The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

Author:Ann Brashares [Brashares, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2012-09-07T21:35:17+00:00

She considered her knuckles. “Went off-island this morning,”

she said to the ground. She didn’t go to him as she would have. If not for all this, she ’d be on his lap by now. They’d be mostly undressed. Her body felt like it had a lot of parts, all stuck out and unaccompanied. That’s the way his looked, too.

She went closer. She felt tears gathering in her eyes. She needed to collapse, but she couldn’t do it on him.

There was that moment the night before, when the signal was blasting and she was in his arms. The feeling of it flashed in her mind again and again. There was no moment that couldn’t be rewritten and reversed in the future, no degree of joy that couldn’t become your undoing a few hours later.

“All of you? You all went off-island? Where ’s everybody else?”

Alice realized it was easier to lie when her fingers were cover

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The Last Summer (of You and Me)

ing big sections of her face. She blew her nose into a paper towel.

“They went back to the city a few days early,” she said rotely.

“Riley went back early? Why?”

“Uh. A, uh, interview, I think. The NOLS people are in town, I think.” What was she even talking about?

He cocked his head skeptically. “And you?”

What should he think? She wanted to protect him, to neutralize his questions. What sensible world could she create for him that did not include the truth? She was worn-down and confused. She was a horrible liar and possessed none of the discipline or follow-through required for large-scale deception.

She had betrayed Riley already. They both had. She couldn’t do it anymore.

She couldn’t tell him anything. She could tell the first lie, but she could not offer it any support. She didn’t dare. Paul was dogged and he was thorough. Which of them was suited to a career in the law?

His face was hardening. “Alice, just tell me.”

This was becoming an inquisition. Sides were forming. A line was appearing down the middle of them. It was because he didn’t trust her. He didn’t trust her because she was lying.

For all the things she and Paul had done to each other and felt about each other over the years, honesty was unquestioned. Even brutal honesty. Especially brutal honesty.

She wanted to tell him the truth so badly. But the more she needed and wanted him, the guiltier she felt, the more deserving of punishment. This punishment. In her mind’s ear, she heard the emergency signal again. This was a fitting curse, a near-genius design.

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A n n B r a s h a r e s

She just needed to get in her room and shut the door. “Did some shopping and whatever,” she mumbled into her paper towel.

“Is something wrong? What is going on?” He looked at her impatiently. “Why are you all the way over there?”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Because I’m tired, I guess. I’m going to go to bed.”

His distress showed itself differently on each of his features.

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