Page 16 of This Could be Love

Laurie’s hand shot to her fringe. “Yeah, since yesterday.” Her cheeks turned red. “I’m still getting used to it.”

“It looks great.”

Flattered, she smiled. For a moment neither of us said a thing. Then she said, “Listen. I wanted to apologize.”

That wasn’t something I had been counting on. “What for?”

“If it hadn’t been for me mentioning your godmother’s name, Vince never would have gotten so caught up in this whole thing. He definitely wouldn’t have made such a scene.” She rolled her eyes, and I felt a sense of relief.

“You couldn’t have known that.”

“Still.” She sighed heavily. “Everything really went downhill. I haven’t been here all that long myself and only caught bits and pieces in passing.” It wasn’t hard to see how much it was all still eating at her.

“Has he calmed down a bit in the meantime?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Was it that bad?”

I lowered my head. “He was kinda pissed.”

“I wanted to keep him from going, but he just stormed off when he got the letter.” Her eyes sank to her board. “So, like, well…I know the situation with Vince and your godmother is super complicated and all, but…that doesn’t have to come between the two of us, does it?”

Her “does it?” arrived a second later and with a touch of insecurity.

“No,” I answered firmly. “It doesn’t.”

Laurie looked relieved and put her chin to her board. Only now did I notice the colorful flowers decorating its surface. “Sadly, I can’t do much more than a bodyboard,” she said, misinterpretingmy glance and self-ironically shrugging. “Vince has tried to teach me how to surf a hundred times, but I’m hopeless. You ever tried?”

“To surf?” I shook my head and let myself slide into the water on my back.

“Standing up and staying up issohard,” she said with a sigh. “No idea how he…”

But I didn’t hear the rest thanks to a wave breaking over me from behind. Huffing and puffing, I laughed, while trying to wipe my hair out of my face.

“That would’ve been a funny photo.” Laurie pointed to my iPhone, which was hanging off my neck in a waterproof sleeve.

I dipped underwater for a second and then back up, so all my hair would hang down my back.

“Could you take one for me, please? My parents are constantly getting on my case for not sharing any in our WhatsApp group.” I rolled my eyes before realizing—too late—how insensitive my words had been. Laurie’s parents were dead and would never complain about anything to her ever again. To my relief she answered with a relaxed “of course” and lifted her hand.

“Your bikini is an awesome color, by the way,” she said, while aiming my phone. “Goes perfectly with your tan.”

Her compliment made me happy, and I returned it. Unlike Vince, she had a tendency to sunburn, and she was covered with a thick application of suntan lotion.

“So, about tonight… Do you all know if you’re going to show up or not?”

I looked at her questioningly.

“To our barbecue. I sent you and your godmother an invitation but didn’t hear anything back.”

Wait. Hadn’t Kay been talking about aparty? And why hadn’t she mentioned that we both had been invited?

“Youinvited us?” I asked, confused.

“On Vince’s behalf, of course. But inviting the neighbors was my idea. I thought it might be a good occasion…to smooth things out a bit.”

“And your brother agreed?”

She nodded. “It took a bit of convincing, but he realized that things can’t go on like this.”