Chapter 2Liam and I sit in beach chairs and watch a group of kids play volleyball. Four girls and four boys, all about our age—sixteen or seventeen. They’re mostly goofing around, not keeping score but just trying to keep the ball going back and forth across the net. Whenever someone misses a play or the ball hits the sand, they laugh as if it was the funniest thing that ever happened. “Dive for it!” one of the guys in long shorts yells, and a girl in a pink-and-yellow bikini half jumps, half falls into the sand. She’s not even close to the ball, and the group explodes with laughter. Liam watches the entire episode, especially the girl. She is his type—blonde, tanned skin, and petite.
Liam is my cousin. His mother is my aunt Marion, and technically she and Mom own the beach house together
