“There she is,” my dad mumbles as I walk in and drop my keys on the table next to the door. The cross-body bag, with my sunscreen, phone, and other things, echoes through the condo as I drop it onto the floor.

“Sierra, sugar, did you know this boy?” My mom asks without looking up from the phone in her hands. I know who she’s referring to as soon as she asks.

“I met him,” I answer flatly without giving away anything else.

“Isn’t this just terrible?” she shrieks.

“I sure hope you’re not hanging out with the same crowd, Sierra,” my dad says in a cold tone. He glances over his glasses in my direction.

“I’m not, Daddy. I met him at the bonfire on the first night. He was a little too wild for me.”

“Well, I’ll say so,” Mom chirps as she puts down her phone. She walks up to me and gathers my hair in her hands and puts it behind my shoulders to look in my face. “Be careful out there, Sierra,” she says.

“The locals are nothing but trouble,” Dad adds.

“Tyler wasn’t a local,” I say, but they don’t respond.

“They say the drugs were laced with something that killed that poor boy,” he says without acknowledging me.

“Something the locals sell, for sure,” Mom speaks to him.

“But he—” I try to talk, but they don’t allow me one word. It doesn’t matter anyway. They won’t change their perception of the locals or of Tyler, no matter what I tell them.

My mother is still youthful and beautiful, only just turning forty-five last month. My dad is almost twenty years older than her, and it’s without a doubt his money is what she married him for. Regardless, they’ve stuck together since before I was born and seem genuinely happy together. Happy…in that my dad still loves my mom’s youth and beauty, and she still loves the luxury of his wealth.

I feel my mom’s attention back on my face as she leans in and kisses my forehead. “Stay safe out there, sugar,” she says just as she turns back toward the kitchen.

Before I know it, their attention is back on what’s on their phones or each other. I’m just the tagalong again, so I escape to my room to hopefully grab a quick nap before going back out with Logan later tonight. Even if I have to hang out in the tattoo shop while he works, it will be more fun than hanging out here. Far more fun.

I sink down on the bed and grab my e-reader on the nightstand. We’re only in the condo a few times a year, so the room is still pretty bare. After trying to read a few paragraphs, it’s pretty clear that I won’t be able to focus. My mind is going a mile a minute. I want to see him now. I want to feel the lust in his stare again. His hands on my skin. Down my shorts.