I’m sure my parents never guessed that after a brief modeling career when I was six, they would end up packing up all our shit and driving across the country with all their hopes and dreams pinned on me. It only took two years before I landed The Carters. I was one of the lucky ones. But with my success came a lot of pressure. Pressure I didn’t mind until the past couple of years.
After I leave the salon, I drive over to the neighboring town of Lake Starlight to see my good friends from Los Angeles, Griffin Thorne, and Phoenix Bailey. They’ve been living in both Alaska and Los Angeles for years now, but I’ve only ever seen them down in LA.
I’m not out of my brand-new truck for a second when Griffin steps out of the house carrying his youngest son, Jack.
“I guess when you decide to go in, you go all in. A truck?” He eyeballs my newest purchase.
He’s right to question me. Back in LA, all I drove were sports cars. Anything that went fast and let me drive away from it all at top speed. Sometimes I think back to those times and think I might not have realized it, but maybe I was tempting fate, trying to harm myself. I shake the thought from my head. I’ve come a long way from that man-child in the past two years and I’m sure Alaska has had something to do with that.
I tap the hood of my metallic-gray Bronco. I didn’t go full pickup truck, it’s more SUV than anything. “I have to fit in at some point.” I walk up the path toward the front door.
“Jack, you remember Gavin?” Griffin asks, trying to get the boy’s attention, but he shakes his head and tightens his grip on his dad, pushing his face into his neck. “His brother won’t let him play his video game.”
“He took the controller out of my hands,” Jack whines.
“Gavin!” Phoenix comes out of the front door. She’s wearing an apron and her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She looks like a modern-day June Cleaver.
“Is this what small-town life does to you?” I ask the woman who is known for rocking the red carpet in gorgeous gowns and heels.
“Other way around. LA life changes me. Here, I’m myself.” She kisses my cheek and hugs me hello.
“It looks good on you,” I murmur in her ear.
“Thanks. It looks good on you too.” She steps back and appraises me. Her gaze moves up and down my jeans and cable-knit sweater. Although it’s spring, it’s still chilly here. At least for an LA transplant like me. “You look like you could model for Alaska Wildlife.”
She and Griffin laugh together, and Phoenix holds her arms out for Jack. He eagerly moves into her arms, and she carries him as if he weighs five pounds.
“Come on in, I made my specialty.”
“It’s pot roast,” Griffin murmurs. “The only thing she can cook.”
“I can hear you,” Phoenix calls from the family room. “And you never complain.” She joins us in the kitchen sans Jack.
“Because it’s my favorite.” He kisses her cheek. “Anything that involves you is my favorite.”
“Gross!” Maverick, Griffin’s oldest son that he had with the famous actress Margaret Cooperton, comes down the stairs. I barely recognize him since I saw him last. He’s so much more mature. “Pot roast? Again?”
“Until you want to make dinner for us, I don’t want to hear any complaints.” Phoenix holds up her spoon at him. “God, I sound just like my oldest brother, Austin. You know what? Anything you want, let me know and I’ll make it.” She sets down the spoon and moves to their pantry.
“No.” Griffin places his hands on her shoulders and turns her around. “He’ll eat what you prepare.”
“Seriously, Dad?” Maverick asks, sulking when he sits at the center island.
“Call it punishment for being mean to your brother.” Griffin opens the fridge, then looks over his shoulder at me. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Just a water.”
Both Griffin and Phoenix smile at me. It nauseates me how much people know about my life.
“Where is the little tattletale anyway?” Maverick asks, looking around.
“I laid him on the couch, he’s probably already asleep.” Phoenix takes her own water from Griffin.
I’m not going to address the elephant in the room, so I pretend not to wonder if the reason neither she or Griffin are drinking is because of me.
“Good. He’s a nightmare.” Griffin rolls his eyes.
“He’s your only brother,” she says. “Have some patience.”
“I took him to Sweet Suga Things yesterday for donuts.” Maverick argues like the teenage boy he is.
“Was that for you or him?” Phoenix eyes him, and Maverick huffs, sliding off the stool.
“No, stay put. Say hello to Gavin Price,” Griffin says. “He’s moved to Sunrise Bay.”
Maverick’s head whips in my direction. “Why? Lake Starlight is way better.”
I laugh but the kid’s dead serious, so I shrug. “I like the bay.”
“Well, we have a lake, and our football team kicked your team’s ass this year.”
“Language,” Phoenix says with zero authority to her voice. Must be hard being a stepmom to a boy who towers over you.
“I don’t follow much high school football, so I’m not worried about it.”
“Still. Lake Starlight is way better than Sunrise Bay. Call me when dinner’s ready.” He disappears upstairs.
Griffin and Phoenix groan in unison.
“One day he’ll remember the manners we taught him, right?” Griffin says to Phoenix. “But he is right, Lake Starlight rules and Sunrise Bay sucks.”
Phoenix hits him in the stomach. “You’re hanging around Jack too much.”
Griffin accepts that with a nod. “Probably.”
“So, did you find a place to buy?” Phoenix asks.
“Yeah, a small three-bedroom right off the bay. There’s a bit of land and I can still walk into town. Once I have it rehabbed, I’ll invite you guys over.”
Griffin smiles. “Sounds great. Can’t wait.”
We discuss the new album Phoenix is putting out next fall, and she tells me a bit about her eight siblings who live in Lake Starlight. Griffin goes on and on about some new artist he’s working with, emphasizing that it’s confidential—as though I’d blab the information.
Out of nowhere, Phoenix changes the subject and fixes her dark eyes on me. “So what really made you move to Sunrise Bay and not Lake Starlight?”
I shrug. “I told you. Logan Stone moved there, we’re buddies, so it made the most sense.”
They nod, and the air in the room turns thick from their interrogation.
“I heard Logan married a Greene. My grandma hangs out with the Greenes’ grandma. They’re a pretty big family too.” She doesn’t phrase it like a question, but rather like she knows.
“Yeah, I think all in all, there are nine of them, but they’re blended.”
The Greene family was nice enough to invite me to their summer barbecue. Plus, I’ve had enough dinners with Logan and Nikki to know a bit about the family dynamic. I pay the most attention when Nikki talks about her sister Posey, who I completely blew it with earlier today.