Page 69 of Nights at Seaside
The girls exchanged a look that told her they knew everything there was to know about love and she was the only one left in the dark.
“Honey,” Amy said softly, “can you imagine a future without him?”
Could she? Would she want to? She was already used to falling asleep next to him and waking up in his arms, even though it had been only a few days. She looked forward to his flirty and poetic texts, and every single time she saw him, her heart went crazy and she wanted him to stay right there with her.
“Not willingly,” she finally admitted.
Jenna and Amy smiled, and Bella said, “You’re definitely falling. Ten bucks says you marry the guy.”
“I’mnotbetting on my future.” Sky laughed, but inside she was shivering with delight just thinking about a lifetime with Sawyer. “Lizzie says life isthat easy and that complicated. I think I’m sitting in the center of easy and complicated and I don’t know where I’ll end up—but it sure feels like I’m in the right place regardless of if it’s easy or complicated.”
“That’s because you’re falling in love. That’s how it happens, so you’ll tip over right in the middle where easy and complicated intersect,” Amy said.
“And Sawyer will catch you,” Jenna added.
“With a poem at the ready.” Bella reached for Sky’s hand. “Take it from the girl who never thought she’d find the right guy. Theonlyman who is right for you is the one you don’t want to live without.”
All this talk about forever and Sawyer was getting Sky excited all over again. She dunked under the water to cool off. When she broke the surface, she said, “Wow, my heart is going a mile a minute. You guys…Ilovelove! And I think I love Sawyer, too!”
The girls squealed and immediately shushed one another and laughed.
Sky snagged the cookie dough from Bella and bit a hunk off. “Did I tell you that heisthe P-town poet? He just had no idea that there was arealP-town poet.”
“That’s because there’s not. You made him up, remember?” Amy pointed out.
Sky looked up at the stars and exhaled loudly. “What a night. I feel so much for Sawyer that I swear I almost told him that I loved him the other night, and I didn’t. Thanks for making me feel like I’m not moving too fast. That it’s normal to fall this hard this fast.” She floated on her back again and rested the tube of cookie dough on her stomach as she gazed up at the stars, feeling like she’d cleared the fog from her head.
Jenna floated on her back, too, and Amy said, “I can’t lie on my back again. My baby will squash me.”
They all laughed.
“I was looking forward to our boat trip before, but now? I feel even more excited now, like it’s okay to feel so much after such a short period of time—and I’m going to enjoy it.”
“Two days alone with Sawyer? You’ll be so deeply in love when you return you’ll be in the ring fightingforhim.” Jenna reached for the cookie dough.
Bella turned her head from side to side. “Shh. Do you hear that? What is that noise?”
“What?” Amy lifted her chin, listening.
“Shh!” Bella snapped. “It sounds like…cicadas?”
“I hear it,” Jenna said, whipping her head from right to left.
“It doesn’t sound like cicadas to me,” Sky said, tipping her ear toward the sound. “It’s coming from all around us. And it sounds different, not like bugs at all.”
Bella shushed them again, and they all swam toward the edge of the pool.
“I can’t see a thing—can you guys?” Bella asked.
“No.” Amy walked between Bella and Jenna, holding on to them both.
Bella motioned for Sky to hurry up. Sky swam to Bella and linked arms with her.
“What is it?”
“It sounds familiar.” Jenna gasped, pointed at the fence, and shouted, “There’s something moving against the fence.”
“Shh!” the three others chided her.
