Endless Summer

When she heard the door close, she looked around the corner at me, then came out from behind the kitchen island to hug me hard. She held me at arm’s length, searching my face and smiling. “Lori’s dad called.”

“Woo-hoo.”

Her brow wrinkled in confusion, then rose. “He says you can date Lori again. And now he’s trying to convince me not to send you to military school.” I nodded.

She put her hands on her hips. She was frustrated with me for not showing more joy at this fantastic news, but she wasn’t quite ready to let go of her own happiness yet.

“What in the world did you say to him to make him change his mind?”

I shrugged. “I ma

“Well. I have to say, I’m bowled over.”

“I’m so glad.”

“You should be. Much as I hate to look like Trevor McGillicuddy is jerking my chain, he makes a very good case for you. I’ll speak to your father and convince him that we don’t need to take that tour of schools.”

She waited for me to foam at the mouth with gratitude. I did not.

“Adam.”

“What.”

“I am telling you we’re not sending you to school and you can date Lori again. Isn’t that what you wanted? Are you hearing me?”

“What do you want me to do, thank you for treating me like a dog for three weeks?”

She stared at me really hard, and I thought she was going to lay into me. Then she asked, “Did you have an argument with Lori?”

“No!” I stomped past her, ran up the stairs, and slammed the door to my room. This time when my tenth grade player-of-the-year trophy teetered on its shelf, I let it fall.

It crashed to the rug, and the football broke off the quarterback’s hand.

I flopped onto my bed, fished my phone out of my pocket, and called Rachel.

“Hey, Adam!” she squealed. “I’m so glad you got your party back! I can’t wait! Sean doesn’t have a date, does he?”

“You could say that,” I said. “I just saw him sucking face with Lori out on the dock.”

Rachel giggled like she always did at everything I said. Only this time, it was a maniacal giggle, like a psychotic bluebird. I was afraid she might start hyperventilating.

“Oh, God! Oh no! This is exactly what you’ve been warning me about all along!”

e giggle stopped abruptly, as if she’d never been on the brink of hysterics. “I’m sick of being nice,” she said with determination. “I can play Sean’s game. What time are you picking me up?”

I ran toward Sean at the warehouse. He looked in my direction and kept turning keys in the dead bolts on the door like he knew I was up to no good.

I snagged his hand and dragged him after me.

“Whoa there, woman,” he said as he stumbled, keys jingling.

“Come with me.” I led him down the grass and around the seawall until we reached my dock.

I stopped him with my hands on his chest. After an examination of my screened porch through the trees, I pushed him six inches to the left. “My dad is probably out on the porch,” I told Sean. “While he’s watching, I need you to act like we’re together.”

His eyes widened, and he put his hands up in the air. “No way. I don’t want to get sent to military school.”

“Yes way,” I said. “You’re going to college in the fall. You’re free and clear.”

He glanced toward the porch too, I thought. But I realized he was looking at the window of my brother’s room when he said, “I could get thrown off Chimney Rock.” I gave him the meanest look I could muster. “Sean Vader,” I seethed, “you put your hands on me in an ungentle-manly fashion this instant.” I must have looked like I was going to kill him or give myself an aneurism, because he quickly put his hands on either side of my bare waist, just above my bikini bottoms and Adam’s cutoff jeans.

With my fingertip I pressed his chin until he tilted his head down. I stood on my tiptoes and balanced my forehead against his, gazing into his pale blue eyes. Close-up, he appeared to have four eyes. This was neither sexy nor conducive to a productive discussion, but I figured it looked frightening to my dad.

“You know about my plan,” I said. “I’ve been dating boys who are worse than Adam so my dad will give in and let me date him again. You are the worst boy I can think of.” I closed my eyes and kissed the side of his mouth.

Sean breathed a little harder through his nose, which made me feel powerful. But then, infuriatingly, he said, “Adam and I made a pact. I’m not getting in his way by messing with you, and he’s not getting in my way by messing with Rachel.”

My stomach twisted. Adam and I made a pact too. But I was trying to save him from military school, which was more important than my promise to him.

“You’ve already screwed up everything with Rachel,” I reasoned. is might have hurt Sean’s feelings, but if he still carried a torch for her, he sure hadn’t done anything about it in the past three weeks. “And pact or no pact, Adam will thank you for this later. My dad will agree to let Adam and me date. en he can talk your parents out of sending Adam away, because I was the cause of all that trouble in the first place.” I kissed Sean’s cheek. is was the path Adam had taught me: corner of the mouth, then cheek. Next stop, ear.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Sean said, “Adam and I don’t do each other any favors.”

“Maybe you need to start,” I said. “After all, he wouldn’t be headed to military school if it weren’t for you.” I put my mouth on his ear.

“Me-he-he-he!” he exclaimed. Obviously he was caught off guard by the ear treatment. He gripped my waist harder, but he managed to croak, “You just admitted this was your fault.”

“It’s my fault Adam keeps getting in trouble for being with me,” I whispered in Sean’s ear. “It’s your fault that your parents thought he was so awful in the first place. If he’d suddenly started acting out, nobody would be talking about sending him away to school. But he’s been getting in trouble since I met him. You and I know about twenty-five percent of that is ADHD and the other seventy-five percent is you doing something and then blaming it on him—either just to get yourself out of trouble or specifically to screw up his life. I’ve known this all along, and I can’t believe I wanted to be with you until recently.” I kissed my way back to his cheek.

“I have issues,” he whispered back. “That makes me vulnerable. Chicks dig it.”

“If you say so. Shut up and kiss me.” Without waiting for his decision, I kissed Sean Vader full on the mouth.

Sean was a great kisser. It would be hard to compare him with Adam because they were totally different. Sean kissed as suavely as he talked, with an understated smoothness that left me wanting more. Adam’s kisses were much more intense. And that’s why, even though I cracked one eye open occasionally to get a delicious peek at Sean with his eyes closed, kissing me slowly, looking so much like Adam, I never forgot who I was kissing.

He slid his hands onto my butt. I froze at first. Adam’s brother’s hands were on my butt. But this was great for the plan that I had dragged Sean into. I had to remember I was doing this to save Adam from military school.

Still, I began to feel guilty, and I thought I’d better lighten the mood. “Am I good at this?” I joked against Sean’s lips. “Are you actually maybe a little turned on?”

“Until you started talking.”

“Good.” He wasn’t falling for me any more than I was falling for him. I licked my lips and prepared to move in again.

But I couldn’t lean forward. I stayed stuck where I was, staring into his light blue eyes that really weren’t all that much like Adam’s after all, now that I examined them up close.

“What’s the matter?” Sean asked.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”

“No.” I couldn’t see him, but his low voice sounded almost sympathetic. “What are the chances that your dad is watching us right now? Or that he would care in exactly the way you need him to care? Or that he has good enough vision to tell it’s me and not Adam?”