Ryder looked up at the enormous ship, all polished white metal and glass. He recalled the last (and only) time he'd ever been on a cruise, almost ten years ago: a week of sound checks, late nights, and wild parties.

"Name?" asked the lady at the ticket gate.

"Ryder Cauley." He looked down at the desk, hoping the brim of his baseball hat and his cheap sunglasses would combine to obscure his eyes. Of course, his face and name weren't the only things about him that people would recognize.

Her breath caught. "Like--the lead singer of Brightline? Summer Nights and Neon Lights?"

In retrospective, he should have walked away at that point. Out of context, he usually flew under the radar; if no one recognized that he was America's former summer crush, it was easy for him to forget it too. But here, looking out on the South Florida water he had sung so many songs about, memories came rushing back just as easily as waves on the bow.

The bus parked at a rest stop outside Atlanta that smelled like skunk and cheap wine. Him and CJ screaming at each other, trading barbs that cut so much deeper because of their shared past. Dumb hick. Crowd-pleasing sellout. Standing on stage in Charlotte, announcing to twenty thousand fans that they were cutting the tour short halfway through. The unspoken question in all of their eyes, full of hurt and betrayal: Why are you up there alone?

She squealed. "You are Ryder Cauley from Brightline! Are you here to... party on a boat?"

He sighed and shook his head once. "Ma'am, I'm Ryder Cauley who works at a bank in Gulf Shores, Alabama."

He walked past her and up the gangplank to the ship, enjoying the anonymity of being in a crowd. Somewhere up ahead in line, he caught a glimpse of a man in a Miami Dolphins jersey with a gold chain clinking on his belt.

He froze for a second, a dizzy feeling building to a crescendo in the center of his head. A moment later, he realized flinching like that wasn't rational. He was in Miami. Plenty of people would be wearing Dolphins gear. It wasn't his old partner at all.

The man disappeared behind a gaggle of tourists. Still, Ryder couldn't shake the feeling that this vacation wasn't going to be a normal one.