Page 7 of Sweet Summer

“That’s a dangerous grin.” Maisey nudges me in the ribs. “What are you thinking about?”

Against my better judgement, I tell her. “Potatoes,” I say with a sigh.

“That’s my girl!” she exclaims as she turns in her seat. “I’ve been waiting for this very moment for years. Wait—as long as potatoes really do mean Wyatt?”

“Maisey, calm down.” I laugh. The woman loves love, who can blame her? “I just got back, I’m in the middle of moving home, and I see my old friend who is suddenly really hot and built like a brick wall…what happened?”

“The Lake Lorelei Fire Department, that’s what happened.” She chuckles as she kicks the water with her feet. “Wyatt decided last year he wanted to join. He had to go through a couple of weeks of workshops to make sure he was fit enough to pass muster. He realized he wasn’t as good of form nor as strong as he wanted to be, so he hit the gym harder while taking his classes.”

“Well, it paid off,” I murmur, rattling the ice cubes in my own glass and thinking back to the skinny, scrawny guy I used to know who could barely manage a pull-up. The instant I think about Wyatt as a fireman, all bulked up and ready to carry me out of a burning building, I shudder with excitement. I wonder what his abs look like? I bet I could grate cheese on them.

For the love of everything, why am I thinking this would be a good idea now?

“He’s ripped, and the ladies around here have beennoticing him a lot more often, I can tell you that. Good thing you’re back to stake your claim.”

“Maisey!” I all but spit out my drink. Do I even have a claim to stake? “Look, I’ve dated Wyatt’s friends, not Wyatt. He’s the guy who lets me hog the popcorn when we go to the movies, or if we’re at dinner and I have food in my teeth, I’m not stressed because it’s Wyatt. He’s the friend who is always there—he’s not the dating type.”

I turn to Maisey, certain she will understand now, especially after hearing my sane reasoning. Only I find her biting her lower lip to keep from laughing. I love this woman, but man, she can be irritating.

“What? He’s my friend. Don’t try to make it more than what it is.”

“Oh, my poor girl. You don’t get it, do you?” Maisey shakes her head from side to side as she leans over and slips her arm around me. “I think it’s time I let you in on a secret.”

I roll my eyes. So hard it hurts. ”What’s that?”

“I can see what you don’t, and what I see is a boy who has been in love with a girl for years. And the girl? She’s so focused on everything else she never saw the boy.”

“Now you’re making things up. He’s never been in love with me. He tried to kiss me, but he was confused. We were young.” I groan before continuing. “Lest we forget, I had a crush on Wyatt––I was just quiet about it until I got over it.”

“Oh please, like you could ever get over that kind of crush.” She hoots and waves her hand, as if dismissing me. “Doesn’t matter. That boy showed up even if you were grounded, to watch TV, play board games, or ask your parents if you were allowed to go for a walk.”

“He was being my friend, not trying to be my boyfriend.” I shake my head, this time with more vigor. Maisey is simply imagining things.

“What about that time when he brought you that ridiculous balloon bouquet?”

Itwasridiculous. About twenty helium balloons, all in a rainbow of color, and three of them were Tweety birds. It was so weird, but it made us laugh really hard. “He did that because I broke up with his friend, Brent, and I was a mess. A sobbing mess and he felt bad. The end.”

“Mmm-hmmm. And when Brent tried to get back together?”

I didn’t quite get where this was going. “Wyatt wouldn’t let me, he knew Brent was seeing someone else, so he told me about it.”

“So, he was protecting you?”

“He was being a good person.” I fight to keep the exasperation out of my voice. “He didn’t want his friend to be hurt again, that’s all.”

“But he was always around! Even when you were sick that summer and had to get emergency surgery for your appendix. Who was the one person who found a way to the hospital every day so he could hang out with you?”

This time, I didn’t have a comeback. She was right: he was at the hospital, and then right after, when I was at home recovering, he was here at my grandmother’s with me.

Every memory from that time featured Wyatt, that was for sure.

Maisey takes this opportune moment to press her lips closer to my ear. “And you think I’m reading into this?”

“Yes, I do.” I jump up and untangle myself from her embrace and shake her words off. I’m already dealing with my own feelings bubbling to the surface, and I know I’m not ready to hear that she or anyone else thinks Wyatt and I are like two ships passing in the night. Especially not after feeling the electrical current go through him and slam straight into me earlier today. I can’t control the shudder that envelopes my body as I think back to when he wrapped his armsaround me to help steady the tray. There’s an appeal to that man, and my body is responding—in a way that I can’t help and don’t want to stop.

I look down at my watch and realize I need to get ready, Wyatt is going to be here soon. Even though Maisey has me thinking about him completely differently than I have in ages, I need to pack this bag, zipandlock it, and put it away now. “It’s a shame we don’t have time to discuss my love life, or lack of one, any further.” Yes, my voice oozes sarcasm. “Wyatt is going to be here in about an hour to hang out.”

Maisey shrugs and sighs, turning around in her seat away from me to face the lake once more. “You’d better get a move on and get your butt up to the house and shower. You smell like tuna melts and french fries.”

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