Page 7 of Only in Your Dreams

“Shut up,” I grumble under my breath. “I can’t wait to pay you back for this.”

Turns out, Parker wins in the stubborn department. No amount of moaning and groaning last night got this camping idea out of his head, and as we surface out onto the street from Parker’s apartment, we find Summer’s car already waiting at the curb.

It’s really a funny town, Oakwood. Its personality is a cross between devoted college football town, and docile catch-all for the much larger, surrounding coastal fishing towns. Aside from UOB, which brings in students from up and down the coast, our schools are mostly populated by kids from bordering towns who live too close to the outskirts to qualify for their own school system. Our single inn is constantly booked out by tourists who waited too long into the fishing season to get a spot anywhere else. And in the summer and holidays, the town’s population plummets to barely anything once UOB breaks, and students head home.

And though it’s named after the bay, it’s not even really set on the water. You have to drive to the very perimeter of town to get anywhere near it.

The main strip itself is all colorful doors, cobblestone sidewalks and vintage streetlights, mostly occupied by a sweet corner diner and a handful of bait and tackle shops. Parker lives right over the top of Oakley’s Pub and immediately next door to Callie’s Shop, the one and only women’s boutique in town.

This town is far from awful, to be fair. I never resented the place until ten years ago.

The dread festering in the pit of my stomach since Parker foisted this trip on me is alive and well as we near Summer’s car. With a final scowl at Parker, I hike the backpack up my shoulder and slap it on.

The bright smile. The one Connor always said made me feelwarmer. More inviting.

Growing up, especially next to sunny Parker, I’d been told to perk up more times than I can remember. Connor used to work overtime trying to get me to smile. Trying to tickle me into laughter in that cutesy way of his.

Smile, Melly. It won’t kill you.

Cheer up, Melly. People are starving in other parts of the world. What do you have to be so serious about?

As if my cheerful mood would cause the heavens to open up and deliver food and water to the people who need it. It’s not like I’m perpetually upset. I just don’t see why I have to walk around with a beauty queen smile if I don’t particularly feel like giving one.

It seems to work now, though. Summer returns my grin, appraising me and Parker from the driver’s side window of her car.

“I can’t believe my eyes. Oakwood Bay, blessed with both Woods twins after all these years. Better batten down the hatches.”

I haven’t seen her in nearly nine months, not since Christmas, but Summer doesn’t look any different. The dark hair that hits just above her shoulders in a collection of messy waves. The tiny silver hoop piercing her nose.

The breadth of her smile as she leaves her car to pull me into a bone-crushing hug before pulling back to get a look at me.

“You going to church or something?”

“Oh, come on.” I look down at myself. “Do people wear leggings to church these days?”

“Couldn’t tell you. But I bet you’d see plenty of these sweaters in the pews.” She pinches my sleeve, feeling the fabric. “What is this, cashmere? You’re wearing this camping?”

I smooth a hand down my front. Summer’s wearing a pair of leggings and scrunched-up socks with a baggy sweatshirt that makes her look like she just walked off the set of an ancient Jane Fonda workout video. Mostly, though, she looks a hell of a lot comfier than me and my fitted cashmere top.

I can admit my sweater collection is lacking. But I moved back home for the sole purpose of saving money for my own place in the city. I don’t exactly have extra cash to spend on camp attire.

So, the so-called church outfit it is.

Summer nudges Parker by way of hello before hopping back into her car. My brother takes me by the shoulders and wheels me to the passenger door, like I am indeed a reluctant kindergartener.

“So, it’s true, then? You’re really back?” Summer asks as I slide into the seat beside her, letting Parker shut the door behind me.

“For now,” I say with a breath. “Just until I find a job that lets me afford to move back to the city alone.”

“What happened to the guy you were with?”

“He dumped her to fuck his way through a boys’ trip to South America,” Parker says promptly, dropping my backpack into the back seat. He taps the roof of the car, looking pleased as punch with himself despite the death glare I’m sending his way. “Have a good time, kids.”

Summer watches him saunter down the sidewalk, back to the nondescript blue door leading up to his apartment. “He broke up with you? When did that happen?”

I drop the coffee I brought for Summer into a cup holder, shaking up the green juice in my own travel bottle for no other reason than to buy myself time. I don’t care what Parker says. This is utterly humiliating. I’d been so proud of my life, proud that I managed to make it in another city on my own when everyone I knew stuck around Oakwood.

But I didn’t make it, did I?

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