The Hierarchy of Needs (The Portland Rebels #2) Read Free

jail?”
    Dean drew up one knee and leaned back against the lifeguard stand. “We made a mess of the sheriff’s lawn with my truck. Connor took the rap for it, though.”
    “Why’d you get in so much trouble?” she asked. “You didn’t like school?”
    Man, this girl asked a lot of questions. Dean didn’t seem to mind, though. He merely shrugged.
    “School didn’t matter to me. I had a job at my dad’s garage lined up right after. But don’t knock detention. It’s where I learned about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
    “I’m not familiar with that.”
    “It’s this theory on human motivation. Our detention teacher read it to us from a book one day. Most useful thing I learned in all of high school.”
    Connor rolled his eyes, muttering, “Here we go.”
    “Shut it.” Dean nestled his bottle in the sand and pressed his fingertips together, making a triangle out of his hands. “It goes like this. There’s a pyramid, and all our basic needs make up the bottom—food, water, air, bodily functions…” He grinned, winking at Krissy. “Sex.”
    Her eyes darted away, clearly embarrassed. Jamie felt a flash of relief.
    “Safety is next. Things that make you feel secure like employment, money, family, health. Then there’s belonging, which—” He pointed a finger. “—is not the sappy shit you girls call love. It’s having people you can rely on, who you know will be there for you.”
    “We don’t need love to survive?” Krissy asked.
    “Not romantic love.”
    Jamie’s stomach twisted, although why she wasn’t exactly sure. She was no more capable of romance than Dean was. And candy hearts and roses weren’t what she wanted with him, anyway.
    “The esteem level is all about respect, confidence and achievement,” he went on. “Last is self-actualization, where you’ve become the most complete person possible. Maslow said few people get to that stage, and that’s where the problem is. We strive for something our whole lives, trying to become this perfect version of ourselves, but the reason the pyramid is smallest on top is because almost no one gets there, and if we stopped trying so hard, we’d all be happier.”
    Connor shook his head, laughing. “I’m not sure that’s what Maslow was saying.”
    “It’s the truth,” Dean argued. “Life would be a lot easier if people weren’t reaching for some unattainable future all the time.”
    Jamie took a heavy pull of her beer and stared out at the waves. If giving up on the impossible was the key to happiness, she should’ve been the happiest person around.
    Swimming had been her ticket to college. She’d broken a record in the 100-yard freestyle as a junior and qualified for the state championships every year, but what she’d really wanted was to get into fashion.
    She’d always liked to draw and play around with clothes. All her notebooks were filled with doodles of outfits, ones she eventually made into a portfolio. She applied in secret to Parsons and F.I.T. down in New York City, sending them her best work, but the rejection letters that arrived a few months later proved she didn’t make the cut.
    Resigned, she packed away her artwork, dusted herself off and accepted a swimming scholarship, limiting her dabbling with fashion to the magazines she read and what she wore. A liberal studies degree four years later didn’t prepare her for much, and since it turned out competitive swimming wasn’t an option either—she was good, but she wasn’t Olympics good—becoming a coach was the obvious answer.
    There. Perfectly simple life. Maslow would’ve been proud.
    Krissy cocked her head to the side and looked at Dean. “That sounds like the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard.”
    Dean’s eyebrows shot up as he tried to pinch away his smile, but he ended up grinning anyway, especially when Mikey erupted into laughter and crawled around to sit next to her.
    “You’re awesome,” he said. Krissy’s blush was as bright as the