Page 18 of One Last Time

“Uh, duh. Cliff jumping was mine, too.”

“Race day.” Then I pointed at another one. “Dude! Helium karaoke!” I giggled at the memory of how much fun we’d had with the broken karaoke machine.

“Forget that,” Lee said, laughing as he pointed at a different one. “We’d totally get arrested for this one.”

We shared a grin.

“Damn, Shelly,” he said quietly, looking back down at the list, wonder in his eyes. “We put together a solid bucket list back in the day. We thought we were gonna kick ass and rule the world.”

I laughed, putting the list back on top of the lunch box. “Hey, maybeyou’veretired now you’ve graduated high school, but there’s still plenty of time formeto kick ass and rule the world.”

I said it with way more confidence than I really felt, and my stomach twisted again as I thought of my phone and the ignored reminder to call Berkeley back, but Lee didn’t seem to notice. He just kept smiling at me.

Chapter Seven

“So did you guys make much progress?” June asked with a skeptical look at the cardboard boxes bound for charity shops and the meager few trash bags.

Rachel avoided June’s sharp gaze, ducking her head and biting her lip. Noah scoffed, but Lee cut him off quickly. “Tons,” he cried.

June looked at me, arms folded, one eyebrow arching.

“Yep. Definitely tons.”

“Mmm-hmm.” She turned her unimpressed look on Noah. “And I thoughtyouwere supposed to be supervising.”

“I was busy supervising a ladder for Dad while he inspected the gutters and pretended he knew what he was looking at.”

“Hey, watch it,” Matthew warned, shaking a finger jokingly at his son.

Noah rolled his eyes, casting a quick smile our way. “You put them in a room full of toys, Mom. What did you expect? When have youeverknown these two to turn down a pogo stick?”

Matthew laughed. “Boy’s got a point, honey.”

“Kids, look,” said June. “I know this is difficult, and I know you’re going to find all these nice childhood memories and toys, but I really need you to pull together and come through for me on this, okay? We really need to get this place sorted.”

I exchanged a look with Lee, both of us feeling just alittlebit guilty under this wave of parental disappointment. Especially when June looked sotired.I had to wonder if it was the weight of selling the beach house or if it was being busy all day.

“How long does it usually take to sell a house out here?” Rachel asked, clearly making an effort to defuse the tension.

It didn’t really work.

“We’ve still got to put it on the market,” Matthew said, “but we’ve already had a few inquiries. By the time we pack up and get it on the market…”

June added, “Surveys, paperwork…”

“Probably two or three months.” He nodded, sharing a small smile with his wife. “It’s gonna be a real pain coming back out here all the time, though.”

“Wait, what?” Lee asked, a frown tugging at his face.

“Well, we’ve gotta meet with the appraisers, surveyors, and contractors, obviously,” his dad explained. “Plus we were gonna get a few things fixed around here, just in case.”

Lee began to huff at the mere idea of it, but my brain had already kicked into gear.

A couple of months to sell the place…and we definitely weren’t gonna get packed up in just one or two afternoons, judging by how today had gone.

And neither me, Lee, nor Noah were anywhere near ready to say goodbye to this place just yet.

I elbowed Lee to get him to look at me. After a second, he cottoned on. I saw his eyes brighten and we shared a moment of being absolutely in sync with each other—like when we’d decided to run the kissing booth at the school’s Spring Carnival last year, where I’d first kissed Noah.