“Me too.”
He didn’t move away from me. In fact, he moved closer. I could smell his cologne. Feel his breath on my face.
“Colt.”
“Summer.”
“I think I’m glad you’re back in Surfside,” I murmured.
He chuckled. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that again.”
“Oh, don’t get too comfy,” I said. “I could still change my mind.”
“You won’t.”
“You’re very confident.”
He grinned. “I am.”
“Come on, stay for our fire.”
“I’d love to.”
Everyone got back from their walk. The kids went inside to clean up and Dad started prepping the fire. River came barreling out the back door in her pajamas before the fire had even caught. Her hair was damp from her bath. Ocean was right behind her, wearing his favorite shark pajamas. Becca appeared in thedoorway long enough to hold up five fingers at me, which meant she needed five minutes to get the kids’ things sorted before she came out. I gave her a thumbs-up.
Dad looked up from the fire pit when he heard the kids coming. “Get the marshmallow sticks,” he told Ocean. “You know where they are.”
Ocean changed direction and went back inside. River planted herself directly beside my father and watched the fire spark and do its thing.
“I’ll blow on it if you need me to,” she told him.
“Not yet,” he said. “Patience.”
I settled onto one of the low wooden chairs we kept circled around the pit and relaxed. I loved our backyard fires. The sky above us was quickly fading to black. I could hear the ocean on the other side of the low dune at the edge of our property.
Colt took the chair beside mine. We were acting like platonic friends in front of my family, but I knew they knew there was more to the little dinner invitation.
Ocean returned with the roasting forks.
Becca came out with a bag of marshmallows and a sleeve of graham crackers tucked under her arm. She dropped into the chair across from us and looked at me and Colt sitting side by side. I saw the corner of her mouth pull up just slightly before she looked away and started opening the marshmallow bag.
“S’mores?” she asked the group.
Chaos erupted, two children both trying to put marshmallows on their sticks at the same time while talking about who burned theirs worse. Dad settled into his chair with a smile. He reached over and helped River get her marshmallow on without making a production of it.
This was the thing I had never been able to adequately explain to anyone who hadn’t grown up with it. This was what we were fighting for. I watched River and Ocean toast theirmarshmallows before handing them off to Becca to smash them between the graham crackers. She’d broken off small pieces of chocolate from a Hershey’s bar, keeping it minimal.
River took a bite, getting goo all over her face.
“Do you know the constellations?” River asked Colt.
Colt looked at her with complete seriousness. “Some of them,” he said. “Do you?”
She nodded and sucked the chocolate from one finger. “I know the Big Dipper. It’s a pot.”
“That’s how I identify them. Start with the ones that look like something you already know.”
“What ones do you know?”
