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Tonight’s reunion event is Falcons Alumni Night. Apparently, the class of 2016 is getting a tour of the renovated high school, followed by an alumni basketball game in the brand-new gym.

Yeah. No way am I going to that. Sienna, however, is.

She told me as much over breakfast, claiming that if there really is a killer on the loose targeting Reds, then what better place for them to strike than at the school?

Yet another reason for me to skip the event. Besides, I have a date tonight.

I smile when I see that it’s already half past ten. I send Lauren today’s chapters of Dead Girls Don’t Lie and even tell her about the impromptu reading I’ll be giving tomorrow night. I know she’ll be over the moon about the development.

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, but I’d rather she hear it from me than see someone post about it online and find out that way. Besides, this will only prove her point about how coming back to Fairhope was a good idea.

I just wish Cathie were as supportive. Even though she only knows about Jordan’s death and is completely clueless about what happened to Sydney and Brooke, I can hear the strain in her voice every time we talk. She’s worried about me. But she really shouldn’t be.

I never expected coming back to Fairhope to feel this good. Never imagined returning to the place that gave me so many reasons to hide from life would somehow remind me how to live it.

Maybe it’s the excitement of writing a book I’m genuinely passionate about.

Maybe it’s getting Sienna back in my life and realizing just how much I missed having her in it.

Or maybe it’s the man waiting for me.

If I’m being truthful with myself, it’s a mixture of all three.

This is what my life had been missing.

My purpose. My people. My person.

How ironic that it took me returning to Fairhope to find all three.

I drive up to our secluded spot on the lake, thankful to see it intact. Misty and her husband, Roger, haven’t defiled it yet with their condos or luxury lake houses.

It’s still the same little patch of land I remember, tucked just beyond the woods behind the old papermill, where the trees open onto a narrow sandy beach that stretches along the shore.

And right where he always used to sit, at the end of the dock, sits Milo.

I take a second just to look at him. With the full moon out tonight, casting its pale light over the lake, he almost looks ethereal.

“Enjoy it now. This will all end by the end of the week,” a voice whispers in the back of my mind.

That doesn’t matter. It’s just like Milo said yesterday.

Fuck tomorrow. Fuck yesterday. We have tonight.

I slowly make my way toward him, and he turns his head over his shoulder when he hears my footsteps. The smile that spreads across his face nearly steals the breath from my lungs.

If home is where the heart is, then mine has always lived in Milo’s smile.

“Hi.”

“Hi to you too,” he says, holding out his hand for me to take.

I grab hold of it and ease myself down onto the dock beside him, taking in how stunning Alder Lake looks beneath the moonlight.

“Wow. It’s still so beautiful out here. Just… perfect.”

“It is now.” He pulls my hand to his lips and presses a tender kiss to it.

I bite the corner of my lip as he lowers our hands, then wraps an arm around my waist and slides me closer to his side.