Joe didn’t say anything, so Summer looked around for him. He’d lagged behind, camera swinging awkwardly off his back with each plodding step. He always had his camera, but especially now that he was working on his final project and wanted the freedom to take a picture when it suited him. He was her best friend in the whole world, and she slowed down to match his pace, inhaling deeply the tangy air from the Pacific Ocean only half a block away. She could smell day-old fish from the pier, kosher hot dogs from one of the lunch stands, and coconut-scented board wax. The last was from her own hands as she’d gone out surfing at the crack of dawn.

Much as she loved to travel, she also loved it right here. In her mind, Ocean Beach didn’t deserve the reputation of being the redheaded stepchild of the San Diego beaches. Sure it had far more leather-skinned old-timers, starving students, and unemployed transients than say La Jolla, but it also had more character. For Summer, O.B. was everything, and life was good.

Change was coming, though. As a senior, Joe would be graduating soon and then heading off to San Diego State College. Not Summer. She still had two years left in high school, which she hated to think about. She wanted to start her life too!

But no one deserved a ticket out of Dodge more than Joe Walker. At the moment he was attempting to take a picture of her and trying keep up at the same time, huffing and puffing like a locomotive in the clinging late May heat—the punishment for not taking his required regular physical education classes as a sophomore and junior. “You’ve been neglecting your cardio again,” she said. “I bet you’re not even carrying those energizing crystals I gave you.”

“I’m fine,” he panted, clearly not. He outweighed her by seventy-five pounds, none of it muscle.

“Admit it, you’d rather be eating a doughnut.”

This got her the first genuine smile from him since PE class had begun thirty minutes ago. His perpetually scruffy light-brown hair was plastered to his head, his face beet red and dripping sweat into his show-all eyes.

He had the biggest heart of anyone she’d ever met, and a fading bruise on his chunky cheek. A burst of deep worry worked through her at the thought of the things he suffered at home, things she’d never fully understand. Though her parents were so in love they often excluded her by accident, she’d never been treated with anything but kindness. “Let’s walk.”

“I’m fine, Red.” He swiped his face on the front of his T-shirt.

“Hey, look. Fat Boy’s gonna have a heart attack.”