Palm Readings and Palmolive

Maya's palms were sweating. Literally sweating. Which was exactly why she couldn't believe she'd let Jasmine talk her into letting Tyler read her palm at Kira's beach bonfire party.

"You're gonna meet someone tall, dark, and mysterious," Tyler said, his finger tracing the lines on her hand. The firelight caught the stupid-cute gap between his teeth.

Maya's heart did that annoying fluttery thing. She was supposed to be playing it cool, not letting some guy she'd been crushing on since September hold her hand like it meant something. Even if he was only doing it because Jasmine dared him to.

Suddenly, a massive golden retriever bolted out of the darkness, mouth clamped around someone's volleyball. It crashed into the log circle, sending sand everywhere.

"Bear!" Some guy from the cross team came sprinting over. "Bear, drop it!"

The dog—which Maya now realized was named Bear, which was honestly hilarious—shook the volleyball triumphantly before releasing it directly into Tyler's lap.

"Dude, your dog just slobbered all over me," Tyler laughed, wiping at his shorts.

Maya cracked up. She couldn't help it. Something about this gorgeous guy getting taken out by a dog named Bear was exactly the kind of chaos she needed to break the tension.

"Sorry," the guy panted, grabbing Bear's collar. "He thinks he's a beach volleyball pro."

"It's all good," Tyler said, grinning at Maya. "See? The palm reading worked. I met someone mysterious."

Maya felt her cheeks burning. But for once, she didn't mind.

"Anyway," Tyler continued, "I never finished. Your life line says you're gonna do something huge. Something brave."

She looked at her palm, still warm where his fingers had been. Maybe he was just saying that. Maybe palm readings were total BS. But as Bear the retriever settled down next to her, resting his head on her knee like they were already best friends, Maya thought maybe—just maybe—sometimes the universe had a weird way of working things out.

She pressed her sandy palm against Bear's fur and smiled. Sometimes brave just meant showing up.