Summer Love at the Beach (Summer Instalove)

the rocks and sand as I slowly paced. Maybe Brendan and Julie would want to make

burgers tonight, and I could stuff myself and fall into a food coma.

Staring barely two feet in front of me, I jumped when two large black shoes were in my

way. I looked up, and Mitch immediately stepped back.

“Please,” he begged. “May I walk you home, and just have a minute of your time?”

Looking around, I saw that I was already at his house. My shoulders began to shake, as I

tried to choke back tears. “How could you not tell me that you were married before?” I

blurted.

“Sweetie, I honestly have never been married.”

“Well, she certainly seemed to think so.”

“Tiffany acts crazy because it’s a shortcut to getting her own way. I was in a weird mental

place, and it took me a while to figure that out. She was supposed to be supervised by her

sister any time she got hyper, or was near this town. She needs therapy. She’s simply a spoiled, selfish brat who wants to control the entire world so that things turn out the way

she wants them to.”

It was impossible to think straight with him watching every expression I made. It made me

want to run away to be alone. My thumb brushed against the stars of my necklace while I

tried to think. “Maybe this is a sign that things were going too far, too fast,” I said.

Mitch froze, as if the air in his lungs had turned to ice. “What do you mean ‘were’? Don’t you mean ‘are’? If things are going too fast, we can slow down to any speed you want, sweetie.

But I know you feel this. We can’t end here.”

“I don’t think I could take a chance on something like that ever happening again,” I said, my voice shaking. “She was screaming at us. Everyone was staring. I wanted...to just fucking

die of embarrassment.” Tears were streaming down my face and I couldn’t stop them.

“Oh my God, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

Mitch reached out to me, his hand slipping under the back of my hair, pulling us together. I

wanted to snuggle into his arms. I needed him to comfort me. But I was so uncomfortable

by the intensity of it all, I wriggled away.

“No matter what is going on with you two, you never mentioned that you had a serious

relationship. That’s weird. It feels like you were hiding it from me.”

“Becca, I’m embarrassed about it,” he said softly. Looking up into those warm brown eyes,

I could see that he was telling the truth.

“She was interested in me for all the wrong reasons, and I was being a stupid man who