The Boyfriend Project

by Rachel Hawthorne

  “So I know this may sound silly,” I began, “but this is my vacation for the summer. I was thinking of going souvenir shopping this afternoon. Anyone up for that?”

  Fletcher looked like he was trying to blend in with the woodwork. I had a feeling he was not one for browsing shops. Avery looked at him, then looked at me. “I was thinking of napping.”

  The sun could zap your strength but I’d already gotten in my nap.

  “I’ll go,” Jeremy said.

  I knew he was just doing it to be a good boyfriend. I shook my head. “Never mind. It was just a thought.”

  “You don’t want to be with me?” he asked.

  His question took me totally by surprise. Where had that come from? “No. I mean, yes, no.” I shook my head. “Of course I want to be with you, but I know you’re not into shopping.”

  “I’m into hanging with you, so that works out. Besides, what else do we have planned for this afternoon?”

  According to my itinerary, this afternoon I’d planned to gather seashells that we could use for craft projects, but even as I thought it I realized how totally unexciting that sounded. Not to mention, no one really cared about my itinerary. “Okay, then, yeah. Let’s go.”

  Avery said she and Fletcher would clean up. Jeremy and I were in charge of supper.

  Leaving the dogs behind, Jeremy and I walked along the hard-packed sandy road. Tall grass and dunes on one side separated it from the public beach. I’d grabbed my wide-brimmed hat and tossed on a lacy top to shelter me from the sun. Jeremy had put his T-shirt back on and added a baseball cap.

  Seagulls squawked and swooped down. The sky was an incredible blue, hardly a cloud in sight. And my boyfriend was holding my hand.

  “Guess you know what we’re fixing for supper,” he said as we walked past a grocery store.

  “I brought a box of rice and beans because it was easy to transport, but now it seems boring.”

  I felt his gaze land on me. “You’re really worried about being boring.”

  I shrugged. “Didn’t you think things would change after we graduated from high school? That there would be this big moment of wonder, discovery, and expansion?”

  “I figure that will happen in a few more weeks when we head off to college.”

  “I guess I’m just impatient, but I do know I don’t want beans and rice.”

  “How about some danger?”

  I looked over at him. “Excuse me?”

  “Cooking with fire, down on the beach at sunset. Hot dogs, roasting marshmallows.”

  I grinned. “I like that.”

  “We’ll stop at the grocery store on the way back.”

  I leaned against his arm. “We’re a good team.”

  “The best.”

  We reached the souvenir shop. The large, weathered wooden building was almost completely open on one side. We went up the steps, walking past barrels that contained seashells for sale. For anyone who was too lazy to bend down and pick one up off the beach, I guessed.

  “So what are you looking for?” Jeremy asked.

  “Just browsing really.”

  “I see a cooler at the back. I’m going to grab something to drink.”

  “Okay.” He wandered off and I walked over to a rack of T-shirts. I found a muscle shirt that was kind of stretchy. I wondered if I should buy it for Jeremy for the gun show. Maybe. I’d think about it.

  I walked by a carousel stand that had small license plates displayed on it, the kind kids bought to go on their bikes. Each one had a different name. I noticed WARREN was next to ADAM. How had that happened?

  I moved WARREN to reveal ALICE. People were so careless when they put things back. I put WARREN in his place, noticed another out of place. . . .

  “What are you doing?” Jeremy asked.

  “These are all out of order.”

  “Kendall, babe, that’s not your job.”

  “It’ll just take me second.”

  He took the plate I was holding and slipped it into place so MARY was now hiding NANCY.

  “But, Jeremy, if a girl named Nancy is looking for a license plate she’s just going to see two Marys. She’s not—”

  “You need to let this go.” Folding his hand around mine, he began leading me outside.

  “It’s chaos and it’s supposed to be orderly.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s just a cheap souvenir.”

  “It might matter to someone.”

  Stopping, he faced me. “Go fix it.”

  “It’ll just take me a second.”

  Took me more like a hundred and twenty, but he was sitting on the steps waiting for me, drinking a cherry-flavored water, when I was finished. I crouched beside him. “I know I should have been able to walk away. . . .”

  “It’s okay.” He extended his bottle. Taking it, I gulped down some water before handing it back. He finished it off and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. He shoved himself to his feet. “Come on, let’s go grocery shopping.”

  Taking his hand, I couldn’t help but think that I was so lucky to have him.

  Chapter 16

  JEREMY

  I didn’t know why Kendall needed to have so much order in her life. I figured some of it might have to do with her father’s death. It had to be hard growing up without your dad—even if your dad tended to be a jerk like mine. In spite of everything, I did love him. Just didn’t like him a whole lot.

  Although based on things Kendall said, I knew she had liked her dad. A lot. She really missed him. So I tried to be understanding when it came to her need to control everything, because she hadn’t had any control over his dying.

  As Kendall and I went through the tiny grocery store, a couple of times I noticed her reaching to straighten something, then pulling her hand back. We quickly grabbed what we needed—including roasting skewers that had a picture of people near a campfire—and headed back to the beach house.

  We waited until near dusk before hauling everything down to the beach. Fletcher and I gathered driftwood and built a fire. After, Kendall and I sat on a blanket with her back to my chest, my arms around her as the sun set. It was pretty amazing. As night fell, a quiet hush seemed to come with it. Only a few people remained. I didn’t figure they’d be staying much longer, but they weren’t bothering us.

  After skewering the wieners, we held them just beyond the reach of the dancing flames.

  “This was such a good idea,” Avery said. She examined her wiener, then slid it into a bun and took a bite. “There’s just something about roasting hot dogs over a campfire that makes them taste better.”

  “It’s the danger,” I said. “The fire. It’s why guys like to cook outside using a grill. The kitchen is too tame.”

  “And yet so many chefs are guys,” Avery pointed out.

  “But you’ve seen the knives they wield, right?” I asked.

  She laughed. “Yeah, some of them are pretty wicked looking.”

  When everyone had their fill of hot dogs, Kendall broke out our dessert. “This reminds me a little of Girl Scout camp,” she said as she skewered a marshmallow.

  “So should we start telling creepy stories?” Avery asked.

  “No,” Kendall said as she plucked the gooey mess from the skewer and popped it into her mouth. “I won’t be able to sleep.”

  I slipped my arm around her. “I’ll protect you.”

  She gave an exaggerated shudder. “You’ll try, but the guy is always the first to go.”

  “Nah,” Fletcher said. “The guy is usually the danger, the one you least expect.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Kendall said. “No more marshmallows for you.”

  He shrugged. “No biggie. I’ve got my root beer.”

  “Doesn’t anything upset you?” Kendall asked.

  “Not the small stuff.”

  I’d really only gotten to know Fletcher after he started dating Avery. He was a year older than us, but in some ways he was a lot older than that. I’d only recently learned he’d ha
d a really rough life. That was the thing about people. You didn’t always know what was going on in their lives. I thought Kendall shared everything with me—but then she probably thought I did the same with her. She was probably going to be upset when she learned that I’d quit working at my dad’s office, which was why I wasn’t going to tell her until after our time here. I just wanted a few days without any hassles.

  When most of the marshmallows were gone, Kendall packed everything away and then settled in against me again. I put my arms around her and set my chin on her shoulder.

  “You can really see the stars out here,” she said.

  “Fletcher and I come out here a lot at night,” Avery said. “It’s just a great place to unwind. We’re really going to miss it when we go off to school.”

  They were going to Austin. Kendall and I were going to College Station.

  “I’m going to miss you,” Kendall said.

  “Same goes,” Avery told her. “We should plan a trip for winter break. Maybe go skiing.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Kendall said. She glanced back at me. “Don’t you think?”

  “Absolutely.” Not that my dad was going to fund a trip away with my girlfriend. But I’d cross that bridge later.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Avery began. “Dot called. Her mom did really well following the surgery. She’ll be checking her out of the hospital and bringing her back here tomorrow, so this is our last night.”

  “I’m glad for her mom,” Kendall said, “but I have to admit to being a little disappointed. I’m not ready to leave.”

  “I know.” Avery shrugged. “But what can we do? They won’t be here until the afternoon, but it is kind of a bummer.”

  With Avery’s news, we settled into a quiet stillness, watching the flames growing smaller as they devoured the wood.

  “Okay,” Avery said after a few interminable minutes where there was only the crackling of the fire and the chirping of insects. “We need to spice things up. How about a preview of the gun show?” She nudged Fletcher hard enough that he nearly toppled over.

  “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.

  “No. Show us what you got.”

  He looked at me, and I saw the challenge in his eyes. This guy was really going to take this seriously.

  “I think we should wait to reveal what we’ve got until the appropriate time,” I said. “I don’t want to broadcast any secret weapons I might have.”

  With a laugh, Kendall snuggled against me. “Good strategy.”

  “I think you’re just chicken,” Fletcher said, and struck an exaggerated bodybuilder pose, which looked even more ridiculous because he was sitting on a beach towel covered in daisies.

  “Think what you want. I’m not going to be goaded into giving anything away.”

  With two fingers he pointed to his eyes, pointed to me, pointed back to his eyes. “I’ll be watching you.”

  I almost puffed out my chest. If a guy like Fletcher thought I was competition—

  Who was I kidding? He had at least four inches and twenty pounds on me. Not to mention chicks like Volleyball Girl drooling over him. I didn’t stand a chance. Sometimes I hated my realistic, pragmatic outlook on life.

  When the fire burned itself out and cooled, Fletcher and I covered it with sand. We gathered everything up and began trudging back to the house.

  “I call dibs on the shower first,” Kendall announced.

  “First one back gets the shower,” Avery said, and she started running.

  With a shriek Kendall raced after her.

  “Not fair!” I called out as I shifted the cooler I was hauling.

  Beside me, Fletcher laughed, then grew quiet. “So you know that I was just messing with you earlier? I don’t really care who wins this thing, although Avery might care and if she does, then I do.”

  “Yeah, well, I might surprise you and offer you some real competition.”

  “I guess we won’t be the only ones, right?”

  “Probably not, but I have no idea who else might be involved.”

  “Doesn’t matter. We’ll kick butt and take names.”

  Had to admit it salvaged my pride to think that he thought I could at least do that.

  Chapter 17

  KENDALL

  Because Avery was an astonishing six feet tall and had long legs, she beat me to the house. Laughing, she dropped down onto the steps. “Go on. You can shower first.”

  “Thanks.” I hesitated. “And thanks for inviting us. It’s been great.”

  “I remember when earlier in the summer you and Jeremy weren’t getting much time alone.” She arched a brow, and I knew what she was asking.

  “We’re still not doing much more than kissing.” I sat beside her. “How about you and Fletcher?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “A little more than kissing, but we’re taking it slow. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

  “You’re right. There’s not.” But still I wanted to make the most of tonight.

  After I showered, while Jeremy was in the bathroom getting off all the sand, I shut out the pets for the night and set the four candles I’d brought around the room—two on the dresser, one on the nightstand, one on a short shelf that contained books and assorted shells. Lighting them, I inhaled the jasmine scent. So romantic. I turned down the covers on one bed. Then I switched off the lights.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and waited. I was wearing a soft cotton tank and shorts that weren’t particularly sexy, but I didn’t want to be the one making all the moves. I just wanted to hint that I was ready for Jeremy to make some.

  I heard Avery and Fletcher moving about in the next room. I really wished this house had thicker walls. Then they went quiet and all I could hear was the blood rushing between my ears. Footsteps in the hallway. The door opened—

  The dogs rushed in ahead of Jeremy and leaped on me, causing me to fall back on the bed. “No!”

  “Sorry,” he said with a laugh, trying to get the dogs off me.

  “It’s okay.” I managed to scramble out of the bed. I called the dogs over to the other one, and with several commands to “Stay!” I was able to get them settled where they’d been the night before.

  When I straightened, I saw Jeremy looking around. His gaze landed on me. “Wow!”

  Suddenly I felt really self-conscious. “I wanted to do something special since it’s our last night.”

  He shut the door, walked over to me, and braced his hands on either side of my face. “I like it.”

  He pressed his lips to mine. Somehow we fell onto the bed, without breaking off the kiss. I loved the way it felt when we were together like this. I slipped my hands beneath his T-shirt, felt the ripple of his muscles. Yeah, he had a few surprises awaiting Fletcher when they faced each other. My mind flashed to Fletcher doing his exaggerated poses. While I felt guilty that my thoughts traveled to unromantic places while Jeremy was kissing me, I couldn’t seem to shake the image of Fletcher wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt. It was pretty much all he wore. Maybe he didn’t know how to coordinate clothes. Or maybe it was just that he knew he looked really good in them. Even this morning when we’d been on the beach, he hadn’t been wearing swim trunks. Although Jeremy was now wearing gym shorts, earlier in the evening, he’d been wearing cargo shorts.

  “What would you think of wearing jeans?” I asked against Jeremy’s neck as I rained kisses over it.

  “What?”

  “For the gun show. Tight jeans are sexier than cargo shorts any day of the week.”

  “Are we really talking about my wardrobe right now?” he asked.

  I knew the timing was wrong, but it seemed a little late to backtrack since I’d broken the mood. Once we finished this discussion, my thoughts would clear and I could focus on Jeremy. Easing away, I tugged on his shirt. “It’s just on my mind since Fletcher was challenging you earlier. I saw a muscle shirt at the souvenir shop that we might want to pick up tomorrow before we leave.
It would hug your body the way I do. It was gray but maybe we could find it in red. I love you in red.”

  “Anything else?”

  I thought he sounded just a little irritated, except that Jeremy never got irritated. “Well, since you’re asking, how about black sneakers instead of white?”

  “What color should my socks be?”

  “Might want to go with black there, too.”

  “Boxers or briefs?”

  “Probably boxer briefs, don’t you think?”

  Gently he pushed away from me and sat up. “What I think is that you have major control issues—”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Kendall, every time someone moves an item on the table, you put it back where it was. You rearranged souvenirs.”

  “If things have a place, they should be put back in their place.”

  “You tried to discourage Avery from getting involved with Fletcher.”

  “Because she’s my friend and I care about her. And he didn’t seem right for her at the time. I got that wrong.”

  He twisted around until I could see him better. “You’ve encouraged me to grow out my hair, not shave, beef up, and now change my clothes.”

  “I thought you wanted to beat Fletcher.” I’d just been trying to help but I could see now that maybe I’d taken it a bit too far. We just seemed so boring, and I guess I saw an opportunity for Jeremy to be different, for us to be different.

  “But you make me feel like you think I don’t have a chance in hell as I am,” he said.

  I felt like he’d punched me. That wasn’t at all what I’d wanted to do. I placed my hand on his back, felt him stiffen. “That’s not what I meant. Don’t take it so personal.”

  “Little hard not to when you seem to be finding fault with everything.”

  “Just forget everything I said. You’re perfect.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not really feeling that way right now. I’m going to sleep on the couch.” He got up and headed for the door.

  “What? No. You can’t do that.”