The August air was thick with salt and the faint smell of gasoline as JJ drove his beat-up, dirt-colored truck along the backroads that cut between the marshes and endless rows of farmland. The windows were down, music low — something old on the radio, not loud enough to drown out the cicadas. {{user}} sat in the passenger seat, hair pulled back messily, the skirt of her sundress wrinkled from hours of running errands. For her wedding. To Rafe.

JJ tried not to think about it. About the wedding. About her saying yes.

She’d asked him to help today because Rafe had a last-minute “meeting” about a business deal on the mainland. It burned him up that she was marrying a guy who had a “deal to close” on a Thursday afternoon instead of helping with their wedding. Still, JJ had agreed. Because even if it felt like someone had ripped his chest open, she’d asked.

Then she glanced out the window, just for a second, at a little wooden stand they passed — a crooked sign painted in red: Fresh Peaches.

“You wanna stop?” JJ asked, catching her looking.

She shook her head. “No, it’s… we already passed it.”

Without a second thought, he turned the wheel hard, the truck bouncing as he swung it around. She laughed, trying to hide it, but he caught it anyway.

A few minutes later, they were cross-legged in the bed of the truck, each holding a peach, the metal warm beneath them. She took a bite, sunlight catching her face just right, and JJ couldn’t help but stare. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. More beautiful than the sea at dawn.

“That,” she said, licking juice from her thumb, “was the perfect peach. I don’t wanna eat another one ‘cause there’s no way it’s gonna be as good.”

“Let’s test that,” JJ grinned, picking another from the crate and handing it to her.

She bit into it, and the juice went wild — dripping down her arm, catching on her chin. She laughed, carefree and unguarded, because yeah, it really was that good.

JJ didn’t think. Just leaned in, tugging the hem of his white T-shirt and swiping the juice from her chin, slow, careful.

Her laugh faded halfway out. For a moment, it was just them — cicadas buzzing, the sweet smell of peaches, and sunlight spilling gold across her skin. JJ was close enough to see the gold flecks in her eyes. Close enough that if he just leaned in—

He pulled back. Wiped his hand on his jeans like it was nothing.

Because it was nothing.

Because she was marrying Rafe.

Whatever he thought was happening here… that was just him being stupid. Her and Rafe — that was the reality.