“Where’s Page?” I ask.

He takes a sip of the frosty beer he’s holding. “Passed out in one of the bedrooms upstairs. I used to be able to rage until at least three. Now it’s one and my goddamn head is already beginning to hurt.” He puts down his beer, puts his head in his hands. “God, Tom and I would get up to no good around here back in the day. He could be such a wacky guy. He loved the beach at night, loved night swimming. We would get plastered and see who could go out farther into the waves. He could never say no to a challenge, but I always chickened out and let him win. Have this childhood fear of drowning, you know?” He picked up his beer, swallowed some more, his voice trembling.

“Do you miss him?” I say quietly, perking up ever so slightly.

Jackson looks out in the direction of the beach, concealed by more shrubs. “Yeah, yeah, I do. I know I shouldn’t say that, but he was like my brother, you know? Being here just brings me back to the summer he stayed here, the summer he met Odilie, actually.”

I sit up. “Tom stayed here?”

Jackson nods. “Yeah. Back when he first launched SNAPea.”

I pause, trying to figure out the best way to segue into my next question. “Were you close to Odilie?”

He takes another sip of his beer, letting out a satisfying sigh. “Not really. She was kind of reserved. He became that way, too. I mean, he was always a workhorse, super focused, but after that summer he was really closed off.”

I take a breath, finessing my next words, parsing them out in my head before I open my mouth. “I keep hearing that about Odilie. That she wasn’t a very forthright person. Was Tom attracted to shyer girls?”

Jackson shakes his head. “When I met him, he was dating someone who was the total opposite.” He doesn’t say anything else, so I prod him.

“How so?” I keep my voice light, delicate, like it could easily blow away into the waves.

“She was so crazy. But gorgeous. Had Tom wrapped around her little finger. He used to tell me that he and Peri, that was her name, kept, like, secret pictures near their bed. Kinky stuff, sometimes with a third. He had a weird name for the photos, his ‘pearly whites.’” He licks his lips. “The whole end of that summer was a mess, though. Mr. Bennington kept grumbling about how much shit Peri left here.”

He blinks suddenly, his eyes focusing on me. “Fuck, you don’t want to hear any of this, do you?” He puts a hand through his hair, his eyes suddenly wide, almost fearful. “Forget I said anything? Page will kill me if she knows I’m talking to you about her sister.”