The summer everything changed didn’t feel that different at first. The same beach house. The same salty air. The same porch swing creaking under the weight of memory.

But this time, Conrad looked at you differently.

You weren’t sure when it happened. Maybe it was when you stepped out of the car, your hair blowing in the wind like some cliché. Or when he laughed at something you said at dinner, the kind of laugh that made Jeremiah raise an eyebrow and Susannah beam like she’d been waiting for this.

You’d known Conrad Fisher your whole life. You’d watched him grow from a quiet boy with skinned knees to a guarded teenager with storms behind his eyes. Every summer, you hoped he’d see you. And every summer, he didn’t.

Until now.