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I took Julie’s bag from her and carried it inside. When I dropped it off in Kendall’s room—not knowing for sure which guest room she would be in—a half-empty bag of Cheetos, a tangled phone charger cord and a couple of tampons rolled out. I scooped them all up and dropped them back in the bag. As I tried to cram them into the top of the full-to-bursting open tote, I saw that she had a taser in there. I swallowed hard, not liking that she felt that unsafe with her ex being released any day. It was sobering, and it took some of my carefree anticipation of the weekend with it.
When I got back down to the beach, I saw that Julie was sitting on the low stone wall facing the sea. I sat down beside her.
“I’m glad you could make it.”
“Thanks, Rory. It’s good to be back here. For a long time I was just concentrating on getting through the nursing program as fast as I could. I didn’t even let myself take long weekends off from homework and studying. Plus, I was working as a CNA and the rookie always gets weekend and holiday shifts. I almost forgot how beautiful it is here.”
“Every time I’m here I kick myself for not coming more often. It’s such a great place to unplug, you know? There’s a dive bar that’s practically walking distance—mostly locals and they usually have a live band on the weekend.”
Julie grinned. She had a killer smile, a dimple in one cheek. I felt warm and light when she smiled like that, as if the chill wind off the water had dropped away and we were bathed in bright sunshine. I was trying to think of something to say and wondering why this woman had me tongue-tied when my sister bounded up to us.
“Thanks for keeping her company, Ror,” she said. “Come on, Jules. I’ll show you to your room. You’re going to freeze in just that dress. Let’s find you a sweater or something.”
They went off together into the house and I sighed. It was going to be a long weekend if she was staying at the house. I started making a mental list of things I could do—try to say the alphabet backward or remember all the words to Free Bird or the reciting the periodic table of elements—tricks to stop myself from being too turned on when she was around.
6
DARREN
After I kicked ass in beach volleyball, and roasted my brothers for saying it was ‘too cold’ to take off their shirts for the game, I went in to shower and change for dinner. When I came back in jeans and a button down, my wet hair slicked back, I stacked some wood in the fire pit and lit it. Then I got a beer and took a seat. From my vantage point, I could see most of the partygoers talking in groups of five or six, drinking beer or wine, laughing harder than necessary. It was always like this, the last weekend of the summer. A sort of frantic energy overtook everyone to get all the joy and freedom they could from the waning days of the season. Already it was cooler here at night, the sun less punishing during the day.
I knew more than half the people here, but I was more of an observer by nature. It made me good at security but crap at a party. I was surprised when a woman caught my eye. Green dress, bare legs, hugging a baggy cardigan sweater that was obviously borrowed around her as she said something that made everyone in her group laugh. My sister cracked up, leaned her head on the woman’s shoulder and squeezed her arm affectionately. This must be the best friend, I thought. Rory said she was hot, but damn! I wanted to stride over to her and strip the cardigan off that was hiding her shape from my eyes and back her up to the stone wall and tell her I’d keep her warm all night. The pull I felt toward her shocked me. I wasn’t an insta-lust kind of guy, for one thing. I liked to get to know someone first.
For the next hour I watched her. She moved among the clusters of people slowly, being so warm and friendly that even when someone obviously had just introduced themselves to her and shook hands, they hit it off. I saw three separate times that someone followed her as she disengaged from the group and held out their phone asking for her number. Not just guys wanting to pick her up. Women who wanted to be friends. She was charming everyone in some kind of cute, wholesome way with the too-long sleeves of the sweater covering her hands most of the time.
