Page 78 of One Last Summer
But Mack not telling me about turning down Steve and Marla’s offer was something I couldn’t quite square as easily, especially against our last few days together. I’d thought I’d gotten the most authentic side of him, but maybe he’d just charmed me like he did everyone else. Whatever his reason for not telling me, the fact that he’d skated around it stung.
I cracked open the swinging kitchen door and caught sight of him sitting gamely at one of the giant circular dining tables, hands behind his head as he laughed at something Sam was saying. The longer the minutes ticked by, the more the ice cream on the cart in front of me morphed into liquid.
I couldn’t avoid him any longer.
“All right, everybody!” I barreled out of the kitchen pushing the massive, industrial-size food cart. The day’s heat—and the general lack of air-conditioning in every building at Pine Lake—had left my tank top damp and my hair glued to the back of my neck. I hadn’t expected to break a sweat prepping for a dessert party, but then again, I’d also gone overboard.
I’d put together a spread fit for seventy people, as opposed to seven: quarts of Brigham’s ice cream and sherbet, plus every topping imaginable—sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and a giant glass jar overflowing with maraschino cherries. I’d triumphantly dug out an old container of Oreos from the kitchen pantry, and Eloise and Linus had picked up a giant plastic box of cupcakes from the General Store, plus a container of brownies.
“Remember, we’re playing truth or dare,” Eloise said as she dug into a tub of vanilla, scooping a softball-sized amount into Linus’s bowl.
“You go first then,” Sam said, reaching for the sherbet as she popped a cherry into her mouth.
“Okay.” Eloise looked up, a bottle of chocolate syrup squeezed between her hands. “Clara, truth or dare.”
“Dare,” I said quickly.
A smile spread across her face. “I dare you to dump this bottle on your head.”
“Seriously?” I countered. “You don’t want me to try to jump from table to table, or something like that?”
She nodded her head, a wicked grin on her face.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll do it.” She tossed the bottle at me, and I caught it with two hands, giving it a shake. I held it over my head and squeezed, and a spray of gooey brown spluttered all over my face.
“Oh, shit!” Nick cackled as Sam watched me, mouth in an O. “I’m impressed, Clara.”
I wiped a stream of chocolate out of my eye and flung it in his direction, splattering it across his shirt.
It dawned on me that now was my chance to get the truth out of Mack about what Marla had told me.
“Mack—truth or dare.”
“Truth,” Mack said finally.
“Why didn’t you tell us that Steve and Marla wanted you to take over Pine Lake, and you turned them down?”
I tried to keep my voice casual, but I could feel the hurt etching lines across my face. He hadn’t told me, and I wanted to know why.
“Whoa,” Trey said as Nick opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again as if he kept finding and losing his words.
“Wait, seriously?” Sam asked, dumbfounded, as Eloise smacked her hands down on the table, jolting our bowls.
“I knew it!” she shrieked.
“Oh really, El, you knew?” Trey teased. “You haven’t been paying attention to anything but your boyfriend all week.”
“Honey, why are you picking on her?” Nick asked, finally discovering his voice again. Across the table, Linus calmly removed his glasses and rubbed them clean with a corner of his T-shirt before setting them back on the bridge of his nose, his expression unmoving as he studied them.
“I’m not picking on anyone. I’m—” Trey was cut off by the slap of vanilla ice cream hitting his face.
Linus’s hand was still in the bowl when Trey turned toward him, furious.
“What the fuck, mate?” he spat.
“Wow, Linus,” Mack said, sounding both taken aback and impressed. “You starting a food fight, man?”
“Okay, I think we all need to take a pause,” Sam said, slowly standing with her hands outstretched, as if she could capture this ferocious energy, shove it back in its cage.
