Chapter 41
Summer
Anita and I are knee-deep in party arrangements, making sure the food is ordered, the invitations have been sent out and all the little boxes on our check list are completed.
Nick is busy at the front of the shop, hanging his pieces.
They look amazing framed, highlighting the depth and skill he possesses.
We’re just finishing up when the swings open and my mother steps through. She looks outstanding, dressed in a flattering outfit. Her frame is tiny and it looks like she may have lost weight while she was gone. Her blonde hair is perfectly styled and I see the glint of pearl earrings.
“Mom! You’re back!” I glance at my watch. “Early! I was going to pick you up at the airport.”
“I couldn’t take one hour away from home,” she says, sweeping across the store.
She takes in everything—the arrangement of books, the new arrivals.
The tiny play area Anita set up in the children’s section.
“We caught an earlier flight. Pete picked us up at the airport in Myrtle Beach and dropped Richard at home. I was too amped up and wanted to see you.”
She stops to give Nick a squeeze and I’ve circled the counter to throw my arms around her. We’ve had our struggles and secrets but we’ve always been close. I didn’t realize how much I missed her until she walked in the door.
She smells like home and although she’s clearly exhausted, she exudes the energy that I’m always jealous of. “The store looks fantastic. Nick, your photographs are outstanding. I can’t tell you how many compliments I heard about them while I was on the book tour.”
“Thank you,” he says, beaming with pride. So many people just see him as a jock, but this side, the artist side, is his real passion.
“All the amazingness of the store is due to Anita. I just do what she tells me to.”
My mother smiles at our cousin. “I knew I left it in good hands.”
“How was your trip? Tell us everything,” Anita says. “Especially about LA. Did you see any celebrities?”
“LA was fun—beautiful and overwhelming. The rest of the trip was the same! I’ll tell you more about it all when I’ve had a good night’s sleep and time to process it all.” She squeezes my hand. “I just wanted to stop by and see you and check my mail and office before crashing at home.”
“You just wanted to come to work.” I glance at Anita and shake my head, but Mom has already left the shop area to walk down to the back hall to her office.
I follow her and see her studying the massive amounts of letters in the cubbie system. “You have a lot of fans.”
“This tour was different than the others. A lot of passion for this case and hearing my story. People want to share what happened to them too, which I understand and I support, but after a while it gets overwhelming.”
“I can only imagine.”
She touches the smaller but substantial stack of weird letters. “I see I’ve got some haters, too.”
I laugh. “Haters? What are you, a thirteen-year-old girl?”
“What else would you call them?” She picks up a stack of bills and sorts through them quickly.
“Lunatics. Psychos. Desperate, lonely weirdos.” She gives me a hard, annoyed look. “If it helps, the good out-weighs the bad.”
“It comes with the job, Summer. You know that, and add in serial killers and a true crime angle and everything gets a little weirder.”
“I just want you to be safe.”
“I am. I promise. I’ll look them over and any that stand out I’ll forward to my agent, okay?”
Now that she’s looked over her bills, seen the store still standing, and assessed her fan mail, I can see the exhaustion finally taking over. “Come on, Mom, let me get you back home. I’ll drive.”
She smiles at me. “I know it’s only been a few months since I saw you at Easter, but you’ve really grown up.”
“No thanks to these guys around here. They have me surfing, eating ice cream and going to skate parks. If I keep hanging around them, I’ll never grow up.”
She walks around the desk and wraps her arm around my shoulder. “Don’t be in a rush—my adolescence was cut short by Gaskins. It’s one of my biggest regrets.”
“I’ll try.” Which is easier said than done.
Life and decisions and relationships and everything else loom ahead.
I want to talk to her about Vanderbilt, but it was the dream for so long.
Would I be cutting my options off by changing tracks?
I guess that’s her point though, vacation is for taking a break from the big stuff.
She stopped coming to Ocean Beach after Gaskins’ attack.
I didn’t need to stress about the big stuff.
Not now—all of that will be waiting in the future.
With my mother safely at home and the party under control, I agree to go with the boys to one of their out-of-the-way local joints to hang out.
The last time we did something like this, Mason followed me and all hell broke loose.
There’s no reason to worry about a repeat of that, but these townie outings make me a little uneasy.
Mostly because I’m completely out of my comfort zone.
The scent of fried seafood hits me the instant I get out of Nick’s truck. The boys wait for me in the parking lot, Anita and Bobby are here, too. Maggie and Ivy are coming later.
“So what’s so special about this place?” I ask. The sign on the door says “Dusty’s Den.”
“It’s a landmark,” Nick says, taking my hand. “When we all got our fake IDs, this is the first place we went.”
“I need an ID?” I’m only nineteen.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small laminated card. I take the card and see a recent photo taken of me and a list of false details. “You made this?”
He shrugs. “We have our sources.”
It’s the little things like this that do make me feel like one of them; it’s the little things that bring me one step closer to feeling like this is my home, these are my people.
Anita helped pick my outfit. “Sexy, but casual,” she said, back at the trailer. We’d barely both fit into it with her giant belly. “You definitely don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard—the other locals will notice. But you do want to look hot for the guys.”
“Looking hot for the guys is not always my main priority,” I said.
“Of course it’s not, but you still want to make them a little weak in the knees. Trust me, there’s nothing more powerful than driving a man wild. You just get to do it times four.”
I decided on high-waisted jeans and a bright yellow, halter crop-top. I finally have some color on my skin and it looks nice against the yellow. I add a pair of sandals and let my hair hang loose.
Nick picked me up and kept his hand on my thigh the whole way over, sending little currents of desire across my skin.
He smells amazing in the enclosed cab and I can’t help but think about being in here with him last time.
What we did. How he felt and tasted. I stare out the window, trying to will those thoughts away.
When I get out of the truck and the boys see me, I feel their eyes roam over my body. Anita’s right. I do feel powerful knowing the boys of Ocean Beach are here with me, but overwhelmed too; how do I keep them all satisfied?
They all look amazing, tanned and dressed to suit their personality.
Pete’s curly hair dips in his eyes and his loose, torn jeans fit like a glove.
The black Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt pulls snug across his shoulders.
Justin’s grown a bit of stubble on his face again, the shadows highlighting his jaw and cheekbones.
He’s wearing shorts and a light blue button-down with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.
Whit’s wearing a striped tank and shows off his muscular arms. He looks a million times better than a few days ago.
The bouncer barely glances at my ID, obviously knowing all the guys and waving them in without much of a look.
The inside of Dusty’s is pretty standard beach décor.
Surfboards hang on the walls along with Christmas lights looped from the ceiling.
There’s a long bar in the back and a lit-up jukebox playing old-timey music and a space cleared to dance.
We join Anita at a table, already piled with plates of steaming seafood and pitchers of beer.
There’s no doubt I feel ushered into a different world—one that I desperately want to belong to.
The bar fills up and the music gets louder. The lighting is dim, other than the twinkling small bulbs hanging from above. Justin and Nick go play pool, while Whit lingers at the bar talking to some locals.
The door opens and a familiar face walks in, well, two familiar faces. Avery and Shay.
“That’s an unlikely pair,” Pete says, eyeing the couple.
“Oh no. Do not let him come over here,” Anita says when she sees him. “You know he makes me crazy. Like, why does he wear that stupid black hat all the damn time. It’s ninety degrees outside.”
“Babe, he’s harmless,” Bobby says, taking a drink of his beer.
“And annoying. He’s been coming in the shop all the time lately asking me a million questions about your mom’s book, your mom,” she glances over at me, “you.”
“He’s asking questions about me?”
“Ugh, sorry but yes. I think Shay’s been entertaining all his ideas.”
I’m less worried about Avery than I am Shay. I’ve avoided her for a few days now, hoping tomorrow at the party is the last time I have to deal with her. Pete notices the apprehension on my face. “Just tell her you’re here for fun—no interviews.”
It only takes a few moments for them to see us at the long table. Avery perks up and heads in our direction. Shay, overdressed as usual, follows.
Bobby, always wiser than I give him credit for, senses trouble and says, “Come on babe, let’s go dance.”
“Thank god,” she mumbles, heaving herself out of the chair.
“Summer! Pete! What are you guys doing here?”
“Introducing Summer to Dusty’s, what about you?”
Avery brushes a lock of hair out of his eyes. “I told Shay I’d show her some local haunts.”