Page 65 of Anyone But Her

"Act normal when you're around your family and avoid being alone with him."

"That's going to be hard to do."

"It's just for the summer, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's only a few months. After that he'll move out and you can date him."

"I'll be back at college by then. I won't be able to see him."

"We'll worry about that later. For now just take it one day at a time."

We talk a few minutes more, then end the call so I can start unpacking all my stuff from college. As I'm tossing clothes into a laundry pile my phone dings.

Checking the message, I see it's from Luke.

I miss you.

I smile. You saw me two hours ago.

Which is too long.

Smiling even more I text back, It's getting late. Why aren't you asleep?

Because my mind can't stop thinking about a girl.

Why can't you stop thinking about her?

Because she's beautiful. Smart. Athletic. Funny. Sweet. And an awesome golfer.

She sounds pretty great. Have you asked her out?

That's the thing. I'm not allowed to.

That's too bad.

His texting stops briefly and then the dots appear as he writes something.

Come over here.

I bite my lip, glancing out the back window at the guest house. It's tempting, but not a good idea.

I can't. We'll get caught.

Then meet me by the pool. We'll just sit and talk.

That might look bad if my parents see us.

We're allowed to talk. Your family knows we're friends. Friends talk.

As I'm trying to decide what to do, my mom knocks on my door.

"Come in," I say.

She opens the door halfway. "I'm going to bed. Your father and Cal are already asleep. They were tired from the trip." She looks at my stuff scattered all over the floor. "Honey, you don't have to unpack everything tonight."

"I wasn't tired so I thought I'd just work on it now."

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