Reck

ooth despite the chaos. The waves crashed against them, each one more violent than the last, but neither of t

arrowly avoiding a swell that could have capsized them. Mia clung to the side, her fingers wh

visible now, obscured by sheets of rain, and Mia felt her sense of time dissolve into the storm. Every secon

. The boat rocked violently as a final wave crashed over them, but the worst had ind

hold on. Jake, too, looked exhausted, his hair plastered to his forehead, his c

m, her heart still p

back of his hand. "I didn't expect you to sti

question between them. "I didn't expect it either," sh

k to the horizon. "You've got guts, I'll give you that," he said with

t people," Mia repli

unspoken, something deeper that tied them together in that moment. Mia could feel it, a conne

the boat. "You shouldn't have come out here," he said, his voice low b

, her voice firm. "I

h. "You don't even know wh

g the shift in him.

ot just weather. There are things you don't understand, things I've been trying to outrun.

e pull, the sense that this storm was more than just a

hrough his soaked hair. "There