Lucy snatched the ball out of midair and tucked it under her arm. “I hope things get back to normal for you, obviously, but it’s nice to see you without your posse.” She made a face. “Makes the rest of us lowly peasants feel like we have a shot at getting to know you.”

“Oh my God, Lucy.” White-hot embarrassment streaked over me. “You’re not a lowly peas—I love you, okay? You’re the best.”

She studied me for a long moment. “Can I say something?” She bit her lip. “Something that you potentially won’t like.”

“Go for it.”

“I didn’t have a lot of girl friends in high school. Or, um, a lot of friends in general? It always felt like once everyone found their people, they didn’t have a lot of time for new friends. I never really got it, you know? Why people felt like x number of friends was all they had space for.”

I knew where this was going.

“And we’ve hung out before, obviously, but we’ve been spending more time together … lately. Which is really nice,” she rushed to say. “But it just made me think about high school again.”

She thought I was only hanging out with her because I didn’t have anyone else. Shame burned hot in my face.

Lucy must have read some of what I was feeling. “I don’t want you to feel bad, Babe! Just know that I’m here.” She opened her mouth, about to say more, but then her eyes darted away.

I followed her gaze. Lorcan was talking with some of the fishermen, and from the concentrated furrow of his brow, I figured he was haggling prices for the morning’s catch.

“Hey,” I said. “Remember when you were younger and you threw sand at him? You screamed that you were going to marry him when you grew up.”

Lucy laughed, then made a face. “He was only a year older than me. But he was thirteen, a teenager. It seemed so old back then.”

I cackled, remembering how mortified and amused he’d been. Though he’d been in my grade, he was never really part of my circle. With a twinge, I realized that what Lucy claimed was truer than she knew—I’d never really talked to Lorcan much because I thought Chad and Penny were all I would ever need.

Elodie’s face winked into my mind, swiftly replaced by Chad’s and Penny’s. Even as I focused on them, traced their features to my memory, they began to get hazy. Lost to me. In the blink of an eye, they were blotted out, replaced by a golden-haired boy and his blue eyes.

As if she could read my mind, Lucy asked, “Did you put any moves on Levi yesterday? I’m telling you, Babe, he is so into you.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Based on?”