He laughs and puts me down when the water is waist-deep. But then he takes my hand and holds it all the way out of the water. I stop and wring out my hair when we’re in front of Amber and Rose.

Suddenly, he jerks my arm and pulls me against him. “I want to kiss you,” he says beside my ear. “But I don’t want to mess up our first kiss trying to piss off Jerkface.”

“You should just pee a circle around me and be done with it.” Because he knows that little dunk in the ocean wasn’t about us. It was about the guy I haven’t even met yet.

He grins. “You might be into that kinky stuff, but I just want to kiss you, for starters. We’ll get to the rest of it in good time.” He laughs and kisses my cheek. Then he pats the top of Rose’s head and tugs Amber’s hair. “Later, ladies,” he says. He glares at my new neighbor. I have to find out what that’s about.

Amber, Rose, and I all watch his backside as he runs across the sand and back up the steps onto my deck. His hips are narrow and his shoulders wide. He has a tattoo on his upper shoulder that looks like it might be a sailboat.

“He sure grew up,” I mutter to myself as I plop down on the towel in the sand next to my friends.

Amber snorts. “Up, and out, and around. That boy is hot.”

“Did he just put the moves on you in the ocean?” Rose whispers loudly, cupping her hand around her mouth like she doesn’t want anyone to hear. If she doesn’t want anyone to hear, she really shouldn’t whisper-shout it.

I scratch my head. “Kind of.” I’m still a little confused about it.

“What did he say to you?” Amber asks.

“I think he asked me out, but I’m not completely sure. He’s coming over at eight.” I shrug. My face is on fire with all the scrutiny.

“Huh,” Amber grunts.

“What’s that noise for?”

“Nothing.”

I shove her shoulder. “Tell me.”

“It’s just…” She looks at Rose like she wants permission. Rose just raises her eyebrows. “It’s just that he hasn’t wanted a girlfriend since the accident.” She raises one finger. “Hookups, yes. Girlfriend, no.”

“What accident?” I ask.

“Oh my God!” Rose shrieks. “You didn’t know?”

I throw my hands up. “Know what?”

“His mom and dad died two years ago. In a boating accident.”

My heart trips a beat. “I had no idea.” I look in the direction he went, ready to go after him and ask him why no one had told me. I would have… What would I have done? Probably nothing.

“I thought your mom would have told you.”

I shake my head. “My mom and I don’t talk.” I lift my fingernail to my mouth and nibble on it. “So, who takes care of him?” I ask. I have so many questions.

“He lived with his uncle for a while. But when he was almost seventeen, he applied for emancipation and got it. So he was officially an adult before he started his senior year of high school. He lives with a couple of roommates in his mom and dad’s old place.”

“So that’s why he’s mowing our grass.” I am shocked. Dumbfounded.

“And working at the marina. And at the surf shop. And he works at the water park some too. He works all the time.”

“Is he going to college?”

Amber shakes her head. “He didn’t say anything about it last night.”

“At the beach blast?” There’s a party every year. I just missed it, I guess.

Amber nods. “He was the DJ.” She laughs. “I know. One of his many jobs.” Her face softens. “He’s had a hard time since they’ve been gone,” she says quietly. “So I’m kind of surprised that he was so affectionate with you, particularly since he hasn’t seen you in so long.”

Yeah. Me too.

“So what are you going to wear tonight?” Rose asks.

“I don’t even know what we’re going to be doing.”

“We should go look through what you brought and pick something out.”

“I still have about eight hours until the date.”

“Exactly.” Amber and Red wear identical expressions of surprise. “We might have to go shopping!” Amber pats my knee and gets up, dusting her hands together as she walks toward my deck. I have no choice but to follow.

As I walk by the neighbor, he tosses up his hand and smiles shyly at me. I wave back. What else am I supposed to do?

Nick

The house that Mrs. Michaels owns is huge. And there’s an even bigger one on the left, and the one that the douche is staying in is on the right. As I walk around the corner of the house, I stumble to a stop when I see a group of men unloading a truck. They’re all blonds and they have tattoos everywhere. One of them looks up at me and lifts his hand.

“Hi,” I say, and I jog over to them. “Do you need some help?”

They have the back of a truck completely loaded with coolers, suitcases, and baby stuff. Baby stuff? “I don’t think so,” the biggest one says. He looks familiar to me, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him.

I stick out my hand. “I’m Nick.”

He reaches out and takes my hand as the others keep hauling things into the house. “Paul,” he says.

Then it hits me. I know who they are. Holy shit. I look toward the door the other ones went through. They’re the Reeds from that new reality TV show. “Seriously?” I say. A grin that is probably the cheesiest thing ever tugs at my lips.