One Last Time

by Beth Reekles

  “You know,” he said with that suspicious, too-blasé tone that made it obvious he was ready to talk about something kind of serious, “I know this isn’t perfect because we’re selling the beach house, but I think this could be good for us. For me and you, I mean. Kind of like a…test ‘living together’ thing.”

  I stared at him as he refolded his shirt for the third time.

  “Living together…like a couple.”

  “Why not, huh? We got through long-distance last year, right? So this should be a breeze.”

  “A breeze,” I repeated. Long-distance hadn’t exactly been what I’d call a breeze. We’d broken up once. And it wasn’t like everything had been just peachy after that. It had been better, and good, but it hadn’t been easy.

  I didn’t see how living together could be any harder, though.

  And I couldn’t deny that my heart gave a little flutter at the idea.

  “You’d really wanna live with me? At Harvard?”

  “Well, I was thinking about it.” Noah sighed, finally looking at me. He was kind of shifty, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek. When we’d first gotten together, he’d been totally awful at any kind of emotional conversation, but he’d become more comfortable with it in the time I’d known him—and, more noticeably, since he’d gone to college. This, apparently, was not one of the conversations he was comfortable with. “Obviously you’ll be in freshman dorms this year, but maybe…you know, if we stuck around in the summer for internships or maybe in your sophomore year…just, you know. You’ll be at Harvard. I’ll be at Harvard. We’ve already been together over a year. It’s not like it’d be…I mean, there were kids in my class sophomore year of high school who got married after being together for a month.”

  “Have you been thinking about marrying me, Noah Flynn?” I teased, unable to help myself, reveling in the blush that colored his cheeks and feeling only a little bad about the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

  “It’s not like we’d be moving that quick. Unless you think we would. I…I just thought, you know, we could…save on rent.”

  “So your decision for us to maybe move in together next year is based on…financial acumen.”

  He met my gaze long enough to see me grinning at him, biting my tongue, and nodded gravely. “A hundred percent.”

  He tossed aside the pile of underwear he’d just grabbed out of his drawer to kneel on the bed, his body stretching toward me. His bright blue eyes crinkled slightly at the corners and I could see the dimple in his left cheek I thought was so goddamn adorable.

  “Elle Evans, I’m in love with you. And I would love to live with you in Boston next year.”

  A quiet hum escaped my lips and I leaned toward him, too. “Say that again.”

  “I’m in love with you.”

  “Yeah, you are.” I grabbed his face, pulling his lips toward mine. I could taste the coffee on them he’d been drinking when I arrived, and I kissed him deeper, my fingers threading through his hair.

  I leaned back and Noah moved with me, falling on top of me and just about catching his weight on one elbow, chuckling as his head shifted so he could kiss my neck.

  “I thought you said I had packing to do?” he murmured against my skin.

  I laughed, dragging his mouth back to mine. “Shut up.”

  * * *

  • • •

  “Don’t forget to pack these,” I said, grabbing the pair of Superman underwear from the pile Noah had dumped on the bed earlier and throwing them at him. He caught them deftly in one hand just before they hit him in the face.

  One day, I might stop finding it hilarious that badass Noah Flynn wore Superman undies, but that day wasn’t coming up anytime soon.

  “Okay, so I’m gonna run back home to pick up some bras and then come back here so we can leave on time. I swear. Hand on heart.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Hey, don’t forget this one.”

  He picked my bra up off the floor to toss at me.

  “Shoot. Thanks. And don’t you guys dare go without me.”

  “Elle, you’re driving. And Lee won’t have room because he’s picking up Rachel, so I couldn’t leave without you even if I wanted to.”

  He had a point, but we were still on a schedule—mainly enforced by Rachel. I gave him a brief kiss before hurrying home, where I shoved a handful of bras into my purse, relieved that my dad had taken Brad to a movie so I didn’t have to say goodbye again.

  Back at Lee and Noah’s, I found them packing up the cars. Noah was loading our bags into the trunk of my beat-up old Ford. I joined him there, moving my stash of bras from my purse to my suitcase and pointedly ignoring the way they raised their eyebrows at each other.

  “Told you she’d be late,” Lee said.

  “I’m not late,” I objected. “You guys are just early.”

  Lee’s phone pinged with a text and he waved his phone in our direction. “That’s Rachel, wondering if I’m on my way yet. You sure you’ve got everything this time, Shelly?”

  “Uh, pretty sure,” I said, going back through my mental checklist. Wait—did I pack conditioner?

  Lee must’ve known what I was doing, because he got quickly into his car and leaned out the window to say “We’ll see you guys there, yeah?”

  “See ya,” we both called.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Noah asked as we got into my car.

  “Oh, come on. I’m not that bad! And you just have to ignore that sputtering sound when I turn the engine on.” I patted the dash affectionately and started the car, not missing Noah’s uneasy grimace when the engine gave its trademark sputter.

  My car’s air-conditioning left a little something to be desired, so I rolled down the windows and put on my sunglasses, grinning at Noah. “Here’s to the start of the best summer ever.”

  Earlier this year, Lee and I had driven cross-country to Harvard for spring break. It had all gone by too quickly and it was a little rushed, but it had been a lot of fun. And right now, with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face and the radio blaring, it felt like I was back there, crossing off the thing on everyone’s bucket list and having the best damn time.

  And speaking of bucket lists…I really, really had to make it up to Lee this summer.

  I felt a pang of guilt that it was Noah here with me now, and it was starting to look like it was always going to be Noah over Lee. I couldn’t imagine how my life would be without Lee in it so much—and honestly, I’d kind of gotten used to Noah not being around every day.

  I was starting to think of all the ways Noah might start slotting into Lee’s place in my life once this summer was over. Movie nights, trips to the mall…entire weekends spent beating our own high score on a video game.

  Would it get to be too much?

  What if living together made it all too much, for both of us?

  What if we couldn’t even make it through this summer? Being away from each other had driven a wedge between Noah and me before Thanksgiving, to the point where I’d broken up with him. What was to say that being so on top of each other all the time wouldn’t do the exact same thing?

  Come on, Elle, you’re getting carried away. Chill out.

  I did my best to shake it off and looked at Noah again, admiring the sunshine highlighting his cheekbones, the stubble lining his jaw, the striking bright blue of his eyes. He caught me staring, and his lips stretched into a grin, flashing the dimple on his left cheek.

  “The best summer ever,” he repeated, picking up my hand to kiss it.

  Chapter Eleven

  It didn’t take us long to settle into the beach house, leaving pure chaos in our wake where just a couple of days before, we’d left everything so wonderfully neat and tidy.

  So much for clearing the place out, I thought wryly.

  After dum
ping our bags (and promptly wrecking the place), the four of us headed to the nearest Target.

  “Don’t you think this is a little too much food?” Rachel asked, inspecting the overflowing cart as we got to the checkout.

  “Have you seen these guys eat? Lee will eat that entire box of doughnuts in five minutes.”

  “Please,” Noah scoffed. “I could do it in four.”

  “Yeah?” Lee jabbed a finger in my direction. “Shelly could do it in three. That girl can eat. Rach, believe me, we’ll be back here in a couple of days having to do this all again.”

  It was probably a slight exaggeration. Maybe in, like, four days.

  Rachel placed herself in charge of putting away groceries. Lee was blowing up a pool raft outside—where she could keep an eye on him and stop him from digging into the snacks before she could even get them out of the grocery bags. Noah had set up some speakers, and a playlist began blasting through the entire house.

  Meanwhile, I had taken myself and my suitcase down the hallway, past the wall of photos, to…Noah’s room. Well, I guessed it was our room now. Lee and Rachel were taking his parents’ room, since ours only had two single beds in it. They’d get their own bathroom that way, too, we’d figured. It made sense.

  But it was still weird as hell to be unpacking my things into Noah’s room, not mine and Lee’s.

  When Noah came back into the bedroom, his task done, he looked at me strangely. His eyebrows began to knit together, and his lower lip stuck out like he was deciding whether to say something.

  “What?”

  “It’s just…that’s my side of the bed.”

  I looked back at the bedside cabinet I was filling up, frowning. “No, it’s not.”

  “Uh, yeah, it is.”

  I stepped back, scrutinizing the bed and comparing it to his back home. Huh. I guessed he was right. It was his side, but—

  “But I don’t like to sleep by the window.”

  His mouth worked like he was debating arguing over it, but he shrugged. “Sure.”

  “Well, I…I can move, if—”

  “No, no, it’s cool. You take that side.”

  “You sure?”

  He’d better be sure.

  “Yeah.” He smiled at me. “Definitely.”

  He didn’t sound very definite, but I had my win, and I was going to take it. I had to compromise when Noah took almost every hanger in the closet and almost all the space, though, so it felt fair in the long run.

  Even if he did huff and give me a look when I took the top drawer in the dresser. And even when he took up, like, all the bathroom space.

  But that was what relationships were about, wasn’t it? Compromise. It wasn’t about being selfish. And we’d have to figure it out if we were going to live together over the summer in Boston, like Noah had suggested—and like I maybe wanted to.

  Since we’d all skipped lunch, we made dinner early. Lee and I took charge and made tacos—although, admittedly, it was mostly Lee doing the cooking, while I chopped up vegetables and salad and laid the table outside.

  We were just sitting down to dinner when Noah disappeared back into the house, before reappearing with four cups and a bottle of champagne—which the rest of us greeted with a loud chorus of cheers.

  “I swiped it from Mom and Dad,” he explained, undoing the metal twist around the cork. “They had, like, a dozen. They won’t miss it.”

  He readjusted his hold on the bottle to remove the cork.

  Pop!

  Excitement danced through me, like the bubbles in the champagne Noah was pouring into glasses for us. He set the bottle down and raised his glass in a toast.

  “Here’s to the summer!”

  “Our last and best summer at the beach house!” Lee concurred, and the four of us cheered and whooped and clinked our glasses together.

  We sat down to dinner, sipping champagne. I wasn’t entirely sure I was really a fan of it, and Lee said he’d prefer a beer, if he was being totally honest, which I was relieved to hear.

  Rachel laughed. “Well if you guys won’t drink it, I will.”

  “Might want to save some for later,” Noah said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Well, just as a heads-up…Lee and I might have told a few people to stop by tonight. Kind of a…housewarming thing.”

  I narrowed my eyes, looking between the two Flynn brothers, who had wide eyes and big, innocent smiles plastered on their faces. Rachel gave me an uneasy glance.

  “How few are we talking?” I asked.

  Lee sipped his champagne again, pulling a face as he swallowed it, and waved me off. “Just an intimate gathering…”

  * * *

  • • •

  Lee and Noah’s “intimate gathering” quickly showed itself to be a full-fledged Flynn brothers party.

  They’d thrown a few truly epic parties at their house the last couple of years. Noah was usually the mastermind behind it all, and even though he’d been too cool to hang out with us at school, he had always let us tag along and invite a bunch of our own friends. Their house was so big, it was the perfect place to throw parties.

  But the beach house was always cozy, intimate.

  Which, I guessed it was right now, too. The seven people crammed onto a single couch was pretty cozy. The butt that brushed against mine as someone scooted by was pretty intimate.

  Music pumped through the house like a heartbeat. People had brought cases of beer, bottles of vodka and soda for a mixer, and sparkling cider for the designated drivers. People squashed into the lounge, the kitchen, the rumpus room. They spilled outside. A group of girls sat with their legs dangling in the pool. A couple of guys had stripped down to their boxers to jump in. I watched now as they splashed at the girls, who shrieked, giggling.

  Rachel had started to stress out, so I had given her my second glass of champagne. She’d polished off the rest of the bottle by now and had moved on to a can of beer. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair a little frizzy, and she looked like she was having a great time.

  Lee was in the rumpus room—I could hear him yelling over a raucous game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Noah was in the lounge catching up with some of his old football buddies. He caught my eye, winked, and shot me a smile. My heart skipped a beat as I smiled back at him.

  Despite us being at the beach house, it felt just like old times. Noah had rounded up a bunch of people from his classes, who were back home for the summer, and he and Lee had forwarded the invite to a bunch of our friends, too. I spotted Ethan Jenkins and Kaitlin from school council, and Tyrone, who’d been head of school council and graduated a year before us. Rachel’s drama club friends were here somewhere.

  The doorbell rang, and I flitted from mopping up a spilled beer by the couch to the front door, wondering which idiot had flipped the latch so it locked.

  Olivia and Faith, girls from my class, were on the other side of the door. They squealed and jumped to throw their arms around me—something that took me totally by surprise, considering we’d always been friendly but never, like, best friends or anything.

  “Girl! We’ve missed you!”

  “You saw me, like, days ago at graduation.”

  Olivia giggled, hiccupping, and I realized they were already a little tipsy—which probably explained the hugging.

  Faith, meanwhile, was looking around with wide eyes and saying, “Oh my God, Elle, this place is…it’s so…quaint?”

  “Cozy,” Olivia supplied.

  Faith nodded. “Totally charming. But you guys have it all to yourselves! That’s so killer.”

  “Yo, Liv, you want your shoes back or what?”

  The three of us looked to see Jon Fletcher, a guy from the football team, climbing up the porch. He had someone with him I didn’t recognize. He waved a pair of bright pink sandals wi
th cork wedges from the end of his finger, a case of beer tucked under his other arm.

  “Ooh! Oh yeah!” Olivia turned to take them off him, throwing herself onto the creaking porch bench to pull them back on. “They’re cute as hell, but my God are they impossible to walk in,” she told me, teetering as she got up and almost falling into Faith with another giggle.

  “Hey, Elle.” His hand now free, Jon greeted me with a high five and a grin. He glanced past me, raising his hand in a wave. “Lee! Hey, man!”

  “Fletcher!” Lee yelled back. He slung his arm around my shoulders, and a little beer sloshed out of his open can. “Good to see you.”

  “Oh, hey, this”—Jon stepped back, nodding at the guy beside him—“this is our new buddy, Ashton. Hope you don’t mind we brought him along.”

  “This place is packed,” I said, smiling at the new guy. “What’s one more?”

  There was something weird about Ashton, though, and I couldn’t put my finger on it until the four of them came inside and he ended up standing next to Lee.

  They looked freakishly alike. Although, where Lee was dark-haired, Ashton was a sandy blond. He was skinnier, too.

  He was wearing jeans, a green hoodie, and a Berkeley cap.

  Which Lee had just noticed, too. He pointed at it and said, “Good to meet you, buddy. I’m Lee. So, you a Berkeley guy?”

  “Just finished my freshman year,” Ashton told him with a wide grin and bright eyes.

  There was an uncanny resemblance when they smiled like that. They had the same kind of zeal in their expression.

  “Dude! No way!” Lee exclaimed, grabbing his shoulder. “I start in the fall. I have, like, a million questions.”

  Immediately, I got a pang somewhere in my chest. Something horribly like jealousy. My own welcoming smile stiffened into a grimace.

  Ashton laughed, oblivious to my reaction. “Fire away.”

  “C’mon, we’ll get you a beer.” Lee drew him to the kitchen and I stood there, stomach sinking, feeling forgotten. Just a little bit.