Page 48 of When We Are Complete

Jake shrugs as though it’s no big deal, but I can see the pride in his eyes. “Yeah, last summer.”

“You did a great job,” I tell him, my fingers grazing the smooth wood railing.

“Thanks,” he says.

“Hey, look who finally made it!” Liam shouts from the grill, waving a spatula in the air. “I knew you two would be late when Jake told me Nora was coming.”

I laugh, leaning into Jake just a bit, and he doesn’t move away, his shoulder brushing mine. I want to believe this momentcan last, that maybe we’re building something new. But in the back of my mind, a voice reminds me to go slow—to remember that love alone doesn’t always solve everything.

Nora mock-grimaces at her brother while I glance around, my eyes sweeping over the familiar faces. All the Valiant Hearts guys are here—Liam is at the grill, flipping burgers with a beer in his hand. Antonio’s off to the side, laughing with Patrick and Mike, who’s trimmed his beard shorter since I last saw him. And Ethan’s sitting with Blake, her leaning into him. They’ve got their own little bubble.

But then my gaze lands onher—Jenny. She’s sitting at one of the tables, legs crossed, her gaze sweeping over the gathering, looking effortlessly composed. Her new husband sits beside her, laughing at something, while their two sons—carbon copies of him—run around the yard with a couple of other small kids I assume are Blake and Ethan’s foster kids.

Jenny’s not laughing, though. She’s looking straight at me, and for a second, all the air’s been sucked out of the yard.

There’s no malice in her expression, no hostility, but it’s the weight of her gaze that gets me. She’s assessing, calculating. And why wouldn’t she? This is her world.Herdaughter’s birthday. Jake is part of her past, and I’m the intruder.

“Cold day,” Liam says, breaking through the tension building inside me. “But at least the first round of storms are behind us!”

“Until the next ones,” Mike adds grimly.

I glance up at the sky, pretending I’m not hyper-aware of Jenny watching me. The gray clouds hang heavy, but there’s no threat of rain anymore.

Jake’s arm brushes mine as he moves past me, and I sense his eyes on me. Stealing a glance at him, I find him giving me that smile—the one that always makes my heart skitter in my chest.

But then my gaze shifts back to Jenny. She’s still watching me, and this time, our eyes lock.

Chapter 27

Kelly

For a long moment,neither me nor Jenny say anything. Intrusive thoughts hit one after the other—how she and Jake had been drawn to one another while we’d been on a break, how that brief relationship that supposedlymeant nothingsent my life on a completely different trajectory.

How Jake broke my heart, shattering everything we had because of her pregnancy. And now, here she is—happy, remarried, her sons laughing in the yard, as though none of it ever happened.

I take a slow breath, but no matter what I do, the memories pull me back to a time when everything was so intense, so all-consuming, it was like no one else existed but me and Jake, and our off-again, on-again relationship.

It was our last summer before senior year, and Harbor’s Edge was practically humming with the hot, sticky energy of August. Jake and I had been together for more than a year, alwaysrunning hot and cold, and that afternoon, after what should have been a regular beach day, it all fell apart.

And all because of some stupid comment I can’t even remember now, something I said about how he always “had to be the hero.”

“God, Kelly, that’s just not fair.” His voice had been a blend of anger and hurt, his arms crossed as we stood on the boardwalk.

I folded my arms to mirror him, already defensive. “Maybe it’s true, though. You think everything has to be done your way. And you have to protect everyone all the time. Fix everything.”

“Oh, come on,” he snapped. “And I suppose you don’t? You want things your way just as much as I do.”

“Fine!” I blurted, that all-too-familiar knot of frustration twisting in my chest. “Maybe we’re both too stubborn to make this work.” The words were out before I’d really thought them through, but once they were, I wasn’t about to take them back.

A muscle ticked in Jake’s jaw, and he took a step away from me, just enough that I felt the coolness of his retreat. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, his voice low. “Maybe we’re just fooling ourselves. You need someone different. Someone better.”

That hit harder than I’d expected, and for a moment, I was frozen, unsure whether to fight harder or let go. “Fine,” I said, my voice trembling slightly. “Maybe we should just take a break.”

He looked at me, and in his eyes, I saw the same confusion, the same hurt. “Yeah. Maybe we should.”

I turned away, my sandals slapping against the boardwalk as I headed away from him. I didn’t look back, not once, even though every nerve in my body screamed at me to turn around. It was just another one of our stupid fights, one of the fights that always burned out within a week or two, leaving only the unshakable feeling that we’d somehow work it out. We always did.

Only, this time, it didn’t work out like I thought it would.

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