“I saw you come up to the lighthouse the other day,” I said, the words offhand even though the air was charged with an electric energy.

His fork jerked. “Oh yeah?” He stabbed at a black bean.

“Yup.” I fiddled with the lobster roll on my plate before taking a bite. The bread hugged the chopped lobster, the whiteness of the inside stained yellow and softened from absorbing the curry mayo. “Why did you”—I chewed—“leave without saying hello?” When he was silent, I added, “That guy, he was just a friend.”

Levi nodded slowly. “I guess I just didn’t want to interrupt anything. It looked pretty serious.”

“It wasn’t,” I said quickly. “It was just my friend. Best friend, actually. He wanted to say hi. That’s it.” I pointed Chad and Penny out. “And he’s dating Penny.”

“Your best friends are dating each other?” He paused. “That sounds … messy.”

“We’ve been best friends since we were kids.” I didn’t know why I felt the need to justify that our friendship worked—especially since right now, it didn’t. Maybe it never would again.

“So is that part of the weirdness I sensed between you and her that night at her party?”

Yikes. I wasn’t expecting him to bring that up again. There was no way to tell the story from the middle—but how could I even begin to explain a lifetime of friendship? If I told him about the kiss and the fight, all he would hear was the worst part of it all. But he’d already picked up on the weirdness, so not telling him would just make it weirder.

I’d taken too long to answer. Levi clasped his hands together. “Hey, you don’t have to answer that.”

“No, I can. I … I want to.” I swallowed hard. “So, um, this was before I met you. Penny broke up with him. She had this idea that she … wanted a fresh start? Didn’t want a high school sweetheart anymore.”

He blinked at me. “That’s sort of shitty.”

I hoped it was dark enough that he couldn’t see my face. “She asked me to keep him away from her one night, because she told me she didn’t want to have a face-to-face. I didn’t want to do it, and Chad didn’t take it that great. We—the three of us—aren’t used to change. It wrecked everything.” I took a deep, bracing breath. “He kissed me.”