When Stars Fall [EBOOK and PAPERBACK PUBLISHED]

20. Wyatt - Present Day

I toss another pebble into the water, skipping it across the surface. Just a day and a half left. Annoyance floats above me like a cloud. Ellie could have cleared her schedule. She could have breakfast with her mother any day.

"That was a good one," Calshae says from her seat on the blanket.

I grin. "There are no good rocks on this beach."

She laughs. "We pay a lot of money for there to be no rocks on this beach. Every time you find a pebble, I consider firing our beach maintenance people."

"Not worth it. Not really high tourist season." I grab another tiny pebble and rub it between my fingers. "Thanks for coming out here with me. I'm not good at being alone."

"Sometimes being alone is good for you." She sifts sand with her hands. "Any progress with Ellie?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. She's hard to read sometimes. Something is holding her back. I don't think it's Matt or the fame thing."

"How about the addiction thing?" Calshae doesn't miss a beat.

Over the last few days, she's gotten entirely too comfortable with me. I turn on her.

She holds up her hands. "Come on. You can't pretend like that's not a big deal. I've seen some of the YouTube videos, Wyatt."

"I made some bad choices the first year or so after she left me," I admit. "I put a cease and desist on as many of those as I could." I want to crush the pebble in my hand. "I'm not like that anymore. Hell, I was never like that with Ellie when we were together. I went insane for a while." I stare at her. "Why aren't you two friends anymore? You seem like just the kind of person Ellie'd like."

Calshae smiles. Her white teeth are striking against her dark face. "I wouldn't say we aren't friends. I don't know. It's complicated. People drift apart for lots of reasons."

I nod. Understandable, though most of the time I drift from people when they start treating me like the bank of fame and fortune instead of like a friend.

"You leave the island not tomorrow but the morning after that, right?" she asks. "Want me to drive you?"

I squint out at the ocean. "I'm kinda hoping Ellie might want to drive me."

"Well, if that doesn't work out, I'm around that morning anyway."

I search for more rocks, wandering down the beach. Calshae is probably right about my addictions being at the heart of Ellie's reluctance, but how do I ease her mind? Every day I get up and make a choice to be clean and lately, to be sober. Somehow, I have to convince Ellie I'm going to keep making that choice.

"Hey, Calshae." I walk back toward her.

She raises her head in question.

"Where's the school Ellie is helping out at today?"

"That's not a good idea," she says, reading me correctly.

"I gotta do something or I'm going to do something stupid." I pull the stress ball out of my pocket and squeeze it over and over for emphasis.

"What would you be doing if you were at home?"

I flex the stress ball a few more times. "Running around after a three-year-old."

She frowns and looks confused. "You have a kid? Does Ellie know?"

"He's not mine. My sister lives with me in L.A. Very few people know. She doesn't like the attention, but she needs my help."

"Does Ellie know? I'd think that would be kinda an important detail."

"My sister, Anna, is an addict, like me. No surprise. We were raised in the same household. It's a long story, but she lives with me now and so does Jamal." I crash down beside Calshae on the blanket. "Ellie and Anna didn't get along."