She’d known she was into girls for a long time – ever since she started going to sleepovers in middle school and all the other girls wanted to gossip about the boys in their class, a topic of conversation that bored Zoe to tears. But there weren’t many queer girls in her class, and none that ever made her feel the way that McKenna did in the five minutes that they’d spent talking.
Her ears were burning and her cheeks felt hot by the time she sank into the passenger seat of the convertible and looked over at the bombshell rich girl who was about to drive her home.
Easy there, Zoe, she cautioned herself. You’re so far out of your league you don’t even know what sport you’re playing anymore.
McKenna turned the car on, revving the engine just for fun, and Zoe gave her directions as they pulled out of the lot.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said. “And again, I’m so sorry about–”
“If you apologize one more time, I’m going to dump you on the curb and let you skate home after all,” McKenna said. Then she glanced away from the road to look Zoe up and down. Her eyes lingered on the Cape Burger logo – or on Zoe’s chest, depending on how optimistic she allowed herself to be – and then she looked back at the traffic ahead and asked, “So, who gets a summer job in Cape Cod? Are you a local?”
“No,” Zoe said. “My aunt is. I’m saving up for college in the fall – you know, so I can actually afford to eat something other than dining hall grub and ramen noodles.”
She glanced around the interior of the car – tan leather that still smelled like it had been driven off the lot yesterday. On second thought, McKenna probably didn’t know what it was like to eat ten-cent noodles.
“Where are you going to school?” McKenna asked. “Freshman?”
“Yeah,” Zoe said. “Harvard.”
She said it almost apologetically because most people she told had one of two responses. The first was oohing and ahhing and making her feel self-conscious about how exclusive and expensive the school was – even though Zoe had busted her butt all through high school to earn a scholarship that would pay most of her way.
The second reaction was even worse – that was the one where people heard the H word and automatically assumed that Zoe was a super-genius who was going to make them feel stupid. Those people tended to shut down, and even though she’d just met McKenna, Zoe was sure it would hurt if she did that.
Instead, she got a third reaction – one she hadn’t anticipated.
McKenna arched one eyebrow, giving her a cynical look. “Seriously?”
Zoe felt a wave of anger wash over her. “What, I don’t look like the type?”
“That’s not it at all,” McKenna said. “It’s just…”
Something twisted in her expression and Zoe realized she was in pain. All the anger melted out of her. “What?”
“That’s my dream school,” McKenna admitted. “I spent my whole life expecting to go there and instead, I got wait-listed.”
“Shit,” Zoe said. “I’m sorry, that sucks. Turn up here.”
McKenna did, turning onto Renata’s street, and after a few beats of silence, she snorted. It startled Zoe and when she looked over at her, McKenna was laughing.
“What now?”
“What are the odds?” she asked. “We’re like a summertime Gift of the Magi story – I’ve never had to worry about the tuition part of college but I couldn’t get into the only school I applied for, and you got into my dream school and you’re working your butt off so you can afford to go. And we never would have met if you hadn’t dumped a milkshake in my lap.”
“I’m–” Zoe opened her mouth to apologize again, but McKenna shot her a look that was half warning, half amusement. It was such a ridiculous expression – and it was so wildly unfair that she was still the most gorgeous girl Zoe had ever seen even when she looked like she was trying to hold in a fart – that it got Zoe laughing, too.
At Zoe’s directions, McKenna pulled into the driveway at Zoe’s aunt’s house – a cute little cottage situated right beside a small river. It was peaceful there, if a bit earthy smelling at low tide, and she could see why Renata never wanted to leave.
“Hey,” McKenna said abruptly, bringing Zoe’s attention back to her. “Are you working tomorrow?”
Zoe nodded. “Yeah. Why, do you want a repeat performance?”
“No, thank you,” McKenna said. “You have no idea how cold that milkshake was sliding down my dress.”
She gave a shiver for effect and Zoe felt a shiver building inside her, too, although not for the same reason. Her mind went immediately to the image McKenna had painted, then supplemented it with a fantasy. What would it be like to lick that dripping milkshake from McKenna’s skin?
Zoe shook the thought away – never gonna happen – then McKenna asked, “What time do you get off?”
About five minutes after you leave, if my aunt isn’t home, she thought. It was a joke, but just barely. “Three, same as today.”
She was trying to get Vinny to let her work the dinner shift too – really maximize her earnings – but he said she had to prove herself first. She really wasn’t off to a good start.
“Wanna go on an adventure?”
“With you?” Zoe asked, swallowing hard and trying not to show her surprise all over her face.
“Why not?” McKenna challenged.
“Umm, yeah,” Zoe said. “Sure.”
“I’ll pick you up at the drive-in,” McKenna said while Zoe extracted herself from the car, trying not to get flustered or make a fool of herself as she transitioned onto Renata’s uneven cobblestone driveway in her skates.
“Can’t wait.”
Chapter 4
McKenna
The next day, McKenna borrowed her dad’s car again, grateful to escape a slow afternoon of playing Uno with her brothers or baking monkey bread with her mom and aunt, neither of whom seemed capable of making it through a whole conversation without talking about college and how McKenna didn’t have one to go to in the fall.
But she was happy to put all that behind her the moment she saw Zoe waiting outside Cape Burger in her adorably retro-geek uniform.
“Suspenders suit you, you know,” McKenna said as she pulled up beside her and patted the passenger seat. “Hop in.”
Zoe did, and her silky dark hair swished over her shoulder as she sat down. She smelled faintly of the grill – smoky, with an undertone of sunscreen, like the official scent of summer as far as McKenna was concerned. McKenna never could have anticipated this chaotic, surprising girl – not in a million years – but she was starting to think that Zoe was exactly what she needed to get through this summer.
“Where are we going on our adventure?” she asked as McKenna pulled out of the lot.
“Back to your place first and foremost,” McKenna said, nodding to Zoe’s roller skates slipping across the floor mat. “Because I don’t think you’re gonna want skates where we’re going.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“Nah,” McKenna said. “Just a little rustic. You been to the dunes yet?”
“I’ve seen them,” Zoe said, “on the bus from the airport.”
“Well, this afternoon we’re gonna hike them. Unless I read you all wrong and you’re not an outdoorsy girl?”
Zoe grinned, her dark chocolate eyes coming to life as if lit from within. “Do you think an indoor girl would take a job at a drive-in?” She ran her finger over a pair of matching bandages on her knees that McKenna hadn’t noticed before and added, “I skinned both my knees yesterday.”
“Ouch,” McKenna said. “Sorry my car broke your fall.”
“Now who needs to stop apologizing?” Zoe said. Every time McKenna tore her eyes away from the road to look at her, Zoe was already looking back. Her lips were forever curled into an ever-so-slight smile, and even in all the chaos yesterday, McKenna knew she’d felt a few sparks between them.
She would have been just as happy to enjoy the eye candy and make friends with Zo
e, but now that her initial embarrassment about the milkshake was gone, McKenna was pretty sure Zoe had felt those sparks, too.
The summer had just gotten a whole lot more bearable.
McKenna took Zoe out to the state park that had been her favorite when she and Miles were young and her mom was still pregnant with Mitchell – that was the last time they’d been to Cape Cod, but she remembered the magic of the dunes like it was yesterday.
Watching Zoe take them in, on the other hand, was a whole new kind of magic.
Zoe practically had her head out of the side of the car like a dog the whole time they drove along the shoreline, watching as buildings made way for sand and grass and everything turned into a Thomas Kinkade painting.
“Wow,” she breathed a few times, nearly forgetting McKenna sitting beside her, and she was so enraptured that McKenna didn’t even mind being forgotten. “We’re really going to hike on them? It’s allowed?”
“Oh yeah,” McKenna said. “People rent four-wheelers to ride on the dunes. But I know a really nice, peaceful little spot I’d love to show you, and we can only get there by walking.”
She parked the A5 in a shady spot in one of the many parking lots along the shore. She put the top up, then pointed the way to a narrow hiking trail made entirely of sand. It wound through the tall grass a little way, then up over the crest of a few dunes where there were great views of the bay.
While they walked, McKenna led the way and they got to know each other.
McKenna had two brothers, Zoe was a middle child.
McKenna lived in Amherst, Massachusetts. Zoe’s family was from Ohio.
They were both supposed to be freshmen at Harvard in the fall, but only one of them was going.
“So, what are you gonna do?” Zoe asked when the conversation inevitably turned to their biggest commonality. “Do you think they’ll take you off the wait list in time?”
“I don’t know,” McKenna said, her stomach giving a sour twist at the thought. It had been doing that ever since she received her thin, disappointing wait list letter in the spring and she’d be surprised if she didn’t have an ulcer by the time the fall semester started. She had enough of this line of questioning from her family – and enough criticism for being so arrogant as to not apply to a safety school. She didn’t want to drag down her whole afternoon with Zoe too, so she shifted the focus onto her. “What’s your major going to be?”
“Government history,” she said, “although I’m considering a concentration in economics. I’m just a little afraid of the applied mathematics.”
McKenna smiled. “I’ve known you for a day and from where I’m standing, I think the applied math should be afraid of you.” That got a little laugh, then she asked, “What do you want to do with all that? Teach?”
“No,” Zoe said. “I want to be a trial lawyer. Public defender to start out, and then I’ll work my way up until I can make some real legislative changes to how our court system runs.”
McKenna’s jaw dropped that time. “Wow. Okay, now I’m scared of you. Harvard Law goals, and you’ve already got plans to turn the entire justice system upside down. You’re a hell of a woman, Zoe…”
“Cruz,” she said, then shrugged. “I’ve seen family members get screwed by the current system, especially when it comes to immigration. I want to make it better for everyone.”
McKenna turned around just in time to see Zoe bat her eyes and look bashfully down at the sand in front of her feet, and for a second, she thought she was in love.
Then Zoe asked, “What about you? What are you going to study?”
“What was I going to study, don’t you mean?”
“Nah,” Zoe said, kicking a little sand at her. “Wait list sucks, but if you’re good enough to get Harvard wait-listed then you’re good enough to get in anywhere else you want.”
She was right. It was something McKenna’s parents had been saying to her for months, and yet whenever they said it, it felt like they were just making things worse. When Zoe said it, McKenna actually heard her. She’d already been born with the metaphorical silver spoon in her mouth – old money – so she’d land on her feet no matter where she went. It was about time to stop wallowing.
“I want to be a doctor,” she said. “A pediatrician.”
Chapter 5
Zoe
Zoe’s heart melted. This girl was incredible.
Let’s see, she thought as she followed behind McKenna, trying hard not to stare at her perfect ass or the supple curves of her toned calves. She didn’t even bat an eye when I accidentally trashed her car interior. She’s funny. She’s smart. She actually WANTS to hang out with me. I’m pretty sure she’s been flirting with me this whole time… and oh yeah, she’s freaking GORGEOUS. I must have hit my head when I fell yesterday and I’ve actually been dead this whole time. It’s the only explana–
She was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts as she collided with McKenna, their bodies coming together and their faces mere inches from each other.
“Whoa,” Zoe gasped, taking a step backward as her heel sank into the sand. “Sorry–”
But the apology stalled in her mouth because McKenna sure didn’t look sorry. She had that now-familiar grin on her face, lifting one corner of her lips, and her jade eyes studied Zoe. “No harm,” she said. “Come on – there’s a cool little spot right up ahead if I remembered the way correctly. Haven’t been here in years but it was always my favorite – off the beaten path a little bit and very peaceful. Secluded.”
She said that last word with a little twinkle in her eyes and as she stepped off the trail, threading her way through the tall grass, Zoe swallowed hard. What was she getting herself into?
She followed McKenna, staying close behind her so they wouldn’t bend any more grass than they had to in the untouched part of the habitat. “Are there snakes in this grass?” she asked, trying not to think too hard about it. In Ohio, walking through tall grass like this was just asking to stumble on a snake.
McKenna turned and shot her a smile. “I’ll protect you.”
Zoe laughed. “That’s not as comforting as you think it is. Leads me to believe that there are snakes.”
“Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”
The truth was it didn’t matter. Zoe was so enamored with McKenna that she would have followed her through acres of snake-infested grass just to see where they’d end up. She’d spent her entire high school career pining over the idea of falling in love, without a single suitable candidate in sight. She didn’t expect to find a girl in Cape Cod this summer, and she had no illusions about how completely different her world was from McKenna’s… but she couldn’t deny her attraction, or resist it. Even if she knew she should be focused on taking as many hours at the drive-in as Vinny would give her.
McKenna had driven up to the restaurant and in a matter of minutes, she’d turned Zoe’s whole world upside down, and her priorities along with it. She felt almost dizzy from the change, but she wasn’t about to back down from the adventure now.
“Here it is!” McKenna said, excitement bubbling over in her voice as she grabbed Zoe’s hand and pulled her into a sudden clearing in the tall grass.
She didn’t let go of Zoe’s hand right away. They both stopped short, both drew in a breath as they looked around the secluded little spot that held such a special place in McKenna’s heart. It really was wonderful – a small inlet in the dunes, only about the size of a backyard swimming pool, filled with still, clear bay water.
“What do you think?” McKenna asked.
“It’s beautiful,” Zoe said. “How deep is it?”
“That I don’t remember,” McKenna said, “considering I was a lot smaller the last time I was here. Wanna find out?”
“Go swimming? I didn’t bring a suit.”
“It’s just the two of us,” McKenna said. “Who says you need one?”
With that, she let go of Zoe’s hand and pulled her shirt over her head, revealing a cotton bra with
little pink hearts printed all across it. Her breasts were full and round, her cleavage leading Zoe’s eyes momentarily down to a tiny pink bow between her bra cups. Then she looked away, embarrassed.
“In our underwear?” Zoe asked, pretending to be intensely interested in surveying the area, making sure they were really alone, when all she was really doing was avoiding the sight of McKenna in her push-up bra.
“We could skinny dip,” McKenna suggested.
“Hell no,” Zoe said with a nervous laugh. She wanted to keep up with McKenna, but she wasn’t that brave.
Thankfully, McKenna chuckled as she kicked off her shoes and said, “That’s okay – I’m not sure I’m ready for that, either.”
Relief washed over Zoe. Now that stark nakedness was off the table, stripping down to her underwear seemed a lot more palatable… and the water did look inviting after an afternoon hiking in the hot sun. She took off her shoes, then turned her back while she took off her shirt and shorts. It was a somewhat nonsensical act of modesty since McKenna was going to see everything anyway, but this was a first for Zoe. She’d been swimming in bikinis around her straight friends plenty of times back in Ohio and she never thought much of it, but being in her bra and panties in front of a girl she was pretty sure was flirting with her… and who Zoe definitely wanted to flirt back with… that was different.
Thank God she’d worn an attractive, matching pair of underwear today.
When she turned around again, McKenna was down to her bra and a matching pair of heart-studded panties, and she’d walked a few feet into the water. It was up to her ankles and she made no effort to disguise the fact that she swept her eyes over Zoe’s plain black bra and boy shorts.
“Come in,” she said. “The water’s nice.”
She held out her hand again and Zoe took it, letting McKenna guide her into the little pool of water. The farther out into the bay she looked, the more teal and dark the water became, but here in their secluded little cove, it was warm and clear. The sand was perfectly soft beneath her feet from years and decades of being tossed around by the tides, and McKenna was squeezing her hand for balance as they made their way deeper into the water.
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