I grip the wheel a little tighter and head back toward The Sandpiper. If that break comes, I plan to be close enough to catch her.
Chapter 12
Kara
By the time Cole turns onto the road leading back to The Sandpiper, the morning has stretched into something that almost feels like a normal day. Normal is an elusive word now. I know that. Normal is a pretty plate hiding a crack underneath. Normal is coffee, pancakes, ocean air, and a man beside me who can spot a phone camera from half a boardwalk away.
Still, for a few bright minutes, I had it. I had a lighthouse tour. Breakfast. A teenager with trembling hands asking for a photo. The smell of syrup and coffee. Cole almost smiling at my terrible fish jokes.
Maybe Dr. Vale is right. Maybe hiding makes fear bigger. Or maybe stepping outside only proves how many places fear can follow.
Cole parks beneath the cottage, but he doesn’t immediately shut off the engine. His gaze moves over the driveway, the neighboring rentals, the storage door under the house, the private dune path beyond the pilings.
I recognize the slight uptick in his demeanor. He is not looking at scenery. He is reading the world for danger.
“Anything?” I ask.
“No.”
“That answer means no, right? Not no but maybe yes in bodyguard?”
This time he does shut off the engine. “It means no.”
“Good.”
He gets out first, coming around to open my door. This really does make me feel pampered in a way. My phone buzzes in my bag before my feet hit the ground. Then again. And again. Cole’s eyes move toward the sound.
“Popular,” he says.
“Unfortunately.”
Inside the cottage, the cool air feels welcoming. I set my bag on the island and pull out my phone. Two messages from Talia. One from Vanessa. I read Vanessa’s first.
Excuse me. You failed to mention that “local security” looks like he was assembled in a very patriotic laboratory.
A surprised laugh slips out of me.
Cole looks over from where he stands near the front window. “What?”
“Vanessa saw a picture of us.”
His attention sharpens immediately. “What picture?”
The laugh gets stuck somewhere in my throat.
“I don’t know yet.”
Vanessa has sent a screenshot beneath the text, and when I open it, my own face smiles back at me from The Salty Spoon. The teenage girl from breakfast stands beside me, glowing with excitement. I am angled toward the camera, one arm around her shoulders. Cole is in the background.
He is not posing. Not smiling. Not doing anything that suggests he knows he is in the picture at all. But one shoulder is turned toward me, his body positioned in a way I recognize now. Between me and the room. Between me and whatever might come next.
The caption reads:
Met Kara Stone at breakfast today and she was SO NICE. Also pretty sure her security guy could fight a hurricane. No location tag until later because he asked nicely and also scared my mom a little.
Despite everything, I laugh again.
“That is actually adorable.”
