What Happens in Paradise (Paradise #2)

by Elin Hilderbrand

This is how it all starts, Huck thinks. One minute you’re leg to leg with a boy in your grandpa’s truck during a ride into town, and the next minute you’re hiding a hundred and twenty-five thousand of that boy’s illegally gotten dollars in your dresser drawer.

Life gave me another chance to be happy. Only an idiot would say no to that out of fear.

He was a pirate. He stole my heart.

Why is it the people you’d like to leave the party first are always the last to go?

For eight years I’d told myself that staying away was for the best, that denying what we’d shared was for the best, that sacrificing this man was for the best. I had lived with agony, with sadness, with longing. I had been such a fool. I stepped inside.

If she starts something new with Baker, she would have to go back to square one. The thought is, frankly, exhausting.

I’m elated for forty-eight hours before he arrives and devastated for forty-eight hours after he leaves. Actually, the leaving part is getting worse.

I’m glad I didn’t allow him to meet Maia. My heart is in danger, but at least hers is safe.

I hate that I now know Russ is cheating the system—and yet, what did I expect? He’s cheating on his wife. I’m an integral part of the grand deception. I’m a lie. Maia is a lie.

“It’s not that much fun watching you guys kiss all day,” she said. “Even if there is shuffleboard and SpaghettiOs.”