Page 10 of Next to Everything We Wanted

“I’ve been trying to!” Asher sighed, staring at Dapper sniffing the ball that he’d failed to catch for the sixth time in a row. “He doesn’t want to change from his old ways.”

“Of course he does.” When we’d first gotten Dapper for my tenth birthday, I’d been obsessed with the idea of training him to do cool tricks and play games. My dreams still hadn’t come true with how Dapper acted clueless as he rolled in the sand.

The late spring sun beat down on us. I wore my sunglasses, hoping that no one would recognize me. Even though Oasis Shores was a small town most people hadn’t heard of, a few people had slipped that I’d lived here. My Wikipedia page said that I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a lie my parents told to protect my identity.

Or maybe they hadn’t updated my Wikipedia page in a while. I wouldn’t know—I’d broken the habit of checking it every day a while ago.

Stop thinking about it.

“Should we try a frisbee instead, boy?” Asher asked Dapper.

I raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t catching a frisbee be harder than catching a ball?”

Asher picked up the ball and put it in the toy bag. “He at least tries to catch the frisbee. He’s not good at it, but he tries.”

I laughed. “A for effort.”

Asher took an orange frisbee out of the bag. “Here, boy!” He angled himself before throwing the frisbee far in the air.

Dapper shot up to catch it, but it flew right over his head. He ran after the frisbee and sniffed it.

Asher groaned. “You’re supposed to catch it and bring it back to me!”

I snorted. “I don’t think he understands.”

“I wish he had money so he could pay me for all the training sessions I’ve put him through.” Asher picked up the frisbee and brought it to me. “Maybe he’ll like it better if you throw it.”

“Come on, Dapper.” I waved the frisbee in my hand. “Come catch!”

Dapper jumped as I threw the frisbee. This time, it hit him square in the face.

I winced. “Oops.”

“You threw it too low!” Asher frowned. “You both suck at this.”

“It’s fine.” I picked up the frisbee. “How about both of you try to catch it?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Will that even work?”

I shrugged. “You never knew.”

“Okay.” Asher snapped for Dapper’s attention and faced me. “Ready.”

I angled my body in a different position before throwing the frisbee.

Asher and Dapper ran in the same direction. They slammed into each other and tumbled onto the sand, the frisbee hitting Asher in the side.

“Sorry!” I flinched. “Are you guys okay?”

Asher managed to give me a thumbs up, and Dapper happily barked like nothing had happened.

Taking that as a sign we should stop playing, Asher and I joined our parents, who sat in their beach chairs. They both loved to soak up the sun, though Mom could only do it for so long with the pale skin she’d passed down to me.

Asher and I tried to eat sandwiches from our picnic, but the birds thought it’d be a good idea to harass us.

After we got fed up, Asher and I played in the ocean. It was freezing cold, something that rarely changed no matter how hot it was. We laughed as the shock of the waves went through our systems.

Eventually, we got used to the cold and started splashing each other. Dad soon joined us, deciding to cool off from the sunbathing. A cruise ship passed by, and Mom took a picture of us looking at it. She captioned it,The three most wonderful men in my life, and posted it to her private account.