“Hey, I’m so glad we ran into each other,” he said. “Do you want to come over later to watch the fireworks? The view from my roof will be spectacular.”

She was about to say no, to tell him that she was going to a party. Jack’s cousins Lidia and Manny hosted a clambake every Fourth and that’s where she’d be celebrating. But then she spotted another familiar face in the crowd—and this time it was Sanjay.

What was he doing there? And why hadn’t he called her?

She got her answer as soon as she realized he wasn’t alone; he was holding hands with Monica Del Mar. Monica, of the disastrous New Year’s Eve party. She was the woman he was seeing? The reason why he pulled away from her the night on the beach?

Unbelievable.

So much made sense now. Monica told on her because she was jealous—she wanted Sanjay for herself. Gemma gave her the perfect opening by kissing Noam at the party. And now they were together, two photographers just living it up at one of the most scenic beaches in the country.

Fine. She was officially done flagellating herself. She’d apologized to Sanjay a million times; she’d made it clear she still cared about him. She even mentioned him in her New York Times interview. She valued him in every way. But if he couldn’t see that, then maybe it was time for her to let go.

“Gemma?”

She looked back at Connor, having almost forgotten he was standing there with her.

“Yes,” she said. “I’d love to come over and watch the fireworks.”

Elodie poured herself a cup of white wine and looked around for Tito.

The party spilled out from the Barros house all the way to the dock. Paper lanterns topped picnic tables, a DIY bar was set up on a folding table, and off to the side there was a large steaming bed of seaweed surrounded by a buffer of packed sand and covered with lobsters, corn, clams, and oysters. Bruce Springsteen played over the sound system.

People milled around, drinking out of plastic cups (the stack of cups by the bar had a sign behind it reading Recyclable!), eating watermelon and feta salad and other appetizers, and dancing to the music.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Tito since the dolphin rescue. It was near constant. She thought about him in a way she hadn’t thought about a man in many years. In decades.

She spotted her sister in the crowd. Celeste gave a hearty wave, and Elodie returned the hello with slightly less enthusiasm. It was hard for her to be smiles and rainbows for Celeste when she was half the reason she was still stuck in limbo.

Her phone rang, and she checked it reluctantly, only to immediately wish she hadn’t.

“Sloan, hello. You don’t take off holidays, I see.”