Page 83 of Chasing Sunsets

Parker bursts out laughing. “Oh, you’re so fucked.”

I groan, dragging a hand down my face. “Dammit, Seb.”

Sebastian just grins. “Better brace yourself, man. You know they’re gonna lose their minds over this.”

And I do.

I know exactly what’s coming.

After work, I call to check in on Tabby, making sure she’s okay and to warn her that the girls know. She’s going to spend the evening with Freda and Sabel, learning how to can vegetables from the garden, while Parker and I will be busy packing and loading the rest of my belongings.

When she answers my call, her voice is soft and unsure, but after a few minutes, she begins to sound more like herself. It seems my call has reassured her in some way.

“You told the guys?”

“I did. I thought I could trust those assholes, but Seb ratted me out before I even finished telling them,” I say.

“So, everyone knows.”

“They will by the time the sun’s down. You okay with that?”

“Are you?” she asks.

“I don’t care if the whole world knows how I feel about you.”

“Me neither,” she says.

All this relationship stuff is new to me, and I might not know how to navigate it, but one thing I do know is that she has nothing to worry about.

I’m all in.

When Sabel arrives at the campground, she tells me she has to go.

Before I let her off the line, I say, “Okay. I’ll text you later. Bye. I love you,” as naturally as can be, like I’ve been saying it forever.

By the time Parker and I finish hauling the last of my boxes into his truck, the sun is sinking low over the water, casting the beach in that warm glow that always makes Sandcastle Cove feel like something out of a dream. It’s the last load, the final bit of packing before I close on the new house tomorrow.

And honestly? It feels a little surreal.

I lean against the tailgate, wiping sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm, and glance over at Parker, who’s popping the top off a beer and handing it to me. He grabs one for himself, clinks the neck of his bottle against mine, and takes a long swig.

“To the end of an era,” he says, smirking.

I huff out a laugh, shaking my head. “Feels like it, huh?”

Parker gestures toward the beach home we’ve shared for the last few years. It’s nothing fancy—just a small place on stilts, close enough to the water that we can hear the waves at night. The place has seen more than its fair share of late-night parties, hungover mornings, and random girls sneaking out at sunrise.

Now, my time here is just about over.

Tomorrow, I’ll have my own place. And Audrey will be all settled in here with Parker, filling this house with something different. Something steady.

Things are changing.

And for the first time, I don’t mind it.

We settle into the old, worn-out chairs on the back deck—the ones we’ve been too lazy to replace over the years—and turn on the baseball game. The sound of the announcers, the crack of a bat, the roar of the crowd—it all blends into the perfect kind of background noise as we sit there, drinking beer and watching the last bit of sunlight disappear.

“You think you’re gonna miss it?” Parker asks after a while.

---