“We could go to the beach. That’s free.”

They chain their bikes to a nearby rack and claim a bit of real estate on the Atlantic City Beach, where they lounge on the sand for a couple of hours. Taylor takes photos of the surf, a few seagulls, and she and Willa take turns posing beside the Atlantic City Beach lifeguard boat. Taylor scrolls through their Instagram feed from the beginning of the trip, watching their tans grow darker and their faces more relaxed. Taylor still wishes Finley were here, but spending the summer with Willa hasn’t been as bad as she’d expected.

A Frisbee skids into the sand beside her towel, and Taylor looks up to see a boy wearing red swim trunks approaching fast. He looks to be around her age. “Hey,” he says. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s no problem,” Taylor says.

Beside her, Willa lifts her head and shades her eyes to get a look at him. His white skin is starting to turn pink in the sun and his bony shoulders are crowded with freckles. He sweeps his floppy hair off his forehead and smiles with teeth too big for his mouth, first at Taylor, then at Willa.

“I’m Jake, and over there is Peyton and Dale.” He gestures toward two white boys standing with their hands on their hips as they wait for Jake to fetch the Frisbee. “Want to play?”

Taylor swings a glance at Willa, who is already pushing off the towel to stand. “Sure.”

“So, we road-tripped down from Philly,” he says as they walk across the sand toward the others. “Are you from around here?”

“Actually, we sailed from Ohio,” Taylor says.

Jake spins the disc upward into the air and catches it on the way down. “With your family or something?”

“No, just us,” Willa says. “We’re on our way to Key West.”

“Really?”

Taylor nods. “Yep.”

“I’m impressed,” he says. “And now our hour-long road trip seems super weak. So thanks for that.”

“Our pleasure,” Willa says, making him laugh.

Jake introduces them to Dale—blond hair, named after a race car driver—and Peyton—also blond hair, definitely not named after a quarterback—and the five form a circle on the beach. For a while they throw the Frisbee to one another randomly and without warning. Then they play a rowdy game called JackPot in which Willa, Peyton, Jake, and Taylor bunch up and compete to catch Dale’s throws, not unlike bridesmaids at a wedding. The game ends when Jake and Peyton accidentally knock heads, sending both of them sprawling on the sand in pain.