And I guess, in a way, the truth is in some of those words. It was a lot, us getting married so young. But I never regretted it, not for one second, and I would still be married to him now, if I could be. And I did panic when faced with the decision I had to make. And I did run. So, what I said…it’s the best of the truth that I can give to him.

He stares at me for a long moment, so long that I don’t know what to do.

Then, he blinks his eyes free, blows out a breath as he runs a hand through his hair and says, “Okay.”

Okay? That’s it?

He isn’t questioning why I lied about cheating, and he seems to have accepted my reasoning. It makes me wonder why he’s taken it so easily.

Then, I realize that maybe he’s just tired of it all. Maybe he just sees that it’s time to let go of the past.

And I guess it’s time for me to leave.

“Okay,” I say, pushing off the wall. Gathering myself together, I turn to the door.

I reach for the handle and pause to look back at him.

I just want one more look before I leave.

He’s staring at me, too, a mixture of confusing emotions on his face.

“Good-bye, Adam.”

He holds my eyes for a moment, then, looks away. “Good-bye, Evie.”

There’s a power in his words. He’s saying the good-bye he didn’t get to say ten years ago.

Taking a deep breath, I hold in the tears fighting to break free, and I walk out and finally close the door on my past.

My alarm is going off with an annoying insistence. On a groan, I reach over and slam my hand on it, turning it off.

Time for work.

Ugh.

Summer has only just begun, and I’ve worked the last seven days straight as a favor for Grady. I can’t wait for tomorrow when I can sleep in.

I’m only doing the overtime because Grady is the best boss ever—a retired pro surfer, and the Shack is his life—and he asked me because we’re short-staffed at the moment. I’m also doing it because I need the money.

Paige, who works part-time in the shop with Base and me, has been on vacation. And Tad, who does the surf lessons with Grady, has been out sick with the flu. So, Grady has been pulling Base out of the shop to help with the surf lessons. So, I’ve been manning the shop alone. But Tad and Paige will be back tomorrow, so I’ll get the day off. Yay!

For tomorrow, I was thinking, once I drag my ass out of bed, that I might actually spend the day at the beach and lie out in the sun, read a book, swim, and maybe do some surfing.

I can’t remember the last time I just spent the day at the beach chilling and having fun. Aside from the hour I get there every day, sketching after work to kill the time I have to wait for my bus.

I can get some real sketching time in tomorrow as well. The beach is my favorite place to go to draw, especially on my spot on the rock. I love that view. I’ve gotten some great sketches done from up there. I can see right out over the ocean, and it gives me a great view of the pier as well as all the surfers—along with one particular hot guy in a beach house.

Adam.

I knew I had to draw him the moment I saw him standing up there on his balcony. I captured the image of him there in my mind and started drawing. What I didn’t expect was for him to be standing there every day, watching me.

But knowing his eyes were on my back while I drew the image I had pressed into my memory of him standing there, so tall and so handsome, made me not only want to draw him…it made me want to know him.

He looked so lonely.

The kind of loneliness where he could be surrounded in a roomful of people, and he’d still feel alone.

The kind of loneliness that comes from within, deeply embedded inside of him.

And I wanted to capture that and pull the loneliness out, bringing him to life on paper.

I can’t believe I gave him the drawing I’d done of him. It was so ballsy of me, and I’m not usually ballsy.

Actually, the whole thing was pretty ballsy of me, especially when I asked him if he’d changed his mind about asking me out.

God, I’m cringing from just thinking about it.

For all my bravado with Adam, I actually don’t really date.

It’s not because I don’t want to. I just don’t really have the time, and I haven’t met a guy who I really want to go out with.

I tend not to get dazzled by cute guys anymore. They’re in such abundance here, and I see them daily while working at the Shack.

That was up until yesterday when I was dazzled by the super tall and super hot guy who lives on the beach and watches me draw.

I literally couldn’t stop looking at him.

With a body like a god, he’s stupidly handsome. And when I say stupidly handsome, I mean, he’s the kind of handsome that would make a smart girl go stupid and also make that smart girl do stupid things.

I could imagine doing a lot of stupid things with Adam.

A guy like him could make a girl like me lose my damn mind.

He’s so intriguing, and his eyes are amazing. They are the most intense blue-green color that I have ever seen. They’re practically turquoise. His eyes are like an infinite pool of water, a place you could easily get lost in and never once get bored.

And a girl like me could easily get lost in a guy like him.

Aside from all his physical attributes, there is just something about him.

I’ve been finding myself thinking about him more and more since we spoke yesterday.

Throughout the last week, every day, when I went down to the beach, I wondered if he’d be there, watching. As the week went on, I started to feel a little sad when my hour was up, and I had to leave to catch my bus.

Now, Adam has asked me out, and I really want to go out with him even though I won’t actually have time to date him, especially when school starts back up. In my last year of high school, I’ll still be working evenings and weekends at the Shack on top of the schoolwork I’ll have to do, so that won’t leave any time to date.

But Adam has got me wanting things I shouldn’t, like doing hot naked things with him.

Oh my God! I can’t believe I just thought that!

I cover my face with my hands, a blush creeping over my body at the thought.

It’s all just so crazy! Adam watching me from his balcony, while I pretended not to know, and was secretly drawing his picture.

Then, his friend Max told me that Adam was going to ask me out. Honestly, when he said that, I nearly burst out laughing. I thought I’d skipped back to kindergarten. I didn’t really take Max that seriously—until Adam showed up on the beach and started talking to me.

He didn’t seem shy, like I had expected. In fact, he wasn’t shy at all. He was the total opposite. If anything, he was overly confident but not in that annoying cocky way that some guys could be.

And I just felt strangely comfortable around him, talking to him. It was like I’d known him for a long time already, which was crazy. I felt like I could say anything to him, and it wouldn’t matter.

And I did.

“I’ll let you know.”

I almost laugh out loud at myself.

Listen to me, being evasive. I was dying to say yes.

Honestly, I would have gone out with him then and there if I hadn’t had to get home to look after Casey while Dad went out.

Dad goes out one night a week to play darts with his friend Terry. Aside from that, he doesn’t go out, so I didn’t want to let him down.

But I’m thinking, when I go to the beach later today after I finish work, I might just accept Adam’s invitation to go out. It might not turn into anything anyway, but it’s a date with a hot guy, and I haven’t had one of those in…well, never.