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“I have to go, Julio.” I grab his hand and squeeze it. “I’ll see you next time.”
I slip out of the store, Perry sniffing everything as he goes.
I find Harlow sitting on the railing eating her cotton candy with Spencer leaning beside her. They laugh at something he said, and he reaches up, swiping some cotton candy from her lip.
“Hey, guys.”
“Hey!” Harlow jumps down from the railing.
Spencer jumps away like he got caught doing something he shouldn’t, and I suppress a smile.
Meredith might’ve called dibs on Spencer, but I think Spencer already had his sights set on Harlow. She might be younger than us, but not by much, and while she’s always been upbeat and peppy there’s a part of her that’s like me and very much an old soul.
“Hey,” Spencer echoes, his voice gruff. “I was just here to get out for a while and spotted Harlow.” He tosses his thumb in Harlow’s direction.
“Cool,” I reply, for a lack of anything better to say.
Harlow pinches off a piece of cotton candy and shoves it in her mouth.
“What do you want to do?” she asks me.
Perry watches her, waiting and hoping she’ll drop a bit of the sweet treat.
“I want to get a smoothie. I haven’t had one in forever and I’m craving one.”
“Ooh! A smoothie would be yummy,” she agrees.
The three of us, Perry pulling me along, head down the boardwalk to the smoothie stand.
Finally, I order a pineapple coconut smoothie and Harlow gets a strawberry one. We move to the side and let Spender place his order, then the three of us wait together.
I can’t help but study Spencer as we wait, noting the fact that he looks like he’s lost weight. Despite everything I’ve been through I still don’t know how to comfort someone who’s hurting. It’s all too easy to say the wrong thing by mistake and then you can’t take it back.
Once we have our smoothies, we continue to walk along the pier.
“This is delicious,” Harlow gushes, slurping her smoothie. “Here, try mine.” She holds her drink out to Spencer.
He takes a sip and makes a disgusted face. “Mine’s better.”
“Not a chance.” He holds hers out to try.
“Okay, that is good.”
“What’d you get?” I ask.
“Blueberry with kiwi.”
“Interesting,” I comment. Thinking that combination sounds absolutely disgusting.
He laughs, picking up on my tone. “Here, try it.” He holds it out to me and I take a sip.
“Okay, okay,” I relinquish. “You were right, it’s good.”
He grins, a little bit of light flashing in his eyes. “See.”
Eventually, the three of us find a spot and sit down on the wood-planked pier, letting our legs dangle over the edge and using the fence to drape our arms over.
“This summer is nothing like what I thought it would be,” Spencer admits. “I thought it’d be fun, a last hoorah before college, and now it’s just … T.J.’s gone.” He looks at Harlow and then me. “We should cherish every day, because you never know when it’ll be your last.”
