Page 37 of Until August

“Sage hasn’t changed.” Her smile was soft. The smile of a proud mother who loved her son beyond measure. “He’s still wise beyond his years.”

On that note, she rode away on her bike, following the beach path in the opposite direction from where I lived.

My fate was in my son’s hands, and I prayed like hell that he’d agree to see me. Kids were more forgiving than adults. Or if that failed, maybe his curiosity would prevail. Either way, I wouldn’t rest until he was back in my life again.

I watched Sasha until she disappeared and stood there long after she was gone. A boulder settled in my stomach, rooting my feet to the ground, but I couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

Regret. Nostalgia. Guilt.

A mixture of all three.

But now I had something I didn’t have before—hope.

When I turned, I saw Nicola leaning against the wall with the sun on her face and her eyes on me.

It was time to come clean. I’d already put it off for too long. If I didn’t tell her, she’d eventually find out another way.

But I couldn’t help but wonder…

How much had she seen?

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

Nicola

I was shameless.I really was.

But I couldn’t take my eyes off them. She was petite and blonde and beautiful. He was big and dark and handsome. I could imagine them together. Her softness and light. His rough edges and darkness.

A familiarity between them told me August and the blonde weren’t strangers. That, perhaps, they’d once known each other intimately.

He stood on the beach when she rode away on her bike and watched her go. He was shirtless, his back to me, his shoulders broad. Thick thighs and muscular calves.

August Harper was beautiful, he really was, but I knew he was damaged.Broken.

Even from this distance, I saw his shoulders slump and could almost feel the weight of his sorrow.

“In the end, I lost everything.”

Was he talking about her? Had he loved her once? I thought he had.

He turned and caught me watching. It was too late to avert my gaze or pretend I hadn’t seen him, so I held his gaze as he put on his t-shirt and walked toward me.

“Do you know the yoga instructor?” I asked when he stopped in front of me. Just as if it was any of my business.

He looked over his shoulder where I’d last seen them together as if he was checking whether she’d returned. Then, his gaze swung back to me. “Yeah, I know her. She’s…” He bit the corner of his mouth as if he was trying to find the right words to describe her.

“You don’t owe me an explanation,” I said quickly. “I was just being nosy.”

He pushed his hand through his sweaty hair and leaned against the wall next to me, squinting against the sun. “Sasha and I… we were a couple, and now we’re not, so yeah, I guess that makes her my ex.” He sounded almost surprised by the words as if he’d never called her that before.

I side-eyed him. He was still staring at something in the distance. Quiet. Contemplative. We weren’t touching, but I could feel him all around me. “Are you still in love with her?” I blurted.

He turned his head. I stared into the stormy depths of his sea greens and waited. “You’re going right for the jugular.”

I knew I didn’t have any right to ask. I’d never told August about my situation. But I couldn’t help being curious.

He sighed, and we stared at the bluffs in the distance. We lived on a fault line, yet people kept building houses on those bluffs. Gambling against the odds, taking the risk that mother nature wouldn’t destroy everything they’d built.