The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)(17)

I get upstairs just as Danny is exiting the bathroom, freshly showered. “Hurry, okay?” he pleads.

“There’s a party at the beach and Nev is freaking out about getting there.”

I take a breath as I nod, inhaling my frustration. I wasn’t even able to get a shower last night, with them hogging the hall bath, but now I have to rush. I wouldn’t have to hurry if you’d just help me. If I go away to school for nine months, will I, too, get the luxury of sitting on my ass all night and surfing all day?

I’ll never say it aloud. Danny wants to please his parents, and me, and his friends. It’s not his fault that he’s consistently failing at one of those things.

“I should probably finish my book for school,” I tell him.

“Babe, come on,” he says, crestfallen, and Luke’s right over his shoulder, looking at me like I’m a fucking liar. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

My teeth grind as I agree to go. I love Danny, but I also owe Danny. It’s sometimes hard for me to tell which fact is motivating me to give in to him when I do.

I rush into my bedroom, grab a towel and a change of clothes, and walk out to discover someone else has beaten me into the bathroom and the shower is running once more.

I slam my palm to the door. “Are you kidding me?”

The door opens suddenly, and Luke stands there with a towel hanging low on his waist while the water continues to run.

He smirks. “Is there a problem?”

It’s the smirk that sets me off. If Danny had heard what I just said, he’d have been concerned.

He’d have said, “What’s the matter? How can I fix this?” But Luke thinks he’s won something by making me lose my shit and…fuck it. I don’t need to impress him. I don’t care what he thinks anymore.

“You’re using up all the hot water,” I hiss. “And now it’s running and you’re not even in there!

You guys have had the whole day to yourselves. Is it so much to ask that I just get five goddamn minutes to shower after an entire day at work?”

He runs a hand through his hair. “No. It isn’t. But you’re incapable of standing up for yourself, so I wouldn’t bank on you ever getting it.”

The truth of this hits me. How is anything about my life going to change given the way I am now? I feel a sob in my throat, but rage follows right on its heels and something in me just snaps. Why does Luke have to make everything so much fucking worse?

I act before I’ve even thought it through, shoving him with all my might. He barely budges, of course. It’s like hitting a wall. But his hands wrap around my wrists to stop me, pinning them to his chest…and the towel he was holding falls. My gaze drops reflexively and I stare for a moment in shock. He’s hard. And if I didn’t understand why those girls fight over him at night before, I definitely do now.

“Is that what you wanted, Juliet?” He makes no move to pick up the towel. “Go ahead, if you want to look so bad.”

I shrug off his grip, horrified, and recognize for the first time what he seems to have already known: I want something I’m not supposed to want.

I stumble backward, blinking away tears. “Fuck you, Luke.”

I expect him to gloat. But instead, his shoulders sag and there’s something bleak and pained in his eyes. As if he isn’t enjoying this at all. As if, perhaps, he’s hated this summer as much as I have.

I want to rage at him for what just happened, for what’s been happening, but there’s this ache in my chest for both of us that I can’t begin to understand. I turn and walk straight to my room, slamming

the door behind me.

Absolutely nothing makes sense anymore.

After finally getting my—cold—shower, I ride with Danny to the beach, never mentioning what happened with Luke.

Danny’s friends are already there, gathered around one of several small fires. I do my best to ignore Luke, his gaze on me darker than ever. It feels like the end of everything, and it’s all his fault, so I don’t know why I’m still thinking about the feel of his bare chest beneath my hands and everything I saw when the towel fell.

Danny’s roommates produce a case of cheap beer. The more they drink, the more they seem to focus on…me and Danny. “Daniel Allen,” says Nev. “You’re a good man. You know why? Because if I had little Juliet living in my home, I guarantee I wouldn’t let any of you assholes come visit.”

Danny laughs. Luke does not. The girl he’s with, Rain, is tiny and cute, and the more he ignores her, the more she tries to get his attention. So does her friend Summer, sitting beside them.

I wonder which of the two he’ll wander off with tonight. For a moment, I let myself picture being the one he chooses. Is he gentle? Is he rough? A little of both?

I think he’d be a little of both.

“I don’t know how you guys ever make it out of bed,” Nev continues.

Danny laughs again, but it’s cut off by the sound of Luke’s voice, low, with an edge to it. “Watch it, Nev,” he warns, though I’m not sure what he’s objecting to.

The part I personally object to is Danny. The way he’s laughing and going along with it, not correcting them. If waiting for marriage matters so much to him, fine, but he should be willing to say it aloud. I refuse to pretend we’re sleeping together just so his friends will think he’s cool.