Was it too late to change my mind?
(I could only imagine how Donna Washington at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Berkeley would take it if I called her up to say I wanted to take back the turning down of my offer.)
There were student loans I could take out to cover college, just like everyone else did, financial aid, provided Linda from the office didn’t suddenly move in with us. But I didn’t think I could get any kind of loan to cover “completing my childhood bucket list with my best friend.”
“Lee…,” I said apprehensively, biting my lip and looking up from the Facebook page for the place that hired out dune buggies on the beach. “I think we might have a problem.”
“Don’t tell me they closed shop and sold up like Mom and Dad are doing,” he huffed, reaching to take my phone off me.
“No. No, it’s…Lee, I know I promised you we were going to doeverythingon this list, and don’t get me wrong, I’d love to, but I’m just thinking…we might…we might have to maybe scrap a couple of things. Just a couple. I can’t afford to do all of this. I’ll go broke before we get to number ten,” I told him, only half joking.
Lee looked genuinely confused, and for once, I honestly feltjealousof him, that he never had to worry about this kind of stuff. Growing up, it had always been completely obvious that the Flynns had more money than us. I mean, they had apool.They had fancy cars. June’s clothes always looked like they cost more than our grocery bills.
But we were all so close, it had never mattered. It wasdefinitelynever a point of contention.
Until, I guess, now.
“I can ask my parents to cover it,” he said, like it was that easy. “It’s no big deal.”
It was a huge deal, I wanted to tell him, but he was already on my phone and looking at the dune-buggy page, enthusiastically saying we could get a better deal if we hired for a group and got some of the guys involved, too. Warren and Dixon would be all over it, he said.
It was a huge deal, because it didn’t feel right for me to ask my dad for the money, so how could I ask June and Matthew? I got that money wasn’t really an object for Lee, for his family, like it was for us, but…
My stomach in knots, I looked at the huge smile on his face, the way his blue eyes sparkled in the sunshine, his hair still damp from our jump into the sea. He looked so freakinghappy.
I couldn’t let him down.
Maybe just this once, I thought, it wouldn’t hurt.
• • •
On our way back to the beach house from our afternoon cliff jumping, Lee and I had the job of picking up something for dinner—which, of course, meant Dunes.
Dunes was a permanent fixture of our summers at the beach house. It had always been there, as long as I could remember, and we were frequent visitors. A cute white building set just off the sand with a faded blue roof, it was a pretty typical family-friendly restaurant.
They didthe bestfries.
Lee and I were practically drooling just talking about the fries as we parked and walked in—and I stopped dead in my tracks. Lee didn’t notice and let the door go; it swung back and smacked me on the arm.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry. What’s up?” Lee turned to look at me, following my gaze. “What’re you staring at?”
Speechless, my mouth suddenly dry, all I could do was point at the sign in the window with huge red lettering that readhelp wanted.
This had to be—like, literally—a sign.
All that worrying about how I’d pay for the bucket list or wanting to put a little money aside for college? This wasmeant to be.Right?
We’d be at the beach house all summer. And, sure, we were helping fix it up for sale, but how much time would that take, really? And I’d be able to work shifts around any commitments with Brad….
And I’d totally still have time to spend with Noah and do the bucket-list stuff with Lee.
Totally.
“Be with you in just a sec,” a lady in a green apron said, walking past us in the entryway. She placed some empty glasses on the bar and then turned to greet us. A smile lit up her face. “Elle! Lee! Well, hey! I didn’t expect to see you guys up here so soon.”
“Hi, May.”
