He holds his arms out wide. “They made us T-shirts.”
Sailport Bay’s lighthouse is plastered to the center of his shirt and the wordsWelcome Home, Walkersform a circle around it.
“Hey, that’s pretty cool.”
He nods enthusiastically and sits next to me. “They brought cake too.” His big green eyes peer up at me. “I already had two pieces. This one’s for you.” He shoves the cake with ocean-blue frosting into my hands.
“Are you having fun?” I ask, eyeing the cake suspiciously. It’s smashed in a few places—it must have had a hell of a journey up to me. How much of it is all over the floor?
Miles looks from me to the cake and laughs. “Kade was helping me, but then he saw Lucky the cat on the front porch.”
Makes sense.
“Are you having fun?” I ask again, pointing to the party down below, fully aware that I’m the party pooper of the evening.
“Yeah, but…” He pauses and scratches his jaw just below his ear. It’s so similar to his dad that it steals all the air from my lungs. “Well, I didn’t want you to be lonely.”
Geez, this kid.
“I’m not lonely,” I lie. “I needed a few minutes before I came down.”
Both of his little brows raise comically. “You missed dinner, Row.”
“There you are.” Seren pops her head out onto the balcony, sees the two of us, and plops down on my other side.
“Where are your friends?” I ask.
She points to the bonfire, where three girls sit with their heads together, laughing.
Seren smiles down at them and waves.
“Is everything okay?” I ask her.
“Yeah. Marlo was telling me about the teachers at the middle school. They said the music teacher is actually cool.”
“That’s amazing, Ser. Then what the heck are you doing up here?”
She shrugs but bumps my shoulder as though I should already know the answer to that.
“For crying out loud,” Tabby huffs. “You’re impossible to find when you’re hiding.” The balcony off Sebastian’s bedroom isn’t that big, and it’s quickly filling up. I’d only meant to come out here for a minute to peek at the party before joining it.
That was an hour ago.
“I’m not hiding. I’m…preparing myself. Did you need something?” I ask Tabby.
She shrugs and slides to the floor beside us.
A loud pop has everyone glancing to the sky as fireworks light up our features. Every face is pointed upward, but my gaze jumps from person to person.
“If I knew this was the place to be, I’d have gotten a contractor out here to make it bigger,” Sebastian says, joining us on the balcony. He stands behind me, with one hand on Miles and the other on Seren while he rests his chin on my head.
Down below, I find Beck standing at the edge of the ocean, holding Ruby’s hand on his right and Kade’s hand on his left. Both kids jump and splash and jump some more while pointing to the sky.
“Surely there’s a weight limit out here,” Leo grumbles, and doesn’t step outside.
“Oh, they’re so pretty,” Stella says, pushing past Leo and plopping her ass down next to Tabby.
I frown as I place the cake on the small table in front of me.
