Only One (Reed Brothers)(7)

His voice softens. “And you’re hot as hell looking like that,” he says quietly.

My heart trips. “God,” I breathe.

He grins. “Got to get to work,” he says. He shakes his cheese at me. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

“Okay,” I say quietly with a wave.

He laughs as he slams out the door. I hear some rattling and then the mower starts up. I sink onto a barstool. Crap. That wasn’t how I’d hoped that would go. Seeing Nick again, I’d hoped to be pretty. And put-together. And better than the last time he saw me. But I was none of those things.

I was just me. And just me isn’t enough to keep anyone around.

I pour some coffee and take it to my room. My reflection mocks me from the dresser mirror. Indeed, I do have dark shadows of mascara under my eyes, and my hair looks like rats have crawled into it and taken up residence. God, why does it have to happen like this? Why couldn’t I have known he was here so I could be prepared? And why is he mowing our grass? And why didn’t my mother tell me she was going for chemo?

I wash my face and brush my teeth, and then put on a bathing suit. I’m at the beach, and I fully intend to take advantage of it. I have no idea when my mother will be back. I take a bottle of water, a shirt, and a towel and settle on the beach so I can begin to get my summer tan on. It’s windy on the beach, so I lather myself in sunscreen. The sun can be deceptive even when it doesn’t feel as hot. I lie back and close my eyes. The warmth of the sun seeps into my skin, and I feel all loose and languid in no time.

It was really strange seeing Nick after all this time. He’s grown up. I guess I have too, but my age doesn’t seem quite so jarring. The last time I saw Nick, he still had braces, because I remember him cutting my lip with them when he kissed me for the first time. It was at my fourteenth birthday party. We were dancing on the sand to a slow song playing on the speakers Dad dragged onto the porch just for my party.

His hair looks like it has been kissed by the sun and he’s broader than I remember. As broad as a doorway. He used to be skinny, but now he’s…not. He’s sexy. And he seems so much older than me. We’re both nineteen, and I’m pretty sure that he graduated this year just like I did. Amber and Rose are the same age as us. I think Mom said they’re here, too. They’re both summer people like we are. Nick was the only one who hung out with us who actually lived here, aside from the friends he brought around. His parents had a trailer in a nearby park. It wasn’t like our houses, which sit directly on the beach. We met him one day walking down the beach at dusk. I’ll never forget that day.

“You three look like you could use some directions,” a voice called out from beneath the pier.

Amber grabbed my arm and Rose whistled quietly. “Goodness, he’s handsome,” Amber breathed.

“We’re not lost,” I said. “But thank you.”

He was standing under the pier with two other boys. They laughed to themselves, but he wasn’t laughing. We kept walking, and he jogged backward in front of us, not even bothering to look and see where he was going.

“Are you sure you’re not lost? Because I could have sworn you were trying to find the way to my heart.” He laid his hand on his skinny chest and batted his blond lashes at us dramatically. “It’s easy. Chocolate and kisses. Not necessarily in that order.” Suddenly, he tripped and fell onto his back. He just laid there and laughed.

Amber giggled. Rose snarled up her nose. And I fell instantly and irrevocably in love.

Cold water shakes me from my sun-induced stupor. I look up and see Rose’s red hair before I see anything else. She’s limned by the sun, and I can’t even see her features, but I know it’s her. She laughs down at me as she pours cold water on my hot back.

“Girl, I can not believe you came to the beach and didn’t invite me to hang with you.” She laughs and drops down on the sand beside me. I sit up and shake the lethargy from my brain.

“Girl, I can not believe you didn’t bring Amber with you,” I toss back.

She jerks a thumb past her shoulder, and I see Amber standing directly behind her. Now summer can officially begin. Amber, Rose, and I keep up with one another on Facebook. It’s not like real life, but I get to see pictures of them and they can see pictures of me, so seeing them now is nothing like it was seeing Nick again. I had no idea what to expect with him at all.

Amber drops onto the sand beside us.

“How did you guys know I was here?” I ask, completely bewildered by their presence. I didn’t tell them because I kept hoping I would find a way to get out of the trip. That didn’t happen, obviously.

Amber shrugs. “Your mom called our moms.”

“Oh.” Why can’t she just stop her meddling? “What else did she tell you?”

I flop back on the sand, because I don’t want to see pity on their faces. Amber shrugs again. “Just that she was going to be busy a lot this summer, and wanted to arrange for us all to get together and play.” Amber laughs out loud. But then she sobers. “While she gets chemo.” She looks at the beach instead of at me.

Rose lays a hand on my arm. “How bad is it?”

I flip over so I can face the sand. “She has a couple of months left,” I say. I lay my face down on my towel.

“That’s why she wanted you to come with her this summer?” Rose asks.