by Beth Reekles
“Hey, I’m an awesome bellboy and you know it,” he said, his voice as serious as his expression.
I bit back a laugh, but a grin spread over my face. “You tell yourself that.” I went up on my toes to give him a peck on the lips. Instead of letting me pull away, though, Noah drew me in for a soft, sweet kiss, more intimate than the one we’d just shared outside. His fingers dropped from round my wrist to link themselves with mine.
A throat cleared—we both jumped.
I turned my head, ready to stare meaningfully at Lee, make a comment about how I’d interrupt him every time he kissed Rachel once she got here, but the opportunity never came and the words stuck in my throat.
“Can I get through?” Matthew said. Noah stepped back and tugged me round the doorframe to let his dad through. I was so mortified that for a moment all I could do was bite my tongue and make a mental note to never, ever kiss in a doorway again.
I was jerked out of my thoughts by a gentle tug on my ponytail. Noah chuckled. “Shelly, anyone would think you’re not used to being seen with your boyfriend.”
“Anyone would think we dated in secret for months,” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes, still embarrassed. “Are you sure your parents don’t mind me coming this year?”
I sounded like Lee, asking yet again if it was cool that Rachel was coming for a few days. I searched Noah’s face for a hint that maybe his parents had said something to him they wouldn’t say to me, that maybe they’d had some debate about whether I should come along this year, after all the drama I’d caused.
Noah squeezed my hand, which had suddenly turned clammy, and his touch seemed to undo all the knots in my stomach. “Totally sure. Hey, why don’t you go unpack? I told my dad I’d clean up outside.”
I let him kiss me again, feeling a little better as we parted, and I went into my room, where Lee was already stuffing clothes into his drawer of the dresser. He smiled at me and I relaxed further. Of course Matthew and June wanted me here. If they didn’t, Lee would have told me. He wouldn’t be able to hide something like that.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought so much stuff,” I panted, after hauling my bag from the floor onto the bed to sort through it.
“That might just about be the smartest thing you’ve said yet, Elle.”
“Ha-ha.”
“See,” Lee said, “if this was last summer, I’d be making a joke about how you have an excuse to see my brother flex his muscles and actually talk to him, since you’re so in love with him, except…well, you are in love with him. So it kind of loses all effect.”
I laughed. “It’s still funny, Lee, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, but that’s because I am a comedian extraordinaire.” He laughed. “It’s not the same, though.”
I sighed, suddenly annoyed. “What do you want me to say? Sorry?”
Lee frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that, Shelly.”
He turned away, shoving one last T-shirt into the drawer. Something crackled in the air between us—something I still wasn’t used to. A tension we liked to ignore because Lee was still hurt by the fact I’d lied to him for so long, and had made him feel like I’d picked Noah over him somehow.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he told me again, more softly this time.
“I know.”
Lee sucked in a sharp breath and grinned at me to defuse the mood. “Now hurry up, find your bikini, and go change. I want to get down to the beach already.”
* * *
Living in California, the past few weeks at home had been sun, sun, sun—but there was something special about the beach. Summer just seemed a lot brighter when we were only minutes away from the sea.
Twenty minutes later, Lee and I were making our way down the beaten sandy track between the shrubbery and onto the beach, ignoring Noah’s shout when we passed that we could help him tidy up a little. I spread my towel out carefully before flopping down onto it, putting in my earbuds, and finding a playlist on my phone. I put on the red plastic five-dollars-from-a-gas-station sunglasses I’d made Lee stop to buy on the way here. I still couldn’t believe I’d forgotten mine.
I heard Lee clear his throat loudly, and I twisted my head up to look at him.
Pushing his Ray-Bans into his hair, messing it up, he said, “What are you doing?”
“Um…sunbathing?”
He sighed irritably, frowning. Then he actually wagged a finger at me, like I was a misbehaving puppy. “You’re such a girl sometimes, Rochelle Evans.”
I raised my eyebrows at him briefly, especially at his using my full name, then looked down at myself. I dropped my jaw melodramatically. “What do you know? I am a girl!”
He laughed and kicked some sand over my legs. “You know what I mean. Let’s go get the bodyboards.”
“Tell you what. You go get the bodyboards, and I will stay here soaking up some sunshine.”
“Um, let me think about that…ah—no.”
“Yes!”
“Fine. But I won’t be held responsible for which board you end up with.”
Before I could say anything, he’d taken off, spraying sand behind him. I sighed and shook my head, settling down on my towel and wriggling around a little to get comfortable.
Something poked my leg, and a voice said, “Hey, lazy.”
“Can’t I have, like, two seconds of peace?” I joked, sitting up and pulling off my glasses to give Noah a mock glare so he would know I was joking. He just chuckled, throwing his towel in a heap next to me.
I put my glasses back on and couldn’t help it when my gaze accidentally went to Noah’s abs. It occurred to me how weird it was that in all the years we’d been coming here, I’d never used it as an excuse to check him out. I mean, I guess I’d been having too much fun or joking around to really pay attention to him. And then, when I did have a crush on him, when I was, like, twelve, I’d gone through a stage of barely being able to talk around him, let alone bring myself to see if he had abs.
I shook myself and glanced up to see if he’d caught me ogling him. I just knew he’d have that sexy smirk on his face that made me blush for no real reason—and I did blush, but not because he was smirking; he was checking me out.
I pushed my glasses up again, and his eyes snapped back to my face. This time, it was my turn to smirk.
He said innocently, “What, I can’t appreciate how gorgeous my girlfriend is?”
I laughed. “If only I could appreciate how cheesy my boyfriend is.”
“Aw, come on. You love the cheesy stuff.”
My smile turned sheepish. “Kinda.”
He chuckled again and offered me his hand. I took it, letting him help me to my feet. Noah pulled me into his arms and planted a kiss on my forehead. I started to lift my head so I could kiss him properly when—
“Ew, cooties.”
“Lee…,” I complained, turning slightly in Noah’s arms. I rolled my eyes at him, but my best friend just gave an impish grin and swung round the bodyboards he was holding.
He tossed a black one with a white logo to Noah, kept a blue bodyboard in his own hand, and then tossed me a bright pink one. I fumbled to catch it before it hit me in the face, and then I saw the big Barbie logo on it, and all the pink flowers and hearts.
“Lee!”
“What? I told you I wouldn’t be held responsible for—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, but I was smiling. “Come on, then. Let’s get this party started.”
Lee sighed and clapped a hand on my shoulder, and Noah’s laugh turned into a cough.
“Shelly…please, promise me one thing,” Lee said.
“What?”
“Never say that again.”
Chapter 3
I stood in front of the mirror, scrutinizing my outfit of shorts and a tank top. Lee was chattering away at me, but I found
myself not really listening. Lee noticed and paused, tilting his head. “What’s up?”
I just bit my lip, suddenly nervous. I could feel my heart thudding hard against my rib cage, and I gulped.
I knew things couldn’t be completely the same this year, sure. I knew that things might even be a little weird now that Noah and I were a couple and not just hanging out anymore. But it had only just hit me: the realization that this felt like dinner with Matthew and June as Noah’s girlfriend, not as Lee’s best friend.
“Shelly.”
“It’s nothing,” I answered. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
But really?
Yeah, I was kind of freaking out inside. What if things were really weird? What if things were awkward now? Should I be trying to make a better impression? As Noah’s girlfriend, should I be dressing up a little? What if—what if—what if—
Lee’s stomach growled.
“Shelly, are you coming or what?”
Do I have a choice?
“Sure. Sorry.” I forced a smile for him, but I knew he didn’t believe it for a second.
We went outside, where Noah and his parents were just sitting down. Plates were loaded with food. I was half expecting the table to collapse under the weight of it all.
“I hope you kids are hungry,” June said.
Lee’s stomach growled again in answer to his mom, and we all laughed. Lee and I sat down in our usual seats. And of course, my usual seat was between Noah and Lee—so they wouldn’t fight at the table, June had always said. I’d never had a problem with it, even when they were arguing across me.
Never had a problem with it until now, anyway. Because now, I felt kind of claustrophobic, sitting between my best friend and my boyfriend.
If anyone else felt as irrationally paranoid as I did, they didn’t show it. The boys were stuffing their faces on either side of me, and June and Matthew were discussing plans to visit an art gallery the next day. Noah must have noticed something was up, though, because he nudged my knee with his, catching my eye to give me a reassuring smile. I breathed a small sigh of relief, wanting to laugh at myself for being such a complete idiot, and dug into my food.
Once I did, the atmosphere was just as relaxed as it always had been, and I was glad that at least something was unchanged this year. Soon enough, I’d forgotten why I’d even been so worried in the first place.
“So, Rachel’s getting here at—”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Lee.”
He swallowed hard. “So Rachel’s getting here at one o’clock on Monday.”
“We know,” Noah said irritably. “You haven’t shut up about it since Mom said she could come down for a few days.”
“That’s because he’s in love,” I said teasingly, bumping my shoulder into Lee’s and grinning at him.
“Have you kids got anything planned for tomorrow, then?” Matthew asked us, and I got the feeling he was trying to change the subject.
“Beach,” Lee said.
“Sunbathing,” I said. Then I added, “And Noah’s going to stomp around destroying kids’ sand castles again….”
“What?” June exclaimed, like she wasn’t sure whether to be shocked or to laugh.
“That,” Noah said, poking me in the ribs, “was an accident.”
I gave him a skeptical look, trying to keep my face straight. “Sure.”
“I did not do it on purpose,” he said, enunciating every word. “Besides, he shouldn’t have been building a sand castle with a giant moat round it anyway.”
“He fell in the moat,” Lee told his parents, snickering at the memory of Noah face-planting into the poor kid’s sand castle and completely wrecking all his hard work.
“But when you were gonna help him build it back up?” I said, a grin slipping onto my face. “That was cute. Really cute.”
I had a flashback of Noah trying to mash handfuls of damp sand together to pacify the little kid whose castle he’d just flattened. The boy had thrown a tantrum and run off to get his mommy. Noah ran in the opposite direction, back to us, while we howled with laughter at the sight of Noah Flynn, school badass, running scared. Lee had pointed out that six-year-olds with angry moms in tow are pretty damn scary, which I didn’t argue with.
But still. It was cute that he’d tried to fix the sand castle.
“I’m sorry,” Noah said. “What was it?”
“Absolutely, insanely cute.”
“Right, that’s it!”
Next thing I knew, Noah had shot out of his seat, grabbed me round the waist, and tossed me over his shoulder. I shouted, but I was laughing too hard to wriggle out of his grip. He started marching away from the table.
I suddenly got a sinking feeling in my gut. He couldn’t be walking toward the pool, right? He’d walk round it. He wouldn’t—
My body hit the water with a sharp slap. I shot to the surface and bobbed there, my clothes billowing out around me. My teeth immediately started chattering a little. I never knew the water was so cold at night!
I could hear everyone laughing from the table outside the kitchen. Noah was silhouetted against the house with his arms folded, and I could just about make out the giant smirk on his face.
“I’m going to kill you for this, Noah Flynn!” I called up to him as I waded over to the edge of the pool. “Now I have to go wash my hair all over again, and—”
Noah crouched down as I reached the edge and interrupted me, saying, “You’re hot when you’re angry.”
I looked at him for a long moment before splashing him in the face.
He chuckled quietly. It was too dark to tell whether he could see or not, but I rolled my eyes at him all the same.
“Give me a hand?” I asked, reaching up to him. Underwater, I braced my feet against the wall of the pool.
He started to say something, but cut himself off and took my hand to heave me up. Immediately, I started tugging to try to make him fall in the water. I knew he’d probably guess what I was up to, but I thought maybe I’d pull it off—and pull him into the pool.
As it turned out, Noah was a hell of a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. He didn’t even wobble. He just stood up, dragging me out of the water so I hung from his hand like a fish on a rod.
“I have to say, Elle, I didn’t think you were that predictable.”
“It’s all part of my master plan.”
Noah set me down on the tiles that surrounded the pool—and as soon as he let me go, Lee was barreling toward him, tackling him and sending them both into the water, drenching me again with the splash they caused. June burst into laughter but still called, “Boys! Be careful!”
Lee surfaced, shaking the water off his head like a dog and beaming at me. “See, Shelly? I’ve always got your back.”
I blew him a kiss. “My knight in shining armor.”
Noah grabbed Lee’s legs from under the water and I caught the brief look of horror on Lee’s face before he was dunked, sending me into helpless giggles.
* * *
Later that evening, after I’d washed the chlorine out of my hair, there was a light knock on the bedroom door.
“Uh…come in?”
I was a little surprised to see it was June. “Hi, Elle.”
“Hey. Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I just thought—well, I thought maybe we could have a little chat. Girl to girl.” She took a seat on the end of Lee’s bed, looking unusually serious.
“Okay…”
So I was right to be worried before dinner, and earlier today. Things had changed. Whatever June wanted to talk about, I had the sinking feeling it was to do with me and Noah.
“Elle…Look, honey, I’m only asking you this because I care about you. I’m not going out of my way to make you feel awkward.” She smiled reassuringly. “I’m
just a little confused about you and Noah, is all. What you’re going to do when he goes to college, I mean.”
“Oh!” That was all? “Oh, well, we’re just going to…you know, make the most of summer. And it’s not like he’ll never be home from college. And we can video chat. We’ll make it work.”
I trailed off at the look June was giving me. It was the kind of look people like parents and teachers give you that says, Oh, you’re so young, you just don’t know. It wasn’t the kind of look I was used to getting from June, and I bristled.
“Really? You think that’s the best option?” She spoke kindly, not in a condescending way, which was some comfort.
“W-well—I mean, yeah….It’s…Long-distance relationships can work out. And I know we’ve only been together a few months, but it’s different for Noah and me. We’ve always known each other.”
“Do you remember when you were really little? And you used to dress up as a princess and say when you grew up you’d live in a castle with your Prince Charming?”
I buried my face in my hands for a second, laughing in embarrassment. “Oh, gosh, I’d forgotten about that.”
“Honey, I’m a mom. It’s my job to remind you all about the embarrassing things you did when you were a kid.”
I laughed again, and sat on the end of my bed so I was facing June. She put a hand on my knee.
“Don’t get me wrong, Elle. I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. I know you’re both in love. But right now, it’s easy. When Noah leaves for college, it’s going to take a lot more work. I want you both to go into that with your eyes open.”
“Have you had this talk with Noah as well?” I couldn’t help asking.
She nodded. “I’m not trying to be the bad guy here and say it won’t work out, or that you shouldn’t try. That’s not what I’m doing. I’d just hate to see you get hurt. I want to make sure you’ve both really thought about this. Relationships aren’t like the fairy tales, Elle. It takes work.”
I didn’t know what to say. I knew she wanted a different answer than the one I was going to give her.