The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)(23)

Danny tugs back. “Come on, Juliet,” he pleads.

That snapping thing inside me unfurls. “Come on…for what?” I lash out. “So we can wander through this big crowd of strangers for no reason? So Luke can find some girl he’s after? So I can sit around listening to you guys talk about college and surfing all night?”

His jaw falls open. “What the hell, babe?”

I shake off his hand. Why is it asking so much to do one thing I want? I’ve followed along meekly the whole goddamn summer and the little I’ve asked for—a romantic night out, a relationship that feels more adult than the ones I had when I was twelve—has been denied. And it’s been denied with so little pushback from me that he’s dumbfounded when it happens.

I turn toward the music. I don’t even want to dance anymore, but if I don’t go, I know I’ll wind up apologizing and I just fucking refuse.

I plunge into the crowd of people dancing and close my eyes, trying to pretend we didn’t just argue, trying to pretend Danny’s not out there making excuses to Luke as if I’ve done something wrong.

It’s bad Juliet taking over, asserting herself in ways I’ll regret and apologize for later, but it works for a minute or two. I forget. And then the song ends and it’s Luke I see first, standing just outside the circle. His gaze paralyzes me.

He’s probably pissed, but he doesn’t look pissed. His eyes are feverish and feral. Possessive.

It’s not the way he looks at those other girls. It’s more.

“Juliet,” says Danny, moving in from my right, and Luke’s face goes blank again. “Can we go now?”

His voice is gentle, as if I’m a wayward child who escaped at the mall, one he loves though she tries his patience. How do I get angry with him for that? How do I not get angry with him for that? My

shoulders sag in defeat. I let him take my hand and pull me away, back to continue this mysterious mission Luke’s on.

We walk and walk, until we’re well past the party. Luke stares down stragglers on the beach, and even Danny is frustrated. “Bro, who are we looking for, anyway?” he asks.

Luke frowns, glancing briefly at me then away. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”

It feels like we’re a mile from the Jeep at this point. We start to walk back through the crowd, and then I come to a stumbling halt.

I recognize the eyes first. Their coldness. The details I actually remembered—the tattooed knuckles, the pierced eyebrow…those come a second later. I freeze, and Danny hasn’t even noticed but Luke has. His gaze jerks from me to the guy.

“Is that him?” Luke asks, close to my ear. His hand rests at the small of my back. “The guy who grabbed you?”

I have no reason to be terrified. Outside of the car, he’s just a guy of normal height and normal weight. Bigger than me, but no match for Luke or Danny. I’m frozen anyway. I make a noise of assent, nodding…and Luke takes off after him at a sprint.

The guy’s eyes widen and he starts running, but he’s no match for a college athlete. Luke tackles him, and they’ve barely landed before Luke’s fist is driving into his face. It’s as if something has unleashed inside him, something terrifying, something he’s barely held onto.

That’s why we’re here, at this huge party. To find this guy. And Luke’s been looking for him since it happened.

My mouth opens but no sound emerges. Danny, beside me, seems frozen too. It’s only when the guy’s friends dive at Luke that we both wake up. Danny runs forward, grabbing one of them and holding him back while I dive to the ground, snatching a beer bottle, the only weapon I can find.

By the time I reach them, though, Luke’s shaken off the guy Danny isn’t holding and is hitting him

—his fist plunging into the guy’s stomach, then his face, then his stomach again.

I’m almost glad I hear sirens in the distance because Luke’s going to kill someone if it continues.

And he’s already done plenty of damage, so I need to get him out of here, fast, before the cops arrive.

Danny shouts at Luke to stop, and Luke simply turns and swings, hitting the guy Danny’s holding dead in the face with a blow that makes his knees give way.

“Jesus Christ, Luke, stop!” Danny yells.

Luke turns to the bloody kid on the ground, the one who grabbed me. “If you even breathe in her vicinity again, I’ll fucking kill you and I won’t think twice. I’ll beat you until you can’t fight back, then I’ll hold you under water until you’ve taken your last breath. That’s a promise.”

The drone of the police walkie-talkies parts the crowd, but Luke remains where he is, rigid and unmoving—lip and knuckles bleeding—as if he doesn’t care about getting arrested.

“Run,” I hiss. “Go! You threw the first punch. That makes it assault.”

His face is carved in stone.



“If you do something, you own it,” he says without inflection or fear. He throws Danny the keys to the Jeep. “Go ahead. Get her out of here.”

Danny looks between us, torn. He doesn’t want to get in trouble, but he also knows Luke might need our help. When his gaze turns back to me, I shake my head.

If Luke won’t run, I’m not running either. I won’t abandon him.