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the shame on her face and the pain in her voice was absolutely not faked.

She probably just had been looking for a job. She hadn’t thought to check

who ran the place until she got hired. If she’d applied at lots of places, and

it sounded like she had, it made sense. The whole thing with her parents

wasn’t faked. No one would talk about something like that unless it had

actually happened. When they’d picked Arabella up that morning, she was

right. The neighborhood was seedy, even at eight in the morning.

Summer shot June a funny look, but June ignored it. If she didn’t want

Arabella to come boating with them, then she damn well shouldn’t have

invited her. June definitely wasn’t up for shitty vengeful pranks like pushing

Arabella off the edge.

“Yeah, alright,” June said. They needed to do something to escape the

heat. There wasn’t a cloud in sight and the cabin was rustic, with nothing

but a small air conditioner sticking out the kitchen window. They c

ouldn’t

swim in the shallow part right off the small beach or they’d end up full of

weeds and leaches.

“Yay!” Summer threw her towel down and ran down the beach. She

jumped over the small rock pile and her feet hit the deck hard. Her steps

echoed as she ran, and she laughed as she reached the old aluminum boat

and started untying it.

June kept her eyes on her towel as she folded it and set it on the rocks at

the far side. She stepped over them and walked to the boat. It might have

been ancient, but it was still a console drive, and since Summer had grown

up at the cabin, she was well versed in driving it. The seats were old and

peeling and when it got hot, they burned skin and stuck to sweaty

appendages, but the old beast could get going, and at the moment,

movement to get out of the still, humid air seemed like the most appealing

option.

Arabella stepped on daintily and took the seat behind Summer, facing the