“Hmm. Can you do a Spanish accent?”
Worse and worse. “I guess. You want me to be from Mexico?”
“No. I’ve never been. But I went to Spain last summer. We could say I met you there, and you’re in the U.S. on vacation with your parents or something.” She lifted a finger. “This is good. Wait. Your parents wanted to go on one of those historical tours through Texas, and you didn’t. So you came with me to the mountains.” Her smile practically caused light beams to flash around inside the plane.
I laughed. “How convenient for me.”
“Yeah, and we’ve been messaging all year and are great friends.”
“But your parents already know me, and they were with you in Spain. What if they call to talk to your aunt and uncle?”
Kenzie downed her juice. “They won’t. They’re too busy with work.”
“But they might.”
She clutched my arm again. “This is gonna be so fun. I thought we were just going to sit around while Geoff’s friends hit on us, but this is much better. It has intrigue!”
Yay, the perfect distraction. “Guys are going to be hitting on us?”
“You’ll love doing this. It’s really exciting to pretend to be someone else. Well, scary and exciting. I am so pumped.”
I stared at the blue material of the seat in front of me. What had I gotten myself into? “Kenzie, I can’t do this. You know I can’t. Give me something else.”
“Yes, you can. Look at it this way—it’ll help you decide whether you really want to be an actress or not. And if you make it the whole week without anybody figuring out you’re not from Spain, I’ll help you get a good part this semester. Mr. Cavazos trusts me.”
“But what if it just proves I’m a crummy actress?”
“Then I won’t get you a part.”
“Kenzie.”
She raised both eyebrows. “You wanted a challenge, right? This is a great one.”
“No one’s going to believe I’m from Spain.”
“You don’t know because you’ve never tried. People usually believe whatever they’re told. Especially at first. All you have to do is reinforce their opinions.”
I shut my eyes. Could I do this? Did I even want to do this? Of course not. But I had asked for a challenge. And no matter what Kenzie said, I was not a quitter. At least, I didn’t think I was. And if pretending to be Spanish could shut Kenzie up about the whole issue, that would be a plus.
“I’ll help you,” Kenzie sang in a quiet voice. “We’re the dynamic duo, remember?”
I glared at her.
“Really,” she said. “I’ll help you do the whole thing. You’re my Spanish friend, after all. It’s not like I’m saying, ‘Here’s the rest of my family. Go be Spanish.’ They’ll believe our story. They have no reason not to.”
I let out a long exhale. This idea had disaster written all over it. But deep down inside, excitement sparked. Could I do it? Not just to prove it to Kenzie, but to prove it to myself? I clutched the arms of my seat. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Kenzie’s hazel eyes burned into me. “And you won’t quit until the week is over?”
I shook my head.
“Say it.”
“Come on.” I busied myself wiping peanut crumbs off the tray table and then folding it up into place.
“No, I mean it. You need to say it out loud.”
“I won’t quit until it’s over,” I said, my words coming out in a rush.
“Until the week is over.”
“Don’t be so anal.”
Kenzie pursed her lips, clearly waiting for me to say exactly what she wanted. Whatever. “I won’t quit until the week is over.”
“Good,” Kenzie said. “Oh, one more thing.” She held her empty cup out to the flight attendant. I handed mine over too. “I forgot to warn you that my aunt and uncle are kind of … eccentric.”
“Like how?”
She put her tray table away and then ran her hands across her jeans. “Well, they’re both lawyers, so when they go on vacation, they like to forget all of that.”
“That sounds normal.”
“Yeah, but it’s almost like they’re living in the 1970s or something. They like us all to do stuff together, to set aside our phones, to play games and not watch TV.”
Fantastic. “No phones? Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“We can use our phones, just not a lot. Besides, since you’re a foreigner now, using your phone would be really expensive. Unless, of course, your parents got a U.S. data plan, but I don’t think we need that much detail for your new identity.”
How did she know these things? The excitement inside turned into a sludge of dread. “What have you gotten me into?”
Kenzie laughed. “It’ll be fun. You’ll see. Besides, all you need to do is go along with everything. I mean, that’s what I’d do if I were from a foreign country and had to hang out with a bunch of Americans all week.”
“I have a feeling I’m gonna want to kill you before this is all over.”
Kenzie wore her usual confident expression. “I’m sure of it.”
“That makes me feel oh so much better.”
She nudged me. “It’ll be the best vacation ever,” she sang quietly.
Right. Full of lies and deception. I searched in my backpack until I found the Mentos. “Have one. I think we’re going to need it.”
She took the candy and raised one eyebrow. “Whatever works.”
Yes, whatever worked. I needed all the help I could get.
Noah
I bent over and rested my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. I sounded like some geezer who’d smoked all his life.
Geoff dribbled past and went in for a layup. “C’mon, Noah, what’s wrong with you? It’s not even hot today. Coach would so be in your face if he saw you like this.”
I straightened, resting my hands on my hips. I almost had my breath back. “Must be the altitude.”
“Ha, right.” He passed the ball to me. “You’re just being a wuss.”
I threw the ball back to Geoff as hard as I could. “Hey. We’re in the mountains. I’ve never been to New Mexico before. You come here every summer.”
Geoff dribbled, then tossed up a lazy shot. It banged off the rim and he chased it down. “More often than that. My parents love coming up here. I guess I’m used to it.”
“Wish I was,” I muttered under my breath.
“What?” Geoff shot again, and this time the ball swooshed through the net.
I grabbed my water bottle and drank. “If you find me dead in your room, you’ll know why.”
Geoff laughed. “You’ll adjust. Maybe we should give it a couple more days before we play again.”
“Sounds good.” I wiped the sweat from my face with the hem of my T-shirt. “Can we get some food?”
“Sure—” The rumble of tires across gravel sounded in the distance. Geoff grinned. “Hope that’s my cousin. She always brings the hottest friends. C’mon.” He dropped the basketball in a storage bin, shut the lid, and headed around the side of the house.
I followed. “Geez, man. Molly’s right upstairs.”
Geoff smirked over his shoulder. “I can look, can’t I?”
I caught up with him and rubbed my nose at our combined stink. “We smell foul. Shouldn’t we shower before meeting hot girls?”
“My cousin Kenzie isn’t hot … well, she’s okay looking, but she’s seriously awesome. You’ll like her. And there’s no way I’m wasting all this sweat. She’s getting hugged.”
“Bet she’ll love that.”
“Oh, yeah she will.” He laughed and ran his hands through his sweat-streaked light brown hair. “Just watch.”
I chuckled. Geoff was always doing crap like that, and it was one of the reasons we were friends. “What kind of name is Kenzie?”
“It’s really Mackenzie, but we’ve called her Kenzie for as long as I can remember.” At the corner of the house, Geoff pulled up short.
“Let me take a look first. If it’s not her, we can head back inside and hit the shower.” He peeked around. “Nice,” he whispered. “Very nice.”
I dragged him out of the way. “Let me see.” A tall, blond girl stood at the rear of the SUV talking with Geoff’s mom while a girl with dark hair struggled to pull out a suitcase. Really nice view of tight jeans. She finally got the case out, said something to the others, and moved out of the way. Then she turned around and stared up at the two-story vacation house.
And my breakfast—or what was left of it—almost made a return appearance.
It was Gabrielle. I’d recognize those dark brown curls anywhere. Gabby, who’d spent practically every waking minute with me at drama camp last summer. Who’d kissed like she wanted to be with me forever. And who dumped me as soon as the three weeks were over.
She hadn’t responded to calls or texts. She’d disappeared from social media. She’d yanked my heart out and stomped on it. In fact, I’d only recently started to date again. If it hadn’t been for basketball and getting to know Geoff better, I might still be sitting around like a complete tool doing nothing. Alone.
“Maybe we should go shower after all,” I said, my voice kind of squeaky.
Geoff frowned at me. “Are you nuts? Kenzie is getting a sweaty hug and I’m meeting that chick.”
“But Molly—”
“Is my girlfriend and I’m not ditching her. I just want to meet Kenzie’s friend. We’re going to be spending the whole week together after all.” He headed toward the girls.
A whole week. Crap. I immediately wanted to make up some excuse and fly home as soon as possible. My parents wouldn’t care one way or another. Geoff stood talking to Gabby, his hands on his hips and a huge grin on his face. I had to move, to go over there, but my feet felt like lead. I lifted one then the other. Yup. Just my regular feet. All I had to do was walk. If I didn’t go over there soon, I was going to look like a worse tool than I already felt.
I took one heavy step forward. Abruptly, Geoff ran over and grabbed up his cousin, who squealed in surprise, then yelled, “Put me down, you jerk!”
The others laughed and I took two more steps. This was the perfect time. Everyone was focused on Geoff and his cousin. What was it I’d learned at that drama camp? If you don’t know what your character would think or do, just fake it. I took a deep breath and let it out. Time to walk on stage like I owned it. I strolled forward, fighting the tightness in my chest and the pain in my gut. I stopped, just outside the small group.
Geoff’s mom noticed me. “Oh, here’s Noah.”
The other three turned my way. I could’ve sworn a tiny gasp came out of Gabby but I wasn’t sure. Geoff set his cousin down, and she slugged him in the shoulder. He just laughed. “Kenzie, Gabriela,” he said, “this is Noah. He’s on the basketball team with me.”
Gabriela?
Geoff’s cousin stepped closer, practically crowding me. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “Sorry you have to be friends with this idiot.” She motioned with her head toward Geoff.
“Nice to meet you, too.” I stared hard at her, determined not to look at Gabby yet. Everything about Geoff’s cousin screamed strength—her face, her arms, the way she moved—and she was almost as tall as me. She was like one of those Nordic goddesses—not beautiful, but fierce. Though when she smiled, her hazel eyes lit up, and she became really good-looking.
She maneuvered me toward Gabby. “This is my friend, Gabriela. We met when I was in Spain last summer. She’s staying with us while her parents travel around this week.”
Spain? What the hell?
Gabby gave me a polite smile. “Very good to meet you.”
She said it slowly, as though she couldn’t speak English well. There was a light Spanish accent going on too. I couldn’t believe it. She actually stood there, looking over my right shoulder, pretending she didn’t know me. But then she made eye contact. Was that begging? Panic? Was she asking me to go along with it? I heard myself saying, “You too,” before I’d even figured out what to say.
“Let’s get some lunch,” Geoff’s mom said. “You boys make yourselves useful and take the girls’ suitcases to the guest room.”
“Yes, my servant,” Kenzie said, and then pushed Geoff. “Get moving!”
“You’ll pay for that one,” he said, but grabbed a flowery bag and some weird-patterned orange bag. “Noah, little help here.”
“Uh, sure.” Suitcases. Focus on suitcases. Not on how much you want to grab Gabby and shake some answers out of her.
At the front door, Mrs. Bryson looked over her shoulder. “And take showers before we see you in the kitchen.” Kenzie laughed, but Gabby made no sound. They walked into the house without looking back.
Geoff banged the tailgate shut, then grabbed the orange bag again. “Can you believe it? She’s from Spain. That makes her even hotter.”
She’s not from Spain. She’s from Texas. Austin, Texas. Unless she’d moved. And there was no way I’d know. Should I tell Geoff the truth? My mind felt like half-cooked batter stuck in a waffle iron. Everything had happened so fast, and my temples throbbed.
I picked up the last black roller bag and followed Geoff into the house. I needed time to get my crap together. Female laughter sounded from the kitchen.
We headed up the stairs. “You take the first shower, only make it quick,” Geoff said.
“Okay.” A shower. That would help. Give me time to decide what to do. Because there was only one thing I knew for sure.
Gabby Vega was still beautiful.
Gabby
“Wow,” Kenzie said. “Where did Geoff find Noah? He’s a—”
“Cutie!” her aunt said, and they both laughed. “They’ve been hanging out for months.”
Kenzie leaned her elbows against the kitchen counter. “Good. So far he’s an improvement on most of the guys Geoff brings.”
Her aunt chuckled. “We like him. And poor Amanda has a huge crush on him.”
“Uh-oh,” Kenzie said. “How’s that going?”
“Noah manages to be sweet without encouraging her.” She took a container out of the fridge. “I’ll just reheat this brisket on the stove. Kenz, can you get the wheat rolls out of the pantry?”
“Sure.” She opened the door to a huge walk-in pantry.
I followed her in. If I didn’t talk to Kenzie quick, I was going to break down into a puddle on the tiled kitchen floor. Noah. It was Noah. Of all the guys in the world, why did it have to be him? My heart almost leaped out of my chest when I saw him. Taller, leaner, but more muscled. His eyes were still the sky blue of a warm, sunny day, and the confusion in them sliced through me. Everything about last summer came crashing back—Noah playing guitar, Noah laughing at my jokes, Noah kissing me. A lot.
And then the end.
I’d had to let him go. Even though it cost months of grief. We didn’t live in the same town. There was no way we could’ve kept up a long-distance relationship. He would’ve gotten interested in someone at his own school, the messages and phone calls would’ve dropped off, and he would’ve ended it. That’s the way these things always went. And I just couldn’t bear the thought of slowly leaking pain.
So I’d dumped him. A quick release was always better.
Yeah? Then why had seeing him made me want to jump into his arms, even with his sweaty T-shirt clinging to his abs?
This whole Spanish-girl thing wasn’t going to work. He’d tell everybody. I knew he would.
Kenzie turned away from the shelf she’d been scanning and starting searching another. “I don’t see them, Aunt Jenny,” she called.
“On the left,” her aunt yelled. “Second shelf from the top.”
“Got it.” Kenzie grabbed the bag of rolls. “Hey, Gabs.” She waved a hand in front of my face. “We can leave the pantry now.”
“I need to talk to you.”
She frowned. “What’s wrong? You’ve done great so far.”
“Privately,” I whispered.
“Okay. Come on.”
I backed out of the pantry so Kenzie could deliver the rolls. I couldn’t even focus on what she was saying to her aunt. Noah was there. I could not spend a whole week with him.
Kenzie pulled me by the elbow, and we left the kitchen. Up the stairs, and down a hall. “We’re lucky this year. They’ve given us the guest suite with its private bathroom. Not sure why. I thought for sure we’d be rooming with Geoff’s girlfriend Molly, but they have her in with the younger girls. Maybe it’s because you’re from Spain, but of course, they didn’t know that so …” She smiled, but with one look at me, she sobered.
We entered a bright corner room with windows on two sides and twin beds. It was pretty, but I couldn’t really take it all in.
“Sit down,” Kenzie said, taking the backpack from my shoulder. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve lost your best friend, and I’m still right here, so talk.”
I sat on one of the beds and slid my hands under my thighs. “Remember last fall when I was getting over the guy from drama camp?”
“Yeah?”
“That’s him. Noah Jernigan.”
Kenzie’s mouth fell open. “No way.”
I nodded.
“But, how could—? I mean, I thought he lived far away from Austin, like San Diego or something.”
“No, San Antonio.”
Kenzie was shaking her head. “And he goes to Geoff’s school. What are the odds?”
“I don’t know. But I can’t stay here. This is a nightmare.”
“No, you have to stay. That would be quitting. You wanted a challenge, didn’t you?”
“This is more than a challenge. I have no idea what he’s going to do. He knows me, Kenz. He can tell everyone who I am.”
She plopped onto the opposite bed. “But you don’t know that for sure. I mean, he went along with it outside, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, but it was so sudden. After he thinks about it, he’ll probably want to stand on the table and announce it to everybody.”
Kenzie laughed. “Still. He didn’t give you away, and he could’ve.” She got up and walked to the window. After staring out for a second, she turned back. “I say wait it out. See what he’s going to do. He might be really cool about it.”
About Last Summer Page 2
