Page 28 of That Summer Feeling

“That’s all it is. A story.”

She looked over at the water. “Then go Jet Ski with him! Turn the story into reality! Aren’t we supposed to be making the most of camp?”

I rolled my eyes the same way she had. The difference being I was already standing up. Far be it from me to turn down a suggestion from my sister.

“When are we cutting your hair?” I asked her before walking away.

“It’s not time yet,” she said.

“My only request is that you don’t wake me up in the middle of the night for it.”

“Who do you think I am? I’m not trying to scar you for life. I don’t want to have you sleep with the lights on for the next two years again.” She used a second brown to shade inthe tree she was coloring, adding dimension to her already very impressive coloring sheet. “I’m just not ready yet. But I will be. Soon. And you’ll be the first to know.”

It occurred to me then that I’d never seen Dara with different hair. It was always nearly waist length and her natural shade of brown. I was the one who had a hair change for every season. As soon as Ethan had divorced me, I’d chopped mine off myself, cutting it to just below my chin and embracing the jagged hairline I’d concocted. Cutting Dara’s hair was a pretty big deal, and she’d undersold it so much, I hadn’t fully comprehended the gravity.

“I didn’t bring hair-cutting scissors,” I told her.

She looked up as she said, “I did. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I echoed.

She shooed me off. “Go Jet Ski! You’re distracting me from myprocess.”

Along the edge of the lake, Mason and his brothers slapped each other with towels. Such golden boys in all senses, free with themselves and their bodies. I forgot people could be like that as adults. They could be playful and harmlessly aggressive with one another. Roughhouse for the thrill of it.

Mason had just put Frank into a headlock when he saw me. “Garland! Put on a suit and take a ride with me!”

If I went on the Jet Skis, I could ask Mason about who Allison was and why everything suddenly became very intense and awkward as soon as Stevie saw her. Just to get the context, of course. I was naturally curious! I ran to my cabin, threw on my green one-piece, then headed out to the lake.

“Where’s Stevie? This is the first time I’ve seen you without her,” Mason noticed, setting the stage for my inquiries with such a flawless ease, I had to pause for a second to marvel at it.

“She’s with Allison?” I painted it as a question, watching the Magnusson boys’ faces very carefully as I did so.

Frank staggered back like he’d not only seen one of those camp ghosts Stevie joked about earlier, but he’d been personally gut punched by said ghost. “Are you kidding?”

“She showed up over by the bleachers,” I continued, fascinated by their reactions. Allison meant something to them, that much was clear.

Mason gazed out at the water. “What the hell?”

I hoped with every fiber of my being that they would give me the gossip. They were being so strange and dramatic, I needed to know everything they knew about Allison and then some. No detail was too small or specific. I wasn’t sure if that much outward eagerness would serve me, so I opted for concerned interest. “She seemed really intense,” I guessed. I’d seen maybe six seconds of their interaction, but it did have a fervent burning weirdness to it that had practically set my feet on fire.

“She’s the worst,” Andrew said, his first contribution to the Allison conversation. His brief but brutal assessment unleashed a tirade from the other brothers. It was like unlocking a new level of Magnusson insider knowledge.

“A fucking nightmare,” Frank added.

Mason shook his head. “She cheated on Stevie. The whole time they were together.”

Aha.There it was.

Allison was Stevie’s ex. The one her mom sent cards to, I bet.

Stevie’s ex washere. And she’d made the kind of mistake that other people saw as worthy of breaking up over. It was true. It did make my blood run cold, thinking of Stevie being hurt in that way. She didn’t deserve that.

All this new information swam through my head, pushing against a back current of everything I thought I knew. I remembered all the times Stevie had scanned the crowd as if looking for someone. What Andrew had said to her in the loft after beer pong. How Stevie had all but vanished when we’d gone back downstairs. It was all because of Allison, who hadverycool bangs. I mentally removed my reminder to compliment her on them. I had exactly zero kindness to offer that woman.

“Why is she here?” I asked Mason.

“Because she signed up to come to camp with us.” There was a low hiss to Mason’s voice that I’d never once heard. A seriousness he didn’t have even when he was hassling Stevie about losing. This was his bottomed-out truth. Angry and almost feral. “They broke up about four times over the course of us registering. The last time was in April, and Allison swore she wasn’t coming. Then we got here, and there she was. I told her she better leave Stevie alone. So far she has. Until right now.”