Jake
Okay
I pause my thumbs. There’s so much I want to say. I want to tell her how I can’t stop thinking about her…how I need to see her again. How I want to erase every bad thing that has ever happened to her and desperately want to be the person she runs to and not away from.
Jake
I hope the rest of your day at work goes well.
I type the generic words out instead.
Blowing out an agitated breath, I head to my bedroom and toss my phone on my bed before changing into my blackboardshorts. Needing to work out my frustration, I grab the football from my dresser and open the cottage doors in my room as I step outside on the deck.
The ocean breeze hits me in the face, and I inhale the salty air. I spot my parents sitting in chairs on the beach with Savi and Miles. I’ve lived in Blue Haven my whole life and can’t imagine living anywhere else. I grew up on the beach and these waters.
My dad made a few good investments, and my parents decided to sell our childhood home and invest the money he made into rental properties. This beach house was one of them, but unlike the others, they wanted to keep this one just in our family, so they gifted it to us kids, wanting a place we could all stay for holidays and summers.
They’ve been enjoying their retirement by traveling and staying at their properties when they’re not in use, so for the most part, it’s just me and Miles who live here full-time since Travis and Ryder recently got married and bought homes of their own. We’ve been talking about renting out the guest house by the pool since Ryder no longer lives there, but we haven’t made any solid plans yet.
“Hey baby, I was wondering when you would join us,” my mom smiles as I approach them. Her dark hair is tied back into a ponytail, and without even seeing them behind her oversized black sunglasses, I know her grey eyes, identical to mine, are bright with love.
“I was just replying to some work emails real quick.” I feel bad lying, but I’m not ready to answer questions that I don’t even know myself.
I toe the lifeless Miles lying on the towel beside me. I can’t tell if he’s sleeping under those sunglasses or not. “Let’s throw the ball around. I need to get a workout in after all the alcohol and food I consumed last night.”
He turns his head in my direction. “If you wouldn’t have been such a party pooper last night, you could have burned all your calories last night in bed like I did,” he grins.
“Miles Thomas Montgomery!” Mom slides her sunglasses down and peers at him. I hear my dad chuckle, causing my mom to focus her stern eyes on him. “Don’t encourage him.”
“He’s twenty-six and single. I highly doubt he needs encouragement,” he laughs as my mom swats him. My dad is a good-looking guy with some grey mixed into his dark hair and trimmed beard. His blue eyes are identical to Savi’s. You would never know my parents were in their early fifties. Both of them stay active and love the outdoors.
“The girls make it too easy for him,” Savi mutters. “Doesn’t anyone make you fight for it?” She asks, looking up from one of the romance books that she loves to read.
“If they do fight, it’s because they want to fight each other over me,” he laughs, earning an eye roll from Savi.
“One of these days, you are going to meet your match,” my mom says, pushing her sunglasses up and sitting back against the chair again.
“I can’t wait to see that,” Savi chuckles before going back to her book.
“Come on, lover boy. I’ll go easy on you today with my throws,” I grin at Miles.
“Keep telling yourself that’s the reason why your throws suck today when we know the real reason is I’m just better.” He jumps up and grabs the football from my hand before running down the beach with it. “I knew that would get his lazy ass up,” I chuckle and look over at my dad. “You want to join?”
“No,” he laughs. “I’m enjoying just sitting here doing nothing. It takes me longer to recover after a long night of partying than it used to.”
“Suit yourself, old man.” I grin and run down the beach in the opposite direction of Miles.
“Your bait tricks don’t work on me,” he yells after me. “I taught you those!”
Laughing, I turn and get into position, easily catching the spiral to my chest. I shoot one back down to him, and it’s a perfect throw straight down the center. I run to the side to catch the next one, my body moving fast before the ball hits the ground. My arm flexes with the movement as I send another one off down the beach. By the time we are done, we are sweating and burning from the workout.
I jump into the ocean to cool myself off before sitting on the chair beside my mom. Savi joins Miles in the water, and I watch them swim out deeper. My mom digs in her beach bag as a text goes off.
“Oh good! Trevor, remember how I told you I talked to the caterer last night and got her number for Laura?” She asks, reading her phone.
The word caterer immediately gets my attention as I look over at them.
“Mm-hm,” my dad says.
