Page 12 of Adrift

It’s an original Sunrise Cider bottle, from the very first year my great-grandparents were in business.

The last time I saw one of these was in Grandma’s treasures cabinet.

“I’ve dusted this thing so many times,” Kieran giggles. He sets it on the table carefully, like a priceless antique, and then he turns it around with a little scraping sound. “And on the back…”

I squint at it and then I stare at the signature, made in a neat little paintbrush mark. Exactly like the map.

Hank Russell.

“My great-grandfather.” I pick up the bottle, hardly able to breathe.

The way my family talks, it’s like Sunrise Cider was a failure from the very start. They seem to think everyone’s forgotten it, if they even knew it in the first place.

But this is proof that I was right: something here is important enough to draw me back to where my family began.

“It must be hard to feel like nobody here knows you,” Kieran says, and I clear my throat again as I look back at him. “Like you’re a stranger in your own hometown.”

I open my mouth to brush him off, and then I stop and close it again.

Actually, he’s not wrong.

Kieran’s watching me with such patience and understanding, even though we’re complete strangers.

And I don’t think it’s just because he wants to get into my pants. This is just the kind of person he is… and that’s all I need to know about him.

I don’t talk about my feelings a lot with people. I’ve sure as hell never spilled my guts to a complete stranger.

And I’ve never told anyone what I’m about to tell him, because honestly, who else could possibly understand?

But Kieran makes me think he could be the answer to that question… and a whole hell of a lot more.

The only way to find out for sure is to give it a shot.

Chapter

Five

GAGE

“My great-grandparents and grandparents lived here,”I tell Kieran, picking up the bottle to turn it around and around in my hands. “I visited when I was a kid. Two weeks every summer, we’d stay with Grandma.”

“Ohhh,” Kieran breathes out. “You and your parents?”

“Uh huh. And my big brother and sister. But we never lived here, really.”

Kieran nods thoughtfully, propping his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist.

“I was thirteen for my last summer here. So it’s not really a surprise that nobody remembers me,” I shrug.

The part that upsets me is anyone else thinking I’m here to wreck my family’s legacy.

“Mmm. You might be surprised,” Kieran tells me with a mischievous smile. “A lot of the kids who grew up here have moved back.”

I sigh and tap my fingers on the table. “I didn’t really know anyone my own age until that last summer. I always thought they were so cool, but I wasn’t allowed to go to the playground with them unless one of my siblings came along.”

Kieran groans. “I’m glad I’m an only child. That must have sucked.”

“It did, a bit,” I admit, clearing my throat as I glance away from him.

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