Pulled Under

“No, I didn’t,” she says, laughing.

The boys reach the table and I turn to Ben. “Did you pick this song?”

He nods. “I picked all the music. You like it?”

I smile. “You could say that.”

I look at each of the girls, and we know exactly what we have to do.

“All right, boys,” Sophie says. “Try to keep up.”

The three boys have no idea what’s about to happen, but Sophie, Nicole, and I all head out to the dance floor, turn to face them, and do the once unthinkable. We unleash the Albatross in full public view.

The shy girl that was once me is no longer.

August twenty-fourth is Ben’s last full day in Pearl Beach. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one in his life, and I have to share this day with others. He has a shift at Parks and Recreation, and they take him out to lunch. He also has to eat di

Judging by the tears that started falling at the dance, I’m begi

“Stop looking out the window,” Sophie says. “He’ll get here when he gets here.”

“I know. You’re right.”

The phone rings and I see that it’s him.

“Hey,” I say. “Where are you?”

“I’m sorry,” he replies. “I got held up at work. Is either Mickey or Mo there?”

“Mo’s off today, but Mickey’s here. Why?”

“I need to talk to her,” he says cryptically. “It’s important.”

This all strikes me as odd, but I take the phone to Mickey and they have a brief conversation.

“What’s all this about?” I ask when I get back on the call.

“I’ll explain it when I get there.”

And just like that he hangs up.

Twenty minutes later, Mo arrives with a man I don’t know, and the two of them meet with Mickey in the garage.

“What’s going on?” Nicole asks.

“I have no idea,” I reply.

Finally Ben walks into the shop. He smiles when he sees me and gives me a huge hug and a kiss.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says. “Where are Mickey and Mo?”

“In the garage,” I answer. “Why?”

He smiles again. “Come on. I’ll tell you when I tell them.”

Luckily there aren’t many customers, so Sophie, Nicole, and I are all able to follow Ben into the garage.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so cryptic,” Ben says, addressing us. “But I’ve been trying to come up with a really great good-bye present for Izzy, and I think I’ve done it.”

We’re all confused.

“What’s your present?” asks Mo.

“I think I’ve figured out how to save the shop.”

Mickey and Mo both gasp. The three of us girls are equally breathless.

“What are you talking about?” asks Mo.

“It’s the best present I could think of,” says Ben. “Izzy loves this place, so I thought that I should try to save it. You see, my dad’s a pretty awful husband, but he’s an amazing attorney. We’d always talk about the cases he was working on, and he taught me how to look for loopholes.”

“Like the team loophole in the King of the Beach?” I say.

“Exactly.”

“And you found a loophole that helps us?” asks Mo, trying to contain her excitement.

“I hope so,” he says. “Is this the attorney you told me about?” He motions to the man with them.

“Yes,” the man says.

Mickey and Mo are practically glowing with excitement.

“What’s the loophole?” asks Mickey.

“Luigi’s Car Wash,” says Ben.

It takes a moment to set in, but everyone in the room, except for Ben, deflates. He doesn’t realize that they’ve already pursued this option.

“Luigi’s Car Wash is protected because of the laws that were in effect when it first opened,” Ben says, continuing. “Luigi can’t be forced to sell his property and neither can you.”

“Actually, we can,” says Mo, her hopes dashed. “Surf Sisters opened four months after the new law was passed. We’re not protected.”

“No,” Ben says. “Surf Sisters isn’t protected.” He unzips his backpack and pulls out a large file. “But Steady Eddie’s Surf School is.”

He hands the file to the attorney and continues. “Part of my job this summer was turning old paper files into digital ones. I had to scan thousands of documents that the Parks and Recreation Department has accumulated. Among those files were contracts for Steady Eddie’s Surf School to teach surfing and water safety to the summer campers. These contracts go back more than twenty years before Mickey and Mo founded Surf Sisters. The address on all of those contracts is his house, which I believe is the building we are standing in right now.”

I look over and see Mickey and Mo are on the verge of tears.

“Even to this day, Steady Eddie’s Surf School is listed in the contracts. That means that the same business has been operating out of the same building for more than fifty years, which more than meets the standards of the law.”

Mo is the first one to reach him. She wraps her arms around him and gives him a huge hug. Mickey is right behind.

“How did you do this?” Mo asks.

Ben shrugs his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what made you come up with all of this?”

“That’s easy,” he says. “Izzy loves you . . . and I love Izzy.”

The full moon hangs over the ocean and floods its light across the waves. I walk down the pier and try to think of what I can possibly say to Ben. He has just given me the most amazing summer of my life, and tonight I’m going to have to say good-bye to him. Technically, I’ll say good-bye tomorrow at the airport. But there will be people there and a plane to catch. This will be the real good-bye. Just the two of us on our pier.

I look ahead and see that he is already waiting. His back is turned to me as he sits on the end of the pier, and even though he is only a silhouette in the moonlight, I know every inch of him.

Wordlessly, I sit down next to him and take his hand.

He turns to me and starts to talk, but I press my finger against his lips so I can speak first.

“I’ve thought about it, and even though people say that long distance doesn’t work, I’m not about to let you walk away forever. We can video chat and call and write. Certainly you’ll come down and visit your uncle, and I’m already saving up money to fly to Wisconsin. You can show me Madison just like I showed you Pearl Beach. And we’re only a couple years away from college. For all we know, we might end up at the same school.”

He shakes his head ever so slightly, and I feel my heart sink.

“I don’t think that will work.”

“Why not?”

He reaches over and touches my cheek with his hand. “It turns out that my mother wasn’t exactly honest with me.”

“How do you mean?”

“When she told me that she wanted me to spend the summer down here to protect me from all the arguments, that wasn’t the only reason she wanted me to come here.”

“What was the other reason?”

“She wanted me to see if I liked it here,” he says. “She’s pla

“When did you find out?”

“Tonight at di

My heart races.

“How will she decide?”

“She told me that it’s my decision,” he says. “She knows it’s hard to move in the middle of high school. And all of my life is up there. . . . Well, almost all of it.”

“Don’t move here because of me,” I say.

“What?”

“It’s not fair to you and it’s not fair to me,” I say. “I would love for you to live here. But if you move here because of me, then anytime that something goes wrong, it will be my fault. You’ll end up resenting me. If you really love me like I love you, then we’ll figure out a way to make the distance work. But if you move here, it has to be because you think that this is home.”