One Last Time

by Beth Reekles

  “Okay!” I grinned at them both, knowing my eyes told a different story—one that said, Screw you both, I don’t have time for this. “Well, you guys are drunk and clearly don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’ve got a missing boyfriend to track down and talk some sense into.”

  “No, stay! Watch home movies with us! Um…” Rachel looked at the bottle of wine, which wasn’t far from being empty. “I guess you can have what’s left of the wine.”

  “But no chocolates,” Amanda decided.

  “I’m good, thanks. I’d really better go find Noah.”

  “Good luck,” they both called to me. I stopped by my room to grab a jacket, then passed Lee on his way back from the kitchen, already digging into a heaping plate of macaroni and cheese.

  “I’m gonna go look for Noah.”

  “You sure you don’t wanna stay and hang out? He’ll probably come crawling home soon.”

  I shook my head, fidgeting with the jacket I was holding. “Nah, I…I’d rather just clear the air, you know?”

  “Any idea where he is?”

  I shook my head. “I figured I’d go check down on the beach, then—”

  As I said it, we both turned at the noise of Noah’s motorcycle engine growling outside. The sound cut a moment later.

  “Mystery solved,” Lee muttered. He shoved some more pasta into his mouth, set the fork down on the plate to pat my shoulder, and then carried on to the rumpus room. I braced myself as I went in the opposite direction, opening the front door to find Noah stopped halfway up the porch, fiddling with his keys and scowling at the floor, his lips moving silently—like he was giving himself a pep talk.

  He glanced up, looking surprised to see me. “Oh.”

  “Expecting someone else?”

  “I…figured you’d still be mad at me.”

  I shrugged. Maybe I still was, just a bit. Enough that I wasn’t going to forgive him too quickly.

  Noah sighed heavily. His hair fell into his eyes, such a bright blue that they were striking even through the dark. He was wearing the T-shirt I’d seen him in earlier and his usual leather jacket. “Can we go for a walk?”

  I nodded, pulling on my jacket and closing the door behind me. Noah offered his hand, and for a minute I considered not taking it and walking ahead of him, just to make a point, but…

  My hand slipped into his, fitting so well. Our fingers slotted together like this was exactly where they belonged. I got a waft of that citrus scent I would forever associate with Noah. It was comforting, even if we were technically still having an argument.

  This far out, it was a private stretch of beach, for residents only. We both took our shoes and socks off, leaving them behind as we walked down to the shore, the sea washing over our ankles.

  “It’s so quiet. I’ve never seen it this quiet.”

  I felt Noah shrug beside me. “Like my mom said, the land’s valuable. People have been selling up, I guess.”

  We kept walking in silence. There were a thousand things I could say to him, and wanted to say, but I knew Noah had something on his mind, something he wanted to say. He was unnervingly quiet and I could see the tension in his shoulders. His breathing was a little too measured: slow and even, in for three, out for three, in for three…

  Besides. This whole stupid fight was his fault. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of forgiving him before he apologized.

  Eventually, Noah came to a stop, stepping in front of me and turning to face me. “I’m sorry. I know it looked like I was being a dick earlier, and…and I know I probably was,” he added in a huff, “but I really didn’t mean to ruin race day for you. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not mad you ruined race day,” I told him.

  “Yeah, I know.” His mouth twitched humorlessly. “I’m sorry about that, too, though. It wasn’t just my fault, you know. He was getting pretty rough on the track, too. Which…yeah,” he added, seeing me raise my eyebrows, “isn’t an excuse. I’m just saying, it’s not all my fault. But you were right. I should’ve been the bigger person and…and…and just shaken his hand.”

  “And you think maybe you should’ve not made a bitchy comment about me always going running to Levi?”

  Noah took my other hand in his, looking down at our hands and nodding. “Yeah.”

  “I know you thought I broke up with you to be with Levi last fall, but that’s not what this is about. It’s not like he’s my backup plan for you. He’s my friend. And that’s all there is.”

  “For you.”

  “Oh, Jesus, Noah.” I started to draw back, but Noah held me fast, one of his hands letting go of mine to cup my face instead. I pushed it away. “Okay, fine. Look. Just…for argument’s sake, okay, let’s just say that you were right, and Levi does have a crush on me still. Just say. I don’t feel that way about him. And Levi knows that. He knows I’m in love with you. And he’s not the kind of guy who’s going to make a move on me as long as we’re together. I’m not saying you have to like him, but…I’m not going to stop being friends with him.”

  “I’m not asking you to do that.”

  “You say you trust me, Noah. We had whole fights about trusting each other last year and I can’t do that again. So right now, I…I need you to trust Levi.”

  He scowled. “I hardly know the guy, Elle.”

  “Then be civil to him,” I tried. I reminded myself that if I were in his shoes, I’d probably be finding it hard to trust a relative stranger, too. It was easy for me to say he could trust Levi, but another thing for Noah to know that for himself.

  “I’ll try,” he promised me. “And I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, you’d better be. You big lug.” I pushed gently at his chest and he caught my hand, using it to pull me into his arms. His lips ghosted over my temple, down my cheek, along my jaw, and down to the crook of my neck. He pressed a kiss there and held me tight to him. I wrapped my arms around him in return, fingers reaching up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. Noah sighed into me.

  I loved him so much it hurt sometimes. I’d found it really tough, being away from him this last year. Living together so far this summer hadn’t exactly been a picnic twenty-four seven, but it wasn’t as hard as being apart. I knew how wonderful it would be to be at Harvard with him next year.

  But sometimes, like today, being in a relationship was tough.

  It all felt worth it, though, to be in his arms like this.

  “I love you,” I murmured into his shoulder. “But you make it real hard sometimes, Noah.”

  “Don’t ever let me forget it, huh?”

  “Cross my heart. Where did you end up all day anyway?”

  “You know that place I took you on your birthday last year? The hill, where we went to see the fireworks? I just needed some space.”

  Ah. That made sense. I should’ve thought of it earlier.

  “I’m glad you came home,” I told him.

  He pressed another kiss to my neck and I held him tighter. The waves broke quietly around our feet and the rest of the world was silent but for our breathing. Maybe we weren’t perfect, but for now, it was all I needed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I worked the breakfast shift the next day, and the lunch one. I’d have done the dinner shift, too, but I had to pick Brad up from camp. It was an exhausting day: I’d dropped an entire ice-cream sundae, some woman screamed at me for getting her Diet Coke instead of regular, even though I was sure she’d ordered diet. And right now, I was a mere twenty-five minutes away from finishing my shift when a crowd of rowdy college-aged guys poured into the diner. Most of them had damp hair and sand stuck to them. I spotted a truck outside with a couple of surfboards in the bed.

  “You want me to take them?” Melvin asked, seeing me roll my eyes. I had to hand it to him—he had a lot of guts to even offer. With hi
s round glasses and head of springy curls and soft face and braces, they’d eat him alive. And despite the nervous glance he cast their way, he puffed out his chest, ready to jump in on my behalf.

  I shook my head. “It’s okay, I’ve got this.”

  Marching over to the table, a fresh jug of water clutched in my hands, I plastered on a smile. “Hi. My name’s Elle and I’ll be your server this afternoon. Can I start you guys off with some water?”

  They barely paid me any attention, too wrapped up in a heated debate about who’d had the best day out on the waves. One guy grunted and waved absently at me, not even looking over. “Sure, sweetheart.”

  Wow, what a charmer.

  I poured their water and cleared my throat. “So, the soup of the day is leek and potato. Our specials are lobster rolls with avocado, which I’d highly recommend, and a chickpea-and-halloumi burger with—”

  “How about dessert?” one of the guys asked, turning to me with a cocky grin.

  “Uh…sure. The dessert special today is a hot fudge sundae with cherries or banana sorbet.”

  “What about you?” the first guy asked. “Are you on the menu, sweetheart?”

  I gave him a flat smile. “Sadly, we’re all out of single waitresses, and it looks like you’re all out of pickup lines.”

  A couple of the guys laughed at their buddy, but he was persistent. “Aw, come on. How about you give me your number, baby?”

  “How about I get my manager to throw you guys out?” I offered, batting my eyelashes.

  “Quit it, dude,” the guy in the corner muttered, shoving his friend’s arm. “I’m starving.”

  “I’ll give you a minute to check out the menus and then be back to take your order.”

  “I know what I’m checking out,” one of them said as I turned around, and a hand pinched my butt.

  I whirled around, upending the water pitcher.

  “Ohh, I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” I told him in a sickly sweet voice. Grabby guy was drenched, and his friends were trying and failing to stifle their laughter as he gasped, sputtering and wiping his face.

  “Bitch,” he snapped at me.

  “Guilty as charged!” I told him in a gleeful tone. “Now please leave, before I ask our chef to come out here and make you leave. He’s a real pro with a meat tenderizer.”

  Grumbling, the group clambered out of the booth. The guy who’d asked if I was on the menu mumbled an unenthusiastic sorry at me, and another one shoved the grabby guy, telling him, “You’re such an asshole. That lobster roll sounded so good.”

  I gave them a bright smile, following them to the door and waving. “Don’t come back soon!”

  Turning around, I spotted May gathering up an order from the kitchen. She arched a penciled eyebrow at me and I winced.

  “Sorry. I’ll clean it up now.”

  “You handled those douche-bros like a pro,” she told me instead. “And go on, get out of here. Haven’t you got a little brother to pick up? Melvin—paper towels in section five, please!”

  I ducked into the back to grab my backpack. I didn’t bother to change out of my uniform, deciding I could do that once I was back at home. And it was just as well May let me clock out a couple of minutes early and I didn’t waste time changing my clothes, since I drove straight into traffic. The freeway was down to one lane and I crawled along, grumbling under my breath, watching the time slip past on the clock on the dash.

  By the time I got to the field where Brad’s baseball camp was taking place, there were only a few stragglers hanging around. The parking lot was mostly empty. Two moms were standing outside their cars smoking while their kids played catch. I jumped out of the car, searching through the kids still hanging around, but saw no sign of Brad.

  Fear curling like a fist around my heart, I ran to the squat brick building off the field. There was a mess hall being cleaned up, where a couple of the coaches sat talking over some papers without even sparing me a glance, but no Brad.

  Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

  Okay, Elle. No need to panic. This is fine.

  My legs shook as I returned to my car, fumbling with my cell phone to dial Dad. It rang twice before I was sent to voice mail and I hung up.

  A text buzzed through only seconds later.

  In a meeting. What’s up?

  Shit. If Dad hadn’t picked him up…

  No, I didn’t need to panic yet. I ignored my dad’s text and jammed the keys into the ignition. I stalled the car twice before managing to pull out of the parking lot. Maybe Brad had just gotten a ride home with a buddy. Maybe one of the parents picking their kids up from camp had seen him waiting around and taken him back home.

  My fear only grew the closer I got to the house, though, because Brad never disappeared like this. And sure, maybe he was old enough to look after himself by now, but he was still just a kid. He was my little brother. He was my responsibility. I was supposed to take care of him. And if he’d gone missing…

  I parked the car haphazardly, throwing myself out of it and at our front door. It gave way, not even locked, and my blood froze before—

  “Oh, thank God!” I panted, snatching Brad up into a hug from his seat at the kitchen counter, where he was shoveling hot nachos into his mouth. He smelled sweaty and like grass and I buried my nose in his hair. “Thank God! I couldn’t find you anywhere. Did one of the moms give you a ride home? You know you’re supposed to wait for me, or call me if something like that happens. Do you have any idea how scared I was?”

  “I’m right here,” he said, shrugging me off with a huff and looking at me with total confusion. “What are you doing here?”

  “What am I— I was supposed to pick you up! What do you mean, what am I doing here?”

  “Oh!”

  I spun around to see a total stranger standing in the doorway. The woman wore a black sleeveless blouse and blue pencil skirt and sparkly blue stud earrings. Her shoulder-length dark hair bounced into curls at the ends, not a flyaway in sight. She looked like she’d come straight out of an office somewhere.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out who this stranger was.

  “Elle!” she exclaimed, a broad smile stretching over her face. “We weren’t expecting you!”

  I scoffed. Was she serious?

  “You weren’t expecting me?” I repeated. “Oh, I’m so sorry for coming here to my house. And who the hell are you?”

  I knew exactly who she was, but the whole “we weren’t expecting you” thing was so goddamn rich I didn’t even try to hide my indignation.

  She gave a light laugh. “Of course, silly me. I’ve just heard so much about you, I feel like I already know you! I’m Linda. I’m your dad’s—”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I kind of didn’t want her to finish that sentence.

  “What I don’t know,” I went on, “is what you’re doing here.”

  “She picked me up from camp,” Brad said, like it was obvious—which, now that he was pointing it out, I guessed it was. But the why wasn’t so obvious.

  I scowled at him. “No. I was meant to pick you up from camp.”

  “You’ve just been so busy lately,” Linda said kindly, and oh my God, if she didn’t stop pottering around the kitchen like that, I was going to scream. “Your dad keeps talking about how much you’ve got on your plate right now, so I offered to help out and pick up Brad from camp a couple of days. Didn’t he tell you?”

  I thought about the string of messages Dad had sent me yesterday that I’d been too preoccupied to look at and said nothing.

  “Speaking of having a lot on your plate, can I fix you one?”

  “What?”

  “Nachos,” she explained, gesturing at Brad’s plate. “Do you want some?”

  “No, Linda. I don’t want nachos.”

  She
shrugged and carried on cleaning up, running water at the sink.

  “I can do the dishes,” I told her.

  “It’s no trouble. Besides, I made the mess! I’m so sorry for the confusion about pickup today for Brad. We really didn’t mean to worry you.”

  We. No, there was no “we.” The only “we” was me, Brad, and our dad. Not one that included this…this…his…whatever the hell she was.

  “I’ve been managing just fine without your help, Linda.”

  “Well, I…I know that, Elle.” She turned from rinsing dishes to give me an awkward-looking smile.

  Good, I thought bitterly. She should be uncomfortable. This was my house, not hers. She was the intruder here, not me. “Your dad’s always saying how much you take on and what a good job you’re doing of it all, but since I could be around to help out…We thought it’d give you more time to hang out with your friends. Work through that bucket list I’ve heard so much about! Brad was showing me the race-day videos—how amazing! You and Lee must have such wild imaginations to come up with something like that. And all that money you raised for charity!”

  What do you know about the bucket list? Don’t talk about me and my best friend like you know anything about us. I don’t need you to help out. You’re not doing me any favors.

  But I bit my tongue, swallowing every mean retort back down.

  Brad looked at me with awe in his eyes. “I wish I could’ve been there to see it, Elle. Levi and Noah really went for it! And when Lee got slimed!” He burst into laughter.

  I softened a little. “Wish you could’ve been there to see it, too, buddy.”

  (Dad and I had quickly made the decision that Brad absolutely should not have been there—I’d be too busy to look after him all day at the water park, and he’d only want to get involved; that the go-karts were strictly fourteen-plus had given us an easy excuse to talk him down before he asked.)

  “Can I come back to the beach house this weekend, Elle?”

  “Maybe. I’ll talk to the guys. But I promise you can come back soon. And hey! It’s almost Fourth of July! You’ll be there for that! We’re throwing a huge party, since it’s the last year we’ve got the beach house. Dad even said you could bring a couple of friends along. Huh? That’s gonna be cool, right? Being at a grown-up party with college kids?”