𝗠𝘆 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 ⇉ 𝗝𝗝 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸

Crain House

MORNING BLED gently across the water—cool silver light softening the horizon as the ocean exhaled in slow, shimmering breaths. The air tasted like salt and sleep, fresh and sharp against tired lungs. The boat rocked with a lazy sway, creaking like an old house settling into dawn.

Kie and Sarah sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the edge of the deck, legs dangling, bare toes brushing mist-kissed wood. Their voices were a hush, conspiratorial murmurs tucked behind cupped palms.

Neither looked happy, just... exhausted.

The kind of exhaustion that sits behind the ribs and tugs.

Ari sat a few feet away, back slightly curved as if trying to shrink into the metal rail behind her, hands folded stiffly in her lap.

She hadn't said a word since she woke in the cramped little cabin—her silence was a presence, heavy enough to tilt the weight of the morning.

And then the unmistakable rumble of an engine cut across the quiet.

The HMS pulled up.

John B's grin appears first, sunshine and recklessness in human form. His voice echoes across the water, bright and obnoxiously cheerful. "You need a tow?"

Ari's jaw twitches. She didn't answer.

She watched Kie and Sarah exchange whispers, heads bowed together.

She could read the looks easily—Kie had forgiven her, she saw that in the softened shoulders, in the little smile she thought Ari didn't notice.

And Sarah...

Sarah kept sending her those quiet, aching glances. The ones full of apology but tied shut with confusion.

Sarah wanted healing without understanding the wound.

Ari stares straight ahead, eyes hard.

"You gotta admit, it was funny." John B adds as he maneuvers closer, smugness practically dripping.

Kie let out a sharp breath. "Mastermind, huh?"

"I'm always plannin'." He says, tapping his temple like he deserved applause.

"Some patriarchal bullshit."

"Yeah. That sucked." Sarah murmurs, guilt darkening her voice.

From the HMS, JJ's blue eyes never left Ari.

His brows knitted together the moment he saw her expression—not anger, not annoyance, but that flatness.

That quiet kind of hurt that wants to curl in on itself.

"You still love us though, right?" JJ finally calls out, tone teasing, but the words were aimed squarely at her.

The hope in his smile was almost painful.

Ari didn't react.

Didn't even let the corner of her lip betray her.

She wanted to.

God, she wanted to.

But smiling felt dishonest—like painting sunlight over a crack in the wall.

"Yeah, whatever." Sarah mumbles.

John B lifts his chin at the Cameron girls, feigning offense. "Hey, you still hate me?"

Ari met his eyes without blinking. "More than I did before I got on this boat."

Her hand found JJ's instinctively, fingers tangling with his like muscle memory.

She steps lightly into the HMS and, without hesitation, wraps her arms around him.