felt as if the wind got knocked out of me. “So she did tell you!”

“Only what was necessary. She was asking my opinion whether I thought bailing you out was a good idea or not.”

“What did you say?”

He grinned. “No respectable person deserves a night in jail.”

I threw my hands in the air. “But see, that’s where I fail. I’m not respectable. Maybe I did deserve to be in jail.”

“Don’t you see? By Kacy coming to get you, she allowed the energy between you two to shift. She allowed some positive vibes to enter
both
your lives. It’s the reason you’re here right now, isn’t it? Are you still the same woman who wallowed in self-despair in her home?”

I shook my head. “No. Of course not.”

“And I can only guess something made you realize that Mistcoast was where you should be?”

I didn’t respond. I was freaking out too much. Was this dude a psychic or something?

He nodded his head knowingly. “Then that misunderstanding with Xavier will work itself out. He’s a bit bummed out, you know?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I thought you said he didn’t talk to you.”

“And like I said, his sister does. In fact, you should be thanking her. She allowed a door to open—an opportunity—for you to be here right now.”

“Yeah, she did…” I scrunched up my face in thought. “I’m definitely not that same woman from earlier. I’m out trying to fix things as opposed to sulking in negativity and allowing things to happen to me.”

“Bingo.” Limbo nodded his head proudly. “Maybe you can be a Mistcoastian, after all.”

“What do you mean? Is everyone in this town divine gurus or something?”

“You get me, Betty,” he joked.

I took another bite of my fish taco that truly wasn’t as bad as I expected. “The name’s Harper…
dude.”

“Yeah!” A loud shout garnered my attention. I squinted and spotted a surfer riding gracefully to shore. From beside me Limbo let out his own shouts of appreciation.

I looked on with a certain level of appreciation for the sport that I never had before
Cali Break
. “Wow, he almost made it look easy.”

Limbo shot me a kind smile. “Do you surf?”

“Oh, no…no.” I shook my head and let out a soft laugh. “I tried to learn. That’s actually how Xavier and I met. He was teaching me how to surf.”

“I know.”

“Damn, Kacy tells you everything.”

“It’s a small town, not much gossip,” he agreed.

I took a deep breath and pulled my knees up to my chest. “I surfed horribly, you know. Actually, I take that back, I did decent. I could stand up, but only if Xavier pushed me into the wave.”

“Ah.” His busy eyebrows rose in understanding.

“Ah, what?”

“Now I see why you pushed him away.”

“I didn’t push him away.” My face relaxed and I said quietly, “At least I don’t think so? I just got so mad thinking that Kacy caused us to break up and…”

“And for someone who invites negativity into her life you certainly invited dependability.”

“Huh?”

The corners of his eyes crinkled. “Like I said before, Xavier is a do-it-yourself kind of guy. Do you think he could have made it last with a woman who
needed
somebody?”

“I didn’t need him. I didn’t need anybody.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“I…” And just like that my worst nightmare came true. I realized I wasn’t the independent woman I always thought I was. Bennington, Aaron, even Robert—ew, not like that—I always depended on someone to get me to that next level.

I depended on Bennington for stardom so much that it backfired on me. Then I got caught up with the fact that Aaron brought me good attention and
that
backfired on me. Then there was good ol’ Robert, who always cleaned up my mess. As much as I hated to admit it, Xavier was there as my safety net. He was the only reason I felt comfortable in California to begin with. I never gave myself the chance to learn anything here for myself.