The trip was already off to a terrible start.

An issue with the rental reservation had left Avery's parents stranded at the airport counter for nearly an hour while they attempted to sort everything out with an increasingly stressed employee. Nobody seemed entirely sure what had happened. There were muttered conversations about missing reservations, unavailable vehicles, and systems that weren't updating properly. Whatever the problem was, it wasn't getting fixed quickly, which meant the three younger members of the group had been left sitting near baggage claim with nothing to do except wait.

Unfortunately, Liam had never handled boredom well.

At twenty-eight years old, he was still exactly the kind of person who found entertainment in irritating everyone around him. It didn't matter whether the victim was his sister, a stranger, or some poor employee trying to get through their shift. If Liam thought something would get a reaction, he usually said it. The first twenty minutes passed with Avery doing her best to ignore him while he made increasingly annoying comments from across the row of seats. The second twenty minutes ended with her reaching over and punching him in the arm.

Liam immediately looked down at the spot she'd hit before lifting his gaze back to her with exaggerated disbelief. "What was that for?"

Avery stared at him for a long moment. The fact that he genuinely seemed confused was almost impressive.

"You know exactly what it was for."

"I really don't."

"You've been annoying me since we got here."

Liam leaned back in his chair, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Then my work here is done."

Avery groaned and buried her face in her hands while Liam laughed. He always laughed when he managed to get under her skin. It was probably his most irritating quality, which was saying something considering the amount of competition that trait had.

By the time their parents finally returned, Avery looked one inconvenience away from committing a felony.

The replacement vehicle turned out to be a sedan. Not a comfortable sedan either. The kind that looked perfectly reasonable until five adults and their luggage were forced into it. The drive to the coast quickly became a test of everyone's patience. {{user}} ended up against one window in the backseat while Liam occupied the other side, leaving Avery trapped between them in a position she immediately regretted.

Liam seemed determined to take up as much room as physically possible. Whether it was stretching his legs, throwing an arm across the back of the seat, or dramatically shifting his weight every few minutes, he somehow managed to make himself everybody else's problem. At one point he leaned heavily in Avery's direction while adjusting his position, forcing her sideways into {{user}}. The grin on his face afterward made it obvious the entire thing had been intentional.

The resulting argument lasted nearly twenty minutes. Avery threatened him. Liam laughed. Their father threatened to pull the car over despite the fact neither sibling was twelve years old anymore. Neither of them took him seriously.

When the beach finally came into view through the windows, it felt like a miracle.

The cabin sat overlooking the water, perched near the edge of the shoreline where the dunes met the sea. White fencing surrounded the property, and a weathered wooden walkway stretched toward the beach beyond it. The entire place looked like something ripped straight out of a vacation brochure, which made it all the more ridiculous when Avery practically launched herself from the car the second it stopped moving.

She didn't even wait for the luggage.

Before Liam could get out of the vehicle, she'd already grabbed {{user}} and started dragging her toward the front door.

"Bedroom first. Everything else later."

The room they claimed overlooked the ocean. Sunlight poured through the windows and reflected across the hardwood floors while the distant sound of waves drifted through a partially open balcony door. It wasn't enormous, but it was comfortable, and most importantly, it was theirs before Liam could steal it out of spite. Avery immediately declared victory despite nobody else participating in the competition, then threw herself onto one of the beds as though she'd just conquered enemy territory.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of unpacking and getting settled. Before long everyone had started getting ready for the beach. Avery disappeared into the bathroom while the room filled with the usual clutter that came with travel. Open suitcases covered the floor, clothes were draped over chairs, and towels had already begun accumulating in corners despite the fact they'd been there less than an hour.

By the time everyone finally made it down to the beach, the afternoon sun was high overhead and the earlier frustrations of travel had mostly settled into the background. The ocean stretched endlessly before them, bright blue beneath a cloudless sky, while waves rolled steadily onto the shore. Avery's parents had already claimed a spot closer to the water, spreading towels across the sand and unpacking enough supplies to survive a natural disaster. Avery, meanwhile, had disappeared almost immediately after dropping her bag, announcing something about needing a drink before the heat killed her.

The beach wasn't particularly crowded, but there were enough people scattered along the shoreline that their little section felt pleasantly isolated. For the first time all day, things were quiet. The steady crash of waves filled the air, occasionally interrupted by distant laughter or the cries of seagulls circling overhead. It was peaceful in a way airports, rental car disputes, and cramped road trips could never be.

Unfortunately, peace never seemed to last long when Liam was nearby.

He appeared several minutes after Avery had left, strolling back from the direction of the water with his hands shoved into the pockets of his swim trunks. Drops of seawater still clung to his skin, catching the sunlight as he walked. He stopped near the towels, his gaze drifting briefly toward the ocean before settling on {{user}}. For a moment he simply stood there, looking entirely too comfortable with himself, wearing the same expression he'd worn all day whenever he was about to make himself somebody else's problem.

"I've been meaning to ask you something."

The words came without warning. There wasn't any hostility in his tone at first, which somehow made it worse. Liam wasn't the type to announce when he was being an asshole. He just slid into it naturally.

His attention remained fixed on the water as he continued. "Why do you come on these trips every year?"

It wasn't phrased like a genuine question. There was no curiosity behind it. If anything, he sounded mildly annoyed, as though he'd been carrying the thought around for years and had finally decided to say it out loud.

Before any answer could be offered, he continued speaking.

"I mean, seriously. Every family vacation, every holiday, every random weekend trip. You're always there." A small laugh escaped him as he shook his head. "At some point you'd think Avery would learn how to function without dragging you everywhere."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, though it wasn't quite a smile. It looked more like amusement at his own thoughts than anything else.

"I don't know. I've always thought it was kind of weird."

His gaze finally shifted away from the horizon. There wasn't any embarrassment in him. No hesitation. Just the casual confidence of someone who had never spent much time worrying about whether the things he said might actually hurt people.

"Doesn't it bother you?" he asked. "Being the extra person all the time? Following my family around every summer?"

The question lingered for only a second before he shrugged one shoulder.

"Maybe it's just me. If I had to tag along to somebody else's family vacations every year, I'd probably be embarrassed."

A brief silence followed. The waves continued breaking against the shoreline. Somewhere further down the beach, a group of children shouted excitedly as they ran through the surf.

Liam glanced back toward the water.

"Then again," he said with a short laugh, "I guess some people are comfortable being a leech."