Reunited (15 page)

She made it to Alice and Tiernan’s table just in time to avoid the munchkin stampede.

“Deliciousness,” Tiernan said, slurping the juice from her waxy paper cup.

“Well, I think this proves our luck is starting to turn around, wouldn’t you say?” Alice asked.

“Better than West Virginia,” Tiernan agreed, shaking off a
case of the shivers. “That place is just plain scary.”

Summer nodded as she nibbled the edges of her snow cone. It tasted okay, but she should have gotten cream soda.

“To Lucky Kentucky!” Alice said, holding up her cone for a toast.

“To Kentucky!” Summer raised her cone to join Alice’s.

“Salud!”
said Tiernan, giving each of their snow cones a gentle tap.

But when the toast was done, Summer lowered her cone back down a little too fast and the slushy mass of ice slid out of her cup, landing on the wood chips with a
squoosh.

“Bummer,” Alice said. She had already nibbled her snow cone flat.

“Just go ask them for another one,” Tiernan said. “It’s like the best unwritten law in the universe. Drop an ice-cream cone and you get a free replacement. It’s a total do-over.”

“Well, this isn’t an ice-cream cone,” Summer said, sounding more uptight than she’d meant to. “The policy might not be the same.”

“Mr. Frosty’s cool. He’ll hook you up.” Tiernan’s lips were half-green, half-pink.

“That’s okay. I’m fine.” Summer shrugged. It wasn’t like she needed all that sugar anyway.

“Oh,
please
,” Tiernan shot back. “You barely even ate any of it. Look at you, sitting there with your little empty cup. It’s tragic.”

Summer glanced over at Mr. Frosty, and just seeing the painting of the snow cone on the side of his truck made her mouth start to water. If there was ever a perfect day for a snow cone, this was it—hot and muggy, and she’d probably burned three hundred calories with all that weed-pulling back at Gert’s.

“I think the world would be a much better place if the free ice cream concept applied to everything, don’t you think?” Alice asked, crunching on a chunk of ice.

“I’d get a new virginity,” Tiernan announced, causing Alice to laugh so hard, she spit a mouthful of purple snow-cone juice onto the ground, which, of course, sent them all into complete hysterics.

Summer had always admired how uncensored Tiernan was. Sure, her lack of a filter got her into trouble sometimes, but it also got her what she wanted. Summer, on the other hand, spent so much effort
not
saying what she actually thought and denying herself the things she thought she “shouldn’t” have that sometimes it was hard to remember what she really wanted in the first place.

But not this time.

“I’m going to get a new one,” Summer declared, standing up. “A snow cone, that is,” she clarified.

She took her place at the end of the long line behind a group of obnoxious ten- or eleven-year-old boys who were shoving each other and hocking loogies on the pavement.
Boys.
They didn’t change all that much, did they?

Which reminded her she needed to call Jace.

“Hey, where’ve you been? Didn’t you get my texts?” He sounded flustered, desperate.

“I got them,” Summer answered slowly, trying not to give away too much about her feelings on the subject. Between last night and this morning he’d sent her about ten text messages—all of them sweet little apologies begging her to come home. The sad part was, his strategy worked. She was actually starting to miss him. But something about hearing his voice brought back those other, more complicated feelings. In text-message world, Jace was the perfect boyfriend. But in real life, Jace was still Jace.

“Come on, Summer, please.” His voice was so low, she could barely hear him. “I said I’m sorry. You
know
I’m sorry. Just come home. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” she whispered into the phone.

“If you get here by Friday morning, we could still leave for the Vineyard together. I’ll even buy your plane ticket home, to make up for everything.”

Summer’s eyes flickered across the parking lot to Alice and Tiernan. “You mean, leave the trip before we even see the show?”

“Why not? You’re not actually having fun, are you?” But Jace didn’t wait for her answer. “Just tell me what town you’re in, and I’ll look up the closest airport.”

Normally, Summer hated it when Jace flaunted his family’s
money, but there was something romantic about the idea of having her boyfriend fly her back home because he couldn’t live without her for another second. Then again, why should she come running just because he called?

“I don’t know where I am,” she finally answered.

“Well, do you see any signs?”

When Summer turned around to look, she saw Tiernan marching toward her.

“Jace, I’ll call you back.” She shut her phone and stuffed it in her pocket.

“Hey,” Tiernan said. “I’m just coming to let you know Alice is going to give me my driving lesson while you wait. We didn’t want you to think we were taking off without you or anything.”

“Of course,” Summer managed to sputter, even though two seconds ago she’d considered doing the very same thing.

“Wish me luck!” Tiernan called as she headed to the Pea Pod.

“Nice hay-er!” one of the little boys yelled at her back. But Tiernan just ignored him and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Summer was still in shock. Until Jace’s offer, it hadn’t occurred to her that she could actually leave. That she still had a choice. Jace was trying to undo his mistake. And now he was giving Summer the chance to undo hers—coming on this trip. It would be like hitting the reset button.

Part of her was dying to go back to Walford, to be back
with her friends, curled up in the comfort of her very own bed. But if she let Jace pay for her plane ticket, that didn’t just mean she was going back home, it meant she was going back to
him
.

The Pea Pod made a loud grinding noise as it lurched forward, then stalled out. At least she wasn’t the only one.

“Bite me!” Tiernan yelled, forgetting about the open window.

“I’ll bite ya!” shouted the same little boy. The rest of his gang howled with laughter. Then Summer noticed that one of the other boys had something in his hand. And whatever it was, he was aiming to throw it at the Pea Pod, which was now bucking along in spurts. Without even thinking, she reached out and grabbed the boy’s wrist.

“You’d better not be throwing things at my friends.” She glowered, like she was actually some kind of authority figure. She released the boy’s wrist as he opened his hand. A golf-ball-size rock fell to the ground.

Her
friends
. The word left an aftertaste in her mouth. Were Alice and Tiernan really her friends, or had it just come out like that, out of habit? And, if so, was it possible she missed Jace out of habit too?

“These twerps bothering you?” asked a boy walking toward her. He appeared to be about her age, but he wore the same yellow T-shirt as the younger kids. And even though he wasn’t very tall, he was strikingly handsome, with honey-blond hair
and just the slightest hint of a double chin, suggesting a future as a frat boy, or a car salesman.

“I think I’ve got it under control,” Summer said, shaking her hair off her shoulders.

“Twerps, if I find you acting out, y’all are gonna lose your snow-cone privileges,” the boy warned. His voice had a twinge of Kentucky in it, but in a good way.

“Sorry ’bout that,” he said to Summer. “These little hellions are mine for the next six weeks. Guess I got the short straw this year.” He pointed to the word “counselor” just below the soccer-ball logo printed on his shirt, then smiled at the boys. His teeth were straight and white, with the clean familiar shape of someone who’d just gotten their braces off.

“I’m Finn.” He held out his hand.

She took it. “Summer.”

Then the Pea Pod’s tires squealed so loudly that they both turned to look. At least Tiernan was actually moving.

“You with those girls, in the van?” Finn asked.

“Kind of,” Summer said.

“Kind of?”

“Well, yeah. I’m currently with them.”

Finn looked confused. “Y’all not getting along or something?”

Summer thought about it. “It’s a long story,” she finally said.

Finn smiled at her again. She was being enigmatic, but he seemed to be enjoying it. Most boys did.

“Camp’s over in a couple of minutes.” He pointed to the line of mothers waiting in their air-conditioned cars. “Then I’m going to take a swim in my pool. Maybe you and your ‘kind of’ friends want to come along?”

“Maybe,” Summer said, smiling a little wider than she’d intended.
What was it with Southern boys and swimming?

“Finn’s got a girlfriend,” one of the little boys sang out in the familiar teasing tune. They both pretended not to hear.

“Oh, shoot,” Finn said. “I forgot that I took my morning run coming over here. If y’all do want to come over, maybe you could give me a lift back to my house? It’s just up the main road about a mile.”

Summer didn’t mean to, but she laughed right in Finn’s face. “I’ll have to check with my
traveling companions
on that one.”

“If y’all are headed back to the highway, it’ll be right on your way.”

Summer nodded back at Finn as she strode across the parking lot, soaring with renewed enthusiasm for the possibilities of the day. She’d call Jace later, when she’d figured everything out. There’d still be airports wherever they ended up tomorrow.

The Pea Pod cut through the steady stream of minivans now entering the parking lot, screeching to a stop right in front of her. Evidently Tiernan had gone from novice to stunt driver in five minutes.

“Summer has a boyfriend,” Tiernan said in the exact same singsong voice as the little boy.

“His name is Finn,” Summer said, looking past Tiernan to Alice. “And he invited us to go swimming with him. At his pool.”

“Oh, good God!” said Tiernan indignantly. “Does anyone in the South do anything but swim?”

“Well, it is a million frigging degrees down here,” Summer said, sweeping her hair off her neck. “Anyway, his house has to be pretty close by since he ran here this morning, so I figure if we want to go, we could give him a ride?”

Alice got that scrunched-up look on her face that she got every time she was about to get up on her high horse. “Well, not according to the rule
we
made . . .” She stared right at Summer on the word “we.”

“Oh, come on, Alice. He’s a camp counselor, for crying out loud. And a pool is way less sketchy than a swimming hole.”

Tiernan gave her a snide grin.

“We’ve only driven three hours today,” Alice said. “I’d like to make it at least as far as Lexington so we’re not stuck with another huge day of driving.”

“I’m down with that,” Alice’s sidekick agreed. Like Summer expected anything else.

Most of the time Summer went through life not knowing what she wanted. But every time she actually did manage to make a decsion, there was always someone there to question it,
or make her feel like she was wrong. She stormed off in a huff, not even waving to Finn, who was staring at her from across the parking lot with a confused look on his face.

The line at Mr. Frosty had come and gone, so Summer marched right up to the window of the snow cone truck and slapped $2.50 on the counter.

“I’ll have a cream soda, please.”

As far as she knew, the free replacement rule only applied if you ordered the same flavor. But, for once, Summer was going to get what she wanted, even if it meant having to pay.

“LOST & FOUND”

I WAS LOOKING THROUGH THE LOST AND FOUND

FOR SOMETHING I COULDN’T DESCRIBE.

BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE GLOVE,

AND IT WASN’T MY SIZE.

—from Level3’s second CD,
Rough & Tumble

ALICE STRETCHED HER LEGS OUT AND GAVE A LOUD, ROARING
yawn. If Summer wasn’t driving fifty in a thirty-five zone, she might actually be able to close her eyes.

“Hey, Summer,” Alice said as calmly as possible, “you mind easing up on the gas a bit?”

Summer answered by jamming on the brakes, sending Alice’s purse careening off the counter next to the sink, half its contents skittering across the floor. Normally, she was the most laidback of all three of them, like the season she was named for with its warm, carefree days and lazy, light-filled evenings. But occasionally Summer brought on brutal heat waves, and there was nothing anyone could do but wait for them to pass.

“In three hundred yards, turn left,” Coach Quigley boomed.