Last Summer (7 page)

The crowd at Ahoy Bar and Grill in town was jumping, as it was every single night of every single summer. Beth stopped on her way back from the bathroom to take a look around the place. She loved that no matter what else might be going on in her life, Ahoy would always have the same rowdy groups spilling out of their booths, shoved in around the bar, and eventually making their moves across the dance floor. It was frantic and loud, and made her feel right at home.

Beth smiled to herself. She’d dressed up a bit, having taken Ella’s scathing remarks about her clothes to heart. Of course, her version of “dressed up” just meant a green tank top with tiny little spaghetti straps and a built-in bra.
She figured Ella, who liked to re-create outfits from
Lucky
spreads, still would not approve, but Beth liked the change.

Beth made her way through a cluster of dancing girls, and saw George’s familiar head in the booth ahead of her.

Friends
could be hard, it was true, but she’d decided a little while after the beach incident that no matter what, she still wanted to try. It didn’t seem right that someone who’d meant so much to her could just disappear from her life. George wasn’t just an ex, the way girls like Ella had exes in the dozens, interchangeable from one another. He was so much more than just that, for better or worse. He was Beth’s childhood, in a lot of ways.

And so what if they occasionally behaved like an old married couple? They had a history.

This was what Beth told her cousins each time someone pointed out that the hang-out-with-the-ex thing sounded like a disaster in the making.

She was eighty-seven percent sure of it herself.

Beth went to slide into the booth across from George, but stopped short at the sight of the female figure already there.

Already there, and laughing merrily at something George had said. It was strange, but Beth could see how he sort of expanded under this other girl’s laughter, like a plant under a stream of water. It made her feel sad for him, and for her, too, that they didn’t laugh that freely anymore.

But then she shook the feeling off, because George was turning toward her.

“Hey!” he said. “This is Larissa. She fell into our booth.”

“It’s true,” the girl said, grinning up at Beth. “There was a crowd situation and I fell right in.”

“But that’s not the cool part,” George continued quickly. “The cool part is that Larissa’s going to Carnegie Mellon in the fall!”

“That’s great!” Beth said enthusiastically, although she wasn’t sure why.

George rolled his eyes. “My friend Beth is slow on the uptake,” he told Larissa. He looked back at Beth as she slid into the booth. “Carnegie Mellon is in Pittsburgh. Pitt is in Pittsburgh. We’re going to be in the same city!”

“Have you ever been to Pittsburgh?” Larissa asked George.

“Only for the weekend when I took a tour,” George said. “But I’m psyched to explore it. I’ve spent my entire life in suburban Massachusetts.”

“How cool is that Cathedral of Learning?” Larissa asked.

“Pretty cool,” George said, looking over at Beth. “It’s this huge tower in Pittsburgh.”

“Wow,” Beth murmured. She was feeling somewhat less at home than she had a few moments before, because she knew absolutely nothing about Pittsburgh. Except the fact that George was going there. And now, Larissa.

“I’m really excited,” Larissa continued happily. “I grew up in Rhode Island, and Providence just doesn’t compare. Have you heard from your roommate yet?”

“He just e-mailed me the other day,” George said. “He sounds cool. What about you?”

“She said she grew up in Pittsburgh, so she could totally give me like an insider’s tour,” Larissa said. “It should be great, even if we don’t end up as good friends.”

Beth considered the fact that she had yet to hear from anybody from Georgetown, and wondered if that should worry her. She hoped she wouldn’t get stuck with any major partiers, since she had a full courseload and track to keep up with. Not that that was anything new.

Beth looked at George and his new friend, and noticed that they sort of looked alike. Larissa had black curly hair that spilled down her back and big dark eyes just like George. They even laughed alike. She imagined they would make a cute couple, and then waited to see if that thought upset her.

Strangely, it didn’t. And
that
made Beth feel a little like crying.

“It’s so crazy that we’re going to spend a year of our life living with a person we haven’t even met yet,” George was saying, very animated.

Beth opened her mouth to respond, but then stopped, because it looked like Larissa was getting her first taste of George in his fully excited mode. George ranted about the
possible horrors of freshman year, and it was like Beth could see Larissa getting more and more into him every time she laughed. After all, Beth knew the signs. She knew what it felt like to laugh your way into serious trouble with this boy.

And she began to feel all kinds of weird, because as friendly as she and George might be at the moment, and as much as it didn’t upset her to
imagine
him with this girl, she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to sit there and
watch
as it happened.

“I’m going to go get a soda,” she said softly, and it didn’t seem like either of them was listening. And why should they pay attention to her, anyway?

Beth pushed through the crowd again, and realized that she didn’t feel
jealous.
She didn’t necessarily want to hang around watching George hook up or anything, but she didn’t want to prevent him from doing so, either.

Beth was dodging a group of people performing the Electric Slide—without benefit of the music—when the truth occurred to her. She’d been concentrating so hard on building a friendship with her ex-boyfriend that she’d somehow failed to notice that her summer was approaching the halfway point. Shouldn’t she be meeting people, too? How much could she claim to be moving on when all she did was hang out with George?

“Careful there!” a warm voice cautioned, and Beth felt a strong hand wrap around her bicep and steady her moments
before she would have plowed into one of those tiny bar tables.

Beth looked up into a pair of hazel-green eyes. They looked out of a face that was open and friendly, and belonged to a seriously cute guy. He was standing there in khakis and an old, fitted Bruce Lee T-shirt, and he looked thrilled to see her.

“It’s you,” said the baseball-playing drill sergeant.

Beth shook her head. “Hi. I was a million miles away,” she told him.

“Come back to Pebble Beach,” he suggested, his grin deepening. “We need you here.”

“You don’t even know me,” Beth pointed out, but his grin was infectious. She couldn’t help but grin back.

“That’s true,” he said. “Although I have a perfect memory of you telling me you had many talents. Besides running, throwing, and looking cute, that is.”

Beth felt herself flush with pleasure. It was so girly, and thinking that made her laugh.

“I’m Beth,” she said. “Are you a camp counselor?”

“There’s a baseball camp just outside of town,” he said as he nodded and gently led her a few steps away from the table. “I’ve been a counselor there for a few years, and went there myself as a camper.” His eyes gleamed. “I’m Jimmy, by the way.”

“You must really like baseball,” Beth said. She remembered the flash of nostalgia she’d had when she’d first seen him at the track. “I used to love it. I played Little League, and on the freshman girls’ softball team in high school.”

“What position?”

“Shortstop,” Beth said, remembering. “It was really fun, but I haven’t played since then.”

“Why’d you stop?” Jimmy asked. Beth shrugged.

“There were so many other sports I wanted to try,” she said. “Swimming, tennis, basketball. Although, between you and me, I’m not as good at basketball as I’d like to be. I’m going to run track at Georgetown in the fall.”

“I suck at tennis, but I still like playing, and I love soccer,” Jimmy said, leaning closer. “And I play lacrosse on the weekends, but baseball’s my first love. My dream is to go out for the majors.”

“That would be amazing!” Beth was genuinely impressed.

“We should go for a run sometime,” Jimmy said. “There’s this cool trail out by my camp. It takes you down so you can see out into the bay from high on the cliffs. It’s a great morning run.”

Beth grinned at him, and felt her skin tingle. This was the first guy she’d noticed in ages, and here he was, in Ahoy.
And
he was a sports fanatic, just like her. It was crazy.

“I usually go on that inland trail past the swamp,” she said, trying to keep the pleasure from showing on her face. “I like the woods a lot.”

“We should change it up,” Jimmy said with a slow, long look that made Beth feel a little breathless. She loved his confidence. There was no doubt in Jimmy’s mind that she was going to go for a run with him.

For a second, Beth wondered if she was ready.

“How about tomorrow morning?” Jimmy offered.

She looked up then, and saw George standing just behind Jimmy, a strange expression on his face.

When Beth caught his eye, he smiled, a little ruefully she thought, and then pointed back toward the table with his eyebrows raised. Larissa was still there, demurely sipping a Coke.

Beth waved him away.

And then felt a little twinge when he went.

This was it. They were both moving on. Right there in Ahoy, on a typical summer evening.

“You know what?” Beth said to Jimmy. “I think I might be in exactly the right mood to change it up. Tomorrow morning sounds great.”

George was moving on.

She could, too. Starting right there and then.

Ella hadn’t exactly recovered from Kelsi’s blowing her off last week. (Her sister had
freaked
when Ella had dared bring up the virginity issue.) Nor was she at all okay about Taryn’s continued flaunting of the little black bikini. But after consideration she’d decided to be gracious about all of it. Partly because Ella had decided that Kelsi’s refusal to confide in her was just a momentary lapse in sisterly closeness—one that would be fixed the moment they hung out again. But mostly because Kelsi was back from another weekend in New York with her boyfriend and if Ella wanted to hang out with Kelsi, that meant putting up with Taryn the Tote Bag, too.

Easier said than done, of course, but Ella was making the effort.

More effort than she would have thought necessary, since apparently all Kelsi wanted to do with her day was hike to some remote beach (apparently, the one right through the clearing was not good enough) and eat a picnic lunch. Ella didn’t understand why a lunch had to be transported across such a distance—it seemed like a whole lot of unnecessary hauling and carrying when the sandwich could be eaten in the comfort of the kitchen in their cottage. But no one had asked for Ella’s opinion on the matter.

Naturally, Taryn had been absolutely thrilled with Kelsi’s long-distance picnic prospect, and the two of them had been busy making their lunches when Ella discovered them in the kitchen that morning.

It did not escape Ella’s notice that the two girls were not planning to invite her along.

It seemed that now she had to wait to be
invited
to spend time with her
only sister
.

“Cool,” she’d said when they’d explained what they were doing. “I think I’ll come, too.”

The looks Taryn and Kelsi exchanged at that point were just plain obnoxious, but Ella had ignored them. There was no point getting mad if she wanted to be included in their plans.

She would just have to ignore the part of her that was pissed that Kelsi would try to exclude her in the first place.

“I don’t think hiking’s really your thing, El,” Kelsi had said gently, which was worse than if she’d just said no.
Meanwhile, Taryn made herself look very busy with the sandwiches. Overly busy. Ella actually hated her for a moment. Because there was no question about whether
Taryn
would be invited along. After all, Kelsi loved Taryn so much that Ella had been relegated to the pullout couch on the sunporch for the summer, instead of the bedroom she’d shared with Kelsi for their entire lives. Ella hadn’t even complained about it, and now this? It was so unfair.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ella had announced breezily. “I
love
hiking!”

There was no mistaking the expression on Kelsi’s face. Ella had seen it many times before. It was the face Kelsi wore when their smaller cousins demanded she take them somewhere she would have preferred to go alone. It was half-suffering, half-patronizing, and Taryn’s answering shrug was just as bad.

They were
tolerating
her.

It was hideous.

Which was how she’d come to find herself scrabbling her way down a rocky cliff while Taryn bounded alongside Kelsi like some kind of freakish mountain goat. But if this was what it took to reclaim Kelsi, then Ella would do it.

Assuming she didn’t fall to a bloody death on the rocks below, that was.

Down at the bottom of the cliff, there was a perfect, pristine little cove that Ella had never seen before. It was like
something out of a movie. One involving Leonardo DiCaprio back when he was young and cute. Ella missed those days.

“This is just beautiful,” Ella said with an appreciative sigh, smiling at her sister. She was tempted to reconsider her lifelong position on hiking, that’s how gorgeous the little cove was.

“I know,” Kelsi said, smiling back, and for a moment everything seemed normal and okay. “Tim brought me here last summer.”

Ella breathed a little sigh of remembrance for Hot Frat Boy Tim (as she always thought of him), Kelsi’s ex, whom Ella had found very amusing on an otherwise not at all fun road trip last summer. As she stared at the rocks and the clear water breaking over them, she also remembered the awful fight she’d had with Kelsi by the side of the highway later, during that same road trip. She thought about how angry Kelsi had been, but how she’d chosen to forgive Ella for sleeping with her boyfriend Peter the summer before.

Well. Technically, Kelsi and Peter had been broken up when Ella had slept with him. Yes, only for a few hours. But still, broken up.

Anyway, Ella still felt awfully guilty about the Peter betrayal, and forever grateful that Kelsi understood how badly Ella felt. Thinking about all of that history reminded Ella of how much she loved her sister, who had decided to overlook something most people wouldn’t.

“The cove was like this magical escape then, too, right when I needed it,” Kelsi was saying, still gazing around.

“Ah,” Taryn said significantly, and then looked over at Ella.

Which was when Ella realized that Kelsi had told this total stranger about the sisters’ big fight the summer before, in all its detail. It made her feel like throwing up. Fury shot through Ella.

But she didn’t know what to do about it.

“I’m hungry,” she announced carelessly, like she hadn’t gotten Taryn’s point. There was another shared look between Taryn and Kelsi, but Ella figured that was better than exploring the previous subject.

Ella searched around in her knapsack, blinking back the heat that surged behind her eyes, and pulled out the turkey sandwich she’d thrown together in the fifty seconds she’d had to get ready. She took a huge, angry bite and pretended it was Taryn’s head.

“Oh,” Taryn said, looking at Ella. “Do you still eat meat? I don’t know why I thought you were a vegetarian.”

Ella didn’t know why, either. The Tote Bag had, by this point in the summer, had so many meals with Ella during which Ella indulged her inner carnivore that Taryn would have had to
deliberately
not notice it.

“Kelsi’s the vegetarian, not me,” Ella replied, forcing a smile.
Duh
, she thought.
I’m eating turkey, aren’t I?

“Kelsi’s actually vegan,” Taryn said, because, of course, she knew everything about Kelsi. “We all went to this PETA rally up at school this winter, and it changed us. Probably for good.”

“You’re vegan?” Ella demanded of her sister, ignoring the whole PETA aside, because she was tired of all of Taryn’s little stories about how she and Kelsi were so much like sisters, or maybe identical twins.

“I’m trying,” Kelsi said, smiling back at her, but kind of quizzically. “Why? Since when do you care what I eat?”

“I really don’t,” Ella said, and took another bite. Which was true. She didn’t care what Kelsi ate. What she cared about was the fact Kelsi no longer shared anything with her.

Kelsi and Taryn launched into a discussion of their mutual friends, none of whom Ella knew, and so she just ate her sandwich and felt like a bratty little kid. An
unwanted
bratty little kid, which was even worse.

She was stuck at the bottom of a cliff, she was miserable, and it was perfectly clear to Ella that Taryn had completely usurped her position in her sister’s life.

“I just don’t know what to do about it,” she complained to Jeremy a few nights later.

Ella’s legs were still protesting from hiking the other day, or possibly from her selection of extremely precarious cork wedges. She wished they didn’t have to walk all the way
back from the old movie theater that was Jeremy’s second home in Pebble Beach. But there had been a John Hughes eighties movie marathon, and they’d obviously had to go. Eighties movies remained Jeremy’s greatest passion. Other than Ella, that is.

“Why do you have to do anything?” Jeremy asked in his reasonable voice. “Sometimes you don’t feel all that close to Kelsi, either. So who cares if she feels closer to Taryn right now?”

It was his
overly
reasonable voice, actually. It was the one he used when he thought Ella was being
un
reasonable.

“She’s essentially stolen my sister!” Ella cried. “I have to do
something
!”

“She’s your sister,” Jeremy pointed out calmly. “She’s always going to be your sister. It doesn’t matter if she has other friends.”

But it mattered to Ella. It mattered that Kelsi thought Taryn was so wild and untamed and fun, which were the ways she
used
to describe Ella. It mattered that the other friend in question was basically a different version of Ella, but one—and this hurt to admit even to herself—that Kelsi clearly liked better.

Ella curled her hand tighter into Jeremy’s, and leaned into him as they walked back into town.

It was another beautiful summer night, with a great mess of stars above, and people milling around in the quiet village
streets. Music echoed off the water out in the bay, and laughter hung in the air like fog. The night felt thick and secret all around them, and Ella loved that the temperature had dropped enough so that she could feel cozy in her hoodie, with Jeremy right next to her, giving off heat like a furnace.

If there was a better place than Pebble Beach, Ella didn’t know what it was. She reached up and pulled Jeremy’s head closer to hers, so she could kiss him with all the sweetness she felt in the summer air around them.

He held her close, and the kiss changed. It got hotter, and Ella moved closer, pressing herself against him to hear his sexy little groan, until they remembered where they were.

“Oops,” Jeremy said with that lopsided grin Ella adored. He swiftly kissed her once more, then took her hand and kept walking.

Together, they wandered down Main Street, skirting the lines outside Ahoy and the Lighthouse. Ella had wanted to go out, but now, after that kiss, she was far more interested in returning to Jeremy’s place, where he basically had the house to himself. She could tell from the longing look in Jeremy’s eyes that he felt the same.

They were walking past the big group of bars and shops when Ella happened to glance over at a couple sitting on a bench near the little Chamber of Commerce shack. She didn’t know what caught her eye. Maybe it was the way the
guy held himself with easy confidence that made him seem like a better person than she knew him to be.

But Ella thought that really, she’d noticed the girl. She was wearing a beat-up pair of Bermudas and a breathtakingly daring halter top, and she looked even more like Keira Knightley than usual.

Taryn. The Tote Bag.

And the guy she was making time with was none other than Peter.

Peter, who had broken Kelsi’s heart by sleeping with another girl three seconds after she’d dumped him.

That other girl being Ella herself.

All that pain and upset because of one midnight-eyed guy with smooth shoulders and a wicked grin, and Taryn was touching his arm and leaning in close like she didn’t know anything about it.

Except she did. Ella knew she did.

Ella felt a surge of rage, and something like triumph, too. It was dizzying and made her breathless.

If Kelsi had been upset about Ella getting with Peter,
this
was going to kill her.

Ella didn’t know if she wanted to race home and expose Taryn’s behavior to Kelsi immediately, or just run over to the bench right now and have it out with Taryn on Kelsi’s behalf.

Not to mention that she could think of a few things to say
to Peter, too. Like, why had he texted her all last summer? After completely failing to call her the summer before?

Her stomach churned. Her head spun.

“What is it?” Jeremy asked, and Ella realized they’d stopped walking. Ella tugged his arm, and led him away from the scene of the crime before she knew what she wanted to do. “Is something wrong?” he asked, frowning down at her.

“Everything’s fine,” Ella lied, because she needed time to think. To plan out what she should do.

“Are you sure?” Jeremy asked. “You look kind of weird all of a sudden.”

“I’m fine,” Ella said.

She forced a smile, and eased her body against his to remind her of all that heat she’d been so excited to play with just a few moments before. It worked, too. Touching Jeremy always made everything better, and it gave her time to think.

“Come on,” Jeremy said then, holding her face with his hand. “I can think of better things to do than stand out here in the street.”

“That depends on what you’re doing while you’re standing in the street,” Ella teased him.

She would think about Taryn and Peter tomorrow, she thought as her boyfriend gave her a wicked grin, and led her toward his house.

Tomorrow she’d form a plan.