Page 11 of Secrets at Seaside
Bella rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I can’t look at Amy being so sad and think a good thought about Tony. He caused this.” She held her phone up to make the music louder.
Leanna reached for Amy’s hand and tugged her toward the steep path on the dune that led down to the beach. “Come on, girls.”
They stumbled down the path clinging to one another. Jenna crossed her arms over her boobs as she ran. “Slow down! These puppies are going to give me a black eye.”
They laughed and held one another up as they reached the beach. The sand was cold on Amy’s bare feet, but the laughter of her friends warmed her. They were always there for her—when she wasn’t hiding secrets from them.
Hewas always there for her.
He wasn’t always going to be there for her, and she needed to get used to that.
Jenna headed straight to the edge of the water. “Help me find rocks.” Jenna had collected rocks for years. Every room of her cottage and her and Pete’s beach house had rocks of all shapes and sizes in them. On the floors, on the tables, in glass bowls, and along windowsills. She was very particular about the rocks she brought home, and she would study each rock like some people studied diamonds, making sure the ones she selected met her expectations, which changed from summer to summer.
“I have a better idea. Let’s wash Tony off of me. Literally.” If she was really going to turn over a new Tonyless leaf, she had to stop being afraid to hold back. She needed to be brave and to take control of her life. Amy pulled her hoodie over her head. Goose bumps chased the cold air up her torso.
“Amy, what are you doing?” Leanna’s eyes widened.
“Starting over.” Amy stood in her pink bra and shimmied out of her jeans. She had always done the right thing, and that included being careful and modest. With the exception of skinny-dipping—or chunky-dunking, as she and the girls called it—at the pool at Seaside in the middle of the night, she’d never done anything likethisbefore. It was so out of character for her that she even surprised herself, but she felt braver than she ever had, so she was going with it.
“You are not going in there.” Leanna picked up Amy’s jeans and held them out to her. “Shark bait, remember? How many times has Tony told us not to swim at night?”
Amy set her hand on her hip. “All the more reason for me to do it. He’s not the boss of me. And he doesn’t own my heart anymore, remember? Now, are you joining me or standing on the beach like a mother hen?”
Jenna whipped off her sweatshirt. “I’m in!”
“You guys are nuts.” Bella pulled her sweatshirt off. “I’m only going in to make sure you go no deeper than your knees. Idiots.”
“You guys…” Leanna pulled off her sweatshirt. “What if you get bitten by a shark?”
“Oh please. I have no meat on my bones. They don’t want me.” Amy shimmied out of her underwear and tossed her bra behind her as she strutted naked toward the water, feeling liberated. Thank goodness for Middle Sister wine, which she just might start calling Courage in a Bottle.
“Even Tony doesn’t want me. I’m done being Goody Two-shoes, by the way. I’m done being the one who does the right thing.”
She sensed them all behind her and felt empowered. More confident than she had in her life. She reached her hands out behind her and wiggled her fingers.
Seaside sisters, help me start a new life. She felt Jenna grab her right hand, Bella took her left, and Leanna took Jenna’s other hand. The four of them stood buck naked before the sea, and Amy’s mind drifted back to the summer before she left for college. Painful memories tried to claw their way into her mind—the blood, the fear on Tony’s face, the ache in her heart. She squeezed the hands of her girlfriends a little tighter and told herself that that summer had never happened. With a hard swallow to push down the lie, she raised her hands in the air and said, “Let’s cleanse Tony right off of me!”
They walked toward the water.I’m doing this. I’m really doing this. There’s no looking back. Once I get in there, he’s out of my system.
No matter what.
A wave broke over their feet, and they squealed and ran back up on the beach.
“Brr!That’s cold!” Bella crossed her arms over her chest.
“Chilly nipples!Chipples!” Jenna laughed.
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.” Leanna bounced from one foot to the other.
“Holy fudgenuggets, it’s cold. But Ineedto do this.” Amy steeled herself against the cold and held out her hands again. It took only a second for the others to join her.
“All for one and all that.” Bella’s teeth chattered.
“Goodbye, Tony. Hello, Australia!” Amy ran into the ice-cold water, clinging tightly to her friends’ hands. She sucked in a breath as the water consumed her thighs and sent piercing shocks of cold water up to her waist.
Jenna shrieked. “Under!”
They all dunked under the water at once, then burst through the surface, laughing as they sprinted back up the beach, kicking sand everywhere. Cold and wet, and covered with sticky salt water, they shivered and snatched up their clothes.
