Page 51 of One Last Time

“Change of plans. How wouldyoulike to come spend the night at the beach house?”

Brad gasped and threw himself across the sofa, kneeling on it to beam at me with wide eyes. “You mean it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Wait…” Brad’s eyes narrowed, his smile turning into a pout as he looked at me suspiciously. “Is this a trick?”

“Oh, come on. When do I ever trick you?”

“Hmm…” He thought on it for a minute but eventually decided that even if itwasa trick somehow, it’d be worth it. “Okay! Awesome! I’ll go grab my stuff!”

I’d picked up milk and peanut butter, knowing we were running low from last time I was home. But when I opened the refrigerator, I saw milk there already.

Huh. Weird. Maybe we’d had an extra bottle in the fridge and I’d not noticed.

I put it in there anyway and opened the cupboard to put the peanut butter away.

Evenweirder,there was a brand-new jar there already, and it wasn’t our usual brand. I stared at it for a second, trying to work out what the hell was going on. We always got the reduced-fat one with the blue lid—it was the one Mom always bought, but we’d switched to the low-fat option a year or two ago.

Why had Dad suddenly switched brands now? Besides, I’d thought he was expecting me to buy some.

I drifted out into the hallway.

“Hey, uh, Brad?” I yelled up the stairs.

“Yeah?” He popped out of his room and into view. “You haven’t decided I can’t come to the beach house, have you?”

“No,” I reassured him. “Where’d the peanut butter come from?”

“What?”

I held up the jar to show him.

“Oh! Linda bought it.”

He vanished back into his room and I stared blankly ahead for a second before going upstairs, following him. “What do you mean,Linda bought it?”

First the wine and the staying overnight and now this?

“Uh-huh. We went to get groceries yesterday after camp.”

“She…picked you up from camp?”

“Uh-huh,” Brad said again. “How many swim shorts do you think I need, Elle?”

“Just one pair,” I told him absently.

Linda had picked him up from camp? She’d taken him grocery shopping? What the hell?

Why hadn’t I met her? Brad had met her a couple of times now. That seemed like—

“Kind of a big deal, right? And if Brad needed picking up from camp, why didn’t Dad tell me? I could’ve done that,” I complained on the phone.

“Weren’t you working yesterday?”

“That’s not thepoint,Levi!”

Finally, I paused for breath. I’d shut myself out on the porch to call Levi to catch up, while Brad was packing way too much stuff for just one night.