SIN SO SWEET
Riley's POV
The boat smelled like diesel, dead squid, and the kind of salt that gets into your throat and stays there.
It was James's idea, the perfect hangout before he flew back to college.
We’d been out since 4 a.m., a full-day deep-drop charter, 40 miles off the Carolina coast. The captain was a sunburned man named Rusty who called everyone “sport” and chain-smoked menthols even when the wind was blowing 20 knots. The deck was slick with fish blood and the occasional puddle of someone’s breakfast. Twelve passengers, two mates, and I… the only woman who wasn’t a wife or girlfriend dragged along for “quality time.”