Another message from my dad. I was starting to feel like they were stalking me. Going back to the Hamptons held even less appeal than it had before. Wherever Avery was, I wanted to be there, and I’d figure out what to do once hockey season started. With my next payment from my trust on my birthday, I could fully fund the charities from my trust instead of my hockey salary. The team would lose the photo op, but I was sure they’d get over it.

Maybe this would be my last season playing, if I couldn’t get a transfer to Philly. Avery and I had spent enough time apart; I didn’t want to go a day more than necessary.

Avery needed to go back to work at the end of the week. From previous experience, I knew she wouldn’t take an offer to pay for her to stay too kindly, so I’d be right there with her. I could drive us back down to the beach house when she had a day off or for the weekends.

Dad: Have you thought about what day you’ll be here? It would be great to plan something special.

Me: No, I haven’t. And please don’t try to set me up with someone again. I’m not interested.

Dad: You can’t blame us for wanting the best for you.

Mom: Harold would like to discuss a few more things with you.

In that case, it would be a hard fucking pass from me. That guy gave me the creeps.

Declan walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

“Your dad again?” He cracked the bottle open then tossed the bottle opener back in the drawer.

“How’d you know?”

“You get this weird look on your face, like you’re smelling something gross but you can’t stop sniffing it.” He took a swig out of his beer.

“That sounds like the perfect way to describe it. He and my mom are being so weird, constantly texting, calling, trying to set me up with women. I don’t really understand why, but they are.”

“Parents get weird once we start growing up. My mom is already asking when Mak and I are going to make it official.” He sat on the counter.

“So when are you?”

“Not you too.” He groaned, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Honestly, I’d do it tomorrow, but Mak is the sensible one, and she wants to wait, see how things shake out with med school for her and me for the first few seasons. But, it feels right now. I want to wait for my first check, though, get her a ring she’ll need to go to the gym to wear. How—” He stopped and set his bottle down. “I’m assuming with everything that’s happened this is no longer verboten territory, but how did you know it was the right time to ask Avery to marry you?”

My head whipped around and I leaned back, glancing out the doorway of the kitchen. He tugged the fridge door open and handed me a beer.

“What? You act like you didn’t ask her to marry you every other day back then.”

I squeezed the back of my neck. “You’re right. I don’t know. I got this feeling when I was with her, like whatever we were doing, I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. It didn’t matter if we were watching TV, cooking, going for a walk, or…other things.” I let out a wolfish grin. “Whatever we were doing, I’d almost go outside myself, look at the scene, and think, yeah, I want to be doing that in fifty years. That’s when I bought the ring.”

“She never knew about that, did she?”

“No.” I shook my head, drinking down half the bottle.

“Did she give you the whole story?”

“No, she didn’t. I keep meaning to talk to her and then I let myself get distracted. I still can’t believe she didn’t tell me.”

“Mak said the same thing. She’s been telling Avery to tell you for years.”

“Mak knew this whole time Avery never cheated on me?” I slammed my bottle down and beer sprayed out of the top onto my hand and the table.

“Calm the hell down. Yes, she knew, and Avery told her not to say anything.”

“Why?”

“Hasn’t that been the question from the beginning?” He hopped off the counter at the noise from the front of the house. The girls were back. They’d driven to an outlet mall a couple of towns over. When asked to join, every one of the guys had disappeared with a cloud of smoke behind them. I’d volunteered to go, but Avery had forbidden it, probably knowing I’d have wanted to spend money on her.

I wiped up the spilled beer then followed Declan out into the living room. Olivia was holding enough bags to bring down a small elephant, Mak and Kara both had a couple of bags each, and Avery had her hands shoved in her pocket—bag-less.

Her smile brightened the second she saw me. I’d never get tired of the feelings that welled up inside me when her face lit up like that. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

“Where are your bags? Still in the car?”

She shook her head and rested her hand against my chest. “No, I didn’t get anything—and before you say a word, I don’t need anything. Who knows what apartment I’ll be in once school starts, so it’s better not to buy too many extra things I’ll have to pack.”

“You don’t have your apartment yet?”

“No. I need to start looking soon.”

“What about my place?” The chatter from everyone else in the room died in an instant.

Avery’s body went stock-still and she glanced up at me. “What?”

“What about staying at my place? You can stay there no problem, and it’s close to the bakery and school. There’s plenty of space.”

“Emmett…” Her forehead wrinkled and she looked at me like I was a head case.

“We need to have a talk.” I grabbed her hand and tugged her back into our room. Closing the door behind us, I released my grip and ran my hands through my hair. “Why did you let me believe you cheated? Why were you in the room with Fischer?” It spilled out before I could convince myself I didn’t need to know.

“I told you.”

“No, you told me I jumped to the wrong conclusions, which you did nothing to clear up. You said it hurt you when I didn’t believe you when you said nothing was happening between you two, but you never told me what the hell was really going on.”

I’d gone over that scene so many times in my head, even when I’d wished I could shut it out.

“Something was happening.” She opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “I’m not saying it was cheating. You’ve said it wasn’t and I believe you, but something was happening.” I stood in front of her.

Her throat tightened and she swallowed, staring up at me. “I was asking him for something.”

The sliver of doubt planted a seed in my gut.

“What kind of something?”

Her gaze darted away then back to mine. “Something I needed him to do. He’d caught my dad messing with his locker.”

“Your dad went into Fischer’s locker?”

“It was a misunderstanding. My dad saw something in his locker. I needed to make sure Fischer didn’t say anything about it.”

“What did your dad see?”

“It doesn’t matter. All that mattered was I needed to make sure Fischer didn’t say anything.” Her hands fisted at her sides.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why not come to me for help?”

“I didn’t need you to get mixed up in it. I was handling it.”

The image of her on her knees in front of Fischer was burned deep into my mind. I opened my mouth to say more, but she pressed her fingers to my lips and stared into my eyes, hers pleading for me to understand, or maybe to forget.

“I should have told you. I should have told you everything.” She wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me tight like she was afraid I’d blow away.

I enclosed her in my embrace and swayed with her to the imaginary music that always seemed to play whenever we touched.

“I wish you would have.” I rested my cheek against the side of her head. Her secrecy and my temper had lit the wick of our destruction. I could only hope those days were past us. Leaning back, I held her chin between my fingers. “No more secrets, Ave. You need to tell me everything, eventually, if we’re doing this, there can’t be any more secrets between us.”

“What are we doing?” The whisper-soft way her hair glided across her skin made me want to sink my fingers into it and drag my fingers along her scalp, massaging it until she moaned with pleasure.

“We’re seeing who we both are now and trying to figure out what it means for the future.” Marry me. The words were on the tip of my tongue. It was a reflex when I was near her, to say the words that would forever bind us together.

“I think that’s a good idea. Maybe you won’t like who I am anymore.” She rested her head against my shoulder.

“From what I can see, I like you even more now.” I kissed the top of her head and realized she hadn’t made the promise to me. She hadn’t promised no more secrets between us. What more could there be?

We broke apart at a sharp knock at the door. She disentangled her arms from mine and opened it.

“They’re doing fireworks down at the boardwalk. We figured we could get a good spot on the sand if we went now.” Mak had her beach chair already tucked under her arm.

“Do you want to go?” Avery looked over her shoulder.

“Yeah, let’s go. It’ll be fun.” I slipped my hand into hers and followed her down the hall and outside, where everyone was already assembled.

“To the beach.” Olivia motioned everyone forward like a scout on a mission, and we made the short trek down the path and past the dunes. In the distance, seagulls circled the boardwalk, dive-bombing unsuspecting people and trying to snag their slice of pizza, funnel cake, or fries. The humidity had gone down from the daytime and the breeze off the water ruffled Avery’s hair. Things had cooled down a little, so she had on a zippered sweatshirt—my sweatshirt. Her fingers barely peeked out from beyond the ends of the sleeves. I wanted to see her in more of my clothes and preferably nothing else. She laughed at something Kara said and tucked her hair behind her ear.

I shoved my hand into my pocket, grabbed what I was looking for. Stretching the hair band between my fingers, I showed it to her, letting the nearby lights catch it.

She turned to look at it and smiled. Her eyes twinkled with amusement.

“I could kiss you right now.” She jumped in front of me and walked backward.

“Then why don’t you?”

She put her hair up then threw her arms around my neck. I lifted her up and wrapped her legs around my waist.

“Seriously guys, not in front of me—you know Colm will have an aneurysm and die from shock if you do.” Olivia threw bits of ice at us to ward off our tawdry display.

I carried her over to our staked-out patch of beach. Setting up our spots, Colm and Ford passed out hot dogs they’d grilled earlier.

“Who wants a drink?” Heath whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Kara whispered back.

“Because there’s no booze allowed on the beach. I’ve got margaritas on the rocks, rum and cokes, and beers, but you’ll have to pour them out of the cans and into a cup.”

“I’ll have a margarita,” Olivia whisper-shouted, her hand shooting up.

Colm grabbed her arm and stuck it down by her side. “Soda. She’ll have a soda or a water.”

I leaned back against one of the coolers, and Avery sat between my legs with her back resting against my chest. It was reminiscent of a hike we’d taken between junior and senior year.

“Do you remember that Fourth of July hike we took?”

“I was just thinking the same thing. We watched the fireworks and you were sitting just like this. Alyson was there with her own little blanket.”

She leaned back and held on to my arms, wrapping them across her chest. “That was always my favorite Fourth of July. It was the first time she’d ever tasted brie.”

“Don’t you mean the fuzzy, gross cheese?” I laughed. Alyson had nearly run screaming from the picnic basket when she’d spotted it.

“You got her to give it a shot. She still loves that stuff. I had to ban her from more than a block a month. We were going through crackers and brie like they were the last foods on Earth.”

“I’m glad she acquired a taste for it. Maybe I can send her a basket of it at school. How’s she doing?”

“Good. She’s finally at least attempting to call me a few times a week, though it’s not the every day she promised before she left. Her prep program has started and she said all the work they have them doing seems so much easier than Rittenhouse, so that’s good. She’ll come out of the summer with six credits, but she’s determined to take a full course load.”

“She’s an amazing kid.”

Avery tilted her head back and stared back at me. “Yeah, I know.” Her small smile didn’t hide how proud she was.

“You’ve done a good job raising her. I know I didn’t get it back then, didn’t understand why you always took on the burden when your dad was there, but I get it now. Your dad wasn’t the most responsible.”

I thought back to all the times she’d gotten a call that Alyson needed to be picked up or something had been forgotten. Without thought, she’d be up and doing whatever was needed. I hadn’t understood. How could I?

It was only me growing up, and the one set of people who should have given me unconditional love had barely tolerated my existence. Worse than that, they’d ignored it. Without siblings, I had no meter by which to measure what the hell a real loving family looked like. All I’d known was Alyson had been sitting right there between me and my time with Avery, sometimes literally.

She stopped rubbing her hand against my arm. “She’s not a burden. She’s my sister. And yeah, I didn’t want to be attending parent-teacher conferences and putting together models of the solar system late at night when she forgot she had an assignment due, but if I hadn’t, no one else would have.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe I hadn’t really known her, but I was determined to now. I didn’t want another day to go by without me knowing the real Avery Davis.