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Lucas shrugged and ruffled her hair. “Okay, little sis. It’s your call.”
She’d made the only one she could right now. She was only here for a week, and was determined to make it as painless as possible. Even if that meant missing out on seeing Brecken Miller again.
5
“Hey, Breck. Over here!”
Breck turned to see Lucas and their friends gathered down the beach from Lucas and Ember’s cottage. They were sitting in a circle around an old fire pit, drinks in hand. The sun was slowly falling below the horizon, casting an orange hue across the surface. The light caught the faces of everybody looking toward the ocean, making them glow like there was a fire already lit in the pit.
“Hey.” Breck put the six-pack of soda he’d brought into the cooler, keeping one for himself. “No fire tonight?”
Ember looked up at him. “Nope. We don’t light fires if we don’t need to.”
“Not when the captain’s around,” Griff added, inclining his head at Lucas.
It was strange to think that Lucas was a fire captain now. He ran the Angel Sands station, having worked at the bigger White City station for the previous ten years. Breck admired him for it, knowing how hard his friend worked and all the terrible things he had to deal with.
“Makes sense,” Breck said, shrugging. “And better for the environment, too.”
“Right?” Ember’s friend, Ally agreed. “I hate the way the beach looks all scorched after somebody’s lit a fire. It can’t be good for the ocean.”
“It’s not good for my heart rate either.” Lucas grinned. “I have to deal with fires all day at my job. I’d rather not have them raging near my house.”
Breck looked at them all. Everything about his friends felt familiar. There was something comforting about it. For the longest time after he’d left Angel Sands, he’d tried to imagine life going on here without him. It had hurt, knowing they’d still be happy even with him gone. But then again, everything had hurt in those days.
Now though, the pain was only a memory. Sometimes he’d poke at it, like a kid playing with a scab, trying to see if it still hurt. He’d picture his mom helping him build a sandcastle, or teaching Daniel to swim. Now they were echoes, instead of knives to his heart.
“Who’s coming tonight?” he asked Lucas, looking around. There was Griff and Jack, of course, plus Ember and her friends, along with a few faces he recognized from the fire station where Lucas worked.
But there was one person who was missing. And it made his stomach feel tight.
“Pretty much everyone’s here,” Lucas told him.
“And one of them is very happy to see you,” Griff said, taking a seat next to him, as he tried to get music to stream through the Bluetooth speakers.
“What?” Breck frowned, tipping his head to look at his friend. “Who?”
Griff gestured across the pit to where Ember and her friends were sitting. “Rachel Foss. She’s been asking when you’re going to get here for the last half hour. Man, that girl can talk.”
Breck’s mouth turned dry. He hadn’t been expecting that at all. “Oh, yeah. She seems … um… nice.” It was the second time he’d seen her in as many days, and her interest was making him uncomfortable. In Boston, he would have told her he wasn’t interested and never saw her again. But in a small town like this it wasn’t so easy. Wherever he went, she’d be there. Plus she’s Ember’s friend. Better to let things fade out.
“She likes you, my friend,” Griff said. “She told me at least ten times.”
Breck grimaced. He had no idea what to say. So he took another mouthful of soda, swallowing it down.
“Is Caitie coming tonight?” he asked Lucas. The need to change the subject imperative.
Lucas shook his head. “Nah. I invited her, but she’s too busy working. Said she had a lot to catch up on.”
“Is that what she said?” Breck asked.
“Yeah.” Lucas gave him a funny look. “Why?”
“I thought maybe it was because of the ocean. I’d hoped she might’ve been over that by now.”
“Over what?” Lucas frowned, putting his can in the sand in front of him.
“Her fear…” Breck trailed off, his words swallowed up by the music that Griff finally managed to stream. The deep bass pumped through the evening air, keeping time with the pulse in his ear.
