Page 76 of The Summer I First Saw You
“Yeah, I get it,” I tell him. “And I’m doing fine. What did you need to run by me?”
“I was wondering if you might want to come out to your dad’s place on Saturday. Our office party is Friday, but we hadto rent it for the whole weekend. Lucie thought it might be fun to have everyone over since the twins will be with their grandparents. We’ll surf, maybe go to a beach bar? Just like old times.”
I silence a groan. It’ll be two couples and me, and they’ll spend the whole goddamned weekend grilling me about Audrey, trying to set me up and acting besotted with each other. I’m just not in the—
“Daisy’s coming,” Caleb says. “Daisy and Bridget.”
Oh. “That’s a weird thing to add, given the way this conversation started.”
His laugh is rueful. “Lucie’s behind that too. I’ll survive.”
How am I going to spend a day by her side without making my obsession apparent? It’s the worst fucking idea ever.
“Sounds great,” I reply. “I’ll be there.”
It’s the worst fucking idea ever and wildly irresponsible. I’m smiling for the first time since she left.
When I getto the beach on Saturday, Liam and Caleb are already in the water while Lucie and Emerson sit on the sand. There’s no sign of Daisy or Bridget, but I don’t feel like I can ask where they are.
“Daisy and Bridget are on the way,” Lucie says with a knowing smile, lowering her glasses.
I act as if I don’t see it. But Jesus, I hope she and Emerson don’t start comparing notes.
I carry my board out to the water where Liam proceeds to grill me about his sister’s divorce, asking for details I can’t share.
“I just want to know why, man, and she’s not admitting anything,” he says. “I’m not asking you as her lawyer. I’m asking you as her friend. Because he must have done something wrong.”
“And as both her friendandher lawyer, I’m telling you to discuss it with her. I have nothing to say.”
“If Scott cheated on her, he and I are going to have words.” He frowns. “Daisy’s coming. We’ll talk more later.”
Her name alone is enough. My gut clenches as if it’s being squeezed in a fist, and I turn to watch her wading into the water. Her gaze meets mine and holds a half-second too long as she climbs on her board and starts to paddle out. Everything she feels is written all over her face. I’m sure it’s written all over mine as well.
We’re never going to pull this off.
“Little Lazy Daisy finally got out of bed,” says Liam as she reaches us. “Took you long enough.”
“Little Lazy Daisy wasn’t the issue,” she grouses. “It wasBusy Bridget, who needed to bake a fucking pie before we drove out here.”
I laugh, remembering all the summers when Daisy would arrive here fuming because Bridget had moved too slowly for her liking. Some things never change.
“You sure you even remember how to surf, Miss East Coast College Girl?” Liam asks.
Her gaze meets mine on the way to his. “Unlikeyou,” she says, turning her board as a wave approaches, “I have youth on my side.”
She grabs the wave easily and even catches some air going over its back. I can’t help it—I’m grinning.
“Damn,” says Liam, disappointed. “I assumed she’d be a lot worse. Watch. She’s going to give me the finger in three, two—”
Daisy gives him the finger, and we both laugh. And then I sigh. How the fuck am I going to stay away from her all weekend? She’s the only part of it that matters to me.
In the evening,we go to a dive bar down the street—a shack with a roof but no wall facing the beach, where we take over a long picnic table in the sand, away from the noise of the dance floor inside.
Daisy is across from me, pink-cheeked and glowing. She’s impossible to look away from, though I do my best. I picture her cheek against my palm, her breath against my neck. The way she gasps when I go down on her. I can’t even look at her now without wanting to act on it.
“So, what’s up with the girl in LA?” Liam asks me.
Every head turns my way.
