Page 137 of Summer Love

CHAPTER 43

Summer

SATURDAY

The shark comes back every time I close my eyes.

A shadow in the dark water, a jaw clamping shut, blood spreading in long streaks… and Jace’s screams—the screams of a trapped animal, like nothing I’ve ever heard.

I wake up with the sheets stuck to my skin and my stomach in my throat.

The fourth time, I give up.

I stay on my back, eyes wide open. The bungalow is pitch-dark. I don’t know what time it is. Three, maybe four.

I think about the kiss.

About the way we moved toward each other. Jace’s lips on mine, his fingers on the back of my neck—then we both pulled back at the same time.

I think about the bet.

“Yeah, it was stupid. We were young. We were idiots. Sorry, okay?”

He shrugged. Echoed my word—stupid—without even rephrasing it. A nothing—something that deserved no more than an awkward half-smile and a sorry he didn’t even mean.

Am I overreacting?

Did I spend six years keeping quiet, resenting him, carrying the shame, over a humiliation that maybe wasn’t even that serious? Or is Jace Walker just a guy who can make love to me at night and erase me by morning?

No.

It wasn’t nothing.

I roll onto my side, pull the sheet up, and close my eyes. The screams come back.

Someone knocks at the door.

Three sharp raps, almost cheerful. I jump, my heart kicks up. Jace?

I shove off the sheet and cross the bungalow barefoot. My hand shakes on the handle.

I open it—and it’s not Jace.

Noah’s standing on the doorstep, a cigarette in his mouth. He’s wearing a faded T-shirt two sizes too small with a Millennium Falcon across the chest, gym shorts, and sneakers that are white in memory only.

“You’re not ready?” he says, giving me a once-over. “I got up for nothing, is that it?”

I blink.

“What time is it?”

“Five.”

“You’re insane.”

He almost smiles.

Noah Walker, up at five in the morning, in workout clothes. The same guy I found three days ago holed up in his cabin, amid the stink of stale smoke, pizza, and empty cans.