Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend (42 page)

situation to him while I’d been talking to Josh, and it was clear

Reid wasn’t going to say anything to anyone— mostly because he

was utterly besotted with Sophie. She seemed to be tolerating it,

but not necessarily reciprocating the feeling, and after Reid

spent another whole hour hanging out by the pool, mostly just

gazing at Sophie adoringly and laughing at her jokes, I’d told him

we needed our privacy. I’d explained my plan to her, but ever

since, she’d been asking me if I really thought it was the right

thing to do.

“Yes,” I said, with more conviction than I really felt, leaning

forward to make sure my mascara wasn’t fl aking. We’d both

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dressed up for the party— but luckily, I could be absolutely sure of

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the dress code since it was Hallie’s text to her boyfriend, Ward,

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about this very event that had caused the misunderstanding at

the pool party. So I knew it was semi- formal, but Sophie had

taken it a step further and insisted we dress patriotic. Sophie was

wearing a short and tight blue- and- white striped dress with red

lipstick. I hadn’t taken the patriotic theme quite as far as she

had, but was wearing a red eyelet dress with a sweetheart neck-

line and a slightly fl ared skirt, with a pair of white fl ats.

Sophie frowned and applied another coat of her bright- red

lipstick, but I knew my best friend, and her expression was

speaking louder than words.

“What?” I asked, looking at her in the mirror. “I thought you’d

be thrilled not to have to pretend to be me any longer.”

“I am,” Sophie said, capping the tube and dropping it in her

bag. “I just don’t know if to night is the best night. Remember

when I dumped Evan in the middle of that party? He was not

happy, and everyone said the night was ruined.”

“In Evan’s defense, it was his birthday party,” I reminded her.

“And he spent the rest of the party in the corner crying.”

“I’m just saying,” Sophie said, waving this away. “Maybe fi nd

a quieter time to do this. Not when a lot of other stuff is going

on. You know?”

I thought about it as I slung my bag over my shoulder. The

truth was, I was hoping it might help, to have a lot of other

things going on, to serve as a buffer or distraction. Ever since

Sophie had arrived, carry ing on this fi ction had just been too

hard. I wanted to tell Josh and Hallie who I really was— and then,

hopefully, I could move on with both of them. With Hallie, to a

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real friendship with no lies between us. And with Josh . . .

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I hadn’t told Sophie this, but I was hoping that after I told

Josh, maybe we could move from friendship to something more.

He wasn’t Teddy, of course. But the more I’d thought about it, I’d

come to realize that might actually be a good thing. This was the

real reason I’d turned down Sophie’s suggestion I wear red lip-

stick, too. I was hoping, if all went well, Josh and I might have

our fi rst kiss to night. The thought of it was keeping my cheeks

fl ushed enough that I’d been able to forgo bronzer entirely.

“I think it’s time to be honest with them,” I said, and with

such fi nality that Sophie nodded.

“Fair enough,” she said. “Though I was just getting used to

responding to ‘Gemma.’ ” She gave me a smile. “Ready to do this?”

I nodded, smoothed down my hair and then checked the time

on my phone. “Let’s go.” We headed out the front door and I let

Sophie head to the car fi rst as I closed the door and locked it. I

knew when I came back everything— one way or another— would

be different.

O O O

By the time we arrived, the party was in full swing. The street

had been lined with cars all the way to the main road, and So-

phie and I had had to park so far away that she’d ended up taking

off her heels and walking barefoot. You could hear the party be-

fore you even reached it— the beat of the music mixed with con-

versation and laughter.

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I steered us toward the Bridges’ house, since that was our

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connection to the event, but as soon as we got to the driveway, it

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became clear that this wasn’t a ring- the- doorbell kind of party.

Like Josh had indicated, the party was taking place down on the

beach, covering the stretch of sand in front of all the houses I

could see. There were beautifully dressed people milling about,

tiki torches and twinkle lights, tables piled with food, and,

somewhere, live music playing. It was like something out of a

dream.

“You’re here!” Reid was at Sophie’s side so quickly, I had a

feeling that he had to have been watching for us. “You look won-

derful,” he said, staring at her. “I mean, really. Just incredible.”

“Oh, thank you,” Sophie said offhandedly, smiling at him.

“And you look nice, too,” Reid added to me with barely a

glance in my direction.

“Thanks,” I said. “Really.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” Reid asked Sophie, al-

ready starting to shepherd her down to the water. “Or eat?”

“Sure,” Sophie said. She turned to look at me. “Do you want to

come?”

“I’ll catch up,” I said. “I’m going to try and fi nd Hallie fi rst.” I

could tell Sophie knew what I meant by this, and she gave me an

encouraging smile.

“I think I saw her in the house,” Reid said, as he gestured

vaguely toward it without taking his eyes from Sophie. I nodded

and they started to make their way down to the beach.

I turned in the direction of the house— and promptly crashed

into someone. “Sorry,” I said, taking a step back. I was just glad I

hadn’t had a chance to get something to drink yet, because it

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probably would have been all over both of us.

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“Yeah, sorry,” the person I’d collided with mumbled. It was a

guy, around my age, and as he looked at me, his eyes widened.

I realized suddenly that I knew him— it was Ty, the waiter at

the Crabby Lobster. I opened my mouth to say something, but

before I could, he was speed- walking down to the beach. I looked

after him for a moment, wondering why he’d practically run away

from me. Maybe he felt guilty about serving me bad lobster?

I shrugged it off and headed toward the Bridges’ house, when

I saw Josh, standing alone on the edge of the deck, hunched over

something. I smoothed down my dress and hoped my hair was

still behaving itself as I walked over.

“Hi,” I said as I stepped closer to him.

Josh looked up at me and smiled. He was wearing a blazer,

dress shirt, and khakis, but no tie. I’d never seen him dressed up

this much before, and it brought home how incredibly handsome

he was, like in a maybe- he- models- those- pants- too kind of way.

“Hey,” he said. “I was looking for you.”

I suddenly felt warm inside, like I’d just had a long drink of

hot chocolate. “You were?”

“Yeah,” he said. He straightened up and I saw what he’d been

hunched over was a laptop, attached to a projector. “I was hoping

to get this started before you got here.” He pressed a button, and

then pointed at the house. There were Westley and Buttercup,

huge, projected against the side of the house. It was
The Princess

Bride,
larger than I’d ever seen it.

“Nice movie choice,” I said, smiling as I watched them take

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hands in front of a sunset, their romance just- begun and still

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perfect.

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“Yeah,” Josh said. “I have good associations with this movie

from the last time I saw it.”

“You mean when you were recovering from horrifi c food poi-

soning?” I joked.

“No,” Josh said, his expression serious. “I meant who I watched

it with.”

Oh
. I just looked at Josh for a moment. My heart wasn’t rac-

ing, but beating steady and true, and telling me everything I

needed to know about how I felt. This was Josh— who had rescued

me from the pool and let me rescue him from the bad lobster. He

was my friend, but he was also, in that moment, suddenly so

much more than that. And I had never wanted anything so much

as I wanted to kiss him.

Josh cleared his throat, then asked, “Did you want to join the

party?”

“Sure,” I said. Then I thought about the party that awaited

us— lots of people and lots of noise— and I realized I should take

advantage of this quieter moment. I’d planned to talk to Hallie

fi rst, but Josh was here, and the moment was right. I needed to

tell him the truth. I didn’t know what would happen, but just

then, I remembered the Clarence Hall motto:
no reward without

risk
. “But can we just talk for a moment fi rst?”

“Yes,” he said. Maybe it was from the tone of my voice, but he

seemed to know I didn’t want to just keep carry ing on a casual

conversation on the deck. “Let’s go inside.”

I followed him into the house. There were some people mill-

ing about in the kitchen and hanging out in the living room— so

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clearly some of the party was taking place inside. I was about to

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ask Josh if we could talk someplace quieter, but he must have

realized this was what I wanted— or maybe it was what he

wanted too— because he led me past the TV room, to a little al-

cove just big enough to hold a bench, but with fl oor- to- ceiling

windows and a great view of the water.

“So,” I said. We were standing closer together than we nor-

mally did, and even though I could have blamed it on the small-

ness of the alcove, I knew that wasn’t the real reason. “I have to

tell you something.”

“Me too,” Josh said, before I could even begin.

“Wait,” I said. I was ready to tell him the truth, and I didn’t

want to lose my courage. “I just wanted to talk to you about—”

“Me fi rst,” Josh interrupted. I couldn’t help laughing at that,

and he took the opportunity to jump in. “I just wanted to say

how great it’s been to get to know you. I . . . feel like I can be my-

self around you, and I just . . .” He trailed off, took a breath, and

looked down at me, right into my eyes, and I felt my knees

weaken a little. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really like

you. I didn’t think I was going to be able to after everything that

happened last year, but . . . I guess I fell harder than I was ex-

pecting to.” It took me a moment to place these words— then I

realized they were what I had said to him on the train, after I’d

fallen into his lap.

He took a step closer to me and reached out slowly, carefully,

like he was making sure it was okay, and tucked a lock of hair

behind my ear.

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“Josh,” I whispered. He’d left his hand there, touching the

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side of my face gently. He was closer than ever, so close I could

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reach out and rest my hand on his chest without even extending

my arm, and I was getting dizzy in the best way. I knew I had to

tell him while I still had my wits about me. “There’s something I

have to . . .”

But before I could fi nish, he leaned his head down and kissed

me.

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O
h my god
.

I kissed him back.

It was maybe the best fi rst kiss in all of history.

Josh and I left all the other fi rst kisses— me and Teddy, West-

ley and Buttercup, everyone— far behind. I didn’t care if anyone

could see us. In fact, if they could see us, they might get some

useful information on what a perfect fi rst kiss looked like.

Josh’s hands were around my waist, then my hands were in

his hair, then he was lifting me off my feet for a moment, and

when he set me down my knees were wobbling. And still we

didn’t stop kissing.

It didn’t start out hesitant or unsure. It was like we’d been

waiting to kiss each other this whole time, and now that we were