Suddenly, he bounces me off his shoulder. I close my eyes and hold my breath, because I expect to get a full face of water. Instead, I slide slowly down the front of him, his hands moving up to hold my hips and slowly slipping up my naked waist.
“Nick,” I complain.
The water laps at our middles, and I move to push back from him, but he wraps his arms around me and we fall together in one heap into the waves. All I can do is grab his shoulders and hang on tightly. So I do. I wrap my arms around his neck and when he stands back up, I’m clinging to him, with my legs around his waist and my arms holding him tightly. Our faces are a hair’s-breadth apart.
“That wasn’t very nice,” I say, blowing water from my lips.
“I was hot and sweaty,” he says.
He walks out deeper and deeper, until we’re being buffeted by the waves. But he’s steady. I move to unwrap my legs from around his waist. He catches my thighs and hitches them back up.
“I wasn’t,” I protest. “I was just fine.” I look toward where Amber and Rose are laughing. They both give me a thumbs-up. Traitors.
“I saw you looking at the douchebag,” he says.
“What douchebag?”
“The guy who’s staying in the house next to yours.” His hand slips toward my bottom, and his fingertips slide along the elastic leg. I reach back and take his hand and pull it back to my waist. He chuckles.
“What about him?” I ask. “And why does everybody dislike him so much?”
“Because he’s a dickwad.” He growls and I feel his lips graze my neck. “Salty,” he says.
My heart stutters.
“I’m going to tell you how this summer is going to go,” he says, “before it even starts.”
“How’s it going to go?” I pull my legs from around his waist, only to find that I can’t touch the bottom. I wrap them back around his waist and let him do all the work of keeping us up. He’s still on his feet, aside from the occasional wave through which we bounce.
“You and me, we’re going to spend some time together, because I want to get to know you all over again. That okay with you?” he asks.
I brush water back from my face. “Why?”
“Because I like you. I’ve always liked you. And you broke my heart when you left and didn’t come back. So, yeah, I’m telling you how it’s going to be.”
“You don’t even know me anymore,” I protest.
He jiggles me in his arms. “I know. That’s why I said we were going to get to know one another. Are you listening?” He growls playfully.
“Yeah, I’m listening,” I say quietly.
“Good, because you’re all I think about when it’s summertime.” He brushes my hair back from my face and picks a strand off my lips. “You and summer go hand in hand. Like ice cream and chocolate syrup. Like popcorn and salt. Like…me and you—a summer boy and a vacation girl. There’s no summer without you. It’s just endless seasons without the perfect.”
I open my mouth to speak, but only a mortifying squeak comes out.
He laughs. “Yeah, I feel that way too.” He jostles me again in his arms. “You understand, right?”
“Not really,” I admit.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he says and he kisses the tip of my nose. “I have to go to work. Can I come and see you tonight? I don’t get off until eight.”
“Work? It’s summer.”
“It’s summer for you. It’s work for me, all the way through summer. So, can I come and see you later?”
“I guess. I don’t think my mom will mind.”
He scoffs. “Your mom loves me.”
If only she’d loved me enough to stay.
He starts to walk toward the shore, holding my bottom in his hands. I tap his shoulder. “Let me down.”
He laughs and puts me down when the water is waist-deep. But then he takes my hand and holds it all the way out of the water. I stop and wring out my hair when we’re in front of Amber and Rose.
Suddenly, he jerks my arm and pulls me against him. “I want to kiss you,” he says beside my ear. “But I don’t want to mess up our first kiss trying to piss off Jerkface.”
“You should just pee a circle around me and be done with it.” Because he knows that little dunk in the ocean wasn’t about us. It was about the guy I haven’t even met yet.
He grins. “You might be into that kinky stuff, but I just want to kiss you, for starters. We’ll get to the rest of it in good time.” He laughs and kisses my cheek. Then he pats the top of Rose’s head and tugs Amber’s hair. “Later, ladies,” he says. He glares at my new neighbor. I have to find out what that’s about.
Amber, Rose, and I all watch his backside as he runs across the sand and back up the steps onto my deck. His hips are narrow and his shoulders wide. He has a tattoo on his upper shoulder that looks like it might be a sailboat.
“He sure grew up,” I mutter to myself as I plop down on the towel in the sand next to my friends.
Amber snorts. “Up, and out, and around. That boy is
hot
.”
“Did he just put the moves on you in the ocean?” Rose whispers loudly, cupping her hand around her mouth like she doesn’t want anyone to hear. If she doesn’t want anyone to hear, she really shouldn’t whisper-shout it.
I scratch my head. “Kind of.” I’m still a little confused about it.
“What did he say to you?” Amber asks.
“I think he asked me out, but I’m not completely sure. He’s coming over at eight.” I shrug. My face is on fire with all the scrutiny.
“Huh,” Amber grunts.
“What’s that noise for?”
“Nothing.”
I shove her shoulder. “Tell me.”
“It’s just…” She looks at Rose like she wants permission. Rose just raises her eyebrows. “It’s just that he hasn’t wanted a girlfriend since the accident.” She raises one finger. “Hookups, yes. Girlfriend, no.”
“What accident?” I ask.
“Oh my God!” Rose shrieks. “You didn’t know?”
I throw my hands up. “Know what?”
“His mom and dad died two years ago. In a boating accident.”
My heart trips a beat. “I had no idea.” I look in the direction he went, ready to go after him and ask him why no one had told me. I would have… What would I have done? Probably nothing.
“I thought your mom would have told you.”
I shake my head. “My mom and I don’t talk.” I lift my fingernail to my mouth and nibble on it. “So, who takes care of him?” I ask. I have so many questions.
“He lived with his uncle for a while. But when he was almost seventeen, he applied for emancipation and got it. So he was officially an adult before he started his senior year of high school. He lives with a couple of roommates in his mom and dad’s old place.”
“So that’s why he’s mowing our grass.” I am shocked. Dumbfounded.
“And working at the marina. And at the surf shop. And he works at the water park some too. He works all the time.”
“Is he going to college?”
Amber shakes her head. “He didn’t say anything about it last night.”
“At the beach blast?” There’s a party every year. I just missed it, I guess.
Amber nods. “He was the DJ.” She laughs. “I know. One of his many jobs.” Her face softens. “He’s had a hard time since they’ve been gone,” she says quietly. “So I’m kind of surprised that he was so affectionate with you, particularly since he hasn’t seen you in so long.”
Yeah. Me too.
“So what are you going to wear tonight?” Rose asks.
“I don’t even know what we’re going to be doing.”
“We should go look through what you brought and pick something out.”
“I still have about eight hours until the date.”
“Exactly.” Amber and Red wear identical expressions of surprise. “We might have to go shopping!” Amber pats my knee and gets up, dusting her hands together as she walks toward my deck. I have no choice but to follow.
As I walk by the neighbor, he tosses up his hand and smiles shyly at me. I wave back. What else am I supposed to do?
Nick
The house that Mrs. Michaels owns is huge. And there’s an even bigger one on the left, and the one that the douche is staying in is on the right. As I walk around the corner of the house, I stumble to a stop when I see a group of men unloading a truck. They’re all blonds and they have tattoos everywhere. One of them looks up at me and lifts his hand.
“Hi,” I say, and I jog over to them. “Do you need some help?”
They have the back of a truck completely loaded with coolers, suitcases, and baby stuff. Baby stuff? “I don’t think so,” the biggest one says. He looks familiar to me, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him.
I stick out my hand. “I’m Nick.”
He reaches out and takes my hand as the others keep hauling things into the house. “Paul,” he says.
Then it hits me. I know who they are. Holy shit. I look toward the door the other ones went through. They’re the Reeds from that new reality TV show. “Seriously?” I say. A grin that is probably the cheesiest thing ever tugs at my lips.
He scratches his head. “We’re kind of on vacation,” he says.
“Oh.” They probably get recognized everywhere they go. “You don’t want anyone to know.”
He shakes his head. “No, not at all. We’re here for the month. We’ll be filming at the beach festival.”
“Doing tattoos?” I ask.
He nods. “The girls will be here soon with the kids.” He points to Carrie’s house. “Do you live there?”
“No, my girlfriend does. Well, she’s not my girlfriend yet. But she’s going to be. She just doesn’t know it yet.” I can’t believe I just said all that. Crap.
He chuckles and swipes a hand down his face like he wants to wipe his grin away. It doesn’t work though. He probably thinks I’m an idiot.
“So you guys are bringing
all
the kids?” I ask. There are a lot of them.
His eyes narrow a little. “You watch the show?”
“Every week.” I brush a hand through my hair, trying to look like I’m not star-struck. “It’s not like I’m a stalker or anything, though.”
“I didn’t assume you were.” He pulls a few boxes to the edge of the tailgate. The brothers come out the back door, their arms empty. Shit. That’s Logan, Pete, Matt, and Sam. In real life!
“Okay, I might be a little bit of a stalker,” I admit. They introduce themselves and I stand there like a little kid waiting for a snow cone on a hot summer day. “But just, like, the I-really-admire-you kind. Not the I-want-to-steal-your-personal-effects kind.”
Paul nods. “O-kay,” he says slowly. He lifts a hand to me and goes inside, grinning the whole way.
“I guess I’ll see you guys around,” I shout.
“Hey wait,” one of them calls. I turn around and see that it’s Matt. “Do you know where we can get some firewood?”
“It’s summer,” I remind him.
“We want to have a little fire on the beach. Roast some marshmallows.”
Duh. Of course they do. “I can get you some.”
His brow arches. “Before tonight?”
I nod. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, man,” he says, and he goes inside. He sticks his head back out. “See you later?”
I nod.
I just freaking met
the Reeds
.
A series of cars arrives in the drive. Women start to pour out of the vehicles, along with kids. I grin, because I know who they all are. Every last one. I wave to them and walk away. But wait…Friday’s not pregnant anymore. She was still pregnant last week on the show. She removes a car seat with a baby in it. I guess I know where the kid is now.
I have to get to work, or I’m going to be late.
###
After work, I go and pick up firewood for the Reeds, and I stack it neatly by their garage door. They’re down on the beach with their whole family, and it looks like there’s a camera crew with them. A small crowd has gathered around them, but some big guys are holding the perimeter. I have no idea what it’s like to be famous, but I imagine it’s hard.
I don’t need to bother them, because they’ll find the firewood when they come up from the beach.
I go home to take a quick shower. Malone is there when I arrive and I can hear him griping at Jackie from outside. I step into the trailer and close the door behind me. They immediately go silent. “What’s up?” I ask. I look from one to the other and back. They both avoid my gaze, though.
“Nothing,” Malone bites out. He flops onto the couch and flips the TV on.
Jackie follows me into my room and sits down on the edge of my bed.
“What did you do now?” I ask, as I pull my shirt over my head and walk toward the bathroom.
“He has his panties in a twist because he caught me talking to Dale.” She lies back and scoots up to put her head on my pillow.
I freeze. She went to see the douche? “Why were you talking to him?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know.” Her voice is small.
“After what he did to you last summer, you had better be smart enough to stay away from him.” I stand there and stare at her until she nods. She bites her lower lip and wipes tears from her eyes.
He really left her in a bad place. She was pregnant, and he didn’t care. I thought she’d learned her lesson, but I guess not. I was the one who held her hand through all that. I was the one who stayed up with her all night while she miscarried. I was the one who watched her blame herself for the way that it ended.
I start the shower, knowing she’s going to follow me in there in just a minute. As soon as I put my head under the spray, she starts to talk. “Dale went and talked to my dad.”
I push the curtain back. “And?”
“Dad likes him.” She sits down on the toilet lid.
“So?” Her dad isn’t a shining example of humanity’s finest.
“So, he suggested I go and get an ice cream with Dale. So I did. That’s what Malone saw. That’s all he saw. Nothing more.”
I heave a sigh. “If you let him back in, I’m not going to try to stop you this time.” I will, though. I always will. But I don’t want to.
“He was a douche. He’s still a douche. He even tried to grab my boob.”
“And what did you do?” I blow water from my lips and wait.
She doesn’t say anything, so I look out and find her wincing.
“What did you do?” I ask again.
“I kind of shoved my ice cream in his pants. I just grabbed his waistband and shoved it right down there. I think he thought I was going for his dick, but whatever.” She shrugs.
I turn the water off and reach my arm out, because I know she’ll be there with a towel. I feel it hit my hand and pull it into the shower with me. “I’m proud of you,” I say.