And as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I knewexactlywhat to do. He was devastated about the beach house and about me turning down Berkeley—even if he wouldn’t show that quite so much. Lee wanted this to be our final hurrah, an amazing, unforgettable last summer before everything changed and we had to start growing up. And I was damn sure going to make that happen.
Years ago, when we were kids, Lee and I had dreamed of all the wonderful and wacky things we would spend our summers doing.
If he wanted things to stay the way they’d always been, even just for a few more weeks, well, I could give him that.
“Lee, I swear to you,on our friendship,we are going to have the best summer ever. This is still our year. Plus, if it’s our last summer with the beach house before your parents sell it, wehaveto make the most of it.”
“Yeah?” He gave me a half-hearted smile, his head tipping to one side as he looked at me. “You better have a foolproof plan, Shelly.”
“Think about it,” I blurted, trying to keep up with the way my mind was already racing ahead, spiraling out of control before I had a chance to second-guess anything. “We’ve scored the beach house for theentire summer.Yeah, we’ve gotta help out and do a little work on it, but so what? We’re gonna be living there by ourselves—with Noah and Rachel, I mean—and no adult supervision! Talk about the makings of a great summer! How many people would kill for that? We have the key ingredients right there waiting for us, just a short drive away.”
“I’m listening.”
“And,” I pressed on, “our younger selves have already written up the recipe for us.”
I watched it register with Lee.
“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”
“I absolutely am saying what you think I’m saying. Lee, back at that beach house, we have a bucket list that tells us exactly how we can make this the ultimate summer. Everything we always wanted to do before college, every fun and crazy thing we dreamed of when we were kids. And now we have the chance to do them!”
In a slow, measured voice, like he hardly dared believe it, Lee said, “You mean do the whole list, this summer?”
“I mean do the whole list, this summer.”
His blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. They twinkled with that impish look I knew so well; he was fighting hard not to crack even the barest of smiles now, too. I knew right then that I’d won him over and that this might just be enough to bury any fight he wanted to put up about college. How could he ever resent me, after I made this dream summer come true? How could he ever be mad at me or say I picked my relationship with Noah over our friendship, when I’d do all of this for him?
“Even race day?”
I laughed, a smile spreading across my face. “Especiallyrace day! So what do you say, buddy? You in?”
He had to say yes. He had to. And I knew he would, because I knew Lee almost better than I knew myself, and he would never be able to resist. But I still held my breath, apprehension prickling across my skin like a million tiny needles.
Ditching Berkeley was my choice. DitchingLeeafter all our plans for years to go to college together was my choice. But this summer, I would make it up to him. I would do everything I could to give him this last perfect summer before everything had to change and we had to start the next chapter and grow up some more. He deserved that.
Lee stood up from the stool and peered down at me. “The best summer we’ve ever had. You promise?”
I echoed him one last time: “The best summer we’ve ever had.I promise.”
Chapter Ten
I thought that talking through the whole college thing with Lee would make me feel better. I thought that once I’d clicked those buttons on the websites, officially declining Berkeley and accepting my spot at Harvard, I would feel better. I thought that packing for our summer at the beach house would make me feel better.
I was so, so wrong.
I felt kinda sick when I turned down Berkeley—even if itwaspretty exciting to be sitting at my desk with my dad hovering behind me, beaming, as I accepted Harvard, realizing just how much all my hard work at school had paid off.
Lee did a great job at not laying into me for ruining the college plans we’d had since we were kids. He was the one to tell his parents about it when I stayed over for dinner that night, but he was still a littletoohappy for me.
If he could pretend to be okay with it, I could pretend, too.
It always took me forever to pack for the beach house, but this time it seemed to be even harder than usual. My brain was stuck on worrying about how upset Lee was and how badly I needed to make it up to him this summer, making it impossible to work my way through my mental checklist for packing.
And I reallydidneed to make it up to him. I’d need to pull out all the stops. The bucket list would be fun—it would beamazing,if we could make it happen—but it’d also involve a lot of planning and preparations.
And money.
Great,I thought,one more thing to have to figure out.
