Page 222 of At First Catch

For weeks, I kept telling myself I was protecting everyone. I’m being responsible. I’m doing what’s necessary.

But underneath all of it? It was a bottomless pit of fear.

My phone buzzes again. This time my entire chest tightens painfully before I even look.

Hadley.

I grab the phone too fast. Too desperate. And hate myself for it.

But none of that matters once I see the message.

Hadley

Rook keeps sitting outside my cottage waiting for your truck.

The breath leaves my lungs hard enough to hurt.

Even now she found a gentle way to tell me she misses me too.

I stare at the message while grief and love and longing tear through my chest so violently I physically can’t breathe for a second.

Then finally, quietly enough that it almost breaks apart before leaving my mouth, “I can’t lose her.”

Walter watches me for a long second.

“Then stop trying to win her back.”

I frown.

“What?”

“Start trying to deserve her.”

Silence settles between us, knowing those aren’t the same thing.

By Saturday afternoon, I’ve officially reached the stage of heartbreak when even the marina employees start looking concerned when I walk into rooms.

Which honestly feels excessive.

“You look haunted,” Miguel tells me the second I step onto the fuel dock.

I keep moving anyway, clipboard tucked beneath one arm while humid coastal air presses heavily across Back Bay.

The marina buzzes with weekend traffic around me. Life keeps moving. That’s the cruel thing about heartbreak. The world doesn’t stop just because yours did.

I stop near the western slips, checking storm repair reports I’ve already reviewed twice because concentrating on numbers hurts less than thinking about Hadley.

Unfortunately, nothing hurts less than thinking about Hadley. Everywhere I look, she exists here. The dock bench where she fell asleep against my shoulder after fireworks night.

The café table where she once spent forty minutes passionately explaining why fictional men in romance novels needed therapy. The marina railing where she kissed me like staying was the easiest thing in the world.

God, the memories are unbearable now.

“You planning to emotionally spiral all weekend or should we schedule shifts?” Walter’s voice cuts through my thoughts from behind me.

I glance over tiredly. “Can everybody in this town stop psychoanalyzing me for five minutes?”

“No.” Walter falls into step beside me while we walk toward the repair dock.