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“Sure. But it’s pretend. It’s all pretend.” Harley’s voice wavers as if she’s trying to convince herself of something.
“And no one other than your sisters can know that. Deal?”
She spits on her hand and holds it out for me to shake. A memory surfaces from one of the first summers Harley visited. I bet her to climb a palm tree and promised that I’d make sure she had a summer supply of ice cream from the Sip & Scoop. She made me agree to it with a spit shake.
I spit on my hand and then reach for hers.
She pulls away. “Nasty. I don’t want your dirty germs on my hand.”
“But you?—?”
With a mischievous gleam in her eyes, Harley says, “Justwanted to see if you remembered your promise. You still owe me one ice cream from that summer.”
“I thought I made good on that debt.”
“We were going to meet up the morning before I left, but my dad woke us at dawn because he was afraid there would be traffic since we were leaving a day later than expected.”
Scratching my head, the memory comes back. Apparently, I buried it. “Yeah. I recall waiting out there for you.” I point over my shoulder. “And waiting and waiting. You never showed, then Brando told me you left. Not even so much as a goodbye.”
“What did you want me to do, throw pebbles at your window?”
I smirk. “If it meant that I wouldn’t owe you an ice cream all these years later, yeah.”
She playfully shoves me and when I right myself, the space I put between us earlier shrinks a bit.
“What else should we consider for this game? Any components? Like the equivalent of a gameboard, pieces, and that kind of thing?” Harley asks.
“I’ll need your bank info for the payments and you’re welcome to stay at the rental. Royal is at the Driftwood and Magnus is occupying one of the cottages until he and Lally get married.” I tell her about the big house the four of us got with a twelve-month lease.
“Okay. That could work but separate rooms.”
“What kind of boyfriend do you think I am?”
She gives me a side-eye.
Once again, regret threatens to push me under. “What’s the name of the game?”
The corner of Harley’s lip twitches. “The Romance Game, of course.”
“Of course,” I repeat. “So, you’re giving me a second chance?”
“I didn’t know there was a first.”
My lips quirk with a smile thatI can’t let her see.
“You just participated in us making up the rules of this fake game of fake romance, so it’s pretty clear I’m playing along.”
“But what about the other times?” I ask, knowing I’m pushing my luck.
“Oh, you mean season three in the ‘She Swam with Sharks’ episode when you made me give you my sunhat, then threw it in the ocean and I had to swim with the baby Bonnetheads to get it?”
“The wind caught your hat.”
“Then there was season four, episode six called ‘Lost in the Dark.’”
“I thought you were with the rest of the group.”
Harley pouts. “You told me to meet you at Hidden Hammock Beach to play tag.”
