Spring Tide (Coastal University Book 1)

My headlights illuminate the bay window as I pull into our driveway. Bentley is waiting for me there with his tail wagging and tongue flailing as he perches on the back of the couch.

He always greets me as though it’s been years since I’ve last seen him. That excitement—his eager anticipation—makes me feel a little better after this disaster of a night. At least Harper helped make this experience bearable for me.

She willingly lied her ass off to make me look better. She went above and beyond to bridge the awkward gap between us, pushing this false narrative I’d created. And then, after the charade was finally over, she let me thread my fingers through hers in the back parking lot, unaware that she was holding my last thread of patience together.

After listening to Sofia’s parting words—that endless string of bullshit she whispered into my ear—I nearly snapped. And now, I’m grateful this fucking night is over.

As I clamber out of the car, awkwardly shuffling my stiff leg in the footwell, my phone buzzes in my back pocket. There’s an incoming call from Harper, even though I only dropped her off at the bar fifteen minutes ago.

“Harper?” I murmur, pressing the phone to my ear. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine.” Her voice is uncharacteristically quiet, somewhat somber as she continues. “I was just wondering, um, are you pretty far away already?”

I gently shut myself back into the car, perking up in the driver’s seat. “Did you need me to pick you up?”

“Only if you aren’t too far. I just . . . I could probably call an Uber, so—”

“I’ll come and get you,” I cut in, turning the key in my ignition. “I’m just around the corner anyway.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Did you have trouble finding Nate?” I ask, pressing the speakerphone button and docking my phone into the dash mount.

“No, no,” she mutters, voice low. “I found him just fine.”

“Okay.” I scrub a confused hand across my left temple, rubbing out the lingering frustration from earlier. “I’ll see you in less than ten minutes, alright? I’ll pull up to the front.”

“See you soon.”

Once we end the call, it takes me seven minutes to make it back to the Triangle Lounge. Harper’s waiting alone out front, arms crossed over her chest, shivering in her tiny black dress and heels. She’s not necessarily frowning, but she still doesn’t look like her usual happy-go-lucky self.

As soon as I pull over, she scrambles toward the passenger door and stuffs herself inside. “Thank you for coming back for me,” she mumbles, readjusting as she pulls the seat belt across her lap.

My brows furrow in confusion, unsettled by her sudden change in demeanor. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” She manages to muster a smile, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

I take a deep breath, flipping my turn signal as I pull back onto the main road. We sit in silence for a good thirty seconds before I start spitting out questions.

“Was it Nate? Did he do something to hurt you?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her twisting a strand of hair between her fingers, anxiously twirling and pulling it taut. “Not intentionally, I don’t think.”

My fingers clench against the steering wheel. “What did he do?”

“Well,” she sighs, dropping her hands to her lap, “when I first walked into the bar, he wasn’t too hard to find. Unfortunately, he already had his hands full.”

“What does that mean?”

“He was dancing with some girl I didn’t recognize. They were kissing, touching, um, I don’t know, having sex on the dance floor, essentially.” She laughs, but it’s a humorless, lifeless sort of sound.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“It’s not a big deal, really.” She lifts one shoulder in a careless shrug, fingers drumming against her lap. “I thought we kinda liked each other, but it’s not like he owes me anything. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Not a big deal? Are you kidding?”

“No?”

“Harper, he asked you to come out with him tonight. You took a rain check, sure.” A muscle in my jaw ticks, irritation crawling up my spine. “But he told you to come out if you changed your fucking mind, didn’t he?”

“He did.”

“So you ended up changing your mind.” I shake my head, gritting my teeth. “You come out to see him, yet he decides to stick his tongue down some other girl’s throat. Fucking asshole.”

“It’s okay, Luca.” Her hand comes to rest against my shoulder, reining in my temper. “We didn’t know each other that well, anyway.”

“You’ve had a crush on him for a long time, Harper.” I pull up to the stoplight, glancing to my right until our eyes connect. “You fucking switched your class assignment to get closer to the guy. What are you even talking about?”

She nibbles on her bottom lip. “It was just a silly crush. I only know, like, three things about him at this point.”

“Is one of them that he’s a fucking dickhead?”

“Noo.” She drags out the word, half suppressing a snort. “I know that he’s handsome, he likes to play sports, and he really likes it when I wear my lifeguard uniform.”

“Wow, what a well-rounded guy.”

“You really don’t like him, do you?”

“No, I don’t, especially not after tonight. And you shouldn’t, either.” I turn one last sharp corner, angling into the parking space in front of her apartment complex. “He doesn’t fucking deserve you.”

We both turn quiet as we sit together in the lot. It’s a comfortable sort of silence, I guess, one that’s filled only by the sounds of my idling engine.

When she finally decides to speak, her voice is cheerful again. “Do you want to go grab some ice cream?” she asks with that light and airy tone I’ve come to expect.

“What?”

“Ice cream? Do you want some?” Her lips curve into a wide grin. “There’s this great place not too far from here. They’re open late.”

“You want to go out for ice cream? Right now?”

“Yeah, I do.” She nudges me with her elbow. “I think we both deserve it after the night we’ve had, don’t you?”

My brow furrows in confusion, but I nod my agreement nonetheless. “Alright, let’s go.”

I shift out of park, following her wayward directions to the Golden Cone, Harper’s favorite ice cream shop. It’s convenient because it’s only five blocks from her apartment, and they happen to have a drive-through window.

We both order plain chocolate ice cream, but Harper opts to top hers with gummy bears. Apparently, she likes it this way because it adds a splash of color. It’s a disgusting combination, yet somehow, it makes sense to her.

It’s all just sugar, anyway.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asks, mindlessly swirling her ice cream around.

We’re sitting together in my car now, engine off, spoons scraping against paper bowls in the parking lot.

“Will you ask me even if I tell you not to?” I mutter, shoveling in a quick spoonful.

Damn. She was right. This ice cream is fucking delicious, so at least there’s that.

“Yes.”

“Then go right ahead.”

“What did Sofia say to you?” she carefully asks, licking the edge of her spoon. “Before we left the restaurant tonight?”

My shoulders tense. “It honestly doesn’t matter.”

“Please, tell me,” she pleads, unraveling my resolve with her puppy-dog stare. “You said you’d be more open about this stuff. Actually, you promised you would.”

“She said—” I swallow hard. “She said sometimes she wishes we had never dated. That it would make it so much easier for us all just to be friends again.”

Her eyes go wide, a gasp of air slipping through her lips. “She didn’t.”

“She did.” I give her a tight-lipped smile. “Three years, Harper. I was with her for three fucking years, and she wishes it never happened?”

She drops her spoon into her bowl, body shifting to face me full-on. “I’m really sorry.”

I take a deep breath, contemplating how much I want to share with Harper tonight. I’ve never really opened up about this shit before. I’ve told Taylor some, but there’s only so much you can share with your older sister.

“You know,” I murmur, throwing caution to the wind. “She’s the only person I’ve ever been with.”

“You mean . . .”

“Yes, Harper.” I roll my eyes, one corner of my mouth tugging up. “I mean, she’s the only woman I’ve ever had sex with.”

“I knew there was something evil about her,” she mutters, stabbing her spoon into her ice cream, jabbing at each individual gummy bear. “How could . . . how could she just betray you like that?”

“It was a long time ago. And while she might want to forget that we were ever together, I don’t.” I take another spoonful of my own ice cream, waiting for the chocolate to melt on my tongue. “I spent three years of my life with her. It didn’t work out, but it still fucking happened.”

“How did she even end up with your best friend in the first place?

“Freshman year, when she went off to Dayton, I guess we weren’t doing so great. She told me that I wasn’t ‘providing for her emotionally.’ I don’t know, I thought everything was fine, but it wasn’t.”

She stabs another gummy bear. “So she just ended things?”

“She came to visit me near the end of the school year to tell me it was over.” I wince, remembering that soul-crushing conversation. “But she and Danny didn’t get together until months later. They grew closer after the breakup, I guess. And I didn’t want to hold them back, so I gave him my blessing to go for it.”

“But he knew how you felt?” she huffs the question, indignant. “That you weren’t over her back then?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Yeah . . . yeah, he knew how I felt,” I admit, scooping up the last bites of my dessert. “And now, two years later, things are still fucking awkward between us. That’s what tonight was about, Harper. I just . . . I wanted to take a step in the right direction. Get some normalcy back in our friendship.”

“Why are you fighting so hard to keep this friendship going, anyway?” she asks, stacking our empty containers together on the center console. “Danny, he just doesn’t sound like the greatest friend.”

“At times, he hasn’t been. But I grew up with the kid.” I run my fingers through my hair, pushing back the discomfort. “And he’s a part of my family now, so I can’t just let him go. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not really the greatest at making friends in the first place.”

Her lip twitches. “You don’t say?”

“He’s always stuck up for me. He’s a social guy—an extrovert—he could have left me in the dust a thousand times, but he never did.”

Her brow crinkles, button nose scrunching. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I got teased as a kid. I was quiet, or just kind of shy, I guess. I don’t know, other kids thought I was standoffish or something. But Danny never gave a shit.” My voice is sincere, steadfast as I attempt to affirm my best friend’s loyalty. “He stood up for me, no questions asked.”

Her eyes are soft, alight with interest. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I confirm. “There was this one time when we were about nine years old. Some kid dumped water down my pants. He told all our classmates that I pissed myself on the playground. And you know what Danny did?”

She’s smiling now, fingers absentmindedly running through the ends of her long, beachy hair. “Beat him up?”

“Nah, he poured water down his own pants. Told everyone he peed himself, too.”

She breaks into a tiny fit of laughter. “Wow.”

“Yeah, so there’s that,” I say, a chuckle of my own slipping out. “Danny and Sofia may be together now, but that guy will always be my best friend. And I can’t blame him for this shit anymore. Sometimes, we can’t choose who we fall in love with. It just happens . . . or so I’ve been told.”

“Who knew you were such a romantic?”

“Hey, I’ve got layers,” I say, feigning offense.

“Like a croissant.”

“Sure, just like a croissant.” I release a humorless snort, shifting in my seat as my gaze narrows in on the cup holder. “Hey, I, uh. I actually have something for you.”

I fish out the tiny circular object, placing it in Harper’s outstretched hand. She inspects it for a long moment, brows drawn together, bottom lip pulled between her teeth.

“What is it?” she finally asks, gazing up at me.

“It’s a poker chip, from casino night at the Surfbreak,” I explain, awkwardly scratching at the back of my neck. “I found it wedged between the slats on the pier. There’s a—”

“Seagull on the back,” she cuts me off, smiling wide, eyes crinkling at the corners as she flips it over.

“Yeah, I don’t know.” I lick my dry lips, one shoulder lifting in a casual shrug. “I saw it and thought of you.”

“Really?” Her smile is contagious, eyes shining as her gaze darts back to meet mine.

“Uh, yeah,” I mumble, a sudden tightness in my chest. I think I’m anxious or something, but there’s no fucking reason for me to feel that way. “Now that you’re holding it, I realize I’ve just given you a piece of literal garbage.”

“No, no.” She emphatically shakes her head, caressing the chip in the palm of her hand like it’s some sort of precious object. “I love it.”

“Yeah?” I nearly choke on the question. “We can toss it if you want. I just thought it was kind of funny. You know, uh, seagulls?”

“I’m keeping it,” she declares, carefully tucking it into her purse.

My chest deflates, that anxious feeling settling in my gut. “Okay.”

“You wanna know something?” Her hand slides against the side of my forearm, fingers curling until they make contact with my upturned palm.

“Hm?”

“She didn’t deserve you, either,” she says, thumb tapping mine. “Not by a long shot.”