The sound of footsteps—fast, frantic. Like something was chasing them.
And then—
“DADDY!”
His heart snapped in half.
Jaxon’s head whipped around so fast his neck cracked. What he saw made the breath catch in his throat like a damn prayer. Jaqueline was running full speeddown the dock, her curls bouncing, her arms open wide—Sara just behind her, barely keeping up. His knees went weak.
He ran.
Didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate.
He sprinted toward her, meeting her halfway with his arms wide open, catching her midair as she jumped into his chest like she belonged there. Like she never left.
Tears slipped down his face before he even registered them.
“What… what are you doing here?” he whispered into her hair, voice breaking open.
“Where the tide meets the sand,” Sara said from behind him, wrapping her arms around both of them, voice thick with tears. “That’s where we belong.”
That’s when time stopped.
The world, the water, the weight of it all—suspended. Just the three of them, wrapped up in a moment that felt like forgiveness. That felt like fate.
And when they looked down at Jaqueline—her eyes full of joy, her smile too wide for her face—they knew. There was no going back. No pretending this didn’t matter. No more running.
Jaxon looked down at Sara.
Sara looked up.
And everything they hadn’t said poured out in a single look.
He leaned in—hesitant at first, then sure.
Their lips met.
And the entire fucking world fell away.
It wasn’t just a kiss.
It was every missed year. Every stolen second. Every fight, every apology, every scream, every silence.
It was them. Finally.
The kind of kiss that rewrites every goodbye.
The kind that says, “You’re home now. Stay.”
They sat down on the dock, limbs still tangled like they couldn’t bear to be apart. And for the first time, they talked—not in fear, not in hesitation, but in truth.
Sara told him everything. How she only made it to Columbia before pulling off. How Jaq asked if his house could be their home. How the phrase “where the tide meets the sand” finally made sense.
“It’s not about the view,” she said, voice shaking. “It’s about us. You were never talking about a place. You were talking about the choice to stay. To fight.”
Jaxon smiled, broken and soft. “I hoped you’d figure that out.”
“I almost made the worst mistake of my life, Jax.”
