Life with Kelly had been nice, easy, and relaxed. They worked well together. He’d loved her and he’d loved the life they’d been building together. Letting her go had been difficult, but he hadn’t had a choice, and time had a way of helping him realize the necessity of moving on. Having Marissa in his life certainly made that easier. Striving to be the best version of himself was easy when someone was looking up to him, depending on him.

The chill of air-conditioning and the smell of chocolate syrup hit him as they entered the ice cream shop. The place was packed…mostly teenagers on summer break loitering to talk to their unlucky friends forced to get a job, working behind the counter that summer. Wes had done his own fair share of ice cream scooping as a teen.

“What flavor are you craving today?” he asked, peering into the glass case. The store boasted thirty-two different flavors, and this month’s featured one was a tiger tail twist. Orange mango with a black licorice swirl. “That looks interesting.”

The fifteen-year-old ice cream scooper sighed. “That’s one way to describe it.”

Obviously not a best seller.

Marissa wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like black licorice. I think I’ll stick to my vanilla, chocolate, strawberry triple scoop.”

“Triple scoop, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m a kid; I don’t have to watch my diet like you do,” Marissa teased.

Wes laughed. “I just burned a ton of calories out there riding those waves.” Mostly, he stood in the shallow area and made sure the summer camp kids could stand on the board for a few seconds, but he’d skipped breakfast, not having much of an appetite after the crash-and-burn situation of the night before. “I’ll have the same,” he told the guy behind the counter.

Marissa’s eyes widened as the guy handed her the overflowing ice cream cone. Wes accepted his, paid, and they headed back outside. The hardest part would be eating it before the sun turned it into a big melting mess.

Spotting a free picnic table on the sand, Wes nodded toward it as he licked around the base of his cone. “Let’s sit for a few minutes,” he said. “I can’t walk and eat at the same time.” The top chocolate scoop looked dangerously, haphazardly placed, and any sudden wrong moves could ruin a good thing.

Kinda like his sudden wrong moves with Sarah the night before. Shit, he’d really messed things up and had no idea what to do next. Would she want to talk about it or pretend it hadn’t happened? What did he want?

“So what’s going on with you and Sarah?”