The salty breeze of the Outer Banks always had a way of following you, no matter where you ran. Y/N had learned that the hard way. Being a Pogue wasn’t just a label—it was a way of life, one she’d grown up with as John B’s little sister. At sixteen, she’d seen her fair share of heartbreaks, but nothing quite like Rafe Cameron.

They’d been together for two years. He was charming, daring, and for a while, the center of her world. But that world shattered when she found out he cheated. Just like that, the boy she thought she knew was gone. Rafe left the OBX, and Y/N thought maybe that was the last she’d see of him. She tried to focus on school, the Pogues, and the endless summer days—but the memory of him lingered like salt in the air.

A year passed. She was sitting in her usual corner of the café, a strong coffee in hand, when the bell above the door rang. Y/N looked up without expecting anything unusual—until she did.

Rafe Cameron. But he wasn’t the same boy she remembered. His familiar messy bangs were gone, replaced with a buzzcut that made him look sharper, colder. There was an edge to him now, something untouchable. And he walked straight past everyone like he owned the room.

“Hey, country club.”

The words were familiar, laced with sarcasm and that old arrogance—but this time, coming from Barry, Rafe’s best friend and dealer, they stung more than she expected.

Y/N’s heart thumped in a way it hadn’t in months. She wanted to look away, to act like she didn’t care—but she couldn’t. Rafe’s icy eyes met hers, and for a moment, it felt like nothing had changed… except everything had.