Girls in Love (16 page)

“Your legs are, like, twice as long as mine,” Lara declared, as Greer settled beside her in the hammock. “I mean, look at that. I’m, like, some kind of dwarf next to you.” The hammock swayed beneath them as Greer stretched out a long tan calf and inspected it carefully.

“True,” Greer mused, “my legs are longer. But you have much better ankles than I do. See how nice and delicate they are?”

“Ankles,” Lara sighed. “Who cares about ankles?”

“Casting agents for foot models,” Greer declared. “You could totally be a foot model.”

Lara laughed. “You’re insane.”

For a while they were quiet, just resting in the giant hammock beneath their bedroom window. In the trees
above them they could hear the twitter of tiny birds. (“I love those little black-and-white chickadees,” Greer had said fondly. “They’re so much nicer than the nasty Park Avenue pigeons.”)

Lara was feeling philosophical. Sadness from her conversations with Drew and Marco lingered, but the more she thought about what had happened, the more she knew that it was for the best. Marco would be a sweet memory. And as far as Drew went, well, they lived in different states—different
worlds
—and they owed it to themselves to belong to the places they were in. She’d be able to go back to Chicago with her mom and Mike and enjoy herself without obsessing about the next plane to Ithaca. And that would be nice. And if, in the future, they decided they wanted to be together again, they could do that. But for now they would be good, loyal friends.

Lara sighed pensively. Soon they’d all be leaving, going their separate directions. Already the aunts were packing suitcases and making huge meals in an attempt to clear out the cupboards and the refrigerators. And already the uncles were sneaking out of the house at five a.m. to get in as much fishing as possible before they had to go back to their offices and carpools and Rotary Club meetings.

Lara was starting to feel ready to go herself. School would be starting soon, and she was going to take an awesome photography class. But in order to feel truly prepared
to leave, she needed to talk to Jessica and make things right.

“Do you think if I clapped my hands, I could magically summon a servant to bring me an iced tea?” Greer’s voice interrupted Lara’s thoughts.

Lara smiled faintly. “Last I looked, the Tuttles weren’t employing domestic help.”

“Aunt Clare should totally hire someone next summer,” Greer remarked. “Lord knows my mother is incapable of assistance. She doesn’t even know how to turn on the oven and she has definitely never picked up a broom.”

Next summer
, Lara thought wistfully. “So do you think you’ll be back?”

Greer shrugged. “Sure, why not?” She tried to seem blasé about it, but Lara knew she was dying to come back to Pebble Beach—mostly because of one handsome tennis coach named Hunter Brown.

“Assuming my mom and your uncle Mike stay married,” Lara offered, “we’ll be back, too. I mean, they’re, like, two kids in love right now, but you know my mom’s track record. I lost count of the marriages…”

Greer tried to flop over onto her stomach and the hammock started to wobble dangerously. Lara gripped the sides until Greer decided to remain where she was.

“Well,” Greer said, “my mom only had one marriage, but as you know, that one went up in a giant ball of flames.
Oh, and did I tell you I got a message from my dad? He’s in Cannes right now with two girlfriends. That’s right:
two.
” She sighed. “Talk about midlife crisis. Pretty soon he’s going to call me and tell me he’s getting a face-lift and calf implants.”

Lara laughed; Greer’s jaded outlook was eternally a source of amusement. She was the opposite of Jessica, who always looked on the bright side of everything.

But where was that girl?
Lara wanted to know. She was just about to ask Greer to send her a text when she saw Jessica walking toward them, swinging her arms jauntily and looking not nearly as pissed off as when Lara last saw her.

“Hey,” Greer called out. “Come join us.”

Lara elbowed her in the ribs. Jessica might not be furious still, but they couldn’t act as if nothing had happened. The fact was, both Lara and Greer had acted badly.

“Hi, Jess,” Lara said softly.

Jessica stood over them with an unreadable expression on her face. Her hair was windblown and sun-bleached, and she looked beautiful and almost feral with her bare feet and tangled locks.

Lara struggled to sit up in the hammock. “Listen,” she said, speaking quickly. She wanted to get it all out there before Jessica had a chance to rediscover her anger. “I want to apologize. I should have told you what was going
on. I should have trusted that our relationship was strong enough to handle my problems with Drew. I’m really, really sorry, Jessica. And I promise to be honest with you from now on.”

Then she elbowed Greer again. “I’m sorry, too,” Greer piped up, as if on command. “It was totally uncool of me to keep secrets from you.” She smiled her high-wattage smile, the one that Jessica used to call her “Magical Charm Ray.” “Even though it was all Lara’s fault.”

This time, Lara poked Greer so hard in the ribs that she squealed. “Kidding! God!” she cried, laughing.

Lara looked up at Jessica to see a smile slowly spreading across her face. “I had to do my share of apologizing today, too,” Jessica admitted. “And it went okay. Lily forgave me for outing her to her parents. And she told me…that Connor’s not the baby’s father. He was just being a good friend.”

“Really?” Greer gasped, her eyes widening. “Oh, wow. That changes everything.”

Jessica nodded, blushing. “It does. And I talked to Connor afterward, and he…well, he still loves me. And we decided we’re both okay with waiting.”

“So all’s well,” Lara declared.

Jessica looked closely at her two cousins. “If Connor and Lily can both forgive me, then who am I to hold a grudge? I forgive you both.”

“Hooray!” Lara cried, and the next thing she knew, she and Greer were pulling Jessica onto the hammock. The hammock began to sway dangerously, which prompted the girls to all shriek with fear and glee. Their arms and legs were all tangled together, and Lara felt sure that any second, the hammock would flip and dump them all onto their butts. Luckily, she thought, the ground was covered in pine needles to cushion their falls.

But miraculously, the hammock steadied, and Jessica found her place on it, right between Lara and Greer. The three girls lay side by side, gazing up into the leaves.

“You know,” Greer reflected, “I’m the only one who achieved my goal this summer.” She paused, then went on, humor in her voice. “Not to rub it in or anything.”

Lara yawned. The warmth and the breeze were making her sleepy. “Whatever happened to that list anyway?”

“You had better know where it is, Greer Hallsey,” Jessica warned. “I told you if my mom ever found it, I would kill you, and I meant it.
I am very skilled with a lacrosse stick.
”

“Oh, you can relax,” Greer assured her. “I know exactly where it is.”

“It’s ironic,” Lara said thoughtfully. “My goal was to keep fewer secrets and I ended up keeping more.” Realizing that didn’t make her feel that great, but what could she do about it now? It was all water under the proverbial bridge.

“And Connor and I realized some pretty unwelcome consequences of losing your virginity!” Jessica laughed.

Greer stretched out her impossibly long legs and sighed. “Like I said, ladies, I’m the only one who can put a check mark through her goal.” Then she grinned. “Oh, am I rubbing it in? Sorry.”

Lara poked her yet again: The girl was going to have
bruises.
Lara thought back to the first day they’d arrived and what she’d said to them as they sat on Greer’s bed. She decided to say it again. “Well,” she said brightly, “next summer will be different.”

“Wow,” Greer exclaimed. “Where have I heard that before?”

And the three girls burst into laughter yet again, scaring the flock of chickadees from their perch.

“Hey, Greer,” Jessica said. “Out of curiosity, where is the list?”

Greer yawned in mock boredom. “It’s folded up in my drawer, inside a perfume box, right next to my silk pajamas. As I’ve told you a thousand times, I am excellent at keeping secrets secret.”

Jessica launched herself out of the hammock. “I’ll be right back,” she cried as the other two girls looked after her in bafflement.

A few moments later, Jessica reappeared with the list of their summer goals in one hand and one of their room’s
many aromatherapy candles in another. Lara watched as Jessica placed the candle carefully on a stump, then lit it with a kitchen match.

As the flame flickered, sputtered, and gathered strength, Jessica held out the paper to Greer. “Would you like to do the honors?” she asked.

Greer grinned and accepted the paper, which was somewhat crumpled and torn from being carried in her purse and then stuffed into a box. “Well, ladies,” she said, dangling the paper over the candle. “It’s good-bye to summer, and good-bye to our goals.”

The edge of the paper caught fire and turned black, and the small flame rose higher as it devoured the hopes they’d written down back in June.

Lara watched as Greer held the paper for a few more seconds, then let it drop to the ground where it burned to ashes and then quietly went out. “All my dreams, up in smoke!” she cried dramatically, holding her hand to her forehead like a 1940s Hollywood ingenue.

Greer and Jessica laughed, and then Lara joined in. “Maybe next year I’ll pick an easier goal to meet,” she said. “Like ‘Get really tan.’”

Greer snorted. “I doubt you could do that, either,” she teased. “It’s August, and you’re like Casper the Friendly Ghost over here.”

Lara poked her cousin in the ribs one final time. “I’ll just steal all your self-tanner, then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Greer responded mildly. “I’ll bring extra bottles.”

Then Jessica put her arms around both her cousins. “I can’t wait for next summer,” she said.

And Lara had to smile. She was already looking forward to next summer, too.

Ella, Beth, Jamie, and Kelsi are excited about boys, beaches, and bonfires. But the girls didn’t count on heartache, secrets, and scandals that could tear them apart.

Jessica, Greer, and Lara can’t wait to make Pebble Beach their own this summer: There are so many parties, cute guys, and late-night swims. Too bad falling in love can burn you hotter than the sun….

Spring Break. South Beach. ‘Nuff said.