Lily glanced around. “Where’s Ethan? I thought he was going to help.”

“Don’t tell us that he gets to sleep in while we’re out here in the middle of the night.” Josie frowned.

“He’s not coming.” She didn’t want to talk about it. “It doesn’t matter. We’ve got this.”

Lily arched a brow. “What did we miss?”

“Nothing.” Hannah avoided her friends’ inquisitive gazes.

“Here he comes,” Josie said. “This should be interesting.”

“What?” Hannah spun around. Sure enough Ethan was headed in their direction.

“Maybe we should get started,” Lily said.

“Can’t we stay and watch?” Josie asked.

“No. Come on.” Lily hooked her arm in Josie’s.

“Okay. Stop pulling.” Josie grabbed a bag of eggs and headed off with Lily.

Hannah’s traitorous heart thudded at the sight of Ethan. When he finally stood in front of her, she said, “What are you doing here? We said everything last night.”

“You might have had your say but I didn’t have mine.”

She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. It wouldn’t change her mind. They couldn’t continue this—whatever this was between them.

“First, I have to hide the eggs,” she said, hoping to end the conversation before it’d even begun.

“And I’ll help.”

With a sigh, she handed him a bag of eggs. At least now she’d have a little breathing space—a chance to figure out what to say to him in order for him to take her seriously.

By the time they finished, there was a glow in the horizon as the sun was about to make its grand appearance. She took off to catch up with Ethan and help him hide his remaining eggs.

“How many do you have to go?” she asked.

“Hang on one second.” He placed a pink egg in a bush. Then he turned to her. “I’m done.”

“Did you remember to mark the map?”

He held up a finger for her to wait and then he made a mark on his map. “All done.”

When he handed over his map, she glanced at it, finding the eggs were evenly distributed throughout his section. She folded his map and then placed it in her backpack purse. She could see Josie and Lily off in the distance still hiding eggs.

“Thank you,” she said. “But you don’t have to stay.”

“Yes, I do. We have some talking to do. Or at least I do.”

“Ethan, it isn’t necessary.”

“I disagree. Now the way I see it, we can talk here or we can go sit over on the wall. Which shall it be?”

With an exasperated sigh, she led the way across the street to the stone wall that separated the beach from the parking lot. Hannah picked a spot on the wall and sat down. Ethan sat next to her. They quietly stared off at the horizon as shades of oranges and pink splashed across the sky.

“Hannah—”

“Shh…you’re going to miss it.”

Ethan was quiet for a minute or two. “Hannah, we need to talk—”