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She knew that admitting her reason why she wanted to get there early might have her two friends laughing at her if she told them, but she also knew that Ginger wouldn’t let her question go unanswered.
“You’ll think I’m being silly, but when my mom was alive, she and my grandmother would take me to the beach for a week every summer,” Savannah admitted.
“I remember that,” Norah said. “I thought that I was going to die without you. It felt like the longest week of my life every time you left to go to the beach each summer.”
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Savannah drawled. “Anyway, my grandmother always insisted that we get to the beach early enough to watch the sun go down over the ocean. I guess it’s silly—I mean, we can watch the same sunset tomorrow night, right?”
“No, it’s not silly,” Ginger said. “I’m sorry that we’re going to make you miss this one, but we promise to watch the sunset with you every night we’re at the beach house this summer to make up for it.”
“Unless we get a hot date or something,” Norah countered.
“Whatever happened to our old ‘Chicks before dicks’ motto?” Ginger asked.
“We’re still doing that?” Norah asked, seeming a bit put off by her friend remembering that. “We haven’t stuck to that old mantra for some time. Remember when you stood me up for dinner—twice when Trevor asked you to come over for a booty call last month?” Norah asked.
“I thought that we also promised not to talk about my ex on this trip,” Ginger reminded. Ging had broken up with Trevor after going out with him for over four years. She finally got the nerve up to ask him where their relationship was going and when he shrugged and asked her to just let things happen as they happen, she dumped him. Ginger said that she just couldn’t sit around waiting for Trevor to get his shit together and make a commitment to her. Honestly, Savannah could have told her years ago that man wasn’t commitment material, but she vowed to never get involved in her friends’ relationship. She hated it when she’d badmouth Norah or Ginger’s boyfriends during a messy breakup only to find them back together a few days later. It always put distance between the three of them and she hated that. So, Savannah learned to keep her mouth shut and her negative opinions about their boyfriends to herself.
“Sorry, Norah. I didn’t mean to bring up ‘You know who’,” she said, putting finger quotes in the air.
“It’s fine,” Ginger said, “honestly, I’m not as upset about the breakup as I thought that I’d be. He seemed to have moved on, so why shouldn’t I?”
“He moved on already?” Savannah asked.
“Yeah, he’s dating Hannah from down at the high school,” Ginger admitted.
“You mean, the secretary?” Norah asked.
“Yep,” Ginger said. “I didn’t like that bitch when we went to high school with her, and I don’t like her now. I heard a rumor that they had gone out a few times before I broke things off with Trevor.”
“Oh God, that’s awful,” Norah gasped.
“Not really—it just proved that I made the right decision. He’s a weasel and he’s found his mate in Hannah. I wish them only the best and I hope that she gives him lots of weasel babies.” Savannah barked out her laugh at the thought of Trevor and Hannah walking around town with a bunch of weasel babies.
“You really are a words smith,” Savannah teased.
“I usually leave that up to you, but thanks,” Ginger said.
“I’m going to nap,” Norah said, stretching out in the backseat. “Let me know when we make our first pit stop. I need a coffee and some sugar if you’re taking suggestions for our first stop.”
“Got it,” Savannah said.
“You need me to stay up with you or can I catch some Zzz’s too?” Ginger asked.
“No, you can get some sleep. You two had a late-night last night.” They had gone over to Trevor’s place to pick up the last few boxes that Ginger had left over there. She had been putting it off and she just wanted to get it over with before their summer at the beach. She waited until the last minute and coaxed Norah into going with her since Savannah had to work late getting her column in before taking off for a bit. Plus, she had a million things to do to get her father settled before leaving him—something she was still feeling guilty about. The one thing Savannah knew for sure; she needed one hell of a summer beach trip and a break from life in general. If she had her way, the three of them would have a blast and there wouldn’t be a cloud in the sky or a care in any of their worlds. If only life worked like that.
Brooks
Brooks Terrance knew that spending the summer with his two best friends might be the last time that they’d all be together. Jude was moving to the West Coast for work unless Brooks and Colter could talk him out of it. Honestly, this trip was his idea as a last-ditch effort to try to keep the three amigos together.
They had all met in college and when they found out that they were all from DC, going to college in upstate New York, they formed this strange bond and were practically inseparable. They even got an apartment off campus and shared it for the last two years of college. A part of Brooks thought that moving back to DC after college would mean that they’d all end up staying there and putting down roots as adults, but then, Jude went and burst his bubble, telling them both that he was leaving for the West Coast in the fall. That was the day that Brooks called the rental place in the little beach town his parents used to take him to in Georgia and rented one of their last available beach houses for the summer.
When he made the announcement to the guys, they both balked at the idea, saying that they couldn’t be out of town and away from their jobs for very long, but then, Brooks reminded them both that Jude was currently between jobs and taking the summer off to pack up his things and take off on them, and Colter could work anywhere since he worked remotely as a CPA for an accounting firm in town. He could meet with his clients via online meetings and do everything from their luxury beach house. Brooks also had the ability to work from home as a social media consultant in advertising, all he needed was a laptop and the internet. Once he got the guys on board, he knew that his plan of getting Jude to see the light and stay in DC was going to work—it just had to because splitting up the three amigos wasn’t ever a part of the plan.
He picked them both up just before sunrise and they got down to the beach house, picked up the keys from the rental agency, and got settled just before dinner time. They were going to grill steaks on the deck overlooking the ocean and drink beer until the sun went down. All in all, it was a pretty good start to their summer beach vacation.
After they cleaned up from dinner, Brooks announced that he was going to bed and the other two agreed that it had been a long day and followed suit. What he wasn’t expecting was to find a pretty young woman standing over his bed in the middle of the night, demanding to know who in the hell he was.
“How did you get into my beach house?” Brooks shouted. He stood and realized that he wasn’t wearing anything under his sheet, so he tugged it up and around his waist before giving the woman too much of an eyeful.
