She hadn’t even gotten to talk to Connor yet, and he’d specifically invited her. Plus, even if Kayla didn’t want them to go, she was going along with it, and she wasn’t the kind of person who got in trouble. It couldn’t be that terrible an idea if she was doing it.

“I think this sounds like an adventure,” Annabelle said. “You can go home if you want, but I’m in.”

Jeremy and Kayla sighed almost in unison.

“Fine. I’ll stay, too,” Jeremy said.

As if he thought Annabelle needed his protection or something. But the rest of the group was too far ahead for them to wait back here any longer, so she let it go and texted her mom that she was hanging out with Jeremy and Kayla as they all speed-walked to catch up.

At least Ruby wasn’t vaping anymore by the time Annabelle squeezed herself into the pack of people, as close to Connor as she could get without seeming desperate.

“You really up for this, HB?” Connor asked.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” she said, and her voice sounded more like Mia’s lacrosse-girl voice than her own. She peeked back at Jeremy, who hung a few feet behind. He kicked a pebble that bounced up and barely missed Connor’s calf.

“Nice. You’re the best,” Connor said, reaching his hand out for a high five.

And everything inside her glowed like the sunset-striped sky that transformed all around them, vast and magical and bright.

Annabelle stayed in the middle of the group as they crossed the cobblestoned streets of town and then passed the row of fully occupied bed-and-breakfasts. Jeremy still sulked a few steps behind her with Kayla and her friends, but he had chosen to come along. She hadn’t asked him to.

A steel-gray convertible sped by, kicking up the sand along the side of the road.

“My dad has a car like that,” Ruby said. “I thought he’d let me practice driving on it, but no. I’m getting my mom’s old Volvo, since it has better safety ratings, even though the convertible’s fine for him to drive.”

Connor glanced past Ruby, toward Annabelle. Their eyes locked for a split second, and he raised his eyebrows. Annabelle knew what that look meant.

Ruby was a summer person, and getting her mom’s hand-me-down expensive car was a summer person problem. Annabelle and Connor were on the inside of something in that moment. Ruby was outside of it, and she didn’t even know.

After a few minutes, Connor and Jordan started talking about some rumor involving people from Gray Island High who Annabelle didn’t know but Ruby somehow did.

Annabelle didn’t want to be like those bobbing seals at Bluff Point, waiting for any tiny opening so they could push their way up onto the rocks. Behind her, Kayla and the other girls were talking about someone’s sweet-sixteen party—a party Jeremy definitely wasn’t invited to and definitely didn’t have any interest in discussing.

Connor’s attention was now 100 percent focused on whatever juicy thing Jordan was saying, so she slowed her pace, falling into step with Jeremy.