Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Graham isn’t leaving Seaside Point.
He’s not moving to a new job or location to keep trying to prove himself successful. He’s staying here, in Seaside Point.
With me.
My heart is so full right now. Of course, I’m happy the man I'm falling for is going to stay in the town I could never leave, but even more, the look on his face tells me everything I need to know about how he feels about this update: he’s both thrilled and at ease. The comfort between us settles warmly.
From what I understand, this type of ease has happened only a handful of times in his life, and I’m honored to experience it with him. I rest my forehead gently on his, my eyes watering while I soak up the quiet relief on his face.
“I’m so proud of you, Graham,” I repeat.
His eyes go melty at my words, a soft smile spreading on his lips as if that simple sentence means more to him than any promotion ever could.
God, this man. Such a hard exterior, but so soft inside.
Will he always keep his tough attitude, giving only me his sweet?
Part of me likes being the only one who sees this side, but another part hopes he’ll grow comfortable sharing it with others.
Our peaceful bubble pops as the door swings open, banging against the wall, and we part quickly.
I step back and brush down my dress. My pulse pounds thinking Graham’s boss just caught us in an unprofessional position, but relief rushes in when Sutton walks in instead.
She has a shit-eating grin on her lips, and behind her, a tall, curvy brunette enters.
For a second, I just stare—she might be the hottest woman I’ve ever seen.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Sutton teases.
“Sutton, how many times have I told you not to just barge into my office?” Graham demands.
“A million.” Sutton turns to me, grabs my wrist to pull me from Graham, and spins me so I’m facing the other woman. “June, this is Josie.”
My eyes go wide with excitement.
“Oh, my god, hi!” I say, feeling like I’m meeting a superhero. “I’ve heard so much about you. You’re possibly the coolest person on earth. I want to be you when I grow up,” I babble like an idiot, but her stunning smile puts me at ease.
"And I’ve heard so much about you!" she exclaims. "I bought one of your pieces last week. I was wondering if you could do a custom piece for me. I figured I’d wait until I was here to ask, but I have so many ideas.
Rowan and I just moved in together, and his place is boring and needs some color.
I also wanted to get a friend a gift to commemorate her stint as a monster car driver. "
“A monster car driver?” I ask, eyes widening. Josie smiles.
“It’s a long story—she’s all rainbows and butterflies, drives a unicorn truck, and I think you could capture the vibe perfectly.”
Instantly, ideas for the custom commission flash through my mind. It’s such a fun concept, I’d do it for free, but I know everyone would yell if I even suggested it.
"Oh my god, yes! I need to hear all about these monster trucks. An assignment?" I look at Josie. She nods eagerly. Rowan walks in next, and suddenly Graham’s office feels tiny.
“Yeah, it’s utter chaos. Let’s do lunch, and I’ll tell you all about it,” she suggests, and I nod eagerly. Claire is going to be so jealous that I got to spend the afternoon with Josie.
“Didn’t you want a beach day while you were here?” Sutton asks, then turns to me. “We should gather the crew. Claire’s working, but we’ll park by her stand.”
“Yes! Please! I need a day in the sand desperately,” Josie nearly claps.
“Actually, that would be great,” Rowan begins. “Graham and I could scout locations for another—” Josie shoots him a fierce glare; Rowan only returns it, though his is already tinged in defeat.
“No, no, no, no. I was promised a beach day.”
“Troublemaker—” he mutters. I smile at her fitting nickname. She stomps her foot, a move that is unexpectedly adorable on her.
“No! A beach day. Give me my beach day, Rowan Fischer, or I’m getting Annette.”
“Oof,” Graham sighs, but then Josie turns her iron will toward him, a finger pointed in his direction.
“I’ll tell her that you also don’t have a life, Graham Hawthorne,” she says, and suddenly her ability to cut men down is clear as Graham’s eyes go wide with alarm. She’s kind of scary, if I’m honest.
“What did I do?” Graham asks, lifting his hands in resignation.
“Nothing, unless you block my beach day.”
Rowan sighs, looks at me, then at his girlfriend, and shrugs.
“Looks like we’re having a beach day. Josie gets what Josie wants.”
By two, everyone is on the beach—not on the Daytrip property, but in front of the lifeguard stand where Claire is working for the afternoon.
We did this a lot last summer while she was working, and it always worked out well.
Since it’s Monday, the Seabreeze is closed, so Lainey agreed instantly, in part because she also wanted to meet the cool, hot PI, Josie.
Deck and Grant had no job today, so they tagged along, and Miles happily closed up the mechanic shop early, taking any excuse to join his girlfriend on the sand.
Now, the guys are throwing a football, and we girls are sitting around Claire’s chair, chatting and tanning.
It’s the perfect summer day.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Josie says after a while.
She slides her sunglasses onto her head, pushing back her dark brown locks, then digs through her bag before handing me an orange bend-clasp folder.
“These are for you.” I eye it skeptically, because I’ve heard of a PI handing over files in a folder like that, and it’s typically bad news.
“For me?” I repeat as she grins wide and shakes the folder for me to grab.
"I heard you were hunting for information and found it. It was easy—I only flirted with one gross principal."
My emotions flip instantly.
“No way,” I say, eagerly taking the envelope from her hands. “You got them?”
“Sutton told me they existed, and I couldn’t resist.” She leans back, arms crossed behind her head, and sighs blissfully. “My best friend, Rory, is a genius with records. I could’ve asked her to hack the school files, but that’s no fun.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Sutton agrees, even though she seems lost as Josie rambles. “What’s the fun indeed?” I want to tease my best friend’s sister, but then I’m opening the clasp and sliding out the photos, and the words catch in my throat.
"Oh my god," I murmur as I move through the stack. There are a dozen photos of Graham at various ages playing football. He’s in various uniforms, from elementary school to college. Through them, I get to see every stage of him growing up.
Unfortunately, it means I can’t show Graham my own old cheer photos—he never had an awkward phase.
He was always sure of himself, always put together, likely always the coolest guy at his school.
It’s a little sad, since I know he behaved that way as a curated defense mechanism.
I watch him stumble in the sand. Decker laughs before offering him a hand up, and I smile.
I love that here, he doesn’t feel the need to keep a facade up, no longer has to present only one, perfect, closed-off version of himself. He catches my eye, smiles, and gives me a wink before throwing the ball to Rowan, and I look back down at the photos again.
“Is it weird to think these are hot? He couldn’t have been older than nineteen in this one,” I say, voice low. In my defense, the shot is some kind of douchey photo he must have posted on some social media site, but my god, it seems the abs aren't a new development.
“No, they are hot,” Lainey assures. Without our noticing, my brother appears beside us, scaring the shit out of me.
“What’s hot?” Grant asks, brow raised.
“June’s boyfriend,” Claire answers from her perch above us. Grant’s face scrunches up in confusion.
“Hey, so, that’s a child,” he says, a bit alarmed, and I let out a laugh. Lainey reaches over to grab one of the photos.
“It’s Graham as a child, and in this one, he’s of drinking age,” she says. “I think it’s okay to say he’s hot here.”
“What are we talking about?” Graham asks, walking over, and we all scramble to hide the photos, but one falls into the sand. He reaches to grab and inspect it before giving us a confused look. “Are those all pictures of me?”
“Yes,” I say, smiling up at him. I have a sudden urge to explode with giggles, and Graham’s partly annoyed, partly confused face only makes it worse. He looks at Josie and lets out a deep sigh before glancing over his shoulder to where Rowan is approaching.
“Rowan, your girlfriend is doing deep dives on me,” he complains, but Rowan just shrugs.
“Welcome to my life,” Rowan replies, and Graham blinks at him. Carefully, I take the photos from him and slide them back into the envelope for safekeeping.
“I’m hiding those,” he says, glaring at the one on top, a photo of him in what had to be middle school, before I close up the envelope and slide it safely in my bag.
“I have them all saved on a digital drive. I’ll email you the originals,” Josie says with a smile, and I let out a loud laugh as Graham grimaces.
“So, you were always hot, huh?” Sutton asks, and a blush burns on Graham’s cheeks. Hot and absolutely adorable. How on earth has no one ever cracked him, tried to win over this version of him?
Further proof that I’m lucky.
Sutton laughs at the look, then stands, brushing her hands off. “I’m going to the water. Anyone else want to come?”
“I’m stuck here for another ten,” Claire says, looking at her watch, and Miles smiles up to her, not even bothering to say he won’t be leaving her side.
“I’ll stay, too. I’m in a good chapter,” Lainey says from under the umbrella, lifting her Kindle. Grant settles in on a chair next to Decker, but Josie and I stand.
“I’ll dip my toes in,” Josie says.