Page 107 of Only Between Us

Parker finishes slotting the picture frames into a box and plops down on the sofa, propping his feet on the coffee table. “Still can’t believe you’re moving her into your place. You’re going to pretty great lengths to trick her into a relationship.” Parker’s gaze cuts to Shy. “For the record, she’d be lucky to have him.”

“He’d be lucky to have her,” Shy counters.

I tape up the box of plates and move into the living room to sit next to Parker. “I’m not trying to trick her into anything. I just want her to wake up one day and feel like she can’t live without me.”

“I think it’s sweet that you’re moving her in.” Summer joins us on the couch. “That’s the dream. A hot, rich, knight in shining armor who becomes obsessed with you, threatens your creepy landlord within an inch of his life, and moves you into his ranch-style mansion.”

“Hot and rich? Is that your criteria?” Parker asks.

“At this point, my criteria isman. I haven’t been on a date in months.”

For better or worse, our group has been consistently single for years. It’s been impossible to feel lonely when we’re in it together, able to keep each other company. But these moments seem to happen more often now. Zac followed Melody to the city. I’ve, quite frankly, become obsessed with Siena. Parker’s out doing… whoever Parker is doing that day.

And then there’s Summer. The unrelenting romantic, looking for her person despite the ex who decided marriage wasn’t in the cards for him, only to turn around and get engaged months after their breakup. Despite the weird blind dates and terrible luck on apps.

“Maybe Siena knows someone,” Parker tells Summer.

“Oh!” Shy snaps her fingers, securing her squirming daughter to the counter with her other arm. “How do you feel about guys named Aidan? We grew up with him, and he’s big on surfing, too—you could go together!”

Summer wrinkles her nose. “Isn’t that the guy Siena was hooking up with before Brooks?”

Fucking Aidan. “He’s all right,” I concede.

Summer gives a mournful shake of her head. “Don’t worry about me. You all go on being loved up. Or whatever it is you do in that apartment, Park.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

My laugh quickly turns into a cough when he shoots me a look across Summer. In a small town like Oakwood, I’m devastated to say I’ve heard stories about the kind of stuff Parker apparently gets up to.

Summer doesn’t seem to be afflicted by awkward. With an unrepentant smirk, she brings her wrists together and extends her arms toward him, as though waiting to get handcuffed.

Parker’s gaze bounces from her face to her wrists and back again. And then… his jaw tenses. Just for a split second, before he blinks it away with a disturbed shake of his head.

Uh. What the fuck was that?

Summer is laughing to herself, completely oblivious to the look he just gave her. Shy seems to have caught it, though, staring between them with calculating interest.

When she catches my eye, she mouths, “Are they…?” She pinches together the tips of her forefinger and thumb and pokes her other forefinger through the hole. The universal hand signal for fucking.

I shake my head. The two of them have always been close—damn near inseparable since I met them in college. It makes sense, given they work together, live across the street from each other, and have been friends since their preschool days. But I’ve never noticed anything remotely close to… whatever that look was.

“I’m going to get a few waves in while the sun’s out.” Summer heaves herself off the couch with a grunt that’s completely unnecessary, seeing as she’s in even better shape than I am. Parker digs into his pocket and tosses her the key to his Jeep, which she drives whenever she’s towing around her surfboard. Summer pulls her own carkeys out of her purse and hands them to him. “Thanks. Brooks, I can be over later to help unpack Siena’s stuff.”

“I owe you one, Sum.”

“No, you don’t. Just do me a favor and get the girl. You deserve it.” She waves me and Shy a goodbye. Then playfully clips Parker in the shin, bobbing and weaving to dodge his responding nudge.

“Sit the fuck still and take it.” Parker catches the back of her shirt to hold her in place and delivers the tap back. Summer laughs.

“Bye-bye, kids,” she singsongs on her way to Siena’s front door, blowing Rosie a kiss on the way.

Shy turns to Parker the second the door shuts. “So, I get we just met. But I’m nosy enough to ask anyway. How long have you been into Summer?”

Parker scrolls idly through his phone. “Brooks is moving Siena into his house. What makes you think he’s into Summer?” He does a double take when he sees us both staring. “What?”

Shy laughs. “I wasn’t talking about Brooks.”

His brows shoot up his forehead. “I’m not into Summer.”

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