The storm had cleared by the next morning.

Walking down the main street of Point Mambie, I stepped over a puddle and sighed. Everything was empty. The road, the shops, my heart—everything.

“Hey Juni!” a thick-accented voice shouted. “What’s shakin’, babe!”

Turning, I smirked at Hugo, who was leaning his head out the window of Rizzo’s Pizza Bar. His apron was smeared with tomato sauce and his black, curly hair was in more disarray than usual. It could only mean one thing—he’d been inventing again.

“What’s on the menu today?” I asked, leaning against the siding.

“Leftover surprise,” he said with a grin. “Wanna try some?” He slapped a slice of something pizza-shaped onto a paper plate and thrust it towards me. “Mozzarella, olives, chicken, ham, egg, onion, capsicum, pineapple, and pepperoni, all on a crusty base with Rizzo’s world famous tomato sauce. Mmm...” He sniffed the air. “Smells good, huh?”

“You really need to work on the name.” He and Vanessa were a match made in heaven if you asked me. They were just the right amount of crazy to be complimentary.

“I could call it ‘The Lot.’”

“There you go, better already.” I glanced at the pizza and wrinkled my nose. It wasn’t the only thing he needed to work on. “Well, I’ve gotta get back to the shop.”

“Hey, if you see Ness, tell her to swing by for a taste.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes and laughed. “I’m so not saying that to her.”

“Later, Juni.”

I waved and made my way down the footpath towards the Page Break Bookshop, wondering what I should do with the slice of pizza. Throwing a look over my shoulder, I saw Hugo had disappeared back inside.

“Juniper.”

My heart fluttered and I turned, my gaze smacking right into the mystery beach guy, Sebastian. I’d thought he would’ve already blown through town, chased by yesterday’s storm, but here he was, all broody and smouldering. I stood awkwardly, my tongue tied in more ways than one.

He looked a little more rumpled and less fancy with his knit navy jumper hugging his broad chest and his torn, black jeans tucked into his sloppy combat boots. He smiled, and his dusky brown hair fell into his eyes. Oh fuck, his eyes.

I was melting despite the cold, and my hands began to tremble, the pizza dangerously close to falling onto the footpath.

I swallowed hard before squeaking, “Hey. I, uh, I didn’t recognise you without the beanie.”

“It’s not as cold today.”

“Nope...” Good one, Juniper. Crash and burn.

Sebastian raked a hand through his messy locks and glanced at the pizza in my hand. “Nice breakfast.”

“Ah, that’s an upset stomach waiting to happen.” I grimaced and tossed the paper plate and its contents into the closest bin. “The guys at the pizza shop have a thing for experimentation.”

“At this hour?”

“It seems to keep them out of trouble.”

We stared at one another, neither one of us knowing what to say. Was he shy? By the looks of him, he didn’t seem the type. I mean, guys who look like perfection sculpted from marble never had problems scoring in social situations. Didn’t they?

“So, what’s going on?” I said breaking the silence. “I thought you would’ve been on the road to someplace better by now.”

He gave me a quizzical look. “What makes you say that?”

“Point Mambie isn’t exactly the place people stick around in.”

“You stuck,” he noted.

“Out of necessity.”

“So you’d rather go someplace else?”

Our conversation was starting to tread in the too personal column and I shrugged.

“I’m going to hang around for a while,” he said, offering me an explanation. A vague one, but at least it was something. “I need some quiet.”

The trembling in my hands moved to my heart, but not before taking a detour between my legs. “Well, you’ll get a lot of that around here.”

“No Ziggy this morning?”

Thinking about the moment we met on the beach, I flushed. “He’s, uh, with his real mum today.” I glanced down the street, wondering why I was such a freak. “I’ve got to get to work.”

“Sure.” He looked a little disappointed and the fluttering in my chest intensified. “Hopefully I’ll see you around.”

I smiled awkwardly, wishing I had half the confidence Vanessa had. If my wiring wasn’t all scrambled, maybe I would’ve asked him out to lunch or talked about more interesting things than a dog who loved to bodysurf. But Sebastian had said hopefully...

Turning, I strode the five meters to the bookshop and pushed the door. The bell rang above my head and the sound of Ziggy’s tail thumping against the counter mixed with my irregular heartbeat. Chaos. Utter chaos.

“You need to talk to your husband,” I said to Vanessa as I shucked off my coat. “He’s determined to give half the Point food poisoning.” When she didn’t reply, I turned to find her frowning at me with her hands welded onto her hips. “What?”

“Don’t walk in here like all that outside was nothing,” she stated.

“I threw the pizza into the bin, any sane person would’ve.” I screwed up my nose and leaned down to scratch Ziggy behind the ears.

“Fuck the pizza!” she exclaimed. “I saw who you were talking to!”

I straightened up and the trembling returned. I was already crushing on him, and we’d only had two awkward conversations totalling about ten minutes. Sebastian, the mystery guy who was an enigma all wrapped up in one sexy as fuck package. It was like he didn’t know how to talk to people and me... Well, I was just waiting for the moment he left. Everyone did sooner or later, just ask my dad.

“He was just some guy I ran into on the beach yesterday,” I said. “I guess he’s looking to stay a couple of days.”

“Some guy?” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “You’re clueless, you know that?”

“Why are you mad at me?” I demanded. It was way too early for an existential crisis.

“That guy is Sebastian Hale,” she stated. When I shrugged she flapped her arms in the air. “The Sebastian Hale.”

“Good for him?”

“Juniper!” she shrieked.

“What?”

“Sebastian Hale is the lead singer of the hottest rock band in the entire fucking world, Beneath. How could you not know this?”

I screwed up my nose, not understanding the hype. “I don’t listen to the radio?”

“Ugh, you’re impossible. Give that man a guitar and a microphone and he’ll make you cream in your undies.”

“That guy?” I glanced out the window for another look to verify Vanessa’s outrageous claims, but Sebastian was gone. Pressing my nose against the glass, I couldn’t see him down the footpath either.

“Yes, that guy!”

“I mean, he’s good-looking, but he didn’t induce an orgasm.” It was a blatant lie because I’d felt my undies quiver.

“You thought about it, admit it!”

I narrowed my eyes and turned away from the window. “A little.”

“Open your heart a little, Juniper. It wouldn’t hurt to spread those legs a bit, either.”

“Vanessa!”

“Do me a favour and stop pretending. You were crushing all over him.”

I glanced at Ziggy, but he’d gone back to sleep. Traitor.

“I’m not a groupie,” I said. “If he’s some hot rock star guy, then getting tangled up with him is the last thing I should be doing. Musicians are bad news.”

Vanessa sighed and leaned against the counter. “Not all musicians are going to throw themselves off cliffs, you know.”

I ignored her and tidied the stack of books that needed to be photographed before listing them for sale online. It was a nervous gesture to disguise the fact my heart was in overdrive. A guy like that, interested in a nobody like me? Definitely not in the long-term kind of way. Short term? I felt sick. I never understood how people could sleep around, sharing bodily fluids like it was nothing. Was that Sebastian’s gig? Did he play music as well as women?

“He’s the guy who rented the beach house,” I said, putting two and two together. “If he’s here, then he wants to be alone. Guys with profiles like that like their privacy. You can’t tell anyone he’s here, Ness.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” she said with a wicked smile.

“What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what you think it means.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“You’re hopeless, Juniper Rowe.” She clucked her tongue and raked her fingers through her blonde locks, fixing her braid.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “We’ve already established that.”

The name Beneath sounded kind of familiar. The laptop sat beside me and I glanced at it, the screen conveniently open on a new browser page.

“I’m going to search for him on YouTube,” Vanessa declared as if she could read my mind. She lunged towards the laptop and I snapped it closed.

“No way!”

“Juniper!”

“I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.”

She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why not?”

“With my dad, it was a persona,” I explained, gesturing towards the computer. “All that is smoke and mirrors. It’s clever editing. It’s autotune and producing. It’s a product, not a person.”

“Then go find out who he is.”

I froze. It was a simple enough statement, but the thought of following through terrified me. “And that’s why you’re still here, captaining a sinking ship,” Vanessa muttered, picking up the digital camera.

Tears pricked in my eyes and I sank into the chair behind the counter. Everything rushed at me and I began to crack under the pressure. My dwindling bank account, the declining sales, the depression that came with impending financial ruin—not to mention all the personal stuff I was shoving into the background.

“Oh, Juni... I’m sorry,” Vanessa cried, her expression falling. “I didn’t mean—”

“You’re right.” I dabbed my eyes with the cuff of my jumper. “The ship is sinking.”

“You’re a fighter, though. Don’t forget that.”

“Yeah...” But being a fighter didn’t pay the bills. I picked up the first book on the pile and leaned it against the exposed brick wall behind me. “Let’s throw out a few floaties, huh?”

Vanessa smiled and aimed the camera. “We’ll have the sexiest used books on the internet. People will be begging for more.”

I admired her enthusiasm, but as I glanced out the window at the empty street beyond, I couldn’t help but wonder was the end in sight for the Point Break Bookshop?