“That’s where I met her.”
“And who isher, exactly?” Logan asks.
“Indie Bloom.” The love of my fucking life. The girl who got away.
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Maddox tilts his head to the side and frowns. “Have we ever met her?”
“Doubt it,” I tell him. “But you probably have heard her name. Her parents are Vivian Marsh and Robert Bloom.”
Ryder’s eyes grow wide, his jaw dropping. “Wait, the movie stars?”
I nod. “They spent summers in Bar Harbor. I met Indie one afternoon after my shift ended at the pool. Saved her from a gang of hungry seagulls when they swarmed her and started stealing the sandwich she was trying to eat.”
God, that had been hilarious. One minute I’m walking down the beach, bored, and the next I hear an indignant shriek and a shouted,Get away from me, you disgusting creatures!Then I was watching this short, blonde girl try to fight off fifteen hungry, pushy seagulls who were working together as a pack to steal her sandwich.
I didn’t even think, just ran at them, shouting. I’m not sure who was more startled—Indie, or the birds. But when the shock wore off, Indie looked at me with wide eyes, tipped her head back, and laughed. It was the freest, brightest sound I’d ever heard, and that was the moment I fell in love with her, even if I didn’t realize it until much later.
“We spent the rest of the afternoon together, and when my dad called to tell me it was time to go, she looked so disappointed. I told her I’d be back the next day and asked if she wanted to meet on the beach again. We spent almost every day together after that for the rest of the summer.”
“That’s fuckin’ adorable,” Griffin says, grinning.
I rub the back of my neck, reclining in the seat. “We’d text each other all the time. And every summer, we spent as much time together as we could. She was one of my best friends. Butwhen I was sixteen, I realized she was also the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”
“So you dated?” Griffin leans forward, his elbows propped on his knees.
I’m not surprised he’s eating this up. He’s always been a romantic at heart, and he’s the one who encouraged Maddox, Ryder, and Logan the most when they fell in love.
“Nope.” I let a soul-deep sigh gust out of my lungs. “She lived in LA, I lived in Maine… About as far apart as you could get. And we only had a month and a half together in the summer. It would have been pointless, you know?”
It was a reality I lamented often. We texted, talked, and video chatted whenever we could, but none of that was the same as being with someone.
“But you said you were in love with her,” Logan says.
“I was,” I agree. “Don’t think I ever stopped loving her.”
Ryder takes a sip of his beer. “So what happened?”
I don’t want to tell them the whole story. I’m sore and exhausted, and I want to stew on this for a bit. “I was going to tell her how I felt the summer after our senior year of high school, but she left without a word before I got a chance.”
“Aaand…?” Griffin makes akeep talkingmotion with his hand.
“You gonna give us more than that?” Maddox asks, brow furrowed.
“At some point, yeah. I just don’t have it in me tonight. Long story short, she either blocked me or had to change her number, and she’s private as hell. Indie’s always hated the spotlight her parents’ careers shine on her, so she doesn’t have any social media that I’m aware of. I’ve tried everything I could think of over the years to get in touch with her, but it’s like she’s a ghost.”
One that haunts me, still.
Maddox nods. “But she’s here now.”
“I’m sure it was her at the game.”
Griffin nods, understanding coloring his expression. “You want help finding her.”
“Would the team be able to pull up her info from her ticket purchase?” Logan asks. “Even if it’s only a credit card number, maybe we could find her that way?”
Ryder shakes his head. “There’s no way they’d do that. Not even for one of us. That would be a huge breach of privacy.”
“Then, what’s the plan?” Griffin asks. “We could put uphave you seen this womanposters or something? Post her photo on our social media and ask for help.”