Page 120 of Break Your Fall

I call out to Tommy, my tone beckoning for him to join us, but he declines my invitation with a hollered, “I’m wearing the khakis.”

“Come on.We could use it, anyway.” My words are suggestive and I catch Tommy’s playful squint before I call out to Camille next, yelling louder as Jessa and I draw closer to the water. Camille hesitates before making me smile with herWhat the hellface and running after us, sand flying up around her boots.

My sister and I hit the water with matching squeals, the slight chill causing me to pause before she wraps her arms around me with a laugh and takes me all the way under.

Thomas

Camille’s holler echoes around the beach, drawing some stares and a laugh from me and Julian as Reyna and Jessa drag her in and under the water.

My smile stretches the longer I watch Reyna and Camille play and splash in the waves.

We made it.

We fucking made it.

We’ve all lost things to get here, but we’ve all gained so much more.

And we still have each other.

My focus zeroes in on the blonde girl now jumping onto her sister’s back, the girl who is my best friend and now—finally and unbelievably—my girlfriend.

“You got the girl, man,” Julian says to me with pride in his voice and a hint of relief. I think everyone in my life who knew about my feelings for Reyna before she did has been waiting for this moment as long as I have.

“I still feel like I need to be pinched,” I say with a shake of my head right before a pinch bites my side. “Ow.” I jerk and glare at the smirk on Banks’s face.

“You had that coming,” he declares with his finger at my nose.

I slap it away as Julian reiterates with his own smirk, “You still have the girl.”

“You two are funny,” I deadpan.

“Ha!” Banks chimes like I’ve admitted something. I haven’t admitted anything.

“You need to learn to decipher tone,dude.”

His stare is unamused. “I know all about tone. Like right now, you’re mocking me. Dude.” He smacks Julian’s arm for a defense, and Julian gives it to him by returning my mocking.

“Come on, Tommy. Just hug it out.”

Banks beams at me, his arms spread out wide, while Julian coaxes me with his damn head tilt.

I give him as much of a death glare as I can manage and repeat, “So funny.”

Banks drops his arms, a scowl now on his face as he looks out at the girls still splashing around in the water. “What’s funny is that sister of Reyna’s playing all hard to get. Maybe they have another one hiding somewhere,” he wonders aloud, and I chuckle at my own words before I get them out.

“Yeah, from you.”

“Har har.”

“It’s not gonna happen,” Julian says through a laugh as I shift my attention to the beach, trying to ignore their yabbering as I spy Valerie with Aspen, watching and waiting for a moment when Valerie’s alone. There’s something I have to say and she needs to hear me. And I don’t want Aspen’s presence influencing her response.

“This again? I’ll get her.”

“You told yourself the same thing about Reyna.”

“Thing of the past, dude.”

“It better be,” I hear myself mutter as my eyes follow Valerie and Aspen’s steps through the sand, the building tension flexing my fingers.

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