“Where have you been?” she asked him finally. “Beth told us you came on Thursday…”
“Crashing in a motel in town,” he mumbled. “It’s pretty gross, but anything beats being…here. I’m going back to Boston later in the week. I got extra time off.”
“Are you okay?” Kelsi couldn’t help but ask.
“I don’t know,” George said. His legs hung over the ledge, dangling toward the shore below. “I don’t think so. No, in fact, no.”
Kelsi stared off across the water, remembering that rainy night she had been through about a year ago. Two soaking-wet people holding hands, walking across a parking lot. She remembered the breathless, desperate feeling. And all the tears.
“I know how you feel,” she told George. “I don’t know if it helps, but I’ve been there, too.”
“Yeah,” George said. “Beth left me this long, rambling message on my voice mail after…She mentioned you were dating him. I can’t believe she would do this to both of us.”
Kelsi was startled. Funny how, despite needling Beth about it earlier, she didn’t feel bad about the fact that Adam was supposed to be dating her, not Beth.
“I meant last summer,” she said. “And another guy. I went out with Adam a couple of times, but it wasn’t a big deal. I just mean, you know, my feelings aren’t hurt, too, that’s all.”
“I guess that’s good,” George said.
Kelsi nodded. She had never been that excited about Adam to begin with, if she thought about it. Nice really wasn’t enough. Chemistry was so undefinable, so random. But it was everything. Kelsi thought briefly of Tim, then brushed the thought away.
“So that guy last summer,” George said. “What happened?”
“He cheated on me,” Kelsi said softly. “It sucked. I cried a lot. But it’s not like you and Beth. He was just a…summer boy.”
“But I bet the girl he cheated with wasn’t some perfect lifeguard who rescued him,” George added bitterly. “Some, like, beach god.”
“Well, no,” Kelsi said. “He cheated on me with Ella.”
George’s mouth opened in shock, and then he shut it with an audible snap.
“Um,” he said.
“Yeah,” Kelsi agreed.
George shuddered, and then, surprising both of them, he laughed. “I guess you win,” he said. “Um…congratulations on the being the most screwed-over?”
“Thanks,” Kelsi said drily.
“So tell me how you got past it,” George said, looking closely at Kelsi. He seemed so vulnerable. “You’ve moved on, right?”
“I guess,” Kelsi said, and Tim flashed into her head again. The way he’d looked at her that first night at the bonfire, and the way he’d hijacked her phone at the bowling alley. How much she laughed whenever he was around. She frowned slightly. Of course she hadn’t been that into Adam. She’d already met Tim.
Tim wasn’t anything like Peter, or any of the other guys Kelsi had lumped him with. In fact, she’d never met anyone like him before. She remembered what he’d said before the road trip: It’ll be great. I’ll be great.
It all sank in. Tim had done exactly what he’d said he would do on the road trip. He hadn’t been flirting with Ella, he’d been preventing a catfight on I-95.
And she’d sent him away.
Kelsi felt her heart sink. Literally. All the way from her chest to her bare feet.
George sighed, sounding as dejected as Kelsi felt. “Beth wants to talk, and I don’t even know what to talk about. I don’t know where to start.”
Kelsi tried to shrug off the horrible way she felt about Tim, and focus back on George. “She loves you,” Kelsi told George, returning her attention to their conversation. She didn’t know if that would help or hurt him at this point, but she felt compelled to say it anyway. “It might be hard to believe right now, but she does.”
“I’ve loved her for so long,” George said, quietly. “I’m pissed at her, but at the same time I don’t know how to not be in love with her.”
“I think you have to talk to her,” Kelsi said. “Tell her exactly what you feel.”
George was silent as he tugged some grass free of the earth beneath him. He ripped the blades into tiny pieces and scattered them into the wind. He didn’t say a word, but Kelsi knew what he was feeling.
Suddenly, she missed Tim—and missed him even more when she realized she was unlikely to see him again, thanks entirely to her evil behavior. Kelsi had spent the summer focusing on how wrong he was for her. And now it seemed all too clear to her that she didn’t want anyone but him. Not Peter. Not Adam. Just Tim.
Although Kelsi had wanted the cove all to herself, now she was glad George was there, even if it was just to keep her company while she mourned her lost opportunities. When George took her hand and held it tightly, she prayed that, in the end, they’d both get what they wanted.
30
Beth was pretty sure she had feeling horrible down to a science. And she didn’t feel any better when George mysteriously turned up at the cottage late on Sunday afternoon.
Beth walked into the living room to find him watching a movie, his arms crossed over his chest. Her heart leaped. It was the first time she’d seen him since that awful night.
She looked at him for a moment and took in his dark tangle of hair and his arms, which were more muscular than she’d remembered, no doubt because of his summer spent painting. She glanced at his mouth and the nape of his neck—everything so wonderfully familiar—and she felt a deep emptiness inside.
“Hey,” she said, clearing her throat.
George stared at her and said nothing. The longer he glared at her the larger the emptiness grew. Finally, George turned his attention back to the TV.
“Okay,” Beth said after a long moment of silence. “I get that you, like, hate me now. But I’m glad you came back here anyway. We need to—”
George looked up at her again, and his eyes were so vacant that she immediately stopped talking.
“I can’t afford the motel in town,” he told her, his voice cold and foreign. “Your parents said it was cool if I stayed here.”
“George, I’m so—” Beth whispered, feeling any resolve weaken.
George shook his head. “I came up this weekend to surprise you,” he said slowly, each word like a sucker punch. “Which obviously worked beyond my wildest dreams. Huh?”
“Let’s talk about this,” Beth said desperately, relieved that he was talking to her at all.
“What should we talk about?” he demanded. “Tell me it was my imagination, Beth. Tell me I didn’t see you with some other guy. Were you with him before? Did you hook up with him?”
“George…” she whispered, but she didn’t know what else to say. Saying his name seemed to answer everything. Yes, I cheated on you. Yes, I kissed another boy. A lot.
“That’s what I thought,” George grunted. “I can’t see you anymore, Beth. My friend went to camp up in Acadia. When he comes back this way tomorrow, I’m outta here.”
Beth felt her lips trembling. George’s jaw tightened, and he turned back to the movie. Beth bowed her head, wrapped her arms around herself, and then dashed out of the house.
The next day, when Adam called again, Beth decided to meet him in town after dinner that evening. Maybe, by talking to him, she’d be able to make some sense of the whole mess.
He was waiting outside the Twin Freeze, and when he saw her coming, he pulled himself upright and smiled.
“Beth! Hey!” Adam seemed so excited to see her that Beth smiled wider than she’d meant to. Maybe she was becoming one of those girly girls who practically faded away without a guy’s attention. She had never thought of herself that way, but who knew? This summer she was a different person.
“Hey,” she said back, and then they stood there for a lingering moment. Beth studied him and realized that, normally, she would have assumed a guy like Adam would never give her the time of day. He was too hot in an obvious way. But, ironically enough, being
with George had given her the confidence to befriend Adam. To flirt with him. And more.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
Beth shrugged. “I’ve been better.”
“Is he…Is it bad?”
Beth stared at him. “Um, yeah. It’s bad.”
“So he’s still around?”
Beth shook her head. “You know, I can’t really talk about George with you, okay?”
“Uh, okay. What should we talk about then?” Adam moved away from her.
“Well…uh…” Beth cast around for something to say, completely weirded out by the fact that only a week ago she couldn’t seem to say enough to this guy, and now they couldn’t have a simple conversation. “Maybe this is a mistake,” she said. “Maybe I should just, um, go home—”
“No!” Adam said, putting out his hands to prevent her from leaving. “I mean, please don’t. Come with me for a while. We’ll just hang out, talk. It’ll be fine. I promise.”
And Beth really, really wanted something to be fine. So it seemed like the best thing to do was simply follow him.
31
“One for Some Kind of Wonderful, please,” Ella said, smiling brightly at the girl behind the glass at the Royale movie theater.
Kelsi had told Ella to be subtle with Jeremy because he clearly was the type of guy who wanted to get to know a girl before he got physical with her. Which, up until Ella had met Jeremy, she hadn’t thought possible.
But then Ella had realized that Jeremy was the good guy she’d been looking for all along. So, the night after her return from Amherst, she decided to seek him out, and show him just how subtle she could be.
Ella bought herself some popcorn and a soda, and checked herself out in one of the gilded mirrors that lined the once-plush walls. Not exactly her usual boy-magnet attire. Tonight she wore her oldest pair of jeans and a yellow T-shirt from the Gap. Granted, the jeans clung to her curves and she’d shrunk the tee so it barely covered her midriff, but the fact remained: She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
The point here was to impress the guy with her personality and not just her body, Ella reminded herself.
This was truly revolutionary.
Ella pushed her way through the theater’s double doors and started scanning the aisles. There weren’t too many people at an eleven o’clock screening of an old movie, but there were more than Ella had imagined there would be.
And there, near the front, was the one person Ella had been counting on.
From afar, she admired his shaggy dark hair and the casual way he slouched in his seat. She felt something tug at her heart as she made her way toward him, and it wasn’t just nerves.
Taking a breath, Ella fixed a smile on her face and helped herself to the aisle seat he’d left open next to him.
“This seat isn’t taken, is it?” she asked sweetly, enjoying the look of shock on Jeremy’s face.
“Ella!” His dark eyes went wide and curious. “What are you doing here?”
“What does it look like?” she asked. She put her soda in the drink holder and relaxed back in her seat.
“Um.” Jeremy kept staring at her. “Do you actually like this movie?” he asked.
Ella tossed a kernel of popcorn into her mouth and chewed it for a moment, thoughtfully. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
He was frowning when she looked at him, so she smiled her full-wattage smile, because even if he was looking at her like she was crazy, she was just so happy to be near him again.
“Well,” he said, his face brightening. “You’re in for a treat.”
“I certainly hope so,” Ella said.
And she got to see him smile at her again, just as the lights went down.
After the movie, Ella and Jeremy walked down along the main street of Pebble Beach under the heavy August moonlight.
So far, Ella had to admit, the evening had been pretty much perfect. She and Jeremy had discussed and debated the film—Ella thought the ending was predictable, but Jeremy found it flawless. And not once had Ella tried to put the moves on him. So Kelsi might just know what she was talking about, after all. Ella still wasn’t sure what had inspired Kelsi to forgive her, much less start dispensing romantic advice. But Ella just felt lucky to have a sister like Kelsi.
In fact, being with Jeremy, Ella felt lucky all around. She wasn’t sure she deserved it, so she just tried to keep feeling grateful.
She was amazed to discover just how much fun it was to talk to a guy she also thought was hot. It was like a whole different dimension, she realized as they strolled along and Jeremy explained his film obsession.
“Life just isn’t edited enough,” he said with a wide grin. “In the movies, the camera always blacks out at the best moment. How boring would it be to watch, like, all those dull moments where people were daydreaming and staring off into space?”
“You only like the good parts,” Ella clarified. She could relate.
“I like to watch them,” Jeremy said, nodding. “Maybe someday I’ll head out to Hollywood and make movies myself. Why not, right? It’s the American dream.” He turned slightly, so he was glancing at Ella as they ambled along. “What about you? What’s your dream?”
“Me?” Ella was taken aback. With any other guy, she would have said something leading and teasing, like, You’re my dream, baby. But with Jeremy, she knew he didn’t want a line. He really wanted to know. And more to the point, Ella didn’t want to play games with him anymore. She just wanted to…be.
“Everyone has a dream,” Jeremy added, still smiling at her.
“Well, I’ve always thought I’d be good at fashion,” Ella said. “I like clothes, and how they go together.”
“You mean, like being a model?”
“Please.” Ella wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m, like, three feet tall. I couldn’t be a model.”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy said. “I think the only problem would be the height thing. Everything else, you’ve got.”
Ella liked the warm glow that his compliment gave her, but she didn’t latch onto it. She wanted to finish her earlier thought.
“I’d really like to, I don’t know, design stuff,” she said. “Clothes or bags. Maybe shoes.” She looked down at the pair of jeans she’d rolled up at the cuffs to accentuate the pair of sandals she wore. It was a small alteration, sure, but she always did something creative with her outfits. Kelsi always commented that a T-shirt on Ella was an entirely different garment than the same T-shirt on her.
“That’s really cool,” Jeremy said. “You should think about it.”
They made their way down to the end of the pier and stood there, leaning against the rail and watching the sea. There was a bonfire farther down the beach, but Ella had no desire to be there.
“I’m glad you wanted to see me again,” Jeremy said after a long moment of comfortable silence. Ella looked up at him, inquiringly. “You know, after last time.”
Ella cringed at the memory. “I think I got carried away.”
Ugh, she thought. Awkward much?
“See, here’s the thing,” Jeremy said, looking her full in the face and, for once, not seeming shy. “You know that you could have any guy you wanted, right?”
“I don’t want just any guy,” Ella said, without the flirty inflection she might normally use.
“And it’s not that I don’t want…” He stopped, and shook his head. “I want to get to know you. The real you. So that anything that happens between us can also be…real.” His eyes searched hers. “Do you know what I mean?”
Ella thought about all the boys she’d known in her life, all the boys who’d fallen for her, kissed her, pursued her, and who, when she really thought about it, had known nothing about her. Jeremy already knew more than all those past boys combined. She’d never told anyone about her dreams before. No boy had ever asked.
Except for the one by her side.
She looked up at Jeremy and smiled.
“I
know exactly what you mean,” she said.
He smiled back, and then he did something totally unexpected. He leaned in close, and kissed her.
It was such a sweet kiss. Only lips, and that was more than enough to get Ella heated up. When he pulled away, they were both grinning from ear to ear, and Jeremy slid his hand over hers, and held it softly.
It’s distinctly possible, Ella realized through the swell of happiness, that I may have found myself a nice guy after all.
And it sure didn’t hurt that, behind that shaggy hair, he was absolutely beautiful.
32
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened,” Adam told Beth as soon as they found a place to stand in the crowd. The restaurant part of Ahoy was just as packed as the bar, which was only to be expected in midsummer. Pebble Beach would be a mob scene for the rest of August, and then turn quiet right after Labor Day.
Next Summer Page 16