Page 99 of Fish Out of Water

“Excellent. I’ll talk to you both soon.” Carson stopped at the door. “Think about it. It’s a generous offer, and you probably won’t get a better one.”

As soon as the door shut, Isabel got up with a huff. “Generous, my ass,” she said.

Jake raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“You heard me. I’m not going to repeat that.” She looked like she already regretted her brief lapse of decorum. “If the Eatons want this house so badly, they can pay full price—no, ten percent more. It’s only fair.”

“They can’t have this house, Aunt Isabel. They’ll ruin it. They’ll ruin the whole neighborhood.”

“I know,” Isabel said. “Don’t worry, Jake; I wouldn’t sell to them even if they offered me a million dollars.”

“What are you gonna do?”

Isabel sighed. “Wait for another offer. I don’t mind staying here, and it’s worth it to wait for the right person to come along.”

“But what if it takes years?”

“Then it takes years. You can leave whenever you want, dear. You’ve more than done your part here.”

Jake shook his head. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

“Why don’t you at least stay through Christmas and the New Year's Eve dance like you were planning before, and then you can go if you feel it’s time? I can manage the house myself if it’s not gone by then.”

“I guess so.” Jake closed his eyes. He was so very tired, and Carson had done nothing but compound his weariness with his supposed good news.

“Say, did Robbie mention anything about this to you?”

“Uh, no.” Jake got up quickly, turning away from Isabel. He hadn’t told her what happened between him and Robbie, but she was clever enough to extrapolate it from Jake’s ensuing change in behavior, and cleverer yet not to prod.

“No, of course he wouldn’t. He doesn’t keep tabs on his parents’ business moves.”

“I could text him if you want,” Jake offered. “Or call.” He shuddered at the mere thought.

“Could you, dear? I’m just curious if he has any insight into what their plan might be.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Jake retreated to his room and opened the abandoned text thread between him and Robbie. The last message that had been sent was by Robbie, giving Jake the time for when his parents would be at the Eaton Manor. Jake had left that text on read, with his appearance at the house enough of a confirmation that he had gotten it. Now it lay there haunting the screen like a message from the grave.

Slowly, Jake scrolled up through past messages. Most were just brief scrawls of times and dates, peppered occasionally by photos or an emoji. Meaning so little when they were sent, now they served as reminders of a life that they almost had together for a short time.

Flirtatious lines, innocent little questions ofwhat are you doing right now?morphed into strings of profanities and suggestive photos sent in the heat of the moment. And then those moments ended, with another conversation picking up the morning after or hours later, once again innocent and unrevealing.

It wasn’t like Jake to get sentimental over a text thread. He hated receiving messages from guys. He dreaded hearing that buzz on his nightstand the morning after a hookup. The last time he had looked forward to texts from another guy was when he was still with Ethan, and that had ended in a flurry of vile messages from Ethan’s end when Jake broke up.

The simple truth was that they had just been two very different people who ended up clashing when it all came tumbling down. That was how it always went. Jake was naturally attracted to his opposite, usually because it made it easier to step away immediately after he got what he wanted.

But then there was that rare moment when everything clicked when it shouldn’t have.

He swept his thumb up, going all the way back down to the last message. With trembling fingers, he typed one last time and date.

Meet me on the beach at 6 tonight. Don’t be late.

Jake checkedhis phone for the time. It was 5:55 and almost completely dark out, with only a faint purple cast remaining from what must have been a breathtaking sunset.

“You bastard,” he muttered, “you’d better?—”

A tall figure approached him with smooth, long strides and hands in his pockets, and Jake breathed a sigh of relief. Then his lungs clenched again, and he could feel his heart thumping against his ribs as he realized what he was about to have to do.