Page 37 of One Last Time

Noah was quiet.

Maybe a little too quiet.

My hand stilled against his chest. Hadn’t he been talking about us maybe living together just a couple of days ago? Had I gotten it completely wrong somehow? Was it because I’d taken his side of the bed?

“Elle?”

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t…I mean, you didn’t pick Harvard just because of me, right?”

“Someone’sfull of himself,” I said, trying to joke and desperately trying to ignore the uneasiness gnawing at the back of my mind. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s obviously an added bonus that you’re there, but…no, Noah. I maybeappliedbecause you were there, but I didn’t pick it because of you.”

He let out a long, deep sigh. “Okay. Yeah. I mean, obviously. Sure.”

“Let me guess,” I said, tilting my head back to raise my eyebrows at him. “Amanda?”

“Rachel, actually. We were talking about you and Lee doing this whole bucket-list thing and you not going to Berkeley, and…I don’t know, I guess she just got me thinking that…”

“That my life revolves around you?”

“That maybe you put me and Lee and your brother and your dad in front of yourself sometimes,” he said quietly, unusually serious, sounding so at odds with my chilled-out mood from a moment ago.

Now it was my turn to be quiet for a little too long.

“I don’t do that.”

“Well, yeah, I…I know, and I’m not trying to say…”

“So whatareyou trying to say, Noah?” I snapped, sitting up now, resting back on my ankles and fixing him with a hard look.

Noah sighed again, but this time he was more exasperated. He kept his eyes on the opposite wall, and I saw him clench his jaw before taking a deep, quiet breath and looking back at me again. He reached to squeeze my hand, and even though he smiled, it looked a little forced. “Nothing, Elle. It doesn’t matter.”

It felt like it so obviouslydidmatter, but…

Honestly, I didn’t want to fight with him right now.

So I let it go and snuggled back into his side, and he kissed the top of my head.

“I was thinking we could go to the beach tomorrow,” he said softly, almost cautiously. “Hang out for a couple hours before we have to get started on some of Mom and Dad’s chores. Have you seen the list my mom emailed us? And I thought this summer was gonna be relaxing.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. And sure, beach sounds good.”

I knew it was an olive branch, but I was willing to take it. After all, we were only on day two of our summer living together at the beach house. Nowaywas I going to pick a fight so soon, especially when it sounded like he was just trying to look out for me—in his own weird way.

“I really am looking forward to you being at Harvard, Elle,” he told me.

“You’d better be, jerk.”

But I turned around and leaned up to kiss him.

Chapter Fourteen

A couple days later, I had my first shift at Dunes. I got a uniform and May started me off slow. It wasn’t too tricky to get the hang of being a server—and it helped that I knew their menu inside and out. I spilled a couple drinks onto trays, but May didn’t seem to mind.

“Happens to everyone at first,” she told me. “And, hey, at least you didn’t spill one on a customer! I did that when I first started waitressing.”

“The day is young, May, the day is young. Please don’t jinx me.”