Piecing Together Sydney (A Sydney West Novel Book 3) by Brittney Coon Page B

toward shore. It beckoned to us surfers. We all broke for it. I paddled as fast as my arms could, cutting Jason off.
    “What gives?” He shot me a mean look like I ate the last piece of pizza he’d been eyeing.
    “What do you mean ‘what gives?’ You’re being an ass to me.”
    He blew me off and moved around my board. Another wave was building yards from us. Jason looked at the wall of water and then me. “You’re jealous. If you can’t take the waves, leave.”
    I licked the salt off my lips. Two could play the cold game. After all, my heart was made of ice.
    The wave swelled to about five stories high. I went into the barrel and cut through the water like a hot knife through butter, coming out just as the wave crashed. Now those surfers clapped for me.
    That led to a surfing showdown for the next hour between Jason and me. We each tried to outdo each other’s tricks, even after those teen surfers got bored and left the beach.
    As Jason shot through a wave, he turned too fast and wiped out. I’d never seen him eat it before and couldn’t help but laugh as the water pulled me to the shore. Jason was on his hands and knees, his board next to him on the sand.
    “That was…something,” I said, walking toward him.
    “Fuck you, Sydney!” Jason got up and shot daggers with steel silver eyes. I stopped in my tracks. My heart fell from my ribcage to my feet. “You happy I wiped out? Laugh your ass off!”
    “Hey! I was joking.” I stuck my board into the sand and placed my hands on my hips. If he wanted to fight, bring it. I never backed down.
    “Whatever. I’m going back.”
    “Jason, can we talk? Please…I’m worried about you. You’re not acting like yourself.”
    He turned and closed the distance between us within a heartbeat. “Not myself? Funny.” He was nose to nose with me now. “I never felt more like myself than today. Maybe you don’t know me.” With that, he ran into the ocean’s arms and was gone.
    Maybe you don’t know me.
    Those words cut the string that kept my broken heart whole.
    Hadn’t I said the same thing when he was chasing after me? When he wanted me to believe he loved me?
    What if I didn’t know the real Jason? This was something I’d never seen coming. Was this what Ellie and Kylie dealt with so long ago when Daniel first left? I couldn’t be with this man. He was too much like the old me. Too much like the past I was putting behind me.
    So Jason broke down your walls only to stab you right in the heart. Great job, Syd.
    Shut up, stupid voice!
    Maybe you were better off the way you were. Not too late to break things off and pin down a new summer boy.
    No. I’m not doing that!
    The ring on my left hand felt like a five-pound weight. I twirled it around my finger as an emptiness washed over me.
    Jason returned to the sand and shouted something at me. Maybe he was coming back to clear the air and say he’s only mad about his father and not me.
    He spoke again when he was a few yards away. “Waiting for me to crash again?”
    I felt my eyes widen. “No. I’m—”
    “Sydney, give it a rest. Why don’t you go find another…what do you call them…summer boy?”
    His words were venom, and it added fuel to my hate fire.
    “Don’t you fucking talk to me like that, Jason King! I gave my heart to you and you turn into a dick because your daddy came back? My father was an asshole too and guess what, I got to watch him die! How do you think I’m dealing with it? How do you think I feel? Yet here I am.” I pointed to my engagement ring. “I changed my ways and even said yes to marrying you.”
    “Maybe that was a mistake…”
    I fought back my tears and turned my anger to high volume. “You know what…I hope a shark eats you!” I took my ring off and lifted it above my head. A beat passed as we both stared at each other.
    Jason didn’t say anything, but behind all that anger I saw sorrow deep in his eyes. I clenched the ring and pointed at him. “Don’t come