Summer's Kiss (The Boys of Ocean Beach 1)

“Say something else!”

“I don’t know what to say? I mean, that’s crazy! And yeah, I get why it would be kind of sexy, all the sneaking around and crap. It reminds me of when Bobby used to sneak into my room back in high school.”

“I can totally see him doing that,” I laugh.

“It was all fun and games ‘til my dad caught him halfway out the window one night. You can’t imagine the humiliation.”

I make a face. “Trust me. I can.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes.”

“Who caught you?”

“Well,” I grimace. “That’s where things get interesting.”

“The principal?”

I shook my head. “His girlfriend.”

“Oh. My. God. Did she tell?”

“No. But only because Mason begged her not to because he’d lose his job.” Mason turned on the charm, that’s for sure. Something he’s really good at.

“Did you know he had a girlfriend?”

“Nope,” I tell her. “I had no idea. No ring, no pictures, nothing to clue me in—except all the stuff that should have. The sneaking around. Never taking me to his house. His stupid whispery late-night calls.”

“Okay, so yeah that is way worse than my dad. Even though he had a shotgun. It’s not like he was going to use it.”

“Nicole didn’t have a shotgun but she had photos, and she threatened to share them with the headmaster at my school and anyone else she could think of, if we didn’t break up. We did but by then, my friends were suspicious and rumors were going around. If I hadn’t graduated a few weeks later I think there may have been an investigation.”

“And your mom has no idea.” Sibley runs up to us and hands us each a pile of sandy shells and rushes back to the water.

“Nope. None. Just that I ditched the trip I’d been saving for two years and hitched a ride to South Carolina in her disco ball trailer.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow. Now you know how I managed to royally screw up my life.”

“Have you heard from him?” she asks.

“Oh, yeah. He keeps calling and texting. I was supposed to go with him and a group to France for the summer. My friends keep begging me to reconsider the trip, but I don’t want to see him.” Tears build in the corner of my eyes.

“I can see how that would be hard. Do you still love him?”

“I don’t know. I see everything differently now. What I used to think was passion and romantic, I now realize wasn’t right. I lied so much—so often—to everyone. My mom, my friends, my other teachers. Then finding out about Nicole…I’m not sure I could ever love a cheater. My dad left my mom for another woman. I feel like shit that I hurt someone like that.” I pick up a shell and toss it in the water. “I never, ever, would have started something with him had I known.”

“Sounds like maybe he manipulated the situation a little.”

I shrug. “It’s easy to think that but I was all in. I wanted that relationship more than anything else in my life and was willing to do anything for it.”

Anita wraps her arm around my waist and gives me a hug. “Sure, it may not have been your best moment but the guy is obviously a sleaze. You were a student. He totally took advantage of the situation.”

We walk along the shore a while longer, turning back when we get to the point. When we’re close to the boardwalk, Anita says, “Can I ask you something else?”

“Why not?” I figure I have few secrets left at this point.