Page 8 of The Beach House
I suddenly got a sinking feeling in my gut. He couldn’t be walking toward the pool, right? He’d walk round it. He wouldn’t—
My body hit the water with a sharpslap.I shot to the surface and bobbed there, my clothes billowing out around me. My teeth immediately started chattering a little. I never knew the water was so cold at night!
I could hear everyone laughing from the table outside the kitchen. Noah was silhouetted against the house with his arms folded, and I could just about make out the giant smirk on his face.
“I’m going to kill you for this, Noah Flynn!” I called up to him as I waded over to the edge of the pool. “Now I have to go wash my hair all over again, and—”
Noah crouched down as I reached the edge and interrupted me, saying, “You’re hot when you’re angry.”
I looked at him for a long moment before splashing him in the face.
He chuckled quietly. It was too dark to tell whether he could see or not, but I rolled my eyes at him all the same.
“Give me a hand?” I asked, reaching up to him. Underwater, I braced my feet against the wall of the pool.
He started to say something, but cut himself off and took my hand to heave me up. Immediately, I started tugging to try to make him fall in the water. I knew he’d probably guess what I was up to, but I thought maybe I’d pull it off—and pull him into the pool.
As it turned out, Noah was a hell of a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. He didn’t even wobble. He just stood up, dragging me out of the water so I hung from his hand like a fish on a rod.
“I have to say, Elle, I didn’t think you were that predictable.”
“It’s all part of my master plan.”
Noah set me down on the tiles that surrounded the pool—and as soon as he let me go, Lee was barreling toward him, tackling him and sending them both into the water, drenching me again with the splash they caused. June burst into laughter but still called, “Boys! Be careful!”
Lee surfaced, shaking the water off his head like a dog and beaming at me. “See, Shelly? I’ve always got your back.”
I blew him a kiss. “My knight in shining armor.”
Noah grabbed Lee’s legs from under the water and I caught the brief look of horror on Lee’s face before he was dunked, sending me into helpless giggles.
Later that evening, after I’d washed the chlorine out of my hair, there was a light knock on the bedroom door.
“Uh…come in?”
I was a little surprised to see it was June. “Hi, Elle.”
“Hey. Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I just thought—well, I thought maybe we could have a little chat. Girl to girl.” She took a seat on the end of Lee’s bed, looking unusually serious.
“Okay…”
So I was right to be worried before dinner, and earlier today. Things had changed. Whatever June wanted to talk about, I had the sinking feeling it was to do with me and Noah.
“Elle…Look, honey, I’m only asking you this because I care about you. I’m not going out of my way to make you feel awkward.” She smiled reassuringly. “I’m just a little confused about you and Noah, is all. What you’re going to do when he goes to college, I mean.”
“Oh!” That was all? “Oh, well, we’re just going to…you know, make the most of summer. And it’s not like he’ll never be home from college. And we can video chat. We’ll make it work.”
I trailed off at the look June was giving me. It was the kind of look people like parents and teachers give you that says,Oh, you’re so young, you just don’t know.It wasn’t the kind of look I was used to getting from June, and I bristled.
“Really? You think that’s the best option?” She spoke kindly, not in a condescending way, which was some comfort.
“W-well—I mean, yeah….It’s…Long-distance relationships can work out. And I know we’ve only been together a few months, but it’s different for Noah and me. We’ve always known each other.”
“Do you remember when you were really little? And you used to dress up as a princess and say when you grew up you’d live in a castle with your Prince Charming?”
I buried my face in my hands for a second, laughing in embarrassment. “Oh, gosh, I’d forgotten about that.”
