Page 160 of At First Catch

“You had a future thought,” Bailey accuses.

I refuse to answer, but unfortunately my silence apparently confirms everything. Lila smiles over her coffee cup.

“You love him.”

“I really do,” I admit.

Saying it aloud still feels enormous.

Real.

Bailey leans dramatically against the counter. “This is disgusting. I’m obsessed.”

Evelyn points at me while eating pastry. “Does this mean he’ll be our Uncle Nolan?”

The room goes quiet.

Lila glances toward me, single eyebrow cocked in question. “Thoughts, Hadley?”

Before I can spiral further, my phone buzzes against the counter. Every nerve ending in my body reacts.

Nolan

Potential marina investor meeting ran long. Might be tied up most of the afternoon.

The smile lingering on my face fades. Something uneasy flickers low in my stomach.

Bailey notices.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” I say.

Lila watches me too carefully.

“Hadley.”

I glance back at my phone.

Potential marina investor meeting.

The words replay strangely in my chest. For the first time in weeks, a realization presses through all the happiness: Nolan belongs to the marina.

And the marina? The marina might not always belong entirely to Coral Bell Cove.

My fingers tighten around the phone while Oliver rubs his cheek against my hip before darting over to his sister.

“What kind of investor?” Bailey asks carefully.

I shake my head once.

“I don’t know.”

But something inside me twists anyway.

By seven that evening, I’ve reread Nolan’s last text enough times that the words have started to feel more substantial than they probably should.

He sent it hours ago. Since then, nothing.