Chapter 1

Waking up with a warm body pressed against me wasn't all that unusual, but when it came with the disapproving scowl from my mother from the doorway? Yeah, that was different. I hadn't meant to bring anyone home with me last night, especially now that I was back at my parents' house, but this girl wouldn't let me turn her down. What was her name again? Giselle? Gretchen? Something with a ‘G'. Whoever she was screeched and clutched the sheet to her chest, bolting upright after she spotted my mom.

"Relax, sweety. It's not anything I haven't seen before. Nathan, when your guest leaves, we need to talk."

Mom walked out of the room, and my bed partner for the night glared at me before climbing out of the bed to hunt down her clothes. "You live with your parents?"

I dragged my hand down my face as she pulled a pair of lacy panties over her round ass. Maybe it was a little pathetic to live with my parents, but after graduating last month with my degree from The University of Washington, the job market hadn't exactly been booming. I had to make a choice. Either take a job doing something in no way related to the degree I just spent four years working my ass off to get and barely scrape by, or I could move back in with my parents until I could get something on my chosen career path. Wasn't computer programming supposed to be an up-and-coming field?

Last night was a blur. I couldn't even really remember what happened when we got back here.

I climbed out of bed, grabbed a clean pair of boxers from my dresser, and tugged them on just as last night's hookup yanked her shirt over her head. She pulled her blonde hair into a messy bun on top of her head, and then crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at me. When I didn't bother to acknowledge her, she huffed before stomping out of the room. She wasn't worth my energy, anyway. The fact that I still couldn't recall her name spoke volumes about how memorable the encounter had been.

"Nathan!"

The front door slammed, and I winced as my mother called for me. I knew she wouldn't be happy about me bringing strangers into their home. I'd kept my nose clean for the month I'd been back, but they had already warned me about partying once. I was about to get an earful.

I'd just slid on a pair of basketball shorts when my little brother Aiden slipped into the room. Little was an understatement. We were four years apart, but he was as tall as me, at six foot one. At eighteen, he was getting ready to start at the UW in the fall. He was intent on following in my footsteps, and I wished I could talk him out of college.

"Mom's pissed. Who the hell was that?"

I held back a laugh as I brushed past Aiden and stepped into the hall. "Fuck if I remember."

My brother chuckled and shoved my shoulder. "That's horrible, man. How do you do that? Just sleep with them and not even bother to learn their name?"

I shrugged as we rounded the corner to the kitchen. Mom leaned against the island in the middle of the room, tapping her fingers against her elbows. She motioned for Aiden to leave us alone. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before leaving her to rip me a new one.

I pulled out a stool and sat next to Mom. There was a basket of fruit in the middle of the island, and I snatched a banana and peeled it while Mom stared a hole into the side of my head. I didn't know what she wanted me to say, so if she wanted to talk to me about bringing that girl back here, she was going to have to start the conversation.

"You can't bring people back here like that," she finally said.

There it was. "It won't happen again."

She huffed and sat on a stool next to me. "Nathan, what exactly is your plan? You haven't even looked for a job since you've been back."

My eyebrows shot into my hairline as I looked at her. That was a joke, right? I'd been applying online almost daily. "I have! Despite my efforts, no one is giving me the time of day."

Her fingers drummed on the counter before she reached for an apple from the basket. She rolled it between her hands while she thought about what she wanted to say. "Will you not be satisfied with anything other than that? Those student loan payments are going to be due soon."

When I applied for those loans, she'd made it very clear that I would be paying them back on my own. My parents did alright, but not enough to keep themselves, Aiden, and me afloat after graduation.

"I just don't think I should have to settle. What was the point in the last four years if I'm not going to use my degree?"

The apple rolled back and forth between her hands a few more times as the words hung heavy between us. We'd had this conversation before, so I knew what was coming next. Without fail, it dropped.

"Are you really going to just sit around the house for the summer, waiting for something to come your way? Party it up with your friends?"

"Mom, that's not—"

"You have been doing exactly that."

After finishing the last few bites of my banana, I pondered about what she was hinting at. I couldn't think of what else I could do.

"This isn't like back in middle school. It's not like I can go mow lawns for the summer."

Man, if looks could kill, Mom would have had me strung up by my damn toes.

"Sure, you mowed lawns in middle school. Back in high school, you used to love going out and helping your uncle Drew with his properties at the beach."

My gut twisted at the mention of those summers. Memory after memory slammed into me. All the parties and nights spent fucking around at the jetty. Then there was him. The one person I swore I'd never let down, but I'd done it, anyway. Nah, I couldn't go back there. Of course, there was no guarantee that he was even still hanging around. Four years was a long-ass time to be holding on to hope that your summer fling would come back for you.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Mom sat back, her eyebrows raised as she looked around the kitchen. "Well, unless you've got a better idea, Drew could really use your help, especially since his health hasn't been the greatest lately."

Acid churned in my stomach, and the banana was about to make a reappearance. Mom placed a hand on my forehead because I must have turned green or something. It was so stupid. You couldn't avoid a whole stupid town because of a broken promise.

"Are you okay, Nathan? Jesus, this is why you need to cut back on those dumb parties." Mom got up, grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, and brought it to me.

The cool bottle in my hands brought me back to the present as my mind wandered to sandy beaches, warm skin, and first kisses—back when I'd been too afraid of who I was. Go figure no one had judged me when I worked up the balls to say something. "I'm fine. I didn't even have that much to drink last night, but I still don't think it's a good idea to go help Uncle Drew."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's a shame. I already told him you would."

The floor dropped out from under me. I could easily tell my mom that I couldn't do it, but it was another thing to tell her brother that I wouldn't. He'd been one of my favorite people growing up and there was a reason I'd loved spending summers out at the shore with him, even before he bought up all those properties. "That's playing dirty."

She laughed as she walked out of the kitchen, and her voice carried down the hall as she went into the living room. "You forced my hand, Nathan. I said no hookups. You brought them here anyway."

Fuck me for being a horny bastard, because she wasn't wrong. And now I just hoped that Chase hadn't hung around Ocean Shores and had moved on with his life.