Craig leaned against the tailgate of Deran'd truck, a beer dangling between two fingers, sweat glinting at the collar of his shirt. The scent of salt, gasoline, and old adrenaline lingered in the air. His head was pounding, part hangover, part whatever cocktail he’d stirred up last night to forget the weight he carried.

That’s when Deran sauntered in, sunglasses low on his nose, that usual mix of smug and shadow hanging off his shoulders.

“You hear who’s back in town?” Deran asked, kicking at a rock, trying not to sound like it mattered.

Craig didn’t even look up. “Unless it’s a new plug or someone we owe, don’t care.”

Deran shrugged, but there was something sharp in his smirk. “Solana.”

The name dropped like a gunshot in a quiet room.

Craig blinked, slow. The beer bottle froze halfway to his lips.

“What?” The word came out low. Controlled. Like he didn’t already feel the sting behind his ribs.

Deran tilted his head, studying his older brother the way one might poke at a scab. “Came in last night. Word is she’s renting out her aunt’s place near the boardwalk, got a spunky kid with her too.”

Silence stretched long and tight between them. The only sound was the distant echo of kids riding bikes and the creak of the old wind chimes Smurf never took down.

“She back for good?” Craig asked, voice rough. Guarded.

“I dunno. You want me to find out?”

Craig exhaled hard, rubbing a hand down his face. He didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

Memories clawed their way up — sunburnt teenage years, tangled sheets in the back of a beat-up Mustang, the way she used to call him Cody Boy like it meant something softer than it ever did.

“You okay?” Deran asked, genuine curiosity slipping past the usual sarcasm.

Craig looked away, jaw clenched. “Yeah. Just… didn’t think I’d hear that name again.”

Deran gave a lazy shrug. “Oceanside’s a black hole, man. Nothing ever really leaves — not the people, not the past. Just circles back around.”

Craig didn’t reply. He was already drifting — to a time before the jobs, before the scars. Back to Solana’s eyes under a porch light, and the promise they never said out loud but somehow both believed in anyway.

And now she was back.

Oceanside just got a whole lot more complicated.