Page 7 of Liberty

She stopped and smiled. “Hey, that was fast.”

Libby hurried to my side. “Yeah. I’ll tell you all about it in a sec. You’ll laugh so hard. But, uh, Kylee? This is Cooper. Cooper, this is Kylee. My best friend.”

Kylee and I shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “Oh, hey, you’re the surfer from this morning!”

I laughed. “Yeah, that was me. Welcome to the resort.”

“Welcome, indeed.” She glanced at Libby.

I cleared my throat. “Well. I hope I’ll see you both at the barbecue tonight?”

“Oh, definitely.” Kylee nodded. “We’ll be there. Promise.”

“Well, good.” I nodded. “I’ll see you soon, then.”

I glanced back at Libby once more, then left the room.

Chapter Three

Libby

“Oh myGod, Libby!” Kylee said.

“I—What?”

“You got the hot guy up here!”

“He—what? No! He’s the maintenance guy!”

“So? He’s super-hot and he was super into you.” She waggled her eyebrows.

I shook my head. “You’re making stuff up.”

“I am not! He kept looking at you. And I know that look.”

“Kylee, c’mon. Calm down. It’s—it’s nothing.”

“It’s definitely something.” Kylee grinned. “We’re going to the barbecue, right?”

I shrugged. “I guess? Sure?”

“Good!” Kylee laughed, taking my arm. “Let’s go for a quick swim and then take a nap. Oh, right—what happened with the AC?”

I looked at her, as deadpan as I could manage. “We hadn’t turned it on.”

“We…what?”

“It was off, Kylee. We called maintenance before we even turned it on.”

Kylee looked at me in stunned silence, then burst into laughter.

I laughed, too.

* * * * *

The barbecue was busy.

It felt like every room in the resort had sold. Everywhere I turned, there were more people.

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