The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)(79)

He snatches his beer bottle off the table as he rises. “I think you should stop drinking, Juliet,” he says, walking away, dismissing everything I’ve said as the byproduct of a single margarita.

I silently fume as I return to the kitchen. The girls are whipping up appetizers, laughing and drinking and celebrating, just like the guys are, and I feel lifeless in their midst. I begrudgingly start cleaning when all I really want to do is go to our room and sleep until this whole fucking weekend is over.

Liam jumps on the counter to get our attention.

“I think a toast is in order!” he shouts over the music, which someone promptly lowers. “Because

our boy here did the unimaginable today and lived to tell the tale.”

The crowd shouts and claps its approval. Luke is sitting on the couch, knees spread wide, head back against the cushions. His grin is sheepish, far less impressed with himself than everyone else is.

“Just got lucky,” he replies.

“Bro, there was no luck involved. That was solid gold talent,” says Caleb.

“Don’t count me out yet,” jokes Ryan, the only one of them who barely surfs. “I haven’t even tried yet.”

Caleb laughs. “I’m counting you out, dude.”

“Or me,” adds Grady. It’s the first joke I’ve ever heard him make. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll be amazing at it.”

Caleb raises a brow. “Sure, Grady. Never stop dreaming.”

“Give me a couple of years of surfing in Nicaragua,” Danny says, and he is not joking. “Maybe I’ll catch up, though I’m never going to have the money for a board like Luke’s.”

The smile leaves Luke’s face. “When are you going surfing in Nicaragua?”

Danny crosses to where I stand and wraps an arm around my waist. Given how much we’ve bickered today, it feels like he’s doing it simply to make a point. I have to fight myself not to push him away.

“We’re moving there,” he announces.

My lids flicker closed, a half second of unwillingness.

“My mom is opening an orphanage and Juliet and I are going to help.”

The room goes quiet, aside from the music that’s still playing. Danny wants everyone to celebrate this news the same way they celebrated Luke’s triumph, but it’s the wrong crowd for that. No one envies us. They don’t want to be in our shoes. And plenty of people in this room—Luke especially, based on the look on his face—think it’s fucking insane.

He rises, looking only at me. “Are you serious right now? How long would you go for?”

I stare at the floor while Danny answers. “I don’t know,” he says. “Probably for good. You guys will have to come visit though. Seriously, the surfing there blows California out of the water.”

Harrison places a quiet hand on Danny’s shoulder. “That’s great, man. I hope it works out.”

“Tell me something, Danny,” Luke says, still staring at me. “What precisely does Juliet get out of this deal? Or are you just assuming the pleasure of cooking and cleaning for you is enough for her?”

My heart thuds loudly in my chest. I squeeze my eyes shut, praying that this moment just ends. Or that it hasn’t happened at all.

Danny stiffens, and his arm around my waist tenses until it feels more like a shackle. “I’m not sure you need to worry about my fiancée, Luke.”

“Someone fucking needs to,” Luke snaps.

Beck jumps to his feet, moving between them.

“Stop,” I whisper, because it’s all I can get out. I pull away from Danny and walk blindly out the

door, down the stairs to the beach as tears run down my face.

Despite the storm coming in, it’s a beautiful starlit night. I feel nothing at all looking at it. I feel nothing at all most of the time, now.

What a fucking disaster this is.

Luke and I, rushing to stop the other or defend the other, all fucking day. Everyone must have noticed it. What will I say if Danny asks? And I’m not sure it’s ever even occurred to him that I don’t want to go to Nicaragua. If he finally asks me tonight, point blank, am I still going to lie?

There’s a shift in the air behind me. I look over my shoulder to discover Luke approaching. “You shouldn’t be out here,” I whisper when he steps beside me.

“Why?” he demands. “Because you can’t control yourself when I’m around? Maybe that ought to tell you something, Juliet.”

I shove my hands in the pocket of my hoodie, hating that he’s right. “Luke, I’m doing my best.” My voice cracks.

His hand wraps around my forearm, turning me toward him. “No, you’re not. Your best would be to say ‘Danny, I love you, but not in the way you want.’”

“You think it’s that easy? You think I can do that to Donna? This wedding is the one thing that’s kept her going the past few months.”

“It’s never going to be easy,” he says, his voice softening. I bury my face in my hands and he pulls them away, holding them tight in his own. “You don’t want to hurt him, but he’ll spend his entire life trying to make you happy and it’ll eat him up that he can’t do it. It’s already eating him up. You saw how he was tonight.”

“God, Luke,” I cry, “I wish you hadn’t come here. I convince myself things feel okay, and then you walk in the room and I realize they’re so far from okay that I must have been crazy to think otherwise.”