"Talk about what?"

"Whatever has made your smile disappear." He replied with a grumble.

I took a deep unsteady breath and I decided to confide in him.

"Last year, my dad I were at home, and we were waiting for my my mom to come home. She worked late nights at a store, so we did not suspect anything was wrong. It just felt like a normal day..." I trailed off because of the pressure in my chest.

"Ella, look at me." The owner of the gravelly voice said as he placed his hand gently under my chin and tilted my head so I would meet his eye "I want you to tell because you want to. Not because you feel you must. I will wait however long it takes."

"I want to tell you." I admitted quietly before I continued "My Dad got a phone call from the hospital saying my mother nearly drowned. A lifeguard forgot his phone, so he came back here and saw her in the water. He saved her in time and called the ambulance. We were relieved that she was alive, and he managed to save her. Then we got to the hospital, and we were told that something went wrong."

Stone's hand overlapped mine as my pinky finger curled around one of his large fingers.

"She still had water in her lungs. She died with secondary drowning." I rushed out my words "That was not the worst part of it all. It was when the police officer had to break the news that it was not an accident and she had decided to take her own life."

"That is why you hate being here." He stated rather than asked.

"This place is a horrible reminder that she wanted to leave, and she was unhappy."

He responded by squeezing my hand. I could not see his face because I was too busy looking down at the sand.

"We can go somewhere else." He suggested in one grumble of a breath "We can go anywhere you want."

"I live in Santa Monica. I could not avoid this place if I tried." I whispered and then I decided I was not going to be sad anymore "Can we talk about something different?"

Rather than letting go of my hand, he held on tighter as he nodded.

"Your tattoos are passable to look at." I commented lamely, still not wanting to compliment them "When did you get your first one?"

"Fifteen."

I smiled "I bet your parents were really happy about that."

He shook his head before grumbling something under his breath.

"What is it?" I asked gently.

"My parents are dead."

I felt my eyes widen.

"I'm so sorry." I quickly apologised and fought the urge to bury myself in the sand "I never thought. I'm really—"

"Medusa." He stopped my blabbering with a chuckle "It is okay. It happened a long time ago."