Chapter 1
SUMMER
The sun beat down on my shoulders as I stood waist deep in the ocean, watching my surfing students, also known as my little fish, navigate their boards with increasing confidence.
Grinning, I shielded my eyes with one hand while using the other to point to a swell coming in that would be perfect to practice their pop-ups.
“Remember to keep your weight centered,” I called out to Lily. “You’ve got this!”
She flashed me a determined grin before heading out again.
Her arms paddled ferociously, sending sprays of water up her back and over her board.
A few other kids gave chase, but they couldn’t keep up with her broad strokes and body awareness.
She kept her core tight, just as I’d taught her, and that helped her ride the waves as they rolled beneath her without costing her distance.
Brave little minnow, I thought.
The stronger Lily and my other students got, the less likely they were to become a statistic out here in the ocean.
I’d had my fair share of bad falls and wipe outs, knocked my head a few times, and learned just how terrifying it could be to be dragged under a wave, raked across coral, all while having only a little bit of air left in my lungs.
If my little fish listened, practiced, and didn’t panic, they’d know how to handle even the most terrifying situations out there on the waves.
Minus shark attacks. They were shit out of luck if that happened.
“Miss Summer?” Tyler, one of my more advanced students, paddled toward me. “How come you don’t have a husband?”
The bright sun probably illuminated every furrow in my brow as I blinked at him. I laughed, not having the heart to tell him that was just a little rude.
“Well, little fish, not everyone wants to get married,” I said, reaching out to ruffle his salt-crusted hair.
He pursed his lips and looked way too thoughtful for his young age. “That’s not what my dad says. He says every woman wants to get married.”
“Your dad sounds like a wise man,” I replied diplomatically.
In the back of my mind, I thought I would like to have a conversation with the man teaching his son such bullshit, but this was not my kid and definitely not my husband.
Not my problem. “But let’s focus on your stance.
You’re leaning too far forward on your drop. ”
The deflection worked, and Tyler was soon absorbed in perfecting his technique.
I smiled as I watched him paddle out again, thinking about his question.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard similar sentiments.
But I was twenty-seven, not eighty-seven.
And even if I was an old lady, it was still my choice.
Not everyone wanted to get married. Not everyone needed that to feel complete.
Besides, who could compete with what I already had?
I watched my students pop up and ride the waves back toward me.
Some fell. Others shot their arms in the air after their first victorious ride of the day.
Some, like Tyler, coasted calm, cool, and collected until the swell died and they dropped back down on their boards.
Behind them was nothing but the expanse of blue horizon.
I had everything I needed right here in Surfside. And then some.
After the final lesson of the day, I collected my boards and trudged up the beach toward home.
The late afternoon was at my back. My muscles were twitching after the last swim to rescue one of my students who’d fallen off.
She was in no real danger, but there was always that sense of urgency that made my muscles clench.
“Hey, Aunt Summer!” River called from the porch as I approached our beach house. She was sitting with her feet propped on the railing, face buried in a book. “Your nose is sunburned.”
I paused at the bottom of the patio steps, struck a pose with my hand on my hip, and showed her my profile. “It’s my signature look.” I ran my index finger down my nose from my brow to the tip. River giggled. “Where’s your brother?”
“Inside with Grandpa.” She turned a page without looking up. “They’re playing chess again.”
I continued up the steps. “Ah, that’s why you’re out here.”
Grandpa and Ocean were very competitive. My dad did not believe in letting anyone win, even if they were nine years old. Ocean was not the kid to back down and he gave as good as he got, which was why my dad loved hanging out with him. Two peas in a pod despite fifty years between them.
I pushed through the screen door, which squealed before falling back with a loud clap.
The interior of our beach house was blessedly cool.
The floorboards, which had been painted white a decade ago and had been peeling ever since, creaked beneath my steps.
Sheer white curtains fluttered softly in the afternoon breeze rolling up the beach.
Our little home was nothing like the monstrosities that had popped up along the shore in the twenty years since my father owned the place, but it was ours. It was home. And it worked for us.
I jogged upstairs to my room to take a quick shower to rinse off the salt and sand.
With a towel wrapped around me, I started the process of moisturizing.
My skin took a lot of maintenance with all my time in the saltwater and under the sun.
I applied coconut oil to my sun-kissed skin, a ritual I’d adopted when I first started teaching surfing.
It was the only thing that kept the scaly-scaries away and ensured my year-round tan looked more “radiant goddess” and less “Sahara Desert.”
My phone buzzed on the dresser. Capri, my best friend, biggest cheerleader, and confidante.
“Hey, you,” I answered on speaker as I rubbed the oil into my legs.
“Don’t you dare cancel our dinner,” she said.
“I wasn’t going to. I’m getting ready literally right now.”
“Wear something that transitions.”
I paused, suspicious, and straightened to snap the cap back on the oil. “Transitions to what?”
“The bonfire tonight! It’s the big one, Summer. The first of the season. Everyone’s going. I swear you get saltwater in your brain with all the time you spend in the ocean.”
I groaned, sitting on the edge of my bed. “That was what we did five years ago. I can’t stomach Malibu rum in a red solo cup anymore.”
“No arguments! All the cute boys are going to be there.”
“Cute boys?” I placed the oil back on my dresser before moving to the bathroom to rinse it off my hands. While I patted them dry, I continued. “That’s the problem—boys. I’m way too old and irritable for boys.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s the summer for romance. I need an epic summer love story and the best place to find the right guy is the bonfire.”
She was mistaken. That was the exact wrong place to find a guy. Been there, done that. Ended in disaster.
“You know I don’t like those.”
“Please? For me? One night of socializing won’t kill you.”
I exhaled, defeated. “Fine. One night. An hour.”
“Yes!” I heard her squeal. “Wear the blue sundress. The one that makes your eyes look like the ocean.”
I had a feeling I was going to regret this, but I would do it for my friend. One night. An hour. I’d survive.
I reached for the blue sundress in my closet.
Capri wasn’t wrong about the color. Against my tan skin, it did make my eyes look like the ocean.
I twisted my damp hair into a messy bun and let a few strands fall loose around my face.
I put on a little mascara and lip gloss and decided it was enough.
It was too hot for a full face of makeup.
I slipped on a pair of sandals, grabbed my phone and keys, and called out a quick goodbye to the house on my way out the door. River didn’t look up from her book. My sister Becca waved from the kitchen window where she was doing dishes. Dad and Ocean were still locked in their chess match.
The dinner spot was a five-minute walk from the house at a little beachfront restaurant called The Salty Anchor that had been a Surfside staple since before I was born.
The hostess, a girl who was a year behind me in school, led me to a table on the patio where the rest of the girls were already settled with drinks in hand.
My friend group went way back to middle school.
We had all been through puberty, breakups, and parent divorces together.
Mia, Jess, and Harper along with Capri, my ride-or-die and keeper of all my secrets.
The others were my friends, but Capri was my person.
She already had a drink for me, which she handed to me as I sat.
“Okay,” Jess said, raising her glass. “To another summer in paradise.”
“To paradise,” we all echoed, clinking glasses.
The conversation flowed the way it always did. We caught up on everything that had happened since we’d last been together, which was only a couple of weeks.
I sipped my margarita and smiled as Mia told a story about some asshole that nearly ran over her foot. The margarita hit quickly, and the laughter bubbled out of me with ease. I was struck with the same thought I had earlier this afternoon during my lessons.
What more did I need in life than this?
The server brought our appetizers—coconut shrimp and calamari that smelled like fried heaven. I grabbed one of the giant shrimp and dipped it in Thai sauce. Flavor exploded in my mouth and I groaned happily.
Harper leaned forward, her eyes wide with excitement. “Ladies, lock in.” She pressed her palms flat against the table. “I heard something crazy this morning at my oceanside Pilates session.”
“Well, go on,” Capri said, already invested. “Stop being such a tease!”
“Do y’all remember the Anderson family?” Harper asked, looking around the table. “I know they haven’t been here in a bit, but do you remember the boys?”
I stopped chewing. The air in my lungs froze mid breath.
“Of course we remember the Andersons,” Mia said. “Everyone knows who they are.”
“Summer’s neighbors,” Jess said, fanning her cheeks and giggling breathlessly. “Gorgeous neighbors. They were so tall and dreamy, and—”
“Those are the ones,” Harper said, enjoying the fact we were hanging on her every word. I was hanging on for a different reason than the rest of them. “One of the brothers is coming back for the summer.”
Don’t react. Don’t react. Don’t react.
“Which one?” Capri asked carefully.
She was asking the question I couldn’t. That’s what your person did.
Not Colt. Please, please, please not Colt. Let it be Cody. Let it be the younger one with the flirty smile.
“Colt Anderson is so back!” Harper exclaimed excitedly. But her announcement didn’t elicit giddy enthusiasm from me. Instead, I sat reeling in the aftermath of the bomb she’d just dropped, my ears ringing from the blast, heart racing from the adrenaline spike.
Capri’s foot connected with my shin under the table. Hard. I blinked. The contact snapped me out of whatever spiral I’d been in. I lifted my margarita and took a long, slow sip, the salt on the rim catching on my lower lip.
“Colt Anderson,” Mia repeated in a dreamy tone. “The tall one with the green eyes and those glorious abs.”
I set my glass down and pushed my chair back. “I’ll be right back,” I said. The calmness in my voice fooled even me.
Don’t panic, I told myself over and over as I wove through tables to get to the bathroom.
A girl coming out held it open for me, and I managed a tight-lipped smile before ducking past her and into the nearest stall.
I promptly locked the door, pressed my back to it, and fought to keep the rising tide of panic in my chest from drowning me.
I didn’t hear Capri come in, but when someone knocked on the stall door, I knew it was her. A quick glance down at her feet under the door confirmed it, red painted toes in gold sandals. My girl.
“You’re freaking out,” she said.
“Not at all.”
“Liar.”
“He can’t be here,” I whispered.
“It’s not the worst thing to happen.”
I unlocked the stall door, pushed it open, and joined her by the sinks, where I splashed cold water on my face. “Colt and I had a secret romance, remember? Secret as in no one knows. Especially my dad.”
“That’s a good thing,” she said. “No one knows, so it’s like it never happened.”
“That is not what that means.”
“This could be a second chance,” she said.
I scoffed. “Hell no. We were supposed to be together when I graduated but he dumped me. He chose his family’s billions. He wanted to work in some boring investment company instead of being with me. I want nothing to do with him.”
“Girl, he’s stupid rich,” she hissed.
“I don’t care. He’s a jerk.”
“Is he, though?”
I braced myself on the bathroom sink and glared at her in the mirror. “Whose side are you on?”
“Yours. Always yours.” She moved up to stand beside me. “It doesn’t have to be awkward. It’s been four years since you’ve seen him. You’ve grown up a lot in that time. I’m sure he did, too.”
“He was twenty-seven when we first met seven years ago,” I reminded her. “So he was thirty the last summer we spent together.”
Capri sighed. “You’re right. He’s an asshole.”
“Thank you.”
“Maybe he’s old and ugly now. All flabby. Gone are the abs and the thick hair. You’ll see him and it’ll be a relief that you dodged that bullet.”
I laughed. “I suppose if he had a rough four years, it might be true.”
“If we see him, we ignore him. He doesn’t exist. We’ll pretend he’s invisible. He doesn’t matter.”
“I can’t believe he’s back.” I inhaled deeply and let it out, hoping some of the tension I felt would go with it.
Capri grinned. “And he lives next door.”
I glared at her. “You are not helping.”
“Sorry.”
“I don’t feel like you’re sorry.”
She shrugged. “The house is huge. You probably won’t even see him.”
“I don’t want to go to the bonfire,” I said.
“No. Don’t do that. Don’t hole up and hide. If he’s in town, so what? This is your town. You get to party when and where you want.”
“I’m not in the mood.”
“Which is exactly why you need to go. We need to find you a man so you don’t even think about him. He’s nobody. You need a hot summer fling that obliterates him from memory.”
If only it was that easy. Colt Anderson was not the kind of man that was easily forgotten. It had taken me two years to move on. And just hearing his name sent me right back to the days where he never showed up for me. For us.
I straightened and patted my face dry with a paper towel.
It was safer with him far away in Texas. If we didn’t have physical distance between us, I would have to create distance. No way was I falling for him again. Not after how badly it hurt the last time. Not after how much I wanted…
I shook my head. Not going down that road right now.
Capri put her hand on my shoulder and offered me a soft smile in the mirror. “You good?”
I have to be.