Page 25 of Same Time Next Summer

“You’re up early,” my mom says, joining me with Granny and three cups of coffee. She tilts her head toward the music. “Nice thing to wake up to.” It was the wrong thing to say. Ifeel the innuendo in my gut; she must see it on my face. “I just mean the music.” Granny stifles a laugh.

“I know. It’s just so disorienting. I feel like I’ve walked into an old photo album. How is it possible that he’s here and he’s exactly the same, doing all the same things?”

“He’s not exactly the same. Just because he’s wearing the same clothes and playing the same guitar doesn’t mean he hasn’t grown up,” my mom says.

“I guess.”

“And it really has been a long time. Maybe you two could be friends.”

“No chance,” says Granny.

I give her an eye-roll. “Of course we could be friends.”

“So what are we going to do about this singer he’s seeing?” Granny asks.

“Nothing. Because I’m getting married, remember?”

“That’s right,” says Granny, like I’ve jogged her memory. “That Jack is awfully handsome, might get on my nerves after a while.” My mom and I laugh because that’s just so Granny. She’s suspicious of shiny things.

Wyatt stops playing, and we look out at the water. “I adore Jack,” my mom says. Here we go. “But I think you should try to talk things through with Wyatt before you get married, put the whole thing behind you so he’s not some kind of fantasy lurking in your head. Jack is the sort of man I’ve dreamed of you marrying, but you don’t want to start a marriage with any doubts.”

“Did you?”

“No, not a single one. From our third date, I thought I’d die if I didn’t marry your dad.”

Granny leans in. “She was obsessed.”

“I was,” my mom says. “And that’s not always a healthy kind of love.”

“I say it’s the only kind,” says Granny.

My mom smiles at Granny. “Maybe,” she says. What she doesn’t say is that it’s dangerous and can completely destroy you. What she doesn’t say is that she would throw her body into a raging fire before ever seeing me hurt again.

“Never forget that I can see inside your head,” she says, and actually pokes my nose like I’m six. “There’s a little flicker there that I find mildly disturbing. For sure you should marry Jack, but clear the air with Wyatt first.”

“There’s no flicker.”

“Oh, there’s a flicker all right,” Granny laughs. I really can’t stand these two right now.

THEN

29

Sam

“Anybody want to swim down to the cove for sunset?” asked Sam. There were ten of them on the beach, including Travis and Michael.

“It’s too far,” said Travis. “I’m worn out already.”

“We’ll take breaks,” Sam said.

“Don’t believe her,” said Wyatt. “She doesn’t take breaks.”

Sam looked up at the sky. “We only have about twenty minutes. Who’s in?” Sam was on her feet and could already feel the pull of the ocean. She could feel the cool water on her skin and hear the muffled sound of her own strokes. Wyatt was the only one who stood up.

“All right, Sam, but we’re walking back. I swear you’re going to break me.”

Sam smiled and ran into the ocean. As she started to swim, she lost track of Wyatt. She didn’t know if he was ahead of her or behind her, but she knew he was there. She tried to push the recurring thought away—in a few weeks he would be back in Illinois for his senior year. She’d beback in the city with friends who could never appreciate how completely she’d been transformed. She’d take the ACT, she’d finish junior year. And it would be summer again. She could do this, she thought, arms cutting through the water. Wyatt had said forever.

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