Fresh Catch (Talbott’s Cove, #1)

by Kate Canterbary

Cole's fingers were curled around my forearm as if he was bracing himself, but instead of maintaining a polite distance, he leaned into me. His shoulder was on my chest and his breath was on my neck, and I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone was on my tongue.

If there's one thing I've learned in my time on this planet, it's that I can't wait for people to be perfect. I can't reject them because they don't know the best way to open a discussion on my queer life.

"Everyone wants to be snapped," Cole replied. "There's no one in the world who doesn't want it. We want it in different ways, at different times, but we still want it. Need it, even when we say we don't. We want to be accepted, cherished, adored. We want someone to recognize our messy, complicated souls, and love us for those messes and complications."

"We're never given things when we want them," Cole said. "It's the universe's way of fucking with us."

"Does that mean you believe everyone has a lobster?" "A what?" I asked.

"You know, a lobster," Cole said, laughing. "From that episode of Friends. Lobsters mate for life, and they walk around holding claws—" "Lobsters do not mate for life," I argued. "Female lobsters take turns with the dominant male in a given area."

Summer love was never meant for me. It wasn't mine to keep. I built sandcastle dreams and the tides washed them away every time.