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uncle
after graduation on his uncle’s fishing boat. He was destined to
inherit the family business. Eileen Baker was set to go to beauty
school in Georgia, the first in her family to have a chance to go
to college.
    Raymond Hartley’s story was similar to Seth’s
with a position lined up for him at the local factory just outside
of Coral Sands. The only difference was that Seth McIntosh had
wedding plans as well. Hanna Calloway was meant to be the perfect
picture of life for a woman in the 1960s – married, staying home
with the children, and letting her husband be the breadwinner. How
typical of that time.
    I forward the photos to Rooks with a caption. Who do you think they really were?
    I’m not sure if he’ll even make sense of it,
but I wonder if they even wanted the lives that had been put in
place for them. Was working at the town factory and following in
your parents’ footsteps really the dream back then?
    My phone buzzes. I think
they were shark bait. LOL. Sorry. Bad joke. I’m
exhausted.
    I tell him to get some sleep. I’ll catch him
up tomorrow. After plugging my phone into the charger, I retrieve
the paper brick. My hands tremble with nervous excitement. I unwrap
the newspaper, grab the top paper, and open it.

Seth’s Letter
    I probably shouldn’t be writing this.
Actually, I know I shouldn’t be, but I don’t know of any other way
to tell you what I need to say. Saturday night was amazing. It’s
crazy when I think about how I was on my way out of there when I
saw you. It felt like one of those ‘in the right place at the right
time’ kind of moments.
    Maybe I’m just crazy, but I think it was
meant to happen. Like maybe it’s all part of some bigger plan? Luck
or fate or something of that sense? Things have always been the
same for me. I’ve never stepped out of my comfort zone until you
happened. I never thought that there could be so much more than
what I knew.
    Now I just want to know it all. Everything.
All the things I probably shouldn’t know. I’ve been going over it
again and again in my head, ever since that night, and I
desperately need to see you again. If we could just talk, for only
a few minutes, maybe I could make sense of this. Maybe then I could
understand this world and my own place a little better.
    Sunday, at sunset, I’ll be at the Crane
Pavilion. Will you meet me?

Chapter
Six
    Mom hovers in the doorway of her office,
waiting impatiently for me to get my stuff together for the day. I
should’ve grabbed the stack of letters and crammed them into my
beach bag earlier, but who knew she had the flooring guys coming in
today? That was supposed to be next week.
    “Piper, please hurry,” she says with a groan
in her voice. “I need to have a talk with you before the Carters
get here.”
    I nod. “Let me change clothes, and I’ll meet
you in the kitchen,” I say.
    She pulls the door shut to give me privacy. I
instantly grab the paper stack and put it in the oversized beach
bag. I toss a few things on top of it and quickly change my shirt
just so she won’t think I was lying. I leave the bag just inside
the doorway and head to the kitchen for whatever home interior talk
she wants to have today.
    She leans against the counter, sipping from
her black ‘a yawn is a silent scream for coffee’ mug. She motions
to the bar stool close by, so I take a seat, a bit reluctantly.
    “We need to talk about Rooks,” she says,
wasting no time. She glances to the front door, as if she’s making
sure the Carters didn’t sneak in. “Let me just be honest. I don’t
have a good feeling about the boy, and I don’t want you getting too
attached.”
    Too attached? This isn’t some lame teen flick
where I see a hot guy and instantly am obsessed with him. I mean,
yeah, he’s hot, but any girl my age with two seeing-eyes can tell
that the boy is hot.
    Mom clears her throat and sets the mug on the
counter. “Do you even know why he’s staying with his dad this
summer? It’s not for a