Page 31 of When Summer Returns

“A mess, Luke. You were drinking yourself stupid every night, picking fights with mainland boys twice your size. I tried talking to you once, and you took a swing at me. Remember that?”

Luke didn’t. Those months after Jessie left existed in his memory as a blur of anger and alcohol, pain he’d tried to drown and only succeeded in amplifying.

“Then I joined the Coast Guard. Didn’t even tell you I was leaving.”

“No, you didn’t.” For the first time, Reece’s calm slipped, revealing the hurt Luke had inflicted with his own abrupt departure. “One day you were just gone. No note, no goodbye. Sound familiar?”

The irony wasn’t lost on Luke. He’d done to Reece exactly what he’d thought Jessie had done to him.

“That was wrong of me,” he admitted. “I was in a bad place.”

“You were in hell,” Reece corrected, “and determined to burn anyone who got too close. Not that I blame you. I know what she meant to you.”

“I know. That’s why I never held it against you.”

Reece picked up his coffee again, but didn’t drink. “By the time you got back, I was shipping out for basic training. Ten years in Delta Force didn’t leave much time for revisiting the past. And when I finally made it back to the island, you’d gotten your act together. The bar was thriving. You seemed…if not happy, at least at peace. What good would digging up old Jesse’s threats have done?”

Luke leaned back in his chair, the initial surge of anger giving way to a bone-deep weariness. “All those years. All that time wasted because of that old man.”

“He was a piece of work,” Reece agreed, studying Luke’s face. “But that’s not the whole story, is it? Something’s changed. Jessie wouldn’t have mentioned that note after fifteen years unless—” Understanding dawned in his eyes. “You two picking things up where you left off?”

“We’re not picking anything up. We’re trying to figure out if we’re even the same people anymore.”

“Sure,” Reece said, his mouth twitching. “That’s why you’ve been mooning around like a lovesick teenager since she walked back into your bar.”

“I have not been mooning.”

“Please. The entire waitstaff is taking bets on how long it’ll take before you two end up back together.”

“Is that right? And what’s your money on?” Luke couldn’t help asking.

“That’s confidential police business.” Reece’s expression sobered. “Look, I’m sorry about the note. I should have found a way to tell you, especially after Jesse died. But I honestly thought it didn’t matter anymore. You’d both moved on.”

“That’s just it.” Luke met his friend’s gaze. “I never did. Not really.”

A long moment of silence stretched between them, punctuated only by the distant sound of waves and the creak of the old building settling in the afternoon heat. So much history bound them together—from boyhood pranks to adult responsibilities, from their separate military services to their return to the island that had shaped them.

“You should have told me,” Luke said finally, but the accusation had lost its fire.

“And you should have talked to me before you left,” Reece countered. “We both made mistakes. The question is, what now?”

Luke considered this. What now, indeed? The revelation about Reece’s role—or lack thereof—in Jessie’s disappearance didn’t change the central fact: She had wanted to say goodbye. She had tried to explain. He’d spent fifteen years nursing anger at a betrayal that never happened.

“Now,” Luke said, “I think we both need to stop letting the past dictate the future.”

Reece nodded slowly. “Fair enough. Though I have to say—” A hint of his old humor surfaced. “I didn’t think Jessie James would ever set foot on this island again. Not after the way she cleared out.”

“I didn’t either. And now she’s half owner of my bar.”

“Life has a twisted sense of humor.” Reece leaned forward, his expression turning serious again. “When I heard Jesse left her half the bar, I wondered if he was trying to make amends, in his own way.”

“Or trying to cause trouble from beyond the grave.”

“Maybe both.” Reece studied him. “You going to be okay with this? Working with her?”

Luke thought about Jessie as he’d seen her last night on the beach, moonlight silvering her hair, her face more open than he’d seen it since her return. The walls between them had started to crumble, though plenty remained standing.

“I think,” he said carefully, “that we both deserve the chance to figure out who we are now, instead of who we were then.”

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