“I’m trying to talk Willa into coming back up here after she finishes her trip,” Wyatt says. “Or maybe for the winter.”

“What, like during Christmas break?” Taylor asks.

“No,” Willa says. “I, um—I haven’t had a chance to mention it yet, but I’m not going to Case. I’m going to take a year to finish the Great Loop on my own.”

Taylor’s anger doesn’t even know where to begin with all this new information. Withdrawing from college? Finishing the Great Loop? Or the fact that the first person Willa told was a boy she met yesterday. Sharing the truth about her feelings for Finley with Willa was deliberate—Willa hadn’t been a default confidante—so it hurts that Willa would make such a huge decision without saying anything at all. “When did you do this?”

“Norfolk.”

“So you had lots of chances to tell me. You just didn’t,” Taylor says. “Not even during your emotional breakdown in the middle of the ICW.”

Willa’s stare is hard, even as her eyes brim with tears, and Taylor instantly regrets every single word. Not only because she’s torn Willa down in front of a group of friends—again—but because Taylor violated the “what happens on the boat stays on the boat” agreement they made outside Norfolk. Taylor is still free to come out to her parents whenever she sees fit, while Willa’s private business is out in the open for everyone to wonder about.

“I really thought you’d changed,” Willa says, getting to her feet. She dusts the sand off her hands like she’s done with this conversation. Done with Taylor. “I thought we were actually starting to be friends, but you’re still the same old leopard with the same old spots. Fuck you.”

All this time, Taylor had been worried that one gust of wind would knock down their house-of-cards friendship. Instead, she blew it over herself like the big bad wolf.

Around them, confused glances bounce back and forth, and an awkward silence falls over the group. No one moves as Willa stalks up the beach toward the house, until Wyatt scrambles to his feet and chases after her. Leaving Taylor to think maybe Willa chose to tell the right person after all.

Taylor wipes her tears with the back of her hand, sniffling as she pushes up from the blanket. “I’m sorry I ruined everything.”

“Stay here,” Corinne says. “Wyatt’s got this.”

Heidi nods in agreement. “Willa’s your best friend, right? She’ll get over it.”