Page 12 of Sweet Redemption

“Storm’s rolling in,” Hendrix said and signed.

Aurora perked up. “Cards?”

We all agreed, and Saylor opened an eye. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” Ryker’s older brother, Maverick teased her, but he wasn’t wrong.

Saylor rolled her eyes but smiled at her big cousin. “Fair enough.”

She threw her things in her bag as the guys picked up the coolers.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” I told them, leaning back in my chair. “This is my⁠—”

“Favorite time on the beach,” Liv finished for me, rolling her eyes. “We know, beachy Barbie. The beach gets quiet, the lights get pretty, and you become one with whatever romance novel you’re reading. Heard it before.”

“It’s peaceful,” I argued without any force behind it. Olivia already knew how I felt. She just didn’t happen to agree.

“It’s weird,” she argued, not for the first time.

And I accepted that some things never change and pulled out my book. “It’s perfect.”

I wasn’t going to win this argument, but I didn’t need to. She was just teasing me because that was how we showed love. Then and now.

“Fine. Read your book. But if you fall asleep out here, I’m not coming to get you before the rain starts.”

“That was one time,” I laughed and settled in as a deep laugh rumbled nearby, raising the hair on the back of my neck.

I lifted my eyes to find Hendrix standing next to the surfboard he’d planted behind us. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t wash out to sea.”

“Whatever,” Olivia grumbled and handed Ryker her chair to carry up to the house. Within minutes, they were all walking toward Ryker’s parents’ house, arguing over Chinese food or pizza, and I’m pretty sure I heard Liv say something about sushi.

“Does Max know you’re not crashing at your own house?”

I shook my head as I lifted my gaze to Hendrix Sinclair.

Ryker and Maverick may be my cousins, but Jamie and Hendrix definitely were not, and Dad would have had a stroke if he knew we were all crashing in one house. He was barely surviving the idea of UNC. I swear the only reason he agreed was because I was going to be living in the soccer house and not a coed dorm.

It didn’t matter that my parents and Hendrix’s were good friends.

They still are.

The idea of a weekend spent in a house with him?

Absolutely not.

After a few minutes, our stretch of beach slowly emptied until we were the only people left. Golden hour. My favorite time.

The crowds disappeared.

The ocean exhaled.

And my mind calmed in a way it only ever does there.

It’s a kind of peace that’s always settled my soul.

I opened my book and stared at the words on the page. Reading but unable to retain . . . Unable to focus. Because I could feel it. Him. That same awareness that had hummed to life between us for years. Through every girl he’d ever dated and the one idiot boyfriend Hendrix loved telling me I gave way too much time to. He may have been happier than I was when we finally broke up.

The tension between us was an invisible thread stretched taut like a bowstring.