Summer's Fun (The Boys of Ocean Beach 2)

Juliana Paige Hawkins is born at 2:32 a.m. at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. She’s two weeks early, pink and squishy face. I’ve never been around a newborn before, and suddenly life and birth and unconditional love all makes sense.

“She’s so tiny,” Nick says. We’re all looking into the glass viewing window at the row of babies. They’re all in different states of sleeping, squirming, or crying. Juliana is bundled like a burrito with a pink- and blue-striped hat on her tiny head, eyes closed and asleep. “About the size of a football, don’t you think?”

“Don’t think about throwing that baby,” I say, leaning closer to the window.

“What? Why would you say that?” he asks, horrified. We all burst into giggles. It’s late, we’re exhausted, and it’s been a really long day.

“Anyone want to drive me home?”

“I can,” Justin says, rubbing his eyes. “I need to get back to open the marina tomorrow since Bobby’s out.”

“Same,” says Pete.

“We’ll come in too,” Nick says, jerking his thumb at Whit, who hasn’t stopped looking at the babies.

Once we’re all in Justin’s car I ask, “Can you drop me off at my trailer?”

“You’re not coming to my place?”

After all the insanity of the day, I just need to be in my own bed. “I need to shower and change and sleep and sleep and sleep.”

The ride home from the hospital in Myrtle doesn’t take long at 4 a.m. Whit and Nick both pass out in the back seat and when we arrive, Justin doesn’t drive all the way into the park. It’s too late and the residents will throw a fit. He stops the car and Pete, still awake, gets out with me, walking me down the pathway toward my trailer.

“What were you talking about earlier when you mentioned some notes?” he asks quietly.

I wave him off. “It’s no big deal. Isabel and Jessica have been playing some pranks—weird, not-cool pranks but mostly just petty, mean girl shit. That wasn’t a wild animal that got in through the bathroom window. I think it was them—leaving me creepy flowers and notes.”

“That sounds kind of like a big deal, Summer.”

“Well, I thought so too, but then I found out they sent Shay some crazy non-sensical postcards after she refused to listen to their gossip and I don’t know. I think they’re just being dumb.”

“Huh, they’ve always been gossipy but pretty harmless. I do think they’ve had a hard time adjusting to you being here.” He bumps me with his shoulder. “They’ve had crushes on Justin and Whit for a long time. Now that they’re almost eighteen, they figured they had a chance.”

I stop in front of the trailer. “Too bad they don’t.”

“Nope,” he kisses me softly. “Not in the slightest.”

I unlock the door and turn on the light. The camper is quiet—just like I left it all those hours ago. I give him another kiss and say goodnight. He vanishes into the dark, between the campers and back to Justin’s car.

I walk into my bedroom and kick off my shoes, turning on the lamp next to my bed. That’s when I see the small edge of paper sticking out from under my pillow. My stomach drops but I reach for it, knowing I probably just missed it earlier that day. The lettering is the same, but the words send a chill down my spine.

The Party’s Over. Time To Rewrite History.

I hear the footstep behind me and before I turn, I know in my heart it’s not Pete. Not Isabel, but someone else. Someone worse.

28

Nick

The slam of the door and crunch of the Jeep’s wheels on gravel wakes me up and I rub my face. “You drop Summer off?”

Whit shifts next to me, spreading out now that it’s just the two of us in the back of the car.

“Yeah, I walked her to the camper.” Pete looks back at me from the front seat. “She told me a crazy story right before I left.”

“What kind of story?” Justin asks, turning down the main road toward my house.

“A few weeks ago, I went in her place and found a mess of flowers on her bed. The screen was ripped in her bathroom and the window open. I figured some kind of animal got in—raccoon or something—you know how they are, but tonight she asked me about it and got weird. I just mentioned it again and she said Isabel and Jessica had been pranking her by leaving notes and the flowers at her trailer.”