Page 72 of That Summer Feeling

Stevie pretended to zip her lips and threw the imaginary key across the room. “Secret’s safe with us.”

I opened our front door so we could leave. Much to my surprise, Dara was standing on the other side, just about to knock. “Oh,” she said, sheepish. “Hey.” She had the hair-cutting scissors in her hands.

“Is it time?” I asked.

“It’s time,” she confirmed.

Stevie and Michelle went on without me as I let Dara into the cabin. She looked around the room with her usual quiet interest, taking note of everything. She had wanted to do this ritual all week, and it occurred to me then that I had a ritual I wanted to do with her too. She wasn’t the only one finding ways for us to stay connected.

“Hold on a second,” I said as I hurried into my bedroom.

By the time I came back out, Dara had taken a towel from the bathroom and set it under a chair. “I figured we could cut my hair out here,” she said. “There’s more room than anywhere else. And I don’t need to see myself in the mirror or anything.” She was attempting to complete this without fuss, as was her way.

As was my way, I was in the mood for a bit of fuss. “Before we do this, I just want to say it was really wrong of me to try and meddle in your life,” I told her, thumbing the pocket of my jean shorts. “I never should’ve tried to get you to be someone you’re not. Our heart promise made sense when we were kids because we didn’t know any better.”

“We knew worse,” she said. “But yeah, definitely not better.”

“In the end, all we really wanted was to have a happier life than our parents, right?”

“Right.”

“I’d say you’ve done that,” I told her. “Withoutsomeone else. Which is even harder. You have a nice apartment. A great job. You do activities you like in your spare time. You’re rarely in a bad mood, and when you are, it’s usually because someone else was rude for no reason.”

Dara grinned. “I’m begging people to be rude for a reason. Is that so hard to ask?”

I reached into the pocket of my shorts and grabbed what I’d tucked in there. “I’m trying to say that I’ve thought about this, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you earned this all on your own.”

I held out her heart-promise bracelet.

“When we came up with these, we were too young to really know what adult life was going to be like,” I continued. “It’s silly of us to cling to every detail of an idea we came up with when we were kids. We can honor the heart of it, though. We got that part right.” I took her wrist into my hands and tied the bracelet around it. “It’s still our magic. Just not the way we thought it would work.”

Dara had tears in her eyes that she tried very hard not to show, blinking furiously to stop them from falling. “If I’ve learned anything about magic, that’s definitely how it works,” she said. “Thank you. It means more to me than I can say.”

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I know.”

She laughed. “What about your bracelet?”

“I can’t earn it twice,” I said.

“Why not?”

I opened my mouth to explain. No good reason came to mind.

“You just said it’s our magic. We decide how it works, don’t we?” Dara asked. “Why can’t you get a second chance? Why can’t you get a million? You’ve earned the bracelet, Garland. Just by being you.”

“I brought it with me,” I admitted. “It’s in my room.”

“What are you waiting for, then? Go get it! I want everyone to know I share an accessory with theMost Influential Camper.”

I ran to my room and grabbed the bracelet from the bottom of my luggage. Dara took it from me, preparing to tie it onto my wrist. “Up until a few hours ago, I didn’t actually want to cut my hair,” she said.

Confused, I looked to the scissors resting on the chair beside us. “How can that be possible? You’ve mentioned it for weeks.”

“I never cut my hair more than a few inches,” she said. “You know that better than anyone. So I told you I wanted to chop it off because you were so nervous about coming here, and that was the only thing I could think of at the time. Blame it onThe Parent Trap, I guess. I wanted you to feel less alone in being worried, so I made you think I had something about this place that scared me too. I’d planned to keep putting the haircut off as long as possible, then act like I changed my mind about the whole plan.”

She tied the bracelet onto my wrist then, taking care to make the knot secure.

“But all week I’ve watched you do shit thatactuallyscares you,” she continued. “Ever since you moved in with me, you’ve been telling me you’re done with love. That it’s not meant for you, and you won’t ever find it again unless it’s with Ethan. Then Ethan showed up here, and not only did you turn him away, you went ahead and found real love too. Iknowhow hard that was for you to do. I’m your sister, after all.”