Page 2 of Liberty

I groaned. “Okay, okay. Fine. The beach will be a distraction.”

She smiled. “Exactly. You’ll have a week to detox, and then you’re going to block him on all social media and move on.”

“Okay. All right. Detox, then block him. I got it.”

Kylee nodded. She went quiet for a moment, then smiled. “And if you find a guy to hook up with, you should go for it.”

“What?” I looked at her, mouth half-open. “No! I’m not—I’m not just gonna hook up with a stranger!”

“Why not? Use a condom and don’t get attached. Cut loose a little.”

“It’s only been six months!”

“Six months is plenty of time, Libby, c’mon.” Kylee laughed. “Don’t be a prude.”

“I’m just—I don’t know. I’m not really the type for a hookup.”

Kylee huffed. “You’ve gotta learn to have fun, girl.”

“I have plenty of fun! I’m so fun to be around!”

“Yeah, I mean, you are, but…”

“But what?”

“But please don’t tell me you plan to spend the whole vacation reading by the beach.”

That had definitely been my plan. I had four paperbacks in my suitcase and planned to tear through them all in the next seven days.

“What’s wrong with wanting to read?”

Kylee groaned. “Nothing, just…we’re going to do some other stuff, too. Okay? They have surfing and snorkeling and boat trips. We should do some of that.”

“All right. Snorkeling sounds cool. I do like fish.”

“Snorkeling, all right. I’ll get us signed up for one of the trips when we get there.”

“Cool. Thanks, Kylee.”

“No problem.”

* * * * *

The rest of the drive was fine. We stopped at a truck stop diner around three a.m. to eat, and I napped in the car for a little while. I woke as we got into Gulf Shores, and stayed awake to help Kylee navigate to the resort.

We turned into the parking lot where the GPS told us.

Kylee slowed the car, frowning. “Whoa. Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

I looked up, squinting through the low light. Every car I could make out looked old. Vintage. Classic. The kind of car men loved to put money into and drive around with other guys who had classic cars.

It was kind of cool.

“It says we are,” I said. “The sign back there said Gulf Retreat, right? That’s the place?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t expect all these fancy cars.” Kylee shrugged. “Let’s find a spot, huh? Sun’s gonna rise soon. We should watch it.”

“That sounds good. And then I’m sleeping all day.”

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