Only One

  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.

  I lift my shoulders in a half shrug. “I don’t know.” Actually, I do. Guilt made her want me to come this summer. That’s all it was. She didn’t want me to share her last hours. She just didn’t want to die with anyone thinking she was that mom who left.

  “Are you sad?”

  “Only that you guys are blocking the view.” I point toward a young man lying a few chairs from us. “Check that out.”

  Amber turns. “Don’t bother,” she says, turning up her lip. “He’s a dick.”

  I roll over and sit up. “Who is he?”

  “His parents rented the house next to yours last year, and again this year. He was at the beach blast last night.” She narrows her eyes at me. “And he’s a dick. Trust me.” Amber looks up toward my house, her hand shading her eyes. “Who’s mowing your grass?” she asks.

  “Nick,” I say on a blow of breath.

  Amber’s brow rises. “Wow. That quick, huh?”

  “What quick?” I look from Amber to Rose and back.

  “He’s been acting all weird ever since he found out you were coming.” She looks everywhere but at me.

  “What do you mean by weird?”

  Rose shoves Amber’s shoulder. “Shut up,” she says. “She just means weirder than normal.”

  I sit up and put my shirt on over my bathing suit. “When did you guys get here?”

  “A week ago?” Amber looks at Rose and she nods.

  “So, what’s been going on the last three summers? Any hookups I need to know about?”

  Amber gnaws on her lower lip as she thinks about it. “Not any that would surprise you.”

  “What are you not telling me?”

  Amber shrugs. “The past few summers have been angst-free.”

  Rose snickers. “Or at least angst-light.”

  Summers are never angst-light. They’re always full of hookups. Vacation girls try to find coastal boys. And coastal boys look for vacation girls. That’s the way of things.

  Suddenly, sand flies up in my face. I rub my lips and spit it out. And once I have blinked the sun out of my eyes, I can see him standing over me. He’s wearing a bathing suit now, though, and nothing else. And damn, he’s even bigger than I thought he was. “God, Nick,” I say. “Be careful.”

  “You look like you need to get wet,” he says, his voice excited as he rubs his hands together.

  “I’m fine just like I am.” I hold up a finger to warn him, but it’s too late.

  He picks me up under my arms and the next thing I know, I’m over his shoulder. I bat at the backs of his thighs, but he walks quickly toward the ocean and doesn’t act like he even feels it. So I pinch his butt. He stops and spins around like he wants to look into my face. But all it does is make me dizzy.

  “If I have a bruise on my butt cheek tomorrow, I’m going to give you one to match it,” he says with a laugh.

  My heart pitches. I pinch him again, because there’s nothing else I can do. “Put me down,” I squeal. The waves are now nipping at his calves. “Put me down,” I scream a little louder.

  Suddenly, he bounces me off his shoulder. I close my eyes and hold my breath, because I expect to get a full face of water. Instead, I slide slowly down the front of him, his hands moving up to hold my hips and slowly slipping up my naked waist.

  “Nick,” I complain.

  The water laps at our middles, and I move to push back from him, but he wraps his arms around me and we fall together in one heap into the waves. All I can do is grab his shoulders and hang on tightly. So I do. I wrap my arms around his neck and when he stands back up, I’m clinging to him, with my legs around his waist and my arms holding him tightly. Our faces are a hair’s-breadth apart.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” I say, blowing water from my lips.

  “I was hot and sweaty,” he says.

  He walks out deeper and deeper, until we’re being buffeted by the waves. But he’s steady. I move to unwrap my legs from around his waist. He catches my thighs and hitches them back up.

  “I wasn’t,” I protest. “I was just fine.” I look toward where Amber and Rose are laughing. They both give me a thumbs-up. Traitors.

  “I saw you looking at the douchebag,” he says.

  “What douchebag?”

  “The guy who’s staying in the house next to yours.” His hand slips toward my bottom, and his fingertips slide along the elastic leg. I reach back and take his hand and pull it back to my waist. He chuckles.

  “What about him?” I ask. “And why does everybody dislike him so much?”

  “Because he’s a dickwad.” He growls and I feel his lips graze my neck. “Salty,” he says.

  My heart stutters.

  “I’m going to tell you how this summer is going to go,” he says, “before it even starts.”

  “How’s it going to go?” I pull my legs from around his waist, only to find that I can’t touch the bottom. I wrap them back around his waist and let him do all the work of keeping us up. He’s still on his feet, aside from the occasional wave through which we bounce.

  “You and me, we’re going to spend some time together, because I want to get to know you all over again. That okay with you?” he asks.

  I brush water back from my face. “Why?”

  “Because I like you. I’ve always liked you. And you broke my heart when you left and didn’t come back. So, yeah, I’m telling you how it’s going to be.”

  “You don’t even know me anymore,” I protest.

  He jiggles me in his arms. “I know. That’s why I said we were going to get to know one another. Are you listening?” He growls playfully.

  “Yeah, I’m listening,” I say quietly.

  “Good, because you’re all I think about when it’s summertime.” He brushes my hair back from my face and picks a strand off my lips. “You and summer go hand in hand. Like ice cream and chocolate syrup. Like popcorn and salt. Like…me and you—a summer boy and a vacation girl. There’s no summer without you. It’s just endless seasons without the perfect.”

  I open my mouth to speak,
but only a mortifying squeak comes out.

  He laughs. “Yeah, I feel that way too.” He jostles me again in his arms. “You understand, right?”

  “Not really,” I admit.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” he says and he kisses the tip of my nose. “I have to go to work. Can I come and see you tonight? I don’t get off until eight.”

  “Work? It’s summer.”

  “It’s summer for you. It’s work for me, all the way through summer. So, can I come and see you later?”

  “I guess. I don’t think my mom will mind.”

  He scoffs. “Your mom loves me.”

  If only she’d loved me enough to stay.

  He starts to walk toward the shore, holding my bottom in his hands. I tap his shoulder. “Let me down.”

  He laughs and puts me down when the water is waist-deep. But then he takes my hand and holds it all the way out of the water. I stop and wring out my hair when we’re in front of Amber and Rose.

  Suddenly, he jerks my arm and pulls me against him. “I want to kiss you,” he says beside my ear. “But I don’t want to mess up our first kiss trying to piss off Jerkface.”

  “You should just pee a circle around me and be done with it.” Because he knows that little dunk in the ocean wasn’t about us. It was about the guy I haven’t even met yet.

  He grins. “You might be into that kinky stuff, but I just want to kiss you, for starters. We’ll get to the rest of it in good time.” He laughs and kisses my cheek. Then he pats the top of Rose’s head and tugs Amber’s hair. “Later, ladies,” he says. He glares at my new neighbor. I have to find out what that’s about.

  Amber, Rose, and I all watch his backside as he runs across the sand and back up the steps onto my deck. His hips are narrow and his shoulders wide. He has a tattoo on his upper shoulder that looks like it might be a sailboat.

  “He sure grew up,” I mutter to myself as I plop down on the towel in the sand next to my friends.

  Amber snorts. “Up, and out, and around. That boy is hot.”

  “Did he just put the moves on you in the ocean?” Rose whispers loudly, cupping her hand around her mouth like she doesn’t want anyone to hear. If she doesn’t want anyone to hear, she really shouldn’t whisper-shout it.

  I scratch my head. “Kind of.” I’m still a little confused about it.

  “What did he say to you?” Amber asks.

  “I think he asked me out, but I’m not completely sure. He’s coming over at eight.” I shrug. My face is on fire with all the scrutiny.

  “Huh,” Amber grunts.

  “What’s that noise for?”

  “Nothing.”

  I shove her shoulder. “Tell me.”

  “It’s just…” She looks at Rose like she wants permission. Rose just raises her eyebrows. “It’s just that he hasn’t wanted a girlfriend since the accident.” She raises one finger. “Hookups, yes. Girlfriend, no.”

  “What accident?” I ask.

  “Oh my God!” Rose shrieks. “You didn’t know?”

  I throw my hands up. “Know what?”

  “His mom and dad died two years ago. In a boating accident.”

  My heart trips a beat. “I had no idea.” I look in the direction he went, ready to go after him and ask him why no one had told me. I would have… What would I have done? Probably nothing.

  “I thought your mom would have told you.”

  I shake my head. “My mom and I don’t talk.” I lift my fingernail to my mouth and nibble on it. “So, who takes care of him?” I ask. I have so many questions.

  “He lived with his uncle for a while. But when he was almost seventeen, he applied for emancipation and got it. So he was officially an adult before he started his senior year of high school. He lives with a couple of roommates in his mom and dad’s old place.”

  “So that’s why he’s mowing our grass.” I am shocked. Dumbfounded.

  “And working at the marina. And at the surf shop. And he works at the water park some too. He works all the time.”

  “Is he going to college?”

  Amber shakes her head. “He didn’t say anything about it last night.”

  “At the beach blast?” There’s a party every year. I just missed it, I guess.

  Amber nods. “He was the DJ.” She laughs. “I know. One of his many jobs.” Her face softens. “He’s had a hard time since they’ve been gone,” she says quietly. “So I’m kind of surprised that he was so affectionate with you, particularly since he hasn’t seen you in so long.”

  Yeah. Me too.

  “So what are you going to wear tonight?” Rose asks.

  “I don’t even know what we’re going to be doing.”

  “We should go look through what you brought and pick something out.”

  “I still have about eight hours until the date.”

  “Exactly.” Amber and Red wear identical expressions of surprise. “We might have to go shopping!” Amber pats my knee and gets up, dusting her hands together as she walks toward my deck. I have no choice but to follow.

  As I walk by the neighbor, he tosses up his hand and smiles shyly at me. I wave back. What else am I supposed to do?

  Nick

  The house that Mrs. Michaels owns is huge. And there’s an even bigger one on the left, and the one that the douche is staying in is on the right. As I walk around the corner of the house, I stumble to a stop when I see a group of men unloading a truck. They’re all blonds and they have tattoos everywhere. One of them looks up at me and lifts his hand.

  “Hi,” I say, and I jog over to them. “Do you need some help?”

  They have the back of a truck completely loaded with coolers, suitcases, and baby stuff. Baby stuff? “I don’t think so,” the biggest one says. He looks familiar to me, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him.

  I stick out my hand. “I’m Nick.”

  He reaches out and takes my hand as the others keep hauling things into the house. “Paul,” he says.

  Then it hits me. I know who they are. Holy shit. I look toward the door the other ones went through. They’re the Reeds from that new reality TV show. “Seriously?” I say. A grin that is probably the cheesiest thing ever tugs at my lips.

  He scratches his head. “We’re kind of on vacation,” he says.

  “Oh.” They probably get recognized everywhere they go. “You don’t want anyone to know.”

  He shakes his head. “No, not at all. We’re here for the month. We’ll be filming at the beach festival.”

  “Doing tattoos?” I ask.

  He nods. “The girls will be here soon with the kids.” He points to Carrie’s house. “Do you live there?”

  “No, my girlfriend does. Well, she’s not my girlfriend yet. But she’s going to be. She just doesn’t know it yet.” I can’t believe I just said all that. Crap.

  He chuckles and swipes a hand down his face like he wants to wipe his grin away. It doesn’t work though. He probably thinks I’m an idiot.

  “So you guys are bringing all the kids?” I ask. There are a lot of them.

  His eyes narrow a little. “You watch the show?”

  “Every week.” I brush a hand through my hair, trying to look like I’m not star-struck. “It’s not like I’m a stalker or anything, though.”

  “I didn’t assume you were.” He pulls a few boxes to the edge of the tailgate. The brothers come out the back door, their arms empty. Shit. That’s Logan, Pete, Matt, and Sam. In real life!

  “Okay, I might be a little bit of a stalker,” I admit. They introduce themselves and I stand there like a little kid waiting for a snow cone on a hot summer day. “But just, like, the I-really-admire-you kind. Not the I-want-to-steal-your-personal-effects kind.”

  Paul nods. “O-kay,” he says slowly. He lifts a hand to me and goes inside, grinning the whole way.

  “I guess I’ll see you guys around,” I shout.

  “Hey wait,” one of them calls. I turn around and see that it’s Matt. “Do you know w
here we can get some firewood?”

  “It’s summer,” I remind him.

  “We want to have a little fire on the beach. Roast some marshmallows.”

  Duh. Of course they do. “I can get you some.”

  His brow arches. “Before tonight?”

  I nod. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thanks, man,” he says, and he goes inside. He sticks his head back out. “See you later?”

  I nod.

  I just freaking met the Reeds.

  A series of cars arrives in the drive. Women start to pour out of the vehicles, along with kids. I grin, because I know who they all are. Every last one. I wave to them and walk away. But wait…Friday’s not pregnant anymore. She was still pregnant last week on the show. She removes a car seat with a baby in it. I guess I know where the kid is now.

  I have to get to work, or I’m going to be late.

  ###

  After work, I go and pick up firewood for the Reeds, and I stack it neatly by their garage door. They’re down on the beach with their whole family, and it looks like there’s a camera crew with them. A small crowd has gathered around them, but some big guys are holding the perimeter. I have no idea what it’s like to be famous, but I imagine it’s hard.

  I don’t need to bother them, because they’ll find the firewood when they come up from the beach.

  I go home to take a quick shower. Malone is there when I arrive and I can hear him griping at Jackie from outside. I step into the trailer and close the door behind me. They immediately go silent. “What’s up?” I ask. I look from one to the other and back. They both avoid my gaze, though.

  “Nothing,” Malone bites out. He flops onto the couch and flips the TV on.

  Jackie follows me into my room and sits down on the edge of my bed.

  “What did you do now?” I ask, as I pull my shirt over my head and walk toward the bathroom.

  “He has his panties in a twist because he caught me talking to Dale.” She lies back and scoots up to put her head on my pillow.

  I freeze. She went to see the douche? “Why were you talking to him?”