Kylee gaped at him. Was he suggesting—

“Your shoes are already off,” he said, meeting her eyes with unabashed confidence. “We can wade in it.”

Oh. That’s what he meant. Of course.

She looked toward the edge of the sand where the water rolled up and down like a soft blanket. Other people, families, couples, frolicked in it, wading in up to their ankles or building sandcastles. Kylee wanted to be with them more than anything. She wanted to be them.

“Oh, yes.” She smiled. Today she could be.

“What do you think of it?” Price asked as they stood at the edge of the ocean.

She stood still and let the water wash over her ankles. It tickled as it pulled back, scratching the soles of her feet. “It’s wonderful. I love it.”

“Yeah.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. He pried his foot from his flip-flop and dug his big toe into the sand, then started walking again. “It’s great here. I used to come—a lot.”

Something in his tone of voice caught her attention. Like there was more to the story—and he wanted her to ask. “Yeah?” She matched his strides, walking side by side with Price through the water. “Why used to?”

He took so long to answer that she thought he wasn’t going to. “My mom brought us here the first Sunday of every month.”

She’d never heard him speak about his mom. She pictured Price and Lisa playing at the beach with a woman. The image in her head matched the other children she saw running around, escorted between the arms and warning shouts of protective mothers. “But not your dad?”

“What do you mean? My dad always came too.”

Kylee revised the family picture to include his father. “Oh. But you don’t come anymore?” She’d never seen evidence of a mother. She’d noted her absence, and the absence of any reference to her at Price’s house. That explained a lot. The move to the country, his moodiness.

“No. My mom’s not here anymore. Everything’s different without her.”

“I know, right?” She sighed. “My dad left us when I was a kid. Then my mom married stupid Bill. Nothing’s been the same since.”

He sat down and made a trench through the moist sand with his fingers. “You never see your dad?”

“No.” She shrugged like it didn’t bother her. “He obviously didn’t care about us too much.”

“What? How could your dad not care about you?” He furrowed his brows and stared at her.

“Yeah.” She wrapped her arms around her knees. “Do you still talk to your mom?”

He gave a sad smile. “No.”

Kylee shook her head. “Wow. What bad luck we have.”

The only response was the crashing of the waves along the shore and the laughter of children as they splashed in the water.

“My mom didn’t leave us,” Price said, scooping up a handful of sand and letting it drift between his fingers. “She died. Two months ago.”

“Oh.” She closed her eyes, feeling like an idiot. “I’m so sorry.”

He shifted in the sand and faced her. “Have you seen her?”

“When?” The first time she’d seen Price was a month ago. She tried to recall if she’d seen him earlier. Maybe when they looked at the house? “I don’t think so.”

He rested his head on his hand. “Stupid question.”

“No.” She understood his desire to link his mother to his present life. Kylee felt the overwhelming need to touch him, to feel connected to him. Before she could second-guess herself or rethink it, she pressed her hand over his.

She barely noted the sensation of his warm skin under her hand before he jerked back. At the same moment, a wall of light erupted around her, washing over her like a shock wave before dissipating into the atmosphere. In its wake, the beach looked brighter, cleaner, like someone had wiped the muck off the windows of a dirty car.

“What was that?” Kylee gasped. She blinked and looked at Price, who stared back at her, wide-eyed.

He jumped to his feet, shaking his left hand.

“Okay. That was weird.” He began pacing in the sand.

Kylee stood also, squeezing her hand into a fist. It tingled, like the time she’d turned off the bathroom light when her hand was still wet.

But she was more interested in the light she’d seen. Even now, the people on the beach had a halo around their figures, a ring of color that dazzled Kylee’s eyes. She stepped in Price’s direction. “Did you see it, too?”

He stopped pacing and frowned at her. “See what?”

Something in his tone warned Kylee from coming any closer. “You didn’t see anything?” She glanced around her, but there was no mistaking the reflective sparkle of the blue ocean, or the brilliant ring of white light around the sun on the horizon. She felt like she’d had sunglasses on her whole life and just now realized it.

“Wait.” She paused as Price’s words registered. If he hadn't seen the light . . . “So what was weird, then?”

He hesitated, and she understood what was weird. Her touching him. It was so weird that he still stood several steps away from her, no longer shaking his hand, but clutching it as if it had been wounded.

“Oh.” Kylee felt the burn start in her neck and creep up to her ears. It wasn’t anything. Just a touch.

Apparently that was too much.

She took a shallow breath, wanting very much to get as far away from Price and her embarrassing move as possible. She gestured along the shore. “You know what, I’m just going to walk on ahead. You don’t need to wait up for me. I’ll find a way home.” Even if she had to hitchhike, she wouldn’t rely on him any longer.

Shouldering her shoes, Kylee started down the beach. Her eyes burned, and she blinked fast to keep the tears at bay.

“Kylee?” Price called after her.

She kept going, quickening her pace as the tears broke free. Her chest felt hollow and achy. What had she thought was going to happen here today? That they’d bond and become the best of friends?

She kind of thought they would.

Sand kicked up around her as Price jogged up to her. “Kylee, wait. Hey, are you crying?” He moved in front of her and put his hand out, palm up. “Stop. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She stopped walking because if she didn’t, she’d walk right into him. And they both knew how he felt about that.

He leaned his head forward and peered at her, but she kept her face down. “Really, Kylee. You just surprised me.”

“‘That was weird’?” Kylee quoted, lifting her eyes. She shook her head. “Sorry for weirding you out.”

“Hey.” He gave a small smile. “You’re taking this wrong. Blowing it out of proportion.”

His smile infuriated her more. He thought she was funny. Silly, even. She sidestepped him and continued trudging through the sand, wishing it let her make her getaway a little faster.

Price wrapped a hand around her forearm and just as quickly released her. Kylee turned around to see him staring at his hand. Then he looked at her with that quizzical, probing expression.

At least he hadn’t screamed in pain. “You don’t have to worry, I wasn’t trying to—you know.” She couldn’t bring herself to say “flirt.”

“What?” Price whispered, his eyes so intense she had to concentrate to remember their conversation. “Trying to what?”

“I’m sure you already have a girlfriend,” she murmured, turning away from his gaze.

“I don’t.”

She frowned, still unwilling to meet his eyes. “Then why are you acting so strange?”

“Can I see your hand?” He held his out.

Kylee hesitated. The ocean breeze blew a strand of stringy blond hair in her face, and she tucked it behind her ear. The comfortable feeling between them was gone. This was formal, official, and intimidating. She reached her hand out and placed it in his.

Price closed his fingers around her wrist, then tugged her closer. He took her hand in both of his and trailed his fingers over the veins under her skin. He turned her hand over and traced the prints in her palm. Then he lifted his eyes to hers, his expression unreadable.

Kylee resisted a shiver. How could he not know the way he affected her?

“Can I see your other hand?” Price didn’t relinquish his hold on her, but he held his hand out in expectation.

Kylee gave it to him. She wondered at how they must look, standing in the sand, him holding onto her wrists and examining her palms.

He dropped the right hand and pressed his fingers against a criss-crossing of white scars on her left arm.