Page 35 of The Pact

What if for some reason she decided that she likes the others but not me? She keeps avoiding my gaze, I’ve been trying to meet her eyes in the rear view mirror the whole way from downtown Shell Cove.

What if she’s another Theresa?

Bode’s place is a modern house all made of glass and open spaces. It’s right on the beach with steps that from the deck out back lead directly onto the sand.

It isn’t a mansion like Ashton’s house but it’s definitely way nicer than anything I’ve ever lived in.

“Wow, you have a really cool place!” Ausra says taking her shoes off and stepping onto the deck.

I rush to her side to move a chair for her at the outdoor table that’s right on the edge of the deck.

She sits down, thanking me with a nod of her blonde head.

I take a seat next to her and Bode occupies the one on the other side of her, leaving Shep and Ashton to sit opposite us.

“It isn’t technically my place,” Bode explains. “It’s my parents’. But my dad has just been assigned to Korea for a year. It isn’t always possible to be allowed to take your spouse with you to those duty stations, but my parents were lucky. I’m about to start college in the fall, so I decided to stay behind.”

Shep chuckles. “That’s right. We all lucked out that Bode has the place to himself. Since his parents left about a month ago, I think I’ve stayed here more than at my place.”

The guys take out the Mexican food they got at the drive through and offer Ausra a couple of steak tacos and fries. Rather than soda, Bode brings a huge pitcher of sweet tea and we all eat quietly for a few minutes.

I’ve always loved Bode’s house. This stretch of beach isn’t private like at Ashton’s but we’re on the outskirts of Shell Cove, so it’s not as fully populated as the areas closer to downtown and it’s still pretty quiet.

“Aren’t you going to finish that?” Shep asks Ausra when she tosses the wrapper of her first taco into the empty bag we put in the middle of the table but doesn’t move to unwrap her second one.

She smiles, offering him the taco. “No, thank you. I’m full. It was really good though.”

Shep starts eating enthusiastically and we all rib him about being a human dumpster.

“Hey,” he protests. “I need fuel. Coach doubled my conditioning because I decided to try to place in two more categories this year. I don’t have to tell you that college is way more competitive and that once we’re out of the under eighteen categories, we all need to work harder. After all, we aren’t all naturally talented like Kelley.”

I smirk at him. “I know y’all can’t accept that despite never having seen a windsurfing board until middle school, I caught up with you in mere months.”

My words seem to capture Ausra’s attention. “How come you didn’t start at the same time as the others?”

I offer her my most charming Texas accent. “My mom moved us here about ten years ago. A fresh start after she divorced my dad. But I grew up in Texas.”

“Me too!” She beams. “But you’ve lost most of your accent.”

I shrug. “Yeah, fuck. I had to so these dipshits here would stop making me repeat everything I said, because they didn’t understand me.”

Her smile widens. “It happened to me too. My family moved to California about a year after you. Nine years ago. And at school everyone kept saying I sounded weird.”

We talk about where we grew up and surprisingly, we grew up about ten miles away from each other.

“Isn’t it strange that we never met in Texas but that we had to move to California to bump into each other?” I say.

“I think it’s even stranger that none of us ever met Ausra before a couple of days ago and we’ve all been living in Shell Cove for almost a decade,” Bode observes. “We aren’t as small as Star Cove but we’re far from a huge place.”

Ashton agrees. “You’re right. But however we met, I’m fucking glad we did.”

He keeps his eyes on her when he says that and I see Ausra squirm under his gaze. There’s something about her, in the way she blushes that makes me want to constantly touch her. Whether it’s by kissing her, or holding her hand, or tucking a strand of that silky blonde hair behind her ear.

Bode and I exchange a look. I nod. I think it’s time to ask her what we brought her here for. And I think Bode is the best between us to start the conversation.

“We all like you, Ausra,” he says with an easy smile. “And I think you like us too? We had fun last night at the party, didn’t we?”

Fucker! The glint in his eyes tells me that something more than kissing must’ve happened between them. They were gone for quite a while after all.

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