The Season of You & Me (19 page)

TIME ACCELERATED WHEN I WAS WITH BRYAN.
One beautiful Crest Haven day stretched into another, and in the blink of an eye, it was Thursday. Morning swims and crazy car rides. Watching the sunset and hanging at Sip N’ Freeze. Talking about everything and nothing and wanting it to never end. Gavin was a memory. He’d taken the hint and stopped texting. Ems had been right—I was over him and finally experiencing the summer I should have been having all along.

I knew, like, really knew, I needed to keep things light with Bryan, but when I was with him, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Neither of us spoke about what would happen when camp was over and it was time for me to go back to my real life. We never talked about staying in touch, but it
also felt understood that we would.

At least I hoped so.

Everyone at Camp Manatee was in a frenzy, campers and counselors alike getting ready for Friday’s showcase night. Bryan’s group had extra practice for their performance, so they were skipping out on cooking for the day, which was fine because Tori and I were figuring out our own game plan.

I’d been happy there was no residual weirdness after Ems had hooked up with Wade. Tori said she’d been angrier with Nick for being so careless than with yet another one of Wade’s hookups, but I wasn’t so sure. It must have sucked seeing Wade kiss Ems, but I decided to drop the subject. Tori and I had been getting along great.

“All we have to do is bake something to serve the parents, smile, and answer questions they might have about the program, but hopefully they’ll be too busy stuffing their faces to talk.” Tori paced in front of the classroom, wringing her hands.

“I’m pretty certain you can run a small country. Why are you so worried about this? This class is the best,” I said.

“It’s the first year, so the thought of feedback makes me want to vomit. I mean, I want it, so we can improve, but what if—”

“Everyone loves it, chill,” I said.

“I hope Mr. Beckett wants the class for next year. I have so many more ideas. Think you’ll be back?” she said.

I smiled. “So even if Liv is here, you’d want Benny Barbie to be your co-counselor?”

“I guess it wouldn’t suck to hang out with you again,” she said, joking. “That overnight s’mores oatmeal recipe you came up with for the tweens was perfect. Maybe next year we could each take certain weeks to plan. Alternate coming up with stuff.”

“I’d like that,” I said.

“So what do you think we should make for tomorrow night? Cupcakes? Everyone loves cupcakes. Or maybe a few different kinds of cookies.”

“Or both,” I teased.

“Cass, come on, think.”

“Okay, cookies—cupcakes have the icing factor, and the paper-liner thing, and cookies you can just grab and go. Less garbage, smaller carbon footprint.”

“See, we make a great team. I think we have the stuff for triple-chocolate-chip cookies. We can make them with the kids in the afternoon. I want to try a peanut butter oatmeal no-bake recipe at home. Think you can make something non-chocolate—like sugar cookies; say three dozen for tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

After eating dinner and baking three dozen sugar cookies with Hunter, I went for a ride with Bryan to Crescent Beach.
One blanket, a few warm sugar cookies, and us equaled the end of another perfect day. We sat side by side, looking up at the changing sky. I fed him a piece of sugar cookie. He nipped the tip of my finger. I grinned.

“So, do you think I should do it?” he asked.

I rolled to my side and propped myself up on my elbow to look at him.

“Do what?”

He turned his face to me, shielding his eyes from the blinding rays of the setting sun.

“Surf.”

“Do you want to do it?”

“I don’t know, sometimes I think yes, sometimes no—it’s scary to think of all that could go wrong.”

“You can’t let that stop you,” I said.

“Will you be there?”

“Do you really have to ask?” I said, popping another piece of sugar cookie into his mouth. He chewed and stared up at the sky.

“Have we made enough good memories in this place to make you forget about why you came to Crest Haven?”

I smiled. “Yes.”

“I wish . . . ,” he said, then stopped. I thought he’d eventually elaborate, but he remained silent.

“What?”

“I wish I could stand, hold you against me. I wish the
summer wouldn’t end. I wish you’d known me . . . before I fell.”

“Bryan, I know you now, and you’re pretty awesome,” I said.

“So I’m not just a part of proving to someone what a good time you’re having without him?”

“Remember that first day, when I saw you?”

“In this parking lot? How can I forget.”

“You wanted to help me. You’re kind, Bryan. I see you with the kids, with your friends. You’ve got a wild streak, and these guns,” I said, running a finger along the length of his bicep. “I mean, come on. Why would you even ask that question? I think you’re . . . incredible. Why are you with me?”

He looked at me. “You’ve got a cute butt.”

“Omigod,” I said, nudging him.

He tucked a piece of my hair away from my face. “Because you’re sweet when nobody’s watching. You make me laugh. You make me think things aren’t so shitty.”

We kissed. I put my head on his shoulder and looked up at the blanket of sky.

“I wish the summer wouldn’t end either,” I said.

It was futile to wish, I knew it, but I felt it just the same.

On Friday night, the plan was for Bryan to pick me up so we could go to showcase night together. He’d never seen me in anything dressier than shorts and a lacy tank, and I felt like
glamming it up. (At least the beach-bum version of glam.) I’d thrown on the sundress my mom and Nan had sent me in their first care package and put on a sea-glass necklace I’d purchased at one of the promenade stores. I was putting the finishing touches on some beachy waves in my hair when my father appeared in the doorway, an odd look on his face.

“Is he here already?” I asked, releasing a lock of hair from the curling iron. Bryan was supposed to text me when he was out front. I glanced at my phone—nothing from him, but a few from Emma that I’d missed in my fury to get ready.

“There’s someone here, but it’s not Bryan,” my father said.

“What?”

Even as Dad said Gavin’s name, I scrolled through Emma’s texts—

SOS

G is on his way.

Prick alert!

Hello? Cass?

I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Gavin was downstairs. Waiting. For me. I shouldn’t have been surprised—it was classic Gavin to show up unannounced. It was something I loved about him at first—his spontaneity—but Mom and Nan had made me look at it in a different way. That spontaneity was his way of controlling the situation; of being able to see
me precisely when he wanted. Maybe I knew that by ignoring him, he would pull something like this. The timing, however, sucked.

“Do you want me to get rid of him?” Dad asked.

“No,” I said, following Dad downstairs. “I can deal with it.”

“He’s waiting on the front porch.”

I tried to call Bryan, but it went to voice mail. I hung up without leaving a message. If he was on his way, well, there was nothing I could do now. I had to get Gavin to leave. My feet felt spongy and uncertain as I walked toward the front porch. What the hell was Gavin pulling? This dilemma was not lost on my father, who followed me to the front door like a papa bear.

“What are you going to do?”

I shrugged. “See what he wants? Send him away? What time are you guys heading over to camp?”

“Soonish,” he said.

“Okay, he’ll be gone . . . soonish.”

Being angry with Gavin from afar had been easy. I only had to conjure up thoughts of how it felt when I saw those pictures of him and that girl on StalkMe. Being angry with Gavin while he was on the front porch was more of a challenge, and as I got closer to the door, my heart kick-started into overdrive, thumping at the sight of him against my will.

He’d gotten his hair trimmed since I’d last seen him. It was still over his ears and longer in the front, but neater. He
leaned against a column by the stairs, facing the beach. His skin was a shade or two darker from being out in the sun. Hands in pockets, forest-green raglan tee on, he looked so natural and calm, like this was nothing out of the ordinary. He could have been waiting outside of biology for me. He turned and shifted so he was standing straight as I opened the screen door. Damn him for looking so good. I wanted to feel
nothing
,
but my body had other ideas.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, crossing my arms.

His eyes wandered over me, a slow smile turning up at the corners of his mouth. Those freaking dimples. “It’s so good to see you, Cass.”

I would not be sucked in. I leaned against the railing, trying to be as casual as possible.

“Why are you here, Gavin?”

He chuckled. “Isn’t that obvious? Aren’t you even a little happy about it?”

I looked away from him. He came over to me, deliberately putting his face in front of mine, and moving into my line of vision any time I looked away so I was forced to see him. It was something he used to do when we argued, and it would always make me laugh. I relented and looked at him.

“We’re over, remember?” I said.

“We don’t have to be.”

“How can you say that with a straight face?”

“I’ve been so miserable all summer without you. Don’t be
mad at me. Please. I came all this way to surprise you. It’s Friday night.”

“You can’t just show up like this. I had plans.”

“Plans can be broken,” he said.

“No, these can’t. It’s a work thing.”

“So you’d rather do a work thing than come hang out with me in Ship Bottom? Okay, I get it.”

Ship Bottom? Was he really here to take me to Ship Bottom?
Now?
It was about an hour and a half ride from Crest Haven. Before our relationship had all turned to shit, the plan had been for us to spend a week at his family’s condo, right after my annual week with Dad. Ship Bottom was farther north, so it would have been on the way home. There was no reason for me to go there now.

“Are you seriously suggesting I leave with you?”

“I’m headed there tonight, thought I’d see if you wanted to come with me. The whole condo to ourselves, like we used to talk about, Cass,” he said.

I heard a rumble. The Charger. Bryan was in front of Ocean Whispers. He cut the engine. Any moment my worlds would be colliding, and I felt sick. Sick, sick, sick to my stomach. Maybe I should have had my father get rid of Gavin.

“Gavin, I’m not sure what kind of game you’re playing, but I’m—I have to go, it’s a work thing, someone is picking me up.”

“Do you always wear body glitter to work? Is that the kind
that tastes like cotton candy?” he asked, nuzzling my neck.

Something caught Gavin’s attention beyond my shoulder. In a moment, his eyes sharpened with understanding and he looked back at me, smirk on his face. “Wow, Cass, really?”

I spun around. Bryan struggled with the front gate but finally pushed it open and wheeled up the walk. I brushed past Gavin and galloped down the stairs to greet Bryan halfway. His whole face asked
What now?
but he smiled when he saw me. I could feel Gavin close behind, his footfalls on the stairs. This could not be happening.

But it was.

“I didn’t know, Bryan, I’m sorry,” I said.

Bryan looked beyond me. I didn’t have to spell it out for him. His face fell.

“I thought you said . . . you’re not together.”

“I did, we’re not, he just showed up to surprise me,” I said. I felt Gavin put his hand around my waist. Bryan’s eyes landed squarely on that. I wanted to shut my eyes and pretend it was all a dream I could wake up from. I shooed Gavin’s hand away and stepped back from him.

“Bryan, this is Gavin; Gavin, Bryan. We work at camp together. He’s, um, my ride.”

They nodded at each other.

“Bryan!” Hunter bounded down the stairs, and Bryan looked relieved.

“H-bomb, ready for tonight?” Bryan asked.

“Yes. Who are you?”

Hunter was so freaking subtle. Gavin smiled.

“I’m Gavin, a friend of Cassidy’s from home.”

“Are you coming to the show?”

Gavin looked from me to Bryan, then back to Hunter. “Show? Sounds fun. All right if I tag along?”

“Not really,” I said.

Dad and Leslie stepped onto the porch. Leslie balanced the Tupperware containers of sugar cookies. I ran up to help, relieved I could step away momentarily and think about my next move. I didn’t want to make a scene; Gavin clearly had to go, but other than screaming for him to leave, I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen.

I took the containers from her. “Thanks.”

“Is everything okay?” Dad asked.

“Yes, fine,” I said.

When I turned around, Bryan had already made his way back to his car. I raced down the stairs as quickly as I could, balancing the two containers.

“Here, hold these,” I said, foisting them onto Gavin as I ran to catch up with Bryan.

“Hey, wait,” I called.

I wasn’t sure whether he hadn’t heard me or was ignoring me, because he didn’t pause for a moment. He’d already transferred and was popping one of the wheels off his chair by the time I got there.

“Bryan.”

He popped off the other wheel, but it fell out of his grasp.
I reached down to grab it and handed it to him. He muttered
thanks
but barely looked at me. He folded the chair and hoisted it over his shoulder into the back. I thought for a moment he was going to close the door without saying anything, but he gripped the wheel and waited for me to speak.

“Bryan, I didn’t know he was going to be here; I’m sorry. I know what he said, but he’s not coming to the show.”

“So get in, then,” he said.

I looked over toward Ocean Whispers. Gavin was with Dad and Leslie now. What could he possibly be talking to them about? Could I just get into the car with Bryan and pretend like it wasn’t happening? Bryan snorted at my hesitation.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, Cassidy, but it seems like you have unfinished stuff with that guy, so I guess do what you need to do, and I’ll see you there.”