Rebel on a Break

You can solve any problem over a box of donuts.

The donut club is back, and we’re on a break. My friends and I reunite at our grandmothers’ retirement community during Christmas break, but a divide in trust forces Tyler and I to act.

We fake a breakup. If a fake breakup works as well as fake dating, Tyler and I are headed for trouble when we meet for spring break. We must wade through the rumors and fake news to uncover what’s real, and we can only do that with our friends and grandmas. But it seems to be one of them feeding the media news about our relationship and threatening to destroy our friendship. Will we discover the source of the leak before it’s too late?

Rebel on a Break is the third book in the Running on Love & Donuts series. From winter break hijinks to spring break shenanigans, the four grandmas and five grandkids of the Donut Club will have you in stitches of laughter with their antics. Take a break to enjoy a story with donuts, texting mishaps, and adventures in friendship.

“Sometimes it’s nice to go back to the beginning.” Tyler, my on-again boyfriend, bites into a chocolate donut. His mouth wraps around the pastry and chocolate frosting clings to the edges of his lips.
“It is.” I lift my usual sour cream donut. Last night we had a second try at a first date, and thoughts of kissing the chocolate off Tyler warm me more than the hot chocolate I drink. “Back to dating Tyler, thanks to you all.”
I sit at a patio table, surrounded by my friends. A bunch of high school seniors vacationing in a Florida retirement community is an unusual site, but it’s a common theme for us. The five of us met on summer vacation in The Villages, and now we enjoy donuts together on our winter break. Ravi tosses a blueberry donut hole in his mouth, Hannah picks at the sprinkles on a pink frosted donut, and Cole swallows a bite of the sour cream donut I handed her earlier.
“Back to breaking rules,” Cole says. “You’re such a rebel.”
Tyler squeezes my knee under the table with his hand. “She’s a rebel with a boyfriend.”
I grimace, tired of being a rebel. I hate breaking rules, and I’m smashing a gigantic one by dating Tyler. “How do we keep this a secret?” I ask.
“You can solve any problem over a box of donuts.” Iris waves the donut in her hand in the air. The bunch of thin gold bracelets on her wrist jangle with the sound of wind chimes. The four grandmas sit on lounge chairs near the pool, but that doesn’t keep them from eavesdropping on the five grandkids sitting in the shade near the house.
“Thanks, Gaga,” Tyler says to his grandma. “We might need more.”
We already plowed through a dozen donuts and numerous donut holes. Only three donuts remain in the second box of a dozen and we’re still trying to figure out how Tyler and I can date in secret.
“They should sign an NDA.” Tyler whispers to me and his leg bounces under the table. “We both had to, and we’re verging on breaking it.”
I set my hand on his knee and the bouncing settles under my touch. “You’re impossible,” I say with a gentle smile. “They’re the ones who devised this plan to get us back together. I don’t think they need to sign a nondisclosure agreement.”
Tyler Barnes and I started dating over the summer, and it was supposed to be a short fling. I was afraid of Tyler discovering we went to school together and my status as a nobody. Tyler didn’t care and followed me back to the school he once attended, but he left out the fact he couldn’t stay long due to who his family is. Tyler belongs to a billionaire family and is known as Ty Xavier on the East Coast. Before he met me, Tyler signed a contract to be on a reality show. I discovered all this when his dad invited me for Thanksgiving. I might have been able to bridge the gap between the Tyler I know, and the Ty other people think he is, but it’s difficult to find a way around the legal wording of Tyler not being able to have a relationship outside of the reality show. I broke up with Tyler, but our friends plotted to get us back together. It’s been the best Christmas present ever.
“They kidnapped me,” Tyler says.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it kidnapping.” Cole leans back in her chair. She’s retained the natural blonde color of her hair she had when we visited for a girls’ weekend in The Villages a few weeks ago, but it’s now cut even shorter. The cute pixie cut fits Cole’s petite frame, but never in my life would I utter the word “cute” to her.
“What would you call it?” Tyler’s head is free of the usual red ballcap he wears. His sandy blond hair is mussed because he keeps running his hand through it.
“We only highly persuaded you to come with us and maybe gave some erroneous information to others on where you were going,” Cole replies.
“My dad thinks Gaga took me to my mom’s,” Tyler says, “and instead I spent two days in a car with you three.”
“You gotta admit it was a fun car trip,” Hannah adds.
I’m slightly envious I wasn’t on the trip, but I’m glad for the outcome of it.
“It was fun because Ravi didn’t drive,” Cole says.
“You wouldn’t let me,” Ravi whines. “I thought you were going to teach me to drive.”
“She taught you how to do something else,” Tyler says and the rest of us snicker. We caught Cole and Ravi kissing over the summer.
Ravi narrows his eyes. “For that, I should post a photo of you online. I have some unflattering ones from the summer.”
“See?” Tyler jerks his head my way. “This is why they need to sign an NDA.”
“Ravi’s kidding.” I pat Tyler on his once again bouncing knee. “No one’s going to give anything to the media about us. Right, guys?” I look around the table at our friends.
“Never.” Ravi pushes his black framed glasses up his nose. “We wouldn’t do that to you guys.”
“I’m anti-social media.” Cole crosses her arms over her chest.
“You’re just anti-social,” Hannah tells her cousin and turns her attention back to her phone.
“I’m serious,” Tyler says. “Nothing, absolutely nothing can get out about Emma and me again. It will cause serious problems.”
“Because the public thinks you’re dating a supermodel?” Cole lifts her donut off a napkin and takes a bite, her steely gaze on Tyler as she swallows. “And you called us losers?”
“I spent two days apologizing for that.” Tyler returns Cole’s gaze. “You know I wasn’t talking about you.”
Tyler was talking about his castmates in the reality show which has yet to air, but his unauthorized quote went out with a photo of Ravi, Hannah, Cole, Tyler, and me together on a beach this past summer.
“Did you ever figure out who hacked your phone?” I ask.
“I don’t even know if the photo was taken from my phone. All of us here have that photo.” Tyler fingers the phone in front of him. He cut all of us off when he abandoned his old number and took on a new one. “I suppose I could give you all my new number, but I want to know none of you are going to give anything to the media.”
“Tyler,” I say in a scolding voice. His leg bounces with wild abandon. “It’ll be fine. They’re our friends.”
“Maybe you need to interrogate little Ms. Social Media.” Cole’s face is covered in her standard evil grin, and she lifts her chin at her cousin. Hannah is engrossed in whatever is on her phone.
“Hannah.” Tyler says her name to get her attention. “Hannah.”
“Hmm.” Hannah quickly glances up from her phone and flicks her long black hair over her shoulder. You’d think the phone is a body appendage with the way she’s attached to it.
“You’re not going to put anything about Emma or me on any of your social media channels, are you?” Tyler leans across the table and tries to peer at Hannah’s phone. She’s an aspiring social media influencer.
“You guys would be the scoop of a lifetime for her. It has to be hard to resist.” Cole tosses the last bit of her donut in her mouth.
Hannah slams her phone on the table. She’s lucky it has a case around it. “Really?” Hannah uses her signature inflection and lifts her groomed eyebrows when she says the word. “You think I’d do that? I’m not going to post anything about Emma and Tyler. They’re my friends. Plus, I’d pick a more flattering photo of Em.” Hannah’s pink sparkly fingernails fly across her phone.
I cringe at the memory of the photos which circulated East Coast celebrity social media. I don’t take great photos to start with, but these were awful. One was right after a drink spilled on me, and portrayed me as a lush, social climbing nobody after Tyler for his family’s money. Another had me nearly sprawled on the ground when I tripped.
“It looked like you were cheating on Tyler,” Cole adds.
Tyler gives me a sympathetic look. “It actually worked out. We needed it to look like we broke up and the photos nailed it.”
I wince. I did break up with Tyler after the photos because I’m a rule follower and he’s technically not allowed to date me. Because of social media, the public thinks Tyler’s linked to his former girlfriend. I nearly believed he was back with Haven after seeing photos of them together.
“Hmm.” Cole’s lips purse together, and I know her devious mind is whirling. “Who put those photos out there?”
“The ex-girlfriend,” Ravi says under his breath. He doesn’t usually get involved in conflict. “It’s always the ex-girlfriend.”
Cole nods her agreement, as does Hannah.
“I don’t think it’s Haven,” Tyler says, and I watch his face for any sign of emotion. At the party where my photo was taken, I ran into Haven waiting for Tyler in his room. She seemed to think she knew Tyler better than me and I was a fleeting fad of his.
“You sure?” I rub my right forefinger along the side of my nose. It’s a comforting habit leftover from my childhood.
Tyler shrugs. Haven cheated on Tyler with his best friend, Alex. Tyler ran to Florida over the summer to get away from the gossip and lifestyle at his dad’s.
“Haven won’t risk getting me in trouble if it jeopardizes the show,” Tyler says. “We have identical contracts.” Tyler gives me a meaningful look. We’re the only ones aware of what is written in his legal document. Tyler’s contract states he’s not allowed to have a relationship outside of the reality show for the term of the agreement, which is a year.
“If you don’t want to do the show, can’t you get out of the contract?” Ravi asks.
“We already looked at it. I can’t risk breaking the contract,” Tyler says. “I’ll get sued and owe millions.”
“Your dad’s a billionaire,” Hannah says as if that’s the answer to every problem in life.
“He won’t cover me if I break it now that I’m eighteen.”
“Then get fired,” Cole says.
“I can’t do that,” Tyler says.
“I don’t get why you and Emma can’t date.” Cole narrows her eyes at us, already suspecting what we can’t say. “There aren’t rules about who you can date.”
My body stills and I squeeze the donut in my hand. It seems I’m always breaking rules when I’m here. When the grandmas had us visit during the summer, we were required to break a habit. Grandma made me break a rule a day because I absolutely, positively hate breaking rules. Even thinking about breaking rules makes me anxious. My armpits are sweating now with the thought I’m causing Tyler to break a rule. A huge multimillion-dollar costing rule.
“Keep thinking there aren’t rules,” Tyler replies. “You already know more than you should. Emma and I signed NDAs. We can get in trouble for even talking about this with you. Our relationship has to stay a secret.” Tyler grabs one of the remaining donuts as if it’s the answer to our problem. “Can you help us?”
“Of course,” Ravi says. “It’s only us who know you’re together again.” He waves around the table and then gestures at the grandmas in the lounge chairs.
“And my parents,” I add. “Plus, Tyler’s mom.”
“And a dog dressed as a shark.” Cole points to the tiny chihuahua sitting at my feet. “Why is Pookie in a shark costume?”
Pookie gives a well-timed growl in Cole’s direction. I bend over and scratch the little dog’s chin. She leans into my touch. At least she isn’t dressed as a squirrel or rodent. That would be a bad omen.
“Such a good little dog shark,” I say in a baby voice. Tyler and I could use a shark to attack our dilemma.
“Lame,” Cole mutters, but I know she hides a grin behind the donut she brings to her lips.
“The secret stays here,” Tyler says. “For the next year.”
“We’re here for you,” Patty, Ravi’s nana, says.
“You know we’re good for secrets,” Hannah and Cole’s grandma, says. “We all have them.” Martha is a romance writer, and once again, only those of us here know.
“The problem is, we usually figure out each other’s secrets,” Cole says.
“But we keep them here.” Hannah stabs a finger on the table to make her point. “We promise.”
“Until someone breaks a promise.” Cole’s evil grin makes an appearance, and she looks at me with dark-black lined eyes.
The reluctant rule-breaker might be the one to break. I glance at Tyler, his murky blue eyes draw me in, and I realize the depths I will go to keep him this time. He knows the real me, and I like who we are together. I’ll be a rebel and break a rule for him, but when this year is up, I’m going to need a break.