“They always did,” she said. “People just failed you.”
I swallowed hard.
That was the thing about Regan. She didn’t soften the truth until it became useless. She said it clean and sharp, then stayed beside you while it bled.
The boat sped on, the coastline growing closer, the afternoon waiting with dolphins and more surprises and a gift at the villa I wasn’t supposed to know about yet.
Dylan still wasn’t there.
The ache of that stayed beneath everything else, stubborn as a bruise.
But maybe that was okay.
Maybe a person could miss someone and still have a beautiful day.
Maybe turning eighteen wasn’t a door swinging open all at once. Maybe it was smaller than that. A jump into blue water. A father in a ridiculous sash. Tarak complaining about fins. Regan’s hand holding mine. Amber laughing. Salt on my lips. Sun on my skin.
Maybe freedom started with one moment where your body finally felt like your own.
I looked back at the wake trailing behind the catamaran, white and foamy against the deep blue sea.
For once, the past was behind me.
And I was moving forward fast enough that it had to work to keep up.
By the time we got back to the villa, the sun had started dropping low over Cabo, turning the water molten gold and the white walls of the house soft pink around the edges.
I was exhausted in the best and strangest way.
My skin smelled like salt, sunscreen, and dolphin water. My hair had dried into a wild mess around my shoulders. My body ached from swimming, laughing, climbing in and out of boats, and pretending my heart didn’t twist every time I looked around and Dylan still wasn’t there.
Nate wasn’t either.
Regan said they were working.
Everyone said they were working.
I believed them.
I also hated them a little.
Not a lot.
Just enough.
The villa felt different that night. Less like protective custody pretending to be paradise and more like a home someone had filled on purpose. There were candles lit on the patio. Flowers on the tables. Music playing low from hidden speakers. Someone had hung more ridiculous birthday decorations near the pool, and one silver balloon kept bobbing sideways in the breeze like it had gotten drunk before the rest of us.
We ate dinner outside under strings of lights.
Fish tacos. Rice. Grilled vegetables. Lime on everything. Amber made me wear the paper crown again until Edge threatened to throw it into the pool and Regan threatened to throw him in after it.
Tarak smoked a cigar he had not yet lit, rolling it between his fingers like he was waiting for the proper dramatic moment.
Edge watched me too much.
Not in a bad way.
In a father way.
