15. Jasper Ridge

15

Jasper Ridge

I had never hated the universe more than I did when I found out that Daniel had hired Poppy behind my back. The slimy bastard . He knew I couldn’t stand her, and he did it anyway. Isa had always preached about how we should put aside our differences and work together, but I shut that down every time she brought it up.

Poppy and I would never ever be friends.

I didn’t think she saw me, but I saw her this morning down at the beach up to her waist in the salty water. She looked so fucking small and scared—it made me want to find whoever made her feel like that and dig them an early grave. She was so frail and thin now, never meeting my eyes down the street— or anyone’s , for that matter.

She used to be so confident in who she was, and fuck, it was amazing to see her so unbothered by everything. Granted, I didn’t do much to help the situation…but I did ge t suspended a few times for fighting my classmates for picking on her the year she left without a word. The teachers didn’t give a fuck about how badly they were treating her or the things they said about her, so I made sure everyone knew to keep their mouths shut around her or they’d deal with a whole load of shit from Sonny and I.

Lia wanted to help too but she was so quiet then that no one really noticed her in class. Even the girls that fawned over Jakson weren’t jealous of her because they didn’t even see her as worthy enough to compete with.

Still, Jakson always sent the girls away if even her micro-expressions changed to show a hint of discomfort. That was just who he was. Even though, according to the rumors, he fucked his way through the school, I knew it was all just an act to keep himself away from her because he was so scared of ruining the friendship he had built with her.

When I confronted him about it years ago, he looked at me like he wanted to beat me to death. I stopped pushing him about his situation with Lia, never really bringing it up again. He knew if he hurt her in any way, I would murder him and then murder his ghost repetitively after that. But to my surprise, he agreed with me, saying that if he did end up breaking her heart, he deserved to have that happen to him.

That alone earned him some respect from me.

I remembered Lia once telling me that she and Sonny were just a part of different worlds, people from opposite sides of the train tracks. That anything other than friends with him just wasn’t in the cards for someone like her.

After middle school, Sonny and I were supposed to go our separate ways, but I managed to pull a scholarship to the Elite Academy out of my ass and every year that followed up until now.

Lia was also set to attend Hawthorne Hills High. Surprisingly, I had no idea how she managed to get accepted to the Elite Academy, but she started there in the winter after transferring out of Hawthorne Hills High. I always suspected something had happened to her in those months all alone but Lia never brought it up, so I never pushed.

I had a sneaking suspicion that her transfer, in fact, had everything to do with a certain Calloway, but it wasn’t a subject I pushed with either of them. Over the years, I’d learnt to stay clear of their complex friendship. I didn’t even think it was something I could understand even if they did tell me. It seemed to work for them, whatever it was they were doing, and so long as they were happy, that was enough for me.

The cookbooks piled up in my hands were covered in so much dust it was impossible to go three minutes without sneezing. Since I usually crashed at Jakson’s place, it would’ve normally only taken me around half an hour to get to Lia’s but because I was at home, it only took me a walk down the driveway to next door. Her mom and mine were best friends in college and moved to the same town next door to each other. They had this idea of raising their kids together and having them get married so they could be like sisters.

B unluckily for them, that was never going to happen. Lia and I were best friends, and I loved her like my own little sister. She felt the same and that was all it was ever going to be between us.

Just as I was about to knock, the door flung open, and my heart stopped beating. Lia stood in the entrance with a screaming Hudson on her hip, her eyes red and swollen with fresh tears and her cheeks split open and heavily bruised.

“Lia—”

“Don’t,” she snapped, voice hoarse and quiet.

I gulped, the sound so loud you could’ve heard it.

I will not punch her parents, I will not start a fight, I will not make it worse. I will not punch her parents, I will not start a fight, I will not make it worse. I will not punch her parents, I will not start a fight, I will not make it worse.

I repeated the words over and over again in my head like a mantra until my vision wasn’t burning red.

“What can I do?”

She exhaled a shaky breath. “Just…” A tear fell down her cheek and she winced as it trickled over the open cut. “Just help me get them out of the house.”

I nodded before taking Hudson out of her arms and bounced him. He wailed and screamed like the world was ending and it broke my heart.

None of the Davis siblings deserved this.

None of them .

Lia disappeared beyond the hall. I cooed at Hudson and started humming the melody to T eardrops on my guitar . I liked the debut songs and Lia was convinced that Taylor was going to release a new album soon. I swear, she went on and on about all these tumblr theories about ten times a day. Jakson and I always listened—it was important to her, so it was important to us too.

She had been looking after her siblings by herself since as long as I could remember. Lia Davis became what she had to become to make sure her siblings had a childhood where hope and magic existed. There was no other future for her than giving up her own life to ensure that they had a chance to live theirs.

She was the most selfless, most compassionate person I’d ever met, and she’d saved them all from the monsters inside her own home more times than I could count…but who was there to save her?

“ There ,” I whispered, smoothing down a few messy strands of hair. “Uncle Jas makes the bad things go away.”

I lost my balance as two little blonds came crashing through the door and grasped onto my legs for dear life.

“Hey guys,” I smiled down at them, ruffling each of their hairs, too. I crouched down so I could be on their level, keeping a tight grip on Hudson.

“Uncle Jas,” Logan sniffled, wiping his sleeve across his face. “The monsters came back.”

“You have to get them!” Lucas whispered, tugging at my shirt. “Please.”

Both of their scared, tearful expressions made my chest tighten.

They needed me to be strong for them so I would be fucking strong.

They deserved that much.

“Hey,” I pulled them both into my chest and alternated between gently drawing small patterns on their backs. “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

I felt Logan nod softly against my chest, but Lucas seemed hesitant like he knew that I was utterly powerless in this situation. The kid was fucking four years old, he shouldn’t have to grow up scared of every person he saw.

“Now, where are my little soldiers?”

Lucas stepped out of my embrace and nodded quietly .

“Here!” Logan beamed as he nodded at me, putting his hand against his forehead to salute to me.

“I can’t hear you!”

“Here!” they both chanted in unison. I broke out into a small laugh, smiling at them, and they soon followed, laughing and smiling along. Even little Hudson was smiling up at me, his fingers fiddling with the fabric of my top. Seeing their smiles was more of a reward than winning this year’s surfing championship.

Lia and Belle appeared in the doorway.

“I saw what he did to you. He’s a big, fat bully and you let him!”

The twins gasped and Logan covered his ears, almost instinctively. Lucas just silently watched them argue, his small brows drawn and his lips slightly trembling like he was stopping himself from crying. Lia’s face went cold and distant, and I knew Belle had gone too far. Lia already felt like she wasn’t enough for her siblings, yet alone herself, the last thing she needed was to hear the words from her eight-year-old sister’s mouth.

“Lia, why don’t you start walking with the boys and I’ll stay back for a minute with Belle.”

Her glossy eyes looked at mine after a minute, but there was nothing normal about them—she was already crawling deep into her own mind and if I didn’t get her to Jakson’s soon, he might not be able to pull her back out.

She was in shock, and her way of processing everything was to bury and ignore it, but when these incidents happened, she buried herself—she burrowed so deep inside her own mind it was like she was a ghost, barely responsive to anything. She’d wrap her arms around herself and rock back and forth for hours on end trying to piece together everything inside her mind, turning over each scenario a thousand different times.

Walking over, Lia picked Hudson up and rested him on her hip as she told the twins to hold hands together as she held on tightly to Logan’s. Belle huffed, watching her siblings walk down the drive and onto the pavement.

“Now you,” I frowned softly. I wasn’t mad at her, how could I be? I just needed her to know that she couldn’t speak like that to Lia. That girl had done everything for everyone since their oldest brother Gabriel disappeared.

“Don’t hit me, please. I’m sorry I didn’t mean it, I promise!” She squeezed her eyes shut and caved in on herself, bracing her body for the hit she expected to come…but never did.

Slowly, I walked up to her and sat down beside her on the porch steps. She peaked out through her fingers covering her eyes before lowering them, confused. The expression on her face was fear in its purest form and it made me want to vomit.

I put my hands gently on my lap, one resting against each thigh so she could easily see them. “I’m not going to hurt you, Bells. Ever. You know that, right?”

“But—but I thought…that’s what everyone does. When you’re mad, you hit. That’s how it goes.” She stopped herself from speaking anymore, clenching her fists and biting down on her bottom lip to stop herself from crying.

“It’s okay to cry,” I whispered, loud enough that she would’ve been able to hear it. “Sometimes being strong is knowing when to be weak, Bells. You don’t have to do this all on your own, okay? You have me, and Uncle Jak, and all your siblings. We’re all here for you.”

“But—but crying is bad. It makes you weak. I don’t want to be weak.” Her voice broke and she turned away from me, ashamed. “He says I’m weak, Jas.”

“I’m going to touch your face, okay? I’m not going to hit you, I promise.” I slowly lifted my finger under her chin and turned it towards me so I could see her face. There was a small cut beside her eye and a small dot of blood above it. I could fucking bury those bastard parents of hers and not feel an inch of guilt about it. “You are anything but weak, do you hear me? You are so strong Bells. So fricken strong.”

“Stronger than you?” she whispered.

I nodded, feeling tears form in my own eyes, but instead of fighting them, I let them fall. She watched as they dripped down my cheeks with an expression I could decipher. I needed her to know it was okay. It was so fucking okay to cry.

“So much stronger than me.” I smiled, wiping the tears from my cheeks, “and don’t tell him, but you’re even stronger than Uncle Jak.”

Her face lit up at my words. “Really?”

“Oh yeah, big time.”

Just seeing the way her expression changed from fearful to lighting up like the fucking sun made my heart ache so loudly I could hear it pounding in my ears.

She was such a good kid, and she deserved none of this.

“I’m going to tell him you said that.” She beamed at me, wiping her own eyes.

I gasped exaggeratedly, my hand shooting to cover my heart like I was in trenches of pain with her betrayal. “How could you do me in like that Bells? I thought we were friends!”

She laughed and my god did the sound soothe every nerve in my body.

“You’re still my favorite.” She sighed.

“Yeah?” I smiled at her, nudging her side. “You’re my favorite, too.”

She shot up onto her feet, holding her hand out to me. “Does this mean I can come to movie night?”

I chuckled, taking her hand and standing. “We’ll give Jakson our best, most extra cute puppy eyes when we get there so he can’t say no. Let’s practice. Let me see those gorgeous eyes, princess.”

She flashed her cute little puppy eyes at me and good fucking luck to Jakson saying no to those. I gave her a high five. “That’s my girl. Now come on, let’s go.”

I bent down and she climbed up my back onto my shoulders. As we walked, she made me stop a few times so she could admire and sniff the colorful flowers along the way. She picked a few of them and tried to braid them into my hair like in Rapunzel as she hummed along to some of her favorite songs as she braided.

I asked her about the surf lessons and how she liked them. I’d been giving her some extra lessons after her main classes along with Juniper and Pepe. Lia was the one who suggested I ask Belle to be a part of the scheme to help kids be more confident with water safety and the ocean. She cared for her sister more than she’d ever know.

Belle rambled on about how she liked being out on the waves and damn if I didn’t feel a little bit proud that she liked being out there on the water as much as me. She talked about Juniper and Pepe and how they’re now all best friends.

“Poppy’s nice too. She let me take charge like a real princess.”

My brows scrunched as I forced myself to keep walking. “Oh, did she?”

“Hmm. She told me to go and check everyone had sunblock on and Juni didn’t, so I put some on her shoulders and back like you do for me and she did the rest of her body. I told everyone not to look at her because I didn’t want her to feel embarrassed.”

I smiled. “Sounds like you did an amazing job, Bells.”

“Yes sir!”

As we neared Jakson’s house, my thoughts couldn’t help but wonder back to Poppy. I didn’t know she talked to Belle yesterday, or any of the other kids in my class for that matter.

Guilt pooled in my stomach as I remembered how I snapped at her. She didn’t deserve that. On the waves, we were anything but friendly, but I guessed on land we could at least be civil. Or as close to that as we could get. I had yet to see her on the waves, though—either she had a secret sweet spot that I had no idea about, or she hadn’t surfed since she came back to town.

Bile rose in my throat at the thought, but I swallowed it down. No , there was no way in hell she stopped surfing. That wasn’t her—she wasn’t a quitter.

When we reached Jakson’s driveway and walked through the gates, Belle climbed off my shoulders and sprinted up the road. Sonny appeared at the door, his arms wide open to receive the fast brunette girl charging his way. She jumped up into his arms and he whisked her around, laughing along with her.

“There she is!” he grinned, setting her down on the floor. I walked through the door and shut it behind me. Jakson shot me a pained look and I shrugged, a matching expression hidden on my own face. I assured him the first time when it was just Lia and Belle who we’d snuck over that it wasn’t exactly kidnapping because they came willingly, but he wasn’t completely convinced.

Even now, I still thought he was scared of what their parents would do—not to him, of course. Jakson didn’t care what happened to himself so long as Lia was okay. She was the one he was scared for.

Belle tugged at Jakson’s fingers, and he smiled and let her lead him into the playroom. It started as one of many spare rooms but after the first incident, he had it renovated so that he had a place that would make Belle feel more comfortable.

If I had to guess, that’s where Logan and Lucas would be. Probably playing with the cool pretend kitchen and shopkeeper stall dressed up as knights or Captain America. Jakson had countlessly tried to convince them that Star Wars was much cooler than Marvel, but they were having none of it. Apparently, Captain America was much cooler than Darth Vader and Kenobi. My smugness was unmatched whenever they dressed up as Marvel characters for Halloween.

As Jakson disappeared, I walked over to where Lia was standing in the kitchen. Hudson was sat on the island in front of her and her arms rested either side of his body, caging him in. She was making funny faces at him, and he was giggling along with her. Her eyes found mine and her shoulders relaxed, dropping down.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You sure you’re okay?”

She gave me a small, weak nod. “I’m fine.”

Lia was anything but fine.

Right now wasn’t the time to dive into that riptide, so I just grabbed some of the plastic cups from the cupboard above her head. I instinctively placed my fingers over the sharp corner in case she stood up too fast and caught her head on it.

Taking out three cups and a beaker, I set them down on the counter. Two I filled with warm chocolate milk and one with strawberry, and then the beaker with plain milk. I handed Lia the beaker and picked the other cups up in my hand. I nudged her shoulder as I walked by and she smiled back at me, a grateful expression in her eyes. I returned the smile as I walked down the hall.

As I pushed open the playroom door with my foot, I dodged the attack of the Davis twins. They were playfully hitting my legs with foam swords and Thor’s foam hammer Jakson won at a fair a few years ago.

“I surrender! I surrender!” I cried out raising my hands in surrender, careful to not let any of the drinks spill.

The twins cheered and high-fived each other, laughing at my expense but I didn’t care. They were laughing—I didn’t care who it was at, it was just so fucking nice to hear them happy after what they had to witness.

“Okay, that’s enough hitting Uncle Jas.” I said, narrowing my gaze at them. Lucas stepped half a step backwards instinctively and I quickly softened my gaze. Wow Jasper . “Now who have I been captured by?”

“CAPTAIN AMERICA!” Logan yelled at me, whacking my legs softly with Thor’s hammer. I placed the cups down on the small table and looked down at him suspiciously.

“Are you sure?” I said as I picked him up and spun him in my arms. “Because I think that’s Thor’s hammer.”

He laughed and the sound was the greatest reward.

“Okay, okay, okay!” he giggled. I set him down on the floor and he didn’t stop laughing.

“Well for great ambush techniques, I think amazing soldiers deserve a reward, don’t you?”

Logan’s eyes lit up as I said the words, but Lucas still eyed me with suspicion. I took the drinks off the table and handed Logan the chocolate one.

“One chocolate milk for you,” I smiled, handing him the drink. I turned to Lucas and gave him the strawberry one. “And one strawberry for you.”

“I don’t like strawberries,” he said, thrusting it back into my hands and crossing his arms across his chest. “It sucks just like you. Just like all of you.”

I frowned. “Lucas, what did we say about lying?”

“That it is bad.” Logan chipped, but the words came out muffled with a rim of chocolate coating his mouth. He looked so fricken cute.

I smiled at Logan and nodded. “Exactly.”

“But no one tells dad off for lying. Or mom. He hits when we tell the truth, and he hits when we lie so what’s the point?”

Logan’s eyes immediately turned to mine coated in worry.

“He isn’t here now, okay? Inside Uncle Jak’s castle is safe, remember? No monsters can get within these walls. You helped us on that first day to follow the gate around the house and make sure that there were no broken parts. We checked under every bed together to make sure there was no way they could hide their asses under there. And we had that pillow fight too, and you two superheroes completely wrecked me and Uncle Jak. So, when you’re here, you don’t have to worry. And anyway, who are the strongest soldiers?”

“WE ARE!” Logan cheered, standing up at lightning speed. His drink fell from his hands and splattered all down his clothes and began soaking into the carpet. Lucas instantly put himself between me and Logan, his eyes sharp and narrowed at me. It made my fucking heart break that he thought I would hurt them .

“ Oops ,” Logan whispered, staring down at the mess on his clothes.

“Hey, that’s okay, soldier. We’re going to have to put Captain America to bed now in the washing machine. He and his friends have a mission in an underwater base that has been taken over by the bad guys!”

Lucas’s frame relaxed slightly at my words but when I asked if I could have the costume, he nodded and stepped besides his brother. I smiled at him, thanking him with a nod. I undid the velcro at the back of the suit and tugged it off Logan, replacing it with his clothes from before.

“Do you want to help Captain America with the mission soldiers?”

Logan nodded and padded off into the kitchen. I turned my gaze to Lucas. “Are you okay, Lucs?”

He hesitated a minute before nodding.

“Thank you,” he whispered so quietly I almost missed it before following his brother into the kitchen. I followed behind them and lifted them both up onto the counter. Lia and Hudson were sat on the couch. I couldn’t see what they were watching from here but from the intro alone, I knew it was One Tree Hill.

“Right soldiers, who wants to do the honors?”

Logan shot his hand up into the air and I lifted him down so he could open the washing machine. He threw the costume into it and slammed the door. I gave him a high-five after.

“Well done, buddy,” I cheered as I lifted him back up next to his brother. I threw in all the other washing and detergents before pressing which cycle I wanted, letting it start.

Before I could say anything more, music from the beauty and the beast prologue started. I looked over to the stairs, the twins copying my movement, to see Belle walk down them in her yellow sparkly dress from the movie. I think it was Xander who got it for her for Christmas last year. He, like all of us, was wrapped around her tiny little finger.

I whistled and Lia beamed at her sister. The twins giggled and clapped, and I think I heard Hudson coo too.

What happened next had me in tears. No one other than Jakson Calloway himself walked out the door and held his hand for her to take. He guided Belle into the living room, and I picked up the twins to go and sit on the couch with Lia. Jakson gave me his phone, which was open on the soundtrack playlist downloaded on his Spotify account. I nodded, accepting my job as the music guy and thankfully got all my cues right thanks to Sonny shooting me a death glare.

For the next two hours, we all watched beauty and the beast (Belle and Jakson’s version). Belle was such a little actress, singing all the songs word for word. I caught Lia humming along too. The twins loved laughing at Jakson, who made the beast role more comedic than scary, doing the classic ‘ he’s behind you ’ line. After they took their final bows, we all clapped and serenaded them in cheers. I stood up and handed Sonny back his phone.

“You are never living that down,” I laughed.

“You bring this up to anyone and I’ll tell them about the Hercules play you did.”

I shut my lips immediately. “ Touche , dude.”

He flashed me a grin before collapsing down on the couch next to Lia. He attempted to pull her into his lap, but she pushed her hands against his chest, muttering about how all the hair from the costume would get over her clothes.

Belle watched her sister carefully. That was probably the most normal she’d ever seen a relationship be, and to see her own sister being the one in it? There was an unreadable expression on her face as she sat down next to me, throwing her legs over my lap.

“Hey! I don’t want your stinky feet,” I huffed, pretending to push them off me.

She wiggled her toes over my face, so I grabbed them and tickled them.

“Stop!” she giggled, squirming in her seat. “Uncle Jak tell him to stop tickling my feet!”

Jakson looked over at her and burst into laughter. “You got a foot fetish now, Cap?”

Lia cringed.

“I—”

Belle interrupted me. “What’s a fetish?”

I grinned, looking at a horror-stricken Jakson.

“Yeah, Jakson ,” I coaxed, “what’s a fetish?”

I could bet a million he was mentally flipping me off right now and I was enjoying every second of it .

“So, Princess, how was your surf lesson today with that big idiot?”

Logan gasped. “You said a bad word!”

“So? It’s just a word Logan,” Lucas bit back.

Belle grinned, plunging into a monologue about how the surfing lesson was. “—and Poppy was there too, and she gave me a big girl job. You should’ve seen me Uncle Jak, I was amazing!”

Lia and Jak stared at me at the mention of Poppy’s name at the exact same time. It was so in-sync it could’ve fooled me if it wasn’t rehearsed. It was like they were tied together with an invisible string.

“Poppy was there?” There was hope in Lia’s voice as she straightened in Jakson’s lap. Weird . He managed to convince her to sit with him then. I swear, if you were a stranger and you looked at them in a passing glance, you’d think they were for sure made for each other.

“Yeah.” I hummed back, not really wanting to relive what happened with her—mostly because I knew Lia would be disappointed in me for how I acted towards her.

“Well?”

“Well what ?” I snapped.

Tension suffocated the air as soon as the words left my lips. All the Davis siblings simultaneously flinched or sunk into the couch.

Fuck .

“Don’t snap at her like that asshole. She was just asking a damned question,” Jakson gritted out, his arm tightening its grip around her shoulders and waist.

“Sorry, can we just—I don’t know. Just talk about something else.”

Jakson continued glaring at me for the next forty minutes. The twins and Belle were both asleep on the couch, and Sonny and I left Lia and Hudson in the lounge as we carried them up into one of the spare rooms that Lia used on the rare times when she stayed over. Jakson went and got the baby monitor and set it up upstairs before we both closed the door and walked back into the lounge. Hudson was fast asleep in Lia’s arms, and she was looking straight out the window, face blank and distant.

Jakson jumped onto the couch next to her and lightly pinched her cheek. She slapped him without thinking before her eyes widened and we both gasped. Well, I gasped-laughed because seeing Jakson get bitch slapped was beyond amusing.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it, Lils, but we need a plan for what to do next,” I said as I slumped down against the couch.

She couldn’t even meet my eyes as she tried to scramble out of Jakson’s arms. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about you guys and we’re literally protruding into your home and I’m so sorry we stayed this long, and I honestly didn’t mean to, it was just Belle and the twins. They were having so much fun and their little faces were all happy and you wouldn’t even be able to tell that only half an hour ago they witnessed—”

Jakson pulled her into his lap, tightening his hold on her. “ Breathe , Blue. Breathe .”

After a few slow inhales and exhales later, she looked between us with a pained expression. “I’m sorry,” she winced.

“Lils, it’s okay,” I reassured her, “this is what friends do. They’re there for each other, you know? And we will always, always , be here for you.”

Jakson nodded at my words, but her expression hardly changed. As If sensing her thoughts, he picked up the remote and flicked on Letters to Juliet . Lia loved that movie. Jakson despised it. I smiled watching the opening credits roll on screen. He’d watch it a hundred times for her if she asked him to. Hell, he’d probably do anything if only she asked it of him.

Hours passed in a blur. I managed to convince them to watch the Spiderman trilogy with Andrew as Spiderman because if we’re being honest, he was the best Spiderman. Jakson usually chose a gory murder mystery or action movie, but this time, he used his turn to put on frozen.

Yeah, that was right. Frozen .

Lia laughed as soon as he searched for the film and he cracked a joke and shrugged like he didn’t have a care in the world, but the look he gave her when she laughed—you could see in his eyes, on his cheeks, in his fucking veins flowing through his entire body. There was no doubt he was utterly in awe with her. The entire world could tell from one single glance between them. It was a miracle that the two of them were so oblivious .

A fucking miracle .

If they could just see themselves now, sprawled across the couch and each other. Jakson snored and I swear Lia nudged him in the ribs whilst sleeping as she could hardly concentrate on her book. He shut up after that. The entire scene made me laugh. I didn’t know what I felt when I looked at the two of them and whatever weird thing was going on between them, but I knew if it made them happy, it would make me happy too.

I yawned as Jakson plucked the book Lia was reading straight out of her hands. He dangled it above their heads as she tried to snatch it back off him, but of course, being as small as she was, she couldn’t reach it.

Eventually, she gave up and slumped back down, pressing her body back into the couch. Jakson’s brows drew as he tugged her small frame onto his lap. He brought his lips close to her ear as he whispered, “What do all the little red tabs mean, my little Blue Moon?”

“Um…anger,” Lia replied, sitting completely still, avoiding his gaze as a little pink blush blossomed across her cheeks.

Jakson smirked. “Try again, Blue.”

I made a gagging sound then, not being able to stomach anymore of whatever that was between them. Lia flinched, swiftly turning around to meet my gaze. She smiled shyly before whimpering and burying her head into the crook of Jakson’s neck, who, by the way, was sending me death glares.

I smirked back at him as he shook his head, before turning all his attention back onto the little girl curled up on his lap. He wrapped a protective arm around her waist and gently kissed the top of her head, whispering sweet nothings to her that I definitely didn’t want to have the displeasure of hearing, or I genuinely would be sick.

I wasn’t thrilled about whatever it was that they had together because Lia was like my little sister and I would fight anyone on her behalf who even dared glance at her, but this was Jakson …and I couldn’t decide if that made it better or worse.

I sluggishly rose from the couch, turned the movie off and drew the curtains around the house, turning off any rogue light switches that were still on. I had a quick peek into the kid’s room. They were all fast asleep still, so I carefully shut the door.

I hadn’t been good with sleep recently, my body was always too restless, too full of stress and panic. It felt like I had the world on my shoulders. Normally, I would go out on the waves and exhaust myself so that sleep had no alternative but to come claim me. So that was what I planned to do. Quietly opening the door, I grabbed my training board from where it always was and headed out.

The stars were out when I closed it behind me, the scent of the ocean greeting me immediately, bringing a sense of comfort. The path down to the shore was tattooed in my mind. I could walk there blindfolded, guided by only the sound of waves cresting and the feeling of returning home. All I needed was a quiet surf tonight, but what greeted me was anything but quiet.

Small specks of stars began to shine in the sky as the darkness washed over, letting the light slumber. In the distance, a thin line of oranges and yellows spread across the water, the final moments of light this day would ever see.

Poppy Wells stood at the shoreline in her signature Orca wetsuit, pink board in hand. She gazed out into the water like it was nothing but a distant memory—like it was too far out of reach. Unattainable . I felt my brows crease as I watched her.

For what felt like hours, she just stood there, staring. Just as I was about to call out her name and tease her, she turned away from the ocean and walked away down the shore.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to surf anymore. I wanted to run over to her and ask her what the hell that was. To ask her why she looked so damned afraid of the waves. My chest constricted and it felt like all my air was cut off at the thought of her being afraid of our home.

Instead of chasing after her like I should’ve done, I turned around and left.

Maybe if I had known what she was about to do, I wouldn’t have walked away.

I would’ve been there.

And even worse, if I had chased after her,

maybe she wouldn’t have done it at all.