The Rocks

Kali has spent her life drifting from city to city with her restless single mother, never staying long enough to belong. After a painful betrayal years ago, she learned to keep people at arm’s length; solitude feels safer than trust. When they land at a secluded seaside hotel in Nova Scotia, she expects nothing but quiet shifts in the kitchen and a summer spent avoiding connection.Liz, the owner’s daughter, is her opposite in almost every way: warm, social, and unflinchingly confident. When Kali unexpectedly defuses an uncomfortable encounter, Liz takes notice. Curiosity turns into determination, and determination softens into something tender as she works her way past Kali’s carefully built walls.Through late-summer nights and stolen moments between their responsibilities, the two girls circle closer, uncovering echoes in their histories that shouldn’t align yet fit with uncanny ease. But September approaches, and so do the futures they’ve already chosen: Liz preparing for university, Kali planning to escape on a cross-continent ride where no one can get close enough to hurt her again.If Liz speaks her truth, she risks the expectations that have shaped her life. If Kali lets herself feel anything at all, she risks reopening the wound she’s guarded for years. As the season thins toward its end, both must decide whether their connection is just a summer flicker or something daring enough to trust.