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It was almost unfair just how attractive he was. I also knew he was just cocky enough to know it. And yet, the fact that he was out here waiting for me was what got me. My chest tightened a little at that.

“I have a gift for you,” Rhodes announced when he saw me, drawing me out of my head. I paused, frowning.

“Are first date gifts a thing?” I asked, hiding the slight panic his words awakened inside me. Gifts weren’t even a thought on my mind. I was just thrilled for a real date, even as I worried I’d somehow already messed this up. “I don’t have anything for you. Just me.”

I gestured to myself as if he needed the reminder. I was dressed simply in a white button-up with the sleeves rolled, my best pair of jeans, and white sneakers. I even put on my lucky necklace for the extra boost.

“No, they’re not.” He chuckled, walked to the garage door, and opened it. “But while the weather’s still good, I figured a ride up the coast on the back of a bike makes for a better date than just driving.”

Inside the garage, next to his bike, was a second one, its matte black design identical to his, and I was suddenly grateful for Jude’s persistence in getting Rhodes to let the three of us use his bike to get our motorcycle licenses. A white helmet sat propped on the seat, complete with fuzzy white wolf ears on top.

And yet, despite how much I loved it, the present came with guilt. I knew it wasn’t cheap—any of it.

“I can’t accept this,” I said. “It’s too much.”

“Consider it an investment in date nights up the coast. No one else needs to know about it right now,” Rhodes replied. His fingers grazed my lower spine for a brief moment—just enough to make me shiver—before he pulled away. “Get on, little wolf. Let’s see what it looks like.”

In the spirit of not being a brat, I grabbed the helmet and put it on. I could only imagine what I looked like in it, but I wasn’t complaining.

“The amount of selfies I’m going to take wearing this thing,” I commented, my voice muffled behind the closed visor. Rhodes laughed as he put his on and climbed onto his motorcycle.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that we shouldn’t be seen leaving here,” he said, and the seriousness in his words sobered me quickly. Sneaking around in a small town required some finesse. “Take it for a spin and meet me out by the truck stop.”

“What do I say if someone asks about the bike?” I asked.

“Well,” he sighed heavily, “then I just bought you, Jude, and Wyatt a bike. And then I have to tell them I got it, so let’s try not to have anyone ask for at least a few days.”

“Fair enough.” I laughed. It was a good enough cover story, but I looked forward to a day when we didn’t need cover stories, and I could brag about his extravagant dating style.

As I swung a leg over the bike, he tossed me the key fob. I caught it with ease and stowed it in my pocket. The engine roared to life as I pushed the button, rumbling pleasantly between my thighs.

“I’ll see you there,” Rhodes said loudly over the engine while I backed out of the garage.

Bracken Harbor was a weathered coastal town about an hour north of Everdale. The only road there wound along the rocky coastline, each bend revealing another stretch of the Atlantic. White-capped waves broke against the jagged rock. Salt clung to the breeze and my skin as I drove alongside Rhodes.

I followed him through the impossibly small town that I hadn’t known existed before him. Worn storefronts overlooked the ocean, where fishing boats bobbed from their long docks. Rhodes navigated through the narrow streets by memory. Eventually, he turned down a smaller road and made me ease up on the throttle until I trailed behind him. He guided us into a gravel parking lot facing the ocean and a stretch of beach tucked between towering cliffs.

When he turned off his bike and took off his helmet, I did the same. I left the helmet sitting on the seat like he did. He held out his hand, and my fingers slid through his comfortably. His grip was tighter than expected, but I welcomed it. There was something wonderful about Rhodes almost clinging to me.

“This way,” he said, tugging my hand slightly as he headed toward the beach. I went willingly, and the sand dipped beneath my shoes. The tide was on its way out, leaving behind a damp shoreline guaranteed to ruin the white on my shoes, but I didn’t care.

This moment—this quiet, hand-in-hand with him—was everything. This could’ve been the whole date, and I wouldn’t have complained.

“This is my favorite place,” Rhodes whispered, his voice almost too quiet to be heard over the waves. “I played football because I was angry at… well, I was angry at everything. Football was somewhere to put the feelings, but it didn’t make me feel better. It didn’t matter how good I got, or how happy it made other people; it didn’t make me feel better.”

My breath caught in my chest as I hung onto every word he shared.

“When I could drive, my mom had no problem letting me use her car,” he continued. “Every chance I got, I’d get the fuck out of Everdale. I’d spend hours driving up and down the coast, looking for a place to just… be someone other than Rhodes Kennedy, football star. I fucking hated being me.”

“I didn’t know that,” I replied. As Jude’s much older brother, Rhodes had always been larger than life. I knew we’d annoyed the hell out of him—how could we not with that age gap—but he’d always been something of a superstar. But that part of his life? The part where he hated himself? Where he was angry all the time? I had no clue about any of that.

“You can’t tell right now, but when the sky is clear, if you sit right…” Rhodes stopped walking, and so did I. “… here, the stars are incredible. They’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before. I’d sit here for hours, just watching the stars alone, and I was at peace. This was the only place I could find that.”

My gaze drifted upward to the cloudy sky, and a part of me wished I could see what he saw when he looked up. I didn’t care about the stars overhead, and I never had. But I knew just how important they were to Rhodes, and seeing that—understanding that—was what I wanted to experience. I’d never be a look-at-the-stars kind of person, but for Rhodes, I wanted to be.

“I’ve never shared this place with anyone,” he told me. “Until now.”

Oh. That was… honestly, I didn’t know what to do with an honor like that. Knowing what this place meant to him and having him share it with me was more than I expected for this date. I didn’t have many expectations to begin with—this was the first real date I’d ever been on—but being let a little further into his world hadn’t been on the list.