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Prologue
Just after five in the evening on a particularly sunny day in late August, Lola Sheridan pressed her hands over her older cousin Charlotte Montgomery’s eyes, then said, “Guess who’s coming out on the boat tonight?”
Charlotte hated it when Lola played games like that. Lola was always the charismatic, loud one, and she liked to create chaos out of nothing. Still, the love Charlotte had for her fifteen-year-old cousin led her to say, “I don’t know. Who?”
With that, Lola pulled her hands off of Charlotte’s eyes and pointed at the dock in front of them. Lola’s new boyfriend, Peter, stood next to his best friend, the handsome, broad-shouldered Jason Hamner. It was no secret among the Sheridan and Montgomery cousins that Charlotte had a pretty serious crush on Jason Hamner. They were also aware of the fact that she had been too terrified to do anything about it. They didn’t let her forget it.
“Now’s your chance,” Lola breathed excitedly.
“I don’t know,” Charlotte whispered. Her throat tightened.
“You can’t just let life pass you by, Charlotte,” Lola said. She thought she was something of an authority on the subject, especially since her mother had died in a horrible boating accident a little over three years before. “You have to take it by the horns, you know? Get what you want.”
“Did you read that in a magazine somewhere?” Charlotte asked.
Lola leaped out of Charlotte’s clunky convertible and danced toward the dock, where she hung her arms around Peter’s neck and gave him a tender kiss. Charlotte was nothing like Lola in terms of bravery, and she’d still never been kissed. She was already seventeen years old. According to her moodier cousin Christine, this was “borderline pathetic.”
Charlotte got out of the car, looked into the back and front seats to ensure nothing of value remained, and then walked toward the other three. She wore a jean miniskirt with a yellow tank top, and her long brown curls wafted down her shoulders and back, catching in the breeze. She quietly thanked Lola for demanding that she wear eyeliner and lip gloss rather than shooting for the natural look for a little stint on the boat.
“There she is. Charlotte Montgomery herself,” Peter said, grinning broadly.
“Hey,” Charlotte replied. She didn’t trust her tone. Did she sound cool enough to be among them? “Whose boat is that?”
The speed boat clunked against the dock and glittered in the gorgeous orange evening light.
“It’s mine,” Jason affirmed. “My dad just bought it.”
“Wow. It’s beautiful,” Charlotte said. She forced her eyes to meet Jason’s altogether
perfect green ones. He was just as beautiful as anyone on the TV shows she watched with her sister, Claire, and maybe even more so.
What would Claire think of her now?
They got into the speedboat. Immediately, Lola ripped off her tank top to reveal her bikini beneath. Charlotte also wore a bikini; it was just what you did on Martha’s Vineyard in the summertime. Still, she felt too awkward about just whipping off her shirt in front of Jason. She didn’t want him to think she was easy. According to her mother, this was one of the worst things to make a boy think you were.
Lola doesn’t have a mother. She can act however she wants.
The second the thoughts ran through her mind, Charlotte regretted them. It wasn’t like she wished that reality on herself, not in a million years. When Aunt Anna had passed away, the entire island had shifted. Susan had run as fast as she could away from all of them. Apparently, she already had a baby and lived an entire other life. Christine had her eyes elsewhere, as well. This was so different from what Charlotte had assumed they would do. She’d thought she would have her family around her always.
Jason started the boat’s engine and shot them out through the turquoise waters. His large hand across the steering wheel looked more like a man’s hand than a boy’s. Charlotte knew he had been dating someone back at school, but she had heard they’d broken up. Was he sad about it? Did he need to talk? Did boys ever need to talk, or were they just less emotional, made of muscle and sweat, with a love of sports?
“How was your summer, Char?” he asked suddenly.
He turned his face toward hers, and every cell in her body caught fire. They had hardly spoken, and here he was, calling her Char.
“It was okay,” she admitted. In her mind, cool girls never got too excited about anything. “What about you?”
“Ah, you know. Dad thinks it’s time I start fishing with him most mornings, so I’ve been pretty tired. The wake-up call is four in the morning. I crash
early.”
“Wow. Yeah. That’s intense,” Charlotte said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“It really is. But there’s something about the water in the mornings, you know? It’s like I get to see this whole other world that other people miss because they’re asleep,” he said.
As they spoke, Lola and Peter fell into one another’s arms and busied themselves, making out and whispering to one another. Charlotte’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.
Jason eased the boat toward the western part of the island, toward the edges of the cliffs. He then turned off the engine and released the anchor toward the bottom of the ocean. Lola moved forward and shuffled through her backpack, where she found a bottle of cheap vodka. She yanked it open, sipped just a bit, then grimaced.
“It was the best I could get,” she said with a shrug. “I snuck it out of the Sunrise Cove Inn Bistro.”
I can’t believe she did that. Uncle Wes would kill her if he knew.
“That’s hilarious,” Charlotte said, contrary to her actual thoughts.
Lola passed her the vodka, and Charlotte took the tiniest of sips. “Yum,” she said, then made a face as the liquid burned her throat.
“It’s disgusting,” Lola stated. “But whatever, it works for today.”
Charlotte sat next to Jason and gazed up at the cliffside, which caught the reflection of the brimming sunset. Peter and Jason talked about the football season, which was ramping up even now. Jason would be a senior, like Charlotte, while Peter would be a junior. It gave Charlotte every shade of panic to think about this being the last year of high school. What was she supposed to do after this? Did she have any useful skills at all?
After a few more sips of the vodka, Peter yanked off his t-shirt and jumped into the water. Lola removed her jean shorts and followed suit, yelping and flashing her long, beautiful hair behind her. She wrapped her arms
around him and dunked him, and he threw her through the air, making her crash down below.
Jason turned back toward Charlotte and said, “Do you want to swim?”
Charlotte had always been kind of nervous in the water. It wasn’t anything she could understand. She had been raised on an island, for goodness sakes, and had spent a number of days of her life on a boat.
“Sure,” Charlotte said instead. “Sounds great.”
Charlotte turned away from the others and removed her skirt and tank top. Then, she forced herself around and blinked at Jason. How were his abs even possible? They looked almost drawn on; they were so perfect.
“After you,” he said, stretching his arm toward the water.
“No, no. I insist,” she replied. “You first.”
Suddenly, his eyes became electric green. He rushed toward her, gripped her waist, and then threw her in the water like Peter did with Lola. As Charlotte careened toward the waves, her body froze. Fear shot through her. The second she entered the water, she forgot herself and inhaled a big glug of the salty liquid. Her throat filled up, and she started thrashing around, splashing. She yanked herself into the crisp air and coughed and coughed. Her throat burned. She had never been more panicked in her whole life. She felt certain she would drown.
Seconds later, she felt strong arms around her. A swimmer dragged her back toward the boat, and a firm voice commanded, “Grab the handle. Come on. Let’s get you back up.”
Charlotte did as she was told. With all her strength, she pulled herself back onto the boat and continued coughing. A large hand stretched out across her back.
“Come on. It’s okay.”
Finally, she forced her eyes open to peer into those same glorious emerald ones.
“Char! Hey! You okay?” Now she heard Lola’s voice, down in the water still. She stepped up on the boat’s ladder and peered at her cousin anxiously. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Charlotte replied. She coughed again as Jason’s hand continued to
ease up and down her naked back. “I’m so sorry. I just…”
“What! Don’t be sorry,” Jason said. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I just tossed you in the water like an idiot. I should have warned you.”
“Charlotte’s not so good about the water,” Lola affirmed.
“Gee. Thanks, Lola,” Charlotte said, even though this was 100% true.
“I didn’t know.” Jason furrowed his brow. “And I won’t do that again, okay? Let’s just stay up here. I have some not-so-bad vodka in my bag. Want a little bit?”
“Hey! Were you going to hold out on Peter and me?” Lola asked, hands-on-hips and now staring at both of them.
“I just think Charlotte and I deserve it more. We’re older, after all,” Jason said, laughing.
Charlotte took a little sip and felt her body surge with warmth. Jason wrapped a towel around both of them and huddled close to her.
“The water has always been such a big part of my life,” he confessed. “Since my dad works as a fisherman, he took me out fishing for the first time when I was three or four. I remember begging my mom to swim as early as five in the morning once. I could never get enough of it.”
“I was always so afraid,” Charlotte said. She shook her head, flashing her half-dried hair around her. “My mom never knew what to do with me. But I remember my Aunt Anna used to take pity on me, hold me up, and tell me that if I just kept kicking, she would help me the rest of the way.”
“Maybe I can help you lose your fear of the water,” Jason suggested.
“Maybe hypnosis would work,” Charlotte said with a laugh.
“Ha. We could try that if everything else doesn’t work,” Jason said.
Charlotte couldn’t believe how easy it was to talk to Jason.
The minutes ticked into hours until Peter and Lola begged for Jason to drive them
back to the dock so they could go get something to eat. When Lola and Peter dressed and ducked toward the main road, Charlotte and Jason held back and decided to get their food and eat it near the water.
“Suit yourselves,” Lola said with a shrug. Her eyes burned into Charlotte’s, demanding answers.
Charlotte wouldn’t budge.
She and Jason got burgers, fries, and milkshakes and sat on a blanket overlooking the Vineyard Sound. Jason explained a few things about his life that he’d never told anyone before, like how his mother had had such a hard pregnancy and labor with him that she hadn’t been able to have any other children. “I think it killed her,” he said. “And it’s always bothered me that maybe I was never enough for her.”
Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears. “You? You’re obviously enough.”
“I don’t know,” he said, palming the back of his neck.
Charlotte reached over and gripped his other hand. Her fingers laced through his. Her eyes became enormous.
“I’ve wanted to do this every day since I first saw you,” she whispered.
She then bridged the space between them and kissed him. Her heart thudded, and her thoughts raced as his lips opened and accepted her. His hand traced her shoulder and tugged her against him.
When their kiss broke, he whispered, “Why did you wait so long?” ...
