“I’ll be right back.”
I watched him cut through the crowd, getting farther and farther away.
I took another gulp of my drink when someone knocked into me and splashed it all down my front. I sighed and headed toward the edge of the crowd.
Outside the main, writhing mass, my toes dug into the warm sand as I watched Chase onstage. As soon as he climbed up, the crowd roared, and El Tiburón emerged. He dapped up the DJ, who handed him his headphones. He slipped them over one ear and started working the turntables like this was his second job. He was in his element here—the center of attention, the wide smile with all eyes on him. The crowd moved to his beat, his energy, his effortless command of the moment. Neon lights painted his face in shades of blue and purple, glinting off his lip ring and highlighting the sharp angles of his cheekbones, the curve of his smile.
It all came crashing back in that instant.
This was his life.
He was a fucking celebrity, someone people knew and cheered for. Someone with sponsors and waves waiting for him. Crescent Cove was just a stop on his tour, and I was likely just another notch in his belt.
I knew that.
My lungs pulled tight at the thought, but I realized that wasn’t even the worst of it.
What was worse was that I really did hate him, because he was a glimpse into a life I’d never had. A life I’d walked away from before I even knew what I was giving up. The scholarships, the opportunities, the chance to be someone, somewhere else. I’d chosen Crescent Cove. I’d chosen family, duty…familiarity and safety. And most days, I could say I was at peace with that choice.
But sometimes, on nights like this, watching Chase shine in a world I’d never been a part of…the lie didn’t come so easily.
He looked up from the decks and caught my eye. Grinned that heart-stopping grin of his. Held up one finger and mouthedone more song?and I nodded, because what else was I going to do? Leave? Cry about my own sad life choices?
He grabbed the microphone, and because he was Chase Perez and subtlety was not in his vocabulary, he said, “This one goes out to the most beautiful girl on the beach. You know who you are, baby.”
He never once took his eyes off me.
So I lied to myself again and told myself it meant nothing.
Then I ran toward the waves.
The ocean lapped at my toes, frigid despite the warm summer air. The moon hung low over the water now, and I felt the pull of it in my blood, stronger than it had been in years.
The magic that had kept me in Crescent Cove. The magic that had made me stay, even when every logical part of me screamed to go, to run, to chase the horizon. To stop chasing my mother’s approval, to just let it go and do what I really wanted.
Coward.
I’d been a coward and stayed.
But I’d also just been a little girl who wanted her mom to say she was proud of her.
Tears streamed down my face, and I tried to wipe them away as his song kept playing.
Then I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.
“Hey,” Chase said. “You okay?”
I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. If I did, he’d see everything I was trying so hard to hide. The longing, the regret, the what-ifs and could-have-beens.
“I’m fine.” My voice betrayed me, cracking on the last word.
“You don’t look fine. Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have gone up there. I’msorry?—”
“Maybe everything isn’t about you, Chase Perez.”
Even if it was, at least a little bit.
“Selena, I don’t?—”
