Ari's POV
The ocean was the first thing I noticed.
Not the house.
Not the unfamiliar car parked beneath the crooked pine tree.
Not even the fact that my mother had been silent for the last three hours.
The ocean.
It stretched endlessly beyond the cliffs, silver beneath the afternoon sun, its waves crashing against the rocks like they were trying to break something open.
I lowered the window.
Salt rushed into the car.
For the first time all day, I could breathe.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Mom said.
I looked at her. “Why?”
She kept her eyes on the road.
“Because we’re not staying.”
I frowned.
That was strange.
The house had belonged to my grandmother. She’d left it to us—or at least, that’s what I’d been told.
But Mom had spent the entire drive acting like we were arriving at the scene of a crime.
The road curved around the cliff.
And then I saw it.
The house.
It was bigger than I’d imagined.
White walls weathered by years of sea air. Tall windows. A wraparound balcony overlooking the ocean. Ivy crawling up one side of the building.
Beautiful.
And somehow lonely.
Dad pulled into the driveway.
Before the engine had even stopped, Mom whispered something.
I almost didn’t hear it.
“Please don’t let them be here.”
I turned toward her.
“Who?”
She didn’t answer.
Then the front door opened.
A girl stepped onto the balcony.
She looked about my age.
Dark hair pulled messily away from her face. Oversized sweatshirt. Bare feet against the wooden floor.
She leaned against the railing and looked directly at me.
Neither of us moved.
Then her expression changed.
Recognition.
Confusion.
And something that looked dangerously close to anger.
She walked down the stairs.
My dad got out of the car.
The girl stopped halfway across the driveway.
Her eyes moved from him...
to my mother...
then to me.
And suddenly, my mother’s earlier words made sense.
The girl looked at me.
“You’re a Bennett.”
My stomach dropped.
I swallowed.
“And you’re a Vale.”
Neither of us knew it yet.
But that summer was about to change everything.
