Chapter Text
INTRODUCING DAPHNE & CAM
Episode 1: "Summer House"
The drive from Worcester took an hour and a half because of traffic. Cameron talked for most of it.
"Did you know humpback whales can travel fourteen thousand kilometers in a single migration cycle?"
"You've told me."
"Fourteen thousand, Daph."
She didn't mind. Cameron had been narrating the world to her since they were kids and she'd stopped trying to slow him down around age twelve. He was her cousin, technically, their moms were sisters, but he felt more like a brother she only saw a few times a year. The kind who remembered exactly where a conversation left off and picked it right back up without checking if you were ready.
He'd been the one to find her crying in the bathroom at Lizzy's funeral and he'd sat with her on the tile floor and put his hand on her shoe and didn't say a word. She was eight. He was six. Lizzy was sixteen and gone and the tile was cold and Cameron's hand on her shoe was the only warm thing in that room.
"And the beach is right there," Cameron was saying, one hand on the wheel, the other gesturing at nothing. "Like, you can see the ocean from my bedroom window. It's incredible. You're going to love it."
"Mhm."
"Mom's really excited you're coming. She's been cleaning the house all week. I told her you wouldn't care, but you know how she is."
She knew. Aunt Denise had been making beds and filling fridges and leaving cookies on counters since before Uncle Rob left and she'd doubled down after, like the house being perfect could fill in for the man who wasn't.
"The Fishers' place is way bigger than ours, obviously. They've got this whole compound thing going on. Pool, guest house, the works. Old money." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "I see the brothers around sometimes, Conrad and Jeremiah. They're kind of a big deal here. Like, Cousins Beach royalty or whatever."
"Royalty."
"You know what I mean. Everyone knows who they are. I work at the country club where they're members, so I see them, but we don't exactly hang out." He shrugged. "Belly grew up with them, though. Her mom and their mom are best friends."
Daphne pressed her forehead against the window and watched the highway signs go by. Framingham. Braintree. The Route 3 exit coming up. Her mom's apartment was an hour and a half behind her with the boxes still stacked in the corner and the KITCHEN one on top because neither of them knew where anything went in someone else's cabinets. Her dad had called twice this week and she'd let both go to voicemail and deleted them without listening.
Three months away from all of that. Three months in a beach town she barely remembered.
Aunt Denise had called and said we'd love to have her and Cameron had texted please come, it'll be fun, I promise and her mom had looked at her with the tired eyes and said maybe some time away would be good and Daphne had said okay because she couldn't stay where she was and that was as close to a reason as she had.
"And there's this girl," Cameron said.
She closed her eyes.
Here it comes.
"A girl."
"Isabel. Everyone calls her Belly." His ears had gone pink. She could see it even in profile. "I actually met her years ago, seventh grade Latin convention. She placed second in poem recitation. I was Sextus, she was Flavia." He laughed at himself. "God, that sounds so dorky."
"It is dorky."
"Shut up." But he was smiling. "Anyway, her family comes to Cousins every summer. They stay with the Fishers. The mom is friends with everyone. Belly basically grew up with their kids."
"Uh-huh."
"I've seen her around, you know? At the club where I work, at the pier, whatever. But we've never really... I don't know. This summer feels different. Like maybe I should actually talk to her."
His hands were tighter on the wheel now and his voice was doing a casual strain when he was trying not to sound like he cared as much as he did. Daphne watched his profile and the hope all over his face and his mouth kept pulling into a smile when he said her name.
Oh no.
"Cam."
"What?"
"How much do you like this girl?"
"I don't - it's not like that. I just think she's cool." His ears were still pink. "Why?"
She'd seen this before. The lifeguard who smiled at him. The girl at the ice cream shop who drew a heart on his cup.
Each time he fell fast and hard and each time she got the aftermath in texts at 2 AM, sad whale facts and are you still up? and I think I messed it up.
"Oh no. You've got the protective cousin look," Cameron said.
"Ew. I absolutely do not. Stop."
"You absolutely do."
"I just - just be careful, okay?" she said.
He deserved someone who actually saw him. But the girls Cameron liked never did. They looked right through him to whoever was standing behind him, and it was always someone taller and louder and Cameron kept handing his heart over and looking confused when they set it down and walked away.
"She's different," Cameron said, like he could hear what she was thinking. "Belly's not like the others."
Sure.
They never were.
"Tell me about her," Daphne said, because it was going to be a long summer either way.
**
Cameron pulled into Cousins Beach and she was transported to a different time, where Lizzy still breathed and the wind chimes still hung. She could see the lines of houses stacked by the beach, weathered now but lived-in, like they'd had summers without her that brought life to the space. The shutters were half open and lights were on and everything felt like it had kept going.
She saw the initials before she saw the porch. L.M. D.H. C.M. Carved into the steps the summer they redid them, the three of them crouched with a butter knife and a screwdriver conspiring to leave their mark forever. Lizzy had done hers first. Biggest. Deepest.
"Home sweet home." Cameron killed the engine and grinned at her. "Mom's probably still at work, but she left a key under the mat. Classic."
"Some things never change."
"Guest room's upstairs, Lizzy's old room. Mom finally cleared some stuff out last year. Said it was time." He was already out and grabbing her duffel from the trunk before she could stop him. "Bathroom's at the end of the hall. You remember the layout?"
"I think so." She hadn't been here since she was ten.
She followed him inside.
Salt and lavender. Aunt Denise's combination, same as always. The furniture was different but the floors were the same worn hardwood and the walls were still covered in family photos.
She stopped at one near the stairs. Cameron and Lizzy at the beach, the summer before she died probably. Lizzy all long limbs and sun-bleached hair and Cameron just a little kid hanging on to her hand.
"Mom can't take that one down," Cameron said behind her. "I've told her it's okay, but..."
"It's a good picture."
"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Come on, I'll show you your room."
The walls were muted blue now instead of the hot pink Daphne remembered and the posters were gone but there were traces, a shelf of Lizzy's books, a bulletin board with old photos tucked into the corners. Fresh sheets on the bed. A small vase of flowers on the nightstand.
"Bathroom's at the end of the hall," Cameron said from the doorway. "I'll let you get settled. Bonfire's at nine, first one of the summer. You should come."
"Cameron-"
"It'll be fun. I promise." Already backing away, beaming. "Trust me."
After he left she sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. Through the window she could see a sliver of ocean between the rooftops.
Three months in her dead cousin's bedroom watching her living cousin chase a girl who was never going to see him.
This was going to be exactly what she needed or a complete disaster.
**
"You're going to love it," Cameron said for the fifth time.
They were walking down the beach toward a glow in the distance. The sun had set an hour ago and the sky was that deep blue-black that only happened near water.
She'd changed into shorts and a tank top, then changed again into jeans and a sweater because the night air was crisp and her hair was a disaster in the humidity and she'd given up trying to fix it.
"It's the first bonfire of the summer," Cameron was practically bouncing. "Everyone comes. It's tradition. They have beer and marshmallows and-"
"You said." She tugged her sweater down. The jeans were too tight. They'd fit fine in April but April was before the stress eating and the 2 AM ice cream and her father leaving her family. "Cameron. Seriously. It's fine. You don't have to sell me on it."
"I just want you to have a good time."
"I know."
"And I want you to like my friends."
He looked at her, hopeful, and she made herself look back.
"I'm sure I'll like your friends."
She wasn't.
She was selective and she was tired.
The bonfire grew bigger as they got closer and so did the noise, music and laughter and waves crashing underneath all of it. Way more people than she'd expected.
"How many people come to these things?"
"Everyone," Cameron said again like that was an answer. "Come on, let's find Belly."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her in.
**
The bonfire was chaos. Bodies packed around the fire and sprawled on blankets and clustered near coolers every twenty feet. The music was too loud, thumping bass from speakers someone had rigged on the back of a truck. Someone was doing body shots off a fold-out table.
Daphne stood at the edge of it with a red cup someone had shoved at her the second they arrived. The drink was too sweet, vodka and some pink mixer that tasted like cough syrup. She took a sip and regretted it but it gave her hands something to do.
Near the center of the party it was two guys that were clearly brothers. Same height, similar build, completely different energy. The one with straight lighter hair stood with his arms crossed like he'd rather be anywhere else. The other one had sandy curls that caught the firelight and shoulders broad enough to take up space without trying and he was grinning at something someone said.
The brooding one was the center, the one everyone oriented toward even when he wasn't doing anything. The curly-haired one was louder, lighter, working the crowd like he'd invented the concept of a good time.
Jeremiah. She watched him for a minute. He moved through the party like he owned every square foot of sand. Someone called his name and he turned, face lighting up, clapping a guy on the back. A girl tried to get his attention and he gave her a hug that lifted her off her feet.
"Belly Button's all grown up!" His voice carried across the whole beach.
She saw Belly blush from across the party and Jeremiah pull her into a hug, easy and automatic, his arm around her shoulders like it lived there. Conrad was standing slightly apart, watching. A girl with long braids walked up to him and he leaned in and kissed her.
She saw Belly see it.
Belly's smile stayed on but her eyes went somewhere else for a second, and then she turned back to the fire a half-beat too fast.
Then Belly's brother showed up and started yelling at her about the dress and Belly yelled back and then she fell. Tripped over something in the sand and went down hard and the whole party saw it and someone laughed and Daphne's hand tightened on her cup.
Cameron had found Belly within ten minutes. Daphne could see them from her spot near the rocks, Cameron leaning in too much and Belly half-turned away, polite, scanning the crowd over his shoulder.
Belly was talking to him now, sitting on a log near the edge of the party, wearing his hoodie, and from here Daphne could see Cameron doing the thing he did where he talked with his hands and leaned forward and forgot that not everyone found whale migration patterns as compelling as he did. Belly was smiling. Polite. Her feet were pointed toward the fire.
He'd given her his hoodie already.
Belly's eyes kept going past him.
Every few seconds her head would turn, slightly, toward the fire where the Fisher brothers were standing.
She watched him say something that made Belly laugh, short and surprised, and Cameron's face lit up and Daphne looked away because he didn't see what she could see from twenty feet away.
Daphne finished the terrible pink drink and watched it happen.
A fight broke out near the coolers. Two guys shoving each other, voices getting loud, and then Jeremiah was there. "Hey, guys, guys, come on. Hey. Break it up."
Then the cops showed up.
Flashlights cutting through the dark near the parking lot. The music cut out and everyone scattered, grabbing coolers and towels and sprinting for cars. Daphne stayed where she was because she'd had half a drink and she wasn't about to break an ankle running in the dark.
Jeremiah didn't scatter. He was the only person moving against the crowd, not running, walking fast with a destination. She watched him find Conrad first. Then Steven. Then Belly. He didn't yell, didn't flail, just moved person to person until he had everyone accounted for and pointed at the cars. Four minutes maybe.
She was thinking about that when she saw Cameron.
He was near the Jeep, standing next to Belly, and his body language was a book she'd read a hundred times, hopeful, leaning in, offering something. A ride probably. Belly's body was already turning away.
Daphne started walking toward them. She was tired and she wanted to get Cameron out of there before it got worse.
She got there in time to hear it.
"What's your name?"
Jeremiah was between Cameron and Belly now, shoulders squared, the grin gone.
Cameron stared at him. "Cameron." Then, because he was Cameron: "Cam Cameron."
Jeremiah's eyebrows went up. "Your name is Cam Cameron?"
Cameron's ears went crimson. "Yeah."
"Okay." Friendly enough but there was something under it. "No offense, but no. Belly, get in the car. Just get in the car."
Belly looked at Cameron and hesitated for half a second and then climbed into the Jeep without looking back. Cameron laughed, the wrong kind, too high, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Cameron's laugh died and the party kept scattering around them.
Jeremiah turned to follow.
He paused at the driver's door and looked back.
His eyes found Daphne.
She didn't smile or wave. She just looked at him and let him see that she'd watched the whole thing.
He raised his eyebrows. What? Like she was the one being weird. Like dismissing her cousin was completely normal and she was rude for having an opinion about it.
Then he got in the car and drove away.
Daphne stood there watching the taillights disappear and crossed her arms.
Cam Cameron. She had to admit that was brutal.
Cameron was still standing where Belly had been, looking at the empty space.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He wasn't. He sounded like someone who'd been told the whale-watching boat was cancelled forever. "That was... I mean, that's just how those guys are. The Fishers. They look out for their people."
"You literally work at the same club as them."
"Yeah, but..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, I serve them drinks and stuff. It's not like we're friends. He's just being protective. That's all."
"I'm sure," she said.
**
They walked back to Cameron's car in silence.
The beach was almost empty now. Someone had left a cooler behind. Someone else had lost a shoe.
"So that was Belly," Daphne said, because someone had to say something.
"Yeah." Cameron's voice was wistful. "She's amazing, right? Like, genuinely amazing."
"She seems nice," Daphne said, because that's what you said.
"She is. She's really nice. And smart. She's into all these old movies and books and stuff. She knows everything about, like, classic literature." He unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel. "She's been coming here every summer since we were kids. I've watched her grow up, you know? And this summer, I don't know. I feel like maybe things are different. Like maybe she's finally seeing me."
Daphne climbed into the passenger seat and looked out the window at the dark ocean.
"It's late," she said. "We should get back."
"Yeah." He started the car. "Yeah, you're right."
Cameron turned the radio on low. Some oldies station. He hummed along for half a block and then said, "She gave me her number, you know. Before the whole thing with Jeremiah."
Daphne looked at him. "She did?"
"Well, she said I could find her at the whale-watching pier." He smiled at the windshield. "Same thing."
It wasn't. But she didn't say that.
"I'm glad you're here," he said eventually. "I know parties aren't your thing. But I'm really glad you came."
"Me too."
She thought about Jeremiah's face when he'd looked at her. That flat what? He probably wouldn't even remember her tomorrow.
She was here for Cameron. That was it. The rest of it wasn't her problem.
**
Back at the house, Cameron made them both chamomile tea with honey.
"Thanks for coming tonight," he said, handing her a mug. "I know it was a lot."
"It was fine." She wrapped her hands around the warmth. "I just don't know anyone yet."
"You will. Give it a few weeks. Everyone's really welcoming once you get to know them."
She thought about the look on Jeremiah's face. The casual no offense, but no.
"Sure," she said. "I'm going to head to bed. Long day."
"Okay. Hey, Daph?"
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm really glad you're here." Cameron smiled, and it was so trustworthy it almost hurt to look at. "This summer's going to be great. I can feel it."
She wanted to believe him. But she'd learned a long time ago that feeling it didn't make it true.
"Night, Cameron."
"Night."
She went upstairs and closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed still holding her tea. Through the window she could see a sliver of ocean between the rooftops.
Cameron was wrong. She could feel it in her bones. Something big and messy was already in motion and it had started the second Belly walked into that party in her white dress. Cameron was still out there, wide open, about to get wrecked.
She finished her tea and rinsed the mug and changed into pajamas and lay in the dark staring at the ceiling. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the bonfire, the girl in white, and how Jeremiah had looked at her like she was furniture.
At midnight, she gave up on sleep.
Daphne pulled on a hoodie and slipped out to the beach. The sand was cool under her bare feet, and she walked until the house was just a shape behind her and the ocean was the only sound.
She sat on the sand near the shore, feeling the ocean against her feet, when she heard footsteps behind her.
"Couldn't sleep?"
She turned.
Jeremiah Fisher was walking toward her across the sand, hands in the pockets of his shorts, no shirt, hair messy like he'd tossed and turned too. The crowd-working grin was gone.
Unfortunately, moonlight suited him. She wondered what he looked like in daylight.
He stopped a few feet away and looked at her like he was actually seeing her for the first time. He dropped down beside her, easy, and traced a line in the sand with his fingers.
"I saw you at the bonfire," he said. "You were with that guy."
"Cameron."
"Right." He tilted his head. "And your name is?"
"Daphne. Daphne Hart."
"Daphne." He was quiet for a second, like he was turning the name over. "Wait, like the goddess? The one Apollo chased?"
Her eyebrows lifted. It was not what she'd expected. "You know Greek mythology?"
"I paid attention in ninth grade." He grinned, and for the first time all night it didn't look like something meant for a crowd. "She turned into a tree to get away from him, right? Laurel tree. Pretty badass, actually."
"Didn't peg you for the humanities type."
"Most people didn't have Mrs. Castellano. She made us act out the myths. I was Icarus." He spread his arms, miming wings. "Flew too close to the sun. Crashed and burned. Very dramatic death scene. Standing ovation."
A laugh escaped before Daphne could stop it.
Jeremiah smiled.
"I'm Jeremiah," he said.
"I know."
"How do you-" He stopped and reconsidered. "You're with Cameron."
"You dismissed my cousin."
He winced. "Yeah. That was..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I just didn't know who he was."
"Does it matter?"
"What do you mean?"
"Would you have treated him differently if you knew he worked at the club? Or knew Belly since seventh grade?" Curious, not accusing. "Or would you still have told him no offense, but no?"
Jeremiah went quiet. The waves filled the silence.
"Probably still would have," he admitted. "Belly's like family. I'm protective."
"That's not protection. That's gatekeeping."
He looked taken aback. "Damn. Okay."
"Sorry." She wasn't, really. "I'm just honest."
"No, it's..." He laughed, surprised. "I mean, most people don't call me on my shit."
"Most people want something from you."
"And you don't?"
She looked at him. The moonlight. The water. Two strangers on a beach at midnight.
"I don't even know you," she said.
"You could."
He looked at the water instead of her.
"You know, Cameron's a good person," she said. "He would have driven her home safe. That's all he was offering."
Jeremiah's jaw tightened. Just for a second. "Yeah. I'm sure he is."
He didn't sound sure. He sounded like he was being generous because she was pretty and he wanted her to stop talking about it.
"It's late," she said, and stood up before he could answer. Sand on her legs, cold air on her arms. "Night, Jeremiah."
"See you around, Daphne."
She didn't say it back.
She turned and walked back toward the house without looking back, and when she reached the path through the dunes she let herself glance over her shoulder.
He was still there, closer to the water now, tossing something into the waves. Still out. Still restless.
She went inside and climbed the stairs and lay down in the bed that still smelled like lavender and salt.
This time, when she closed her eyes, she didn't see the bonfire. She saw the distance between them, three feet maybe four, and the stupid number of stars behind his head, and she pulled the covers up and turned toward the wall.