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“You into party poopers now, Drew?” Willow smirks and then dives into the water gracefully still in her underwear.
Dana turns to look at me for some sort of assistance.
And while I’d never make Dana do anything she didn’t want to do… “Could be fun.”
“You’re kidding.”
I pull my shirt over my head and toss it to the side. “No.”
“That’s the spirit! Come on, be like yourboyfriend!”Harley teases, pulling on the button of Dana’s shorts.
“Harley, no, no,no!”
Harley pulls too hard, sending them both tumbling into the lagoon.
“No fair, I was supposed to go first,” Gillian balks and goes in after them.
I rush to the edge, scanning the water worriedly. Harley and Dana don’t emerge. I unbuckle my belt and start to aggressively shake off my khakis. “Guys?!”
Suddenly, Dana and Harley both break through the water with a gasp. Dana spits out a stream of water. I’m ready for her to be irate, but instead, she looks at Harley and splashes her as hard as she can. Harley laughs and splashes back.
An all-out war starts in the water between all the skinny dippers. The fireworks still march on high, loud claps of manmade thunder.
“Hey, D!” Dana calls out to me. “Water’s fine.”
I smile at her, a sliver of disappointment in my chest. Wouldn’t matter if we tried to reset. Moment’s over anyway. I take a deep breath and dive in.
13
DANA
I openthe door from my office to the waiting room and smile at Rita, my client. “Thanks for coming in today. I hope you got what you needed.”
Rita smiles as she walks past me. “Always do, Dana.”
I flush. It’s a nice feeling to know I’ve helped people. It’s what keeps me coming back to the job even though sometimes it can be quite the burden to walk people through grief.
Rita stops suddenly. “Well, these are nice.”
I frown and peer around her. At the sign-in desk, there’s a huge bouquet of flowers. Roses. Yellow.
“Those weren’t here when I walked in, were they?” she asks. “You know my memory these days…”
“No, I can assure you they weren’t.” I slink past her and examine the flowers. A small envelope sticks out of the top.
Rita appears at my elbow, grinning excitedly. “Secret admirer?”
I pop the envelope open. “Not sure.”
“Not-so-secret admirer? Even better!” Rita exclaims.
I slide the card out; before I even read the note, my eyes flick to the signature. It’s Drew’s scraggly penmanship. My heart does a somersault. “Gosh, um…”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Rita says, tapping me softly on the arm and starts to go. “Same time next week?”
“Y-yes, of course,” although I’m not really paying attention to what I’m saying. The words are swimming on the page. I have to concentrate to put them in order.
Dana,
