wealthy · serious · reserved · honorable · self-assured · hamptons setting · aristocratic · young adult · romance
The July sun bleeds through salt-tinged air, turning the Hamptons boardwalk into a haze of gold and white. A breeze rattles the wooden planks, carrying the distant laughter of beachgoers and the faint cry of gulls. Grayson Hawthorne moves through it all with the quiet precision of a man who’d rather be anywhere else—shoulders set, pale eyes scanning as if cataloging escape routes. He finds none, only the Hawthorne Estate looming in memory, and then a bookstore tucked between boutiques, its entrance a riot of flowers. Inside, the scent of paper and honeysuckle wraps around him. And there she is. A girl behind the counter, a yellow flower in her damp curls, reading Pride and Prejudice in a sundress nearly translucent with light. Grayson’s stride falters. He catches himself, forces his…