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I swirl my sparkling water and lime in a glass but refrain from saying anything, unsure if Bellamy and Linda are friends, or how well she knows Ken.
I might have a tendency to ramble, but I have made enough snafus in my life to know when to keep my mouth shut.
“It looks like something out of a magazine,” I say. “My favorite part is the clawfoot tub, though I haven’t used it yet.”
“Soaking in that thing with a glass of wine and a good book? Ohmygod girl…you need to get on that immediately.”
Bellamy yanks the cork from her bottle of wine then carries it and a single glass with her out to the guesthouse porch that looks out to the lake. And to the Mitchell house.
I can’t help but wonder what Boyd’s doing, if he’s over there eating dinner or getting ready for the bonfire, or maybe even looking out the window over here to see what I’m doing?
“So you don’t drink?” she asks as we each take a seat in the surprisingly comfortable Adirondack chairs.
“Not really. It makes me pretty tired. Some people drink and become the life of the party, but it just makes me want to curl up and take a nap.”
Bellamy laughs and pours the merlot into her glass, filling it a little more than halfway.
“It’s why I drink sparkling waters and juices when I’m out. It looks like a cocktail, so nobody bothers me about it.”
She bobs her head and swirls her wine around with the grace of someone who has been drinking wine for a long time. Then she takes a long sip, letting out a low hum of enjoyment before settling fully into her chair, her glass hanging elegantly from her fingers as she focuses her attention on me.
“My brother is absolutely bananas about you.”
The skin on the side of my neck heats up at her words. Even though I know he’s interested, hearing it from someone else based on their own observations is a different thing altogether.
“You think so?”
She nods. “Absolutely. I’ve never seen my brother the way he is with you, like he can’t get enough. How long have you known each other? 24 hours?”
“I think 36, but that’s splitting hairs.”
“He really likes you, and in that very grown-up way my college ass still hasn’t ever found.”
At that, I laugh.
“At my age, the boys don’t want to take you out for drinks to meet the family. They want to shuffle you around and screw you behind the bar where nobody can see.”
There’s an edge to her words that I’m not expecting, but when I glance over, she still has that same pleasant expression.
“What was he like with Corinne?” I ask, unable to keep myself from asking.
For a second, I worry I’m being too nosy, but Bellamy doesn’t seem to have any problems sharing.
“Corinne is not even in the same league as you—let me just start off with that,” she says, taking another sip of her wine before setting it on the side table and adjusting to get more comfortable in her chair.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, they dated when they were teenagers. You don’t really know what you want when you’re that young, and I’ve heard from more than one person that the two of them only stayed together as long as they did because Boyd didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He thought it would just be easier to have a clean break when he left for college.”
My nose wrinkles, picturing a young Boyd, fresh off of a breakup and heading off to college. I think of all the sexy co-eds who must have been just waiting for him to have a good time with.
“Obviously, I’m a little younger than my brother so I don’t know everything that happened except for what I’ve been told over the years, but Corinne and I have been spending a lot of time together this summer, and she is definitely not over him.” She pauses and then rephrases. “Well, according to her.”
I laugh. “You think she’s wrong? Wouldn’t she be the best person to know how she feels?”
Bellamy waves a hand, like she’s swatting something away. “Corinne is just feeling lost and focusing her attention on the one that got away. It’s easy to romanticize something from over a decade ago when you were probably a completely different person. Living it in real life is another thing altogether.”
I nod, surprised by the wisdom of her observation. Bellamy might be young as a 21-year-old going into her senior year of college, but she talks about love and life as if she’s been through quite a bit. I’m a firm believer that if you’re going to take someone’s advice, it should be based on scars from battle, not just hypothetical situations and possibilities.
