Page 19 of Holiday Tides

She blinks, her unadorned blonde lashes sparkling in the sunlight. “I don’t know. I could ask my mom.”

“Would you?” I begin walking again. “I’d appreciate it.”

“And that’s it?” She catches up in a few quick strides. “It’s about the house, not me. You’re just really into residential home repair.”

A genuine smile curls my mouth. “Working for WB Renovations is the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Summer worries her bottom lip. “This isn’t some revenge plan? You’re not going to put Kool-Aid in my pipes, or shut off my electricity, or take my precious, precious hot water away?”

I laugh. “Revenge for what, Summer?”

She opens her mouth before closing it again.

We continue walking, a peaceful silence between us now. Cargo ships hover in the distance, ready to enter the Chesapeake Bay to be unloaded along the harbor. The clouds are so perfect they look like they’ve been painted there.

“So,” Summer begins, “you’re like the people onThis Old House?”

“I wish.Tom Silva is my spirit animal.”

Summer chuckles, shaking her head again. “You’re right. A lot has changed over the years.”

“We should spend the short while that we’re unofficial neighbors reacquainting,” I suggest, keeping my voice even while my heart spins in my chest. “I’m only on this site until the 20th.”

After which, I’ll still be living and working in Wilks Beach, but Summer doesn’t need to know those specifics now.

“What do you say? Should we bury the hatchet? Let bygones be bygones? Wipe the slate clean?” I toss each iteration out like fluff, knowing she’d distrust the sincerity coursing through my veins. I can’t take the chance of Summer shutting me out like she did years ago.

She stops. “No more competing with each other?”

“Nope.”

Summer thinks for a beat before outstretching her hand. “The past is past. It’d be silly to hold onto it.”

I briefly grip her cold fingers when I really want to bring them to my lips and then tuck them into the pockets of my vest.

“Glad you’re finally seeing things from the correct point of view.” I can’t help but get one last comment in before we start fresh.

A devious twinkle lights her blue eyes. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you get started on that fireplace tonight…”

The way she licks her lips before they slowly slide into a wicked grin has me utterly distracted. It takes entirely too long to process the rest of Summer’s sentence.

“…if you beat me home.”

A dozen of Summer’s footprints litter the packed wet sand as she sprints ahead of me, ten times faster than she’d beenrunning before. I’m athletic and surf nearly every day, but it’s clear after a few seconds, I won’t catch her. Summer’s wide, toothy smile beams at me as she turns up the walkway, barely slowing her breakneck pace.

I slow to a jog, grinning like a lunatic. “Stubborn Summer.”

thirteen

Summer

Nick

Now that I’m no longer the villain in your dramatic Lifetime movie, can I please have access to that fireplace?

Nick

Summer.

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