Mark could hear the party from all the way down the beach. Ian lived at “The Party House,” as all the locals called it, for obvious reasons. He didn’t get along with Sophie’s brother at all. The kid spent too much time stoned and not enough time studying for his massage therapy degree. He also surfed a lot, which Mark didn’t mind, and cheated on his girlfriends—a fact that he knew but Sophie didn’t.
But he couldn’t tell Sophie because she was fiercely attached to her brother, and Ian was always looking for a good reason to hate him. Actually, he didn’t even need a good reason; any reason would do. Mark had offered him a job once, and that had sparked a week-long sulk about Mark’s lack of respect for the art of massage.
Normally, he would never go to one of Ian’s parties. But he couldn’t
