Love Redone in Hidden Harbor (Island County Book 2) by Karice Bolton Page A

I slid into mine. “I guess Cynthia didn’t take it well?”
    Tori handed me two antihistamines, and I swallowed them with a glass of water as our server came over with a bag of ice and handed it to Nick. I wasn’t actually allergic to stress. It just didn’t do good things to me, but I’d gladly take the antihistamines so I could go home and crawl straight into bed.
    “How is she doing?” the server asked Nick as if I wasn’t capable of answering for myself.
    And maybe since I had to be scooped off the floor, the observation was valid.
    “Just a little panic attack,” Nick assured our server. “Happens all the time.”
    I shot him a scowl. No, it didn’t.
    “Let us know if you need anything else,” our server told us before going back to the bar.
    “Where’d Cole and Cynthia go?” I questioned.
    “You really don’t remember how you got on the floor?” Tori’s eyes widened.
    “The last thing I remember was the look of death that Cynthia shot me.” I looked around nervously, hoping she didn’t reappear anytime soon.
    “Actually, it wasn’t all that dramatic. You just slid right out of your seat and plopped on the floor.” Mason smiled. “One minute you were there, the next you were under the table.”
    “Great.” I let out a sigh. “How did Cynthia take the news?”
    “Not well.” Tori flinched. “She smacked her napkin down so hard, the entire table shook, and then she bolted out of the restaurant with Cole following right behind her.”
    “When did I slip under the table?”
    “After Cole left.”
    “So there is a God.”
    This really shouldn’t be a big deal. We’re all adults. We’d been in a kiddie relationship, and now he’d grown up and found someone he wanted to marry.
    No.
    Big.
    Deal.
    But if it was no big deal, why was I under full assault with hives dancing along my cheeks.
    Oh, yeah, because the kind of love I’d had for Cole didn’t build slowly. It was that kind of love that smacked me in the face and gave me something to daydream about it. Stretch that feeling from first grade until college and it made the end of our love merciless and unforgiving. The love had sunk deep into my bones and had no way out.
    The first time Cole came into my life I’d been in the first grade. I was showing off at recess to my friends, and I jumped off the swing. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Cole before jumping, and I accidentally landed on him, tackling him to the ground. He went face first into the dirt, but as soon as I climbed off him and helped him up, he grabbed my hand and didn’t let go until college.
    No matter how hard I tried to escape his spell over the years, I couldn’t.
    Until today.
    Today, I realized my life had stalled. He’d moved on, and I needed to do the same.
    These last sensations rolling through my system had been nothing more than the final few withdrawal symptoms.
    Simple as that.
    “I wonder if they’ll still want to get married on the island,” Tori mused, swirling her wine in the glass.
    “I’m guessing no,” Mason said wryly.
    “Truthfully, I don’t see them getting married at all,” Nick said.
    I let out a groan. “Not again.”
    “But not because of this.” Nick slid his phone out and brought up a screen. “Check this out. I found it right before dinner.”
    I took the phone from him and right before my eyes was a photo of Cynthia on the beach in a bikini, her head thrown back, laughing.
    Exactly the kind of image that made an ex-girlfriend feel really great about themselves.
    “What’s this?” I asked, scanning the information.
    “A dating website. Well, more like a hookup website,” Nick said, nodding.
    “She probably forgot to take down her profile,” I said in Cynthia’s defense, sliding it to Tori.
    “Nope,” Tori replied, scrolling through the profile. “She was last on it two days ago.”
    “No way.” I reached for the phone again.
    “Yup. And she’s had several successful encounters…whatever that means,” Tori