Page 5 of The Beach House
I turned my head, ready to stare meaningfully at Lee, make a comment about how I’d interrupt him every time he kissed Rachel once she got here, but the opportunity never came and the words stuck in my throat.
“Can I get through?” Matthew said. Noah stepped back and tugged me round the doorframe to let his dad through. I was so mortified that for a moment all I could do was bite my tongue and make a mental note to never, ever kiss in a doorway again.
I was jerked out of my thoughts by a gentle tug on my ponytail. Noah chuckled. “Shelly, anyone would think you’re notusedto being seen with your boyfriend.”
“Anyone would think we dated in secret for months,” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes, still embarrassed. “Are you sure your parents don’t mind me coming this year?”
I sounded like Lee, asking yet again if it was cool that Rachel was coming for a few days. I searched Noah’s face for a hint that maybe his parents had said something to him they wouldn’t say to me, that maybe they’d had some debate about whether I should come along this year, after all the drama I’d caused.
Noah squeezed my hand, which had suddenly turned clammy, and his touch seemed to undo all the knots in my stomach. “Totally sure. Hey, why don’t you go unpack? I told my dad I’d clean up outside.”
I let him kiss me again, feeling a little better as we parted, and I went into my room, where Lee was already stuffing clothes into his drawer of the dresser. He smiled at me and I relaxed further. Of course Matthew and June wanted me here. If they didn’t, Lee would have told me. He wouldn’t be able to hide something like that.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought so much stuff,” I panted, after hauling my bag from the floor onto the bed to sort through it.
“That might just about be the smartest thing you’ve said yet, Elle.”
“Ha-ha.”
“See,” Lee said, “if this was last summer, I’d be making a joke about how you have an excuse to see my brother flex his muscles and actuallytalkto him, since you’re so in love with him, except…well, youarein love with him. So it kind of loses all effect.”
I laughed. “It’s still funny, Lee, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, but that’s because I am a comedianextraordinaire.” He laughed. “It’s not the same, though.”
I sighed, suddenly annoyed. “What do you want me to say? Sorry?”
Lee frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that, Shelly.”
He turned away, shoving one last T-shirt into the drawer. Something crackled in the air between us—something I still wasn’t used to. A tension we liked to ignore because Lee was still hurt by the fact I’d lied to him for so long, and had made him feel like I’d picked Noah over him somehow.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he told me again, more softly this time.
“I know.”
Lee sucked in a sharp breath and grinned at me to defuse the mood. “Now hurry up, find your bikini, and go change. I want to get down to the beach already.”
Living in California, the past few weeks at home had been sun, sun, sun—but there was something special about the beach. Summer just seemed a lot brighter when we were only minutes away from the sea.
Twenty minutes later, Lee and I were making our way down the beaten sandy track between the shrubbery and onto the beach, ignoring Noah’s shout when we passed that we could help him tidy up a little. I spread my towel out carefully before flopping down onto it, putting in my earbuds, and finding a playlist on my phone. I put on the red plastic five-dollars-from-a-gas-station sunglasses I’d made Lee stop to buy on the way here. I still couldn’t believe I’d forgotten mine.
I heard Lee clear his throat loudly, and I twisted my head up to look at him.
Pushing his Ray-Bans into his hair, messing it up, he said, “What are you doing?”
“Um…sunbathing?”
He sighed irritably, frowning. Then he actually wagged a finger at me, like I was a misbehaving puppy. “You’re such agirlsometimes, Rochelle Evans.”
I raised my eyebrows at him briefly, especially at his using my full name, then looked down at myself. I dropped my jaw melodramatically. “What do you know? Iama girl!”
He laughed and kicked some sand over my legs. “You know what I mean. Let’s go get the bodyboards.”
“Tell you what. You go get the bodyboards, and I will stay here soaking up some sunshine.”
“Um, let me think about that…ah—no.”
“Yes!”
