Page 111 of Unlocked Dive

“Yes it is. Ishouldhave trusted everything about you, because even at your most vulnerable, you were a thousand times stronger than me. You didn’t just see something you wanted and go after it fearlessly, you saw something in me that deservedyou. You knew exactly what I needed but was too afraid to reach for, and you refused to accept my cowardice or my excuses. You gave yourself to me without restraint or compromise again and again, and all you ever asked in return was for me to be as brave as you.

“There’s nothing selfish or petty or small about that. No one’s ever been as generous with their heart or their body or their soul as you’ve been since the day I met you. I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth if you’ll let me, Jericho Wash, and the only thing I’ll be leaving behind is my fear.”

“Wow,” I breathe. Or try to—there’s no space left behind my ribs with my heart overflowing into all the cracked and empty spaces. “That was…really fucking romantic.” My hands relinquish their death grip on his thighs to snake around his waist. “But maybe no one needs to do any more chasing. Maybe we just keep each other now, and that means I’ll never let you make yourself small again, and you’ll never let me fall. And where we go next, we choose together.”

“I think that sounds like a perfect life.”

There’s no choice left but to kiss him then—not like the world is ending but like it’s beginning.

Like we’re breaking the surface, with nothing in front of us but sky.

44

Four Years Later

Coen

“Look at you, all grown up,” Shilo exclaims, sweeping Echo into a fierce hug. “Thank you for coming.”

“I saw you last summer, Shilo.” He grins when she gives his ribs a poke.

“For about five minutes. You and Byrd holed up at the cabin the whole time you were visiting. Very antisocial of you.”

“Blame it on Coen. He doesn’t like to share.”

I give him my own poke, and he dances away, eyes wide with feigned innocence.

“That was a busy year,” I explain, very reasonably. “Echo started his minor studies, and I was on tour all spring.”

“What he means is, we barely saw each other from January to June, so when we got here, we had a lot of catching up to do.”

“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Wicked humor sparkles in her gray eyes. “I hope you wore this old man out.”

“Please don’t encourage him. I get enough of the old-man jokes at home.”

But when he sidles back up to me and slips his arms around my waist, I can’t help laying my hand on the back of his neck to steal a little of his warm exuberance. “And you better be careful,” I warn him, pressing my thumb against his pulse. “Twenty-five is halfway to thirty. You’ll be as old as me before you know it.”

His scoff tickles my shoulder before he nips it.

“Worried I’ll outgrow you?” he teases. “Now that I’m a college grad?”

“Speaking of college grads, I know it’s not my place to be proud of you, Echo, but I hope you’re proud of yourself for all you’ve accomplished,” Shilo says, then gives my arm a fond squeeze. “And I know this one thinks the world begins and ends at your feet.”

Because it does.

We’re grinning at each other like lovestruck teenagers when Shilo shakes her head.

“Enough of that. Go say hi to Josha, Echo. Let the grown-ups catch up.”

“You just said I was all grown up. Make up your damn minds.” But with a roll of his eyes and a kiss on my cheek, he heads off toward his friend.

Shilo watches him go, her amused expression fading to wistful melancholy.

“Have you heard from Gem lately?” I ask, sympathy stealing into my voice. The new lines at the corners of her mouth suggest the answer, but I’d be a bastard of a friend if I didn’t ask.

“Not since Hals had to bail him out of the Chico lockup back in February.”

“Shit. Any idea where he is now?”