“Oh, holy shit,” April said, clinging to Daphne’s shoulders. She looked behind her, nothing but dark water below. “That was close.”
“This should be a reality show,” Daphne said, laughing, her chin resting on April’s chest as she looked up at her. “Extreme Making Out.”
April laughed too, staring down at this beautiful person. She didn’t want to make the same mistake that she had in the lake. Pulling away. Pulling back. Choosing something easy over what she truly wanted. She opened her mouth to say all of this, that she didn’t care if it was complicated or fraught or if, at the end of the summer, one of them would be heading for the Devon while the other floundered in uncertainty.
“Daphne,” she said, her thumb smoothing down a silky curl near Daphne’s temple. “I—”
“April?”
April froze, recognizing Ramona’s voice in the dark.
“Are you out here?” Ramona called.
Through the dim dock lights, April could see Ramona on the path from the house and heading toward them.
And she wasn’t sure what happened then, but within half a second, both she and Daphne were on their feet, at least a foot of space between them. April didn’t know who had moved first, or why, but here they were, breathing heavily and straightening their clothes just as Ramona came into clear view.
“Hey,” Ramona said. “There you are.”
“Here I am,” April said brightly. Too damn brightly. Like the center of the sun bright. She cleared her throat.
Ramona tilted her head at her, eyes flicking to Daphne, who was standing impossibly straight, her hands clasped demurely in front of her. “You two okay?”
“Fine, fine, we’re fine,” April said. “We were just…”
But she trailed off, her hand waving vaguely in Daphne’s direction. She felt sick, had no idea why she was acting like a high schooler caught making out in the janitor’s closet, but she couldn’t seem to act normally either.
Ramona didn’t look convinced. “Okay. Well. Dinner’s ready.”
“Great,” April said, shooting both of her thumbs into the air. “We’ll be there in a—”
“You two go ahead,” Daphne said, pulling her phone out of her dress pocket and frowning at the screen. “I need to take care of something.”
April swallowed hard. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Daphne said brightly, just as brightly as April had, smiling at her with all her teeth. But then she softened, met April’s eyes. “It’s okay. I promise.”
April nodded, and Ramona looped her arm with April’s as they turned down the pier and headed toward the house.
“What was that about?” Ramona asked.
April exhaled heavily, relief and regret swirling in her stomach. “Nothing. It wasn’t about anything.”
Chapter
Twenty
Daphne handed overher ID to a person named Stone, along with thirty bucks she couldn’t really afford to part with, but there was no way she was missing her first play party.
“You’re all set,” Stone said, offering their IDs back to Sasha, who tossed them over to April and Daphne, and not very respectively.
Daphne glanced down at April’s smiling face on the New Hampshire ID, her hair a bit longer with crimson tips. She looked younger, slightly softer. Daphne wondered if she’d been with Elena then. Daphne held out the card to April, their fingers brushing, eyes meeting as Daphne felt her own ID slide into her palm.
They hadn’t really talked since their moment on the dock last night. She couldn’t imagine what April’s best friend must think of her. It was such a weird situation, and Daphne didn’t blame April for not knowing how to handle it. She herself felt so discombobulated after Ramona and April had gone back to the house for dinner that she’d answered a call from Elena without a second thought.
“Hi,” she’d said, her eyes still on April and Ramona as they walked away.
“Hi, yourself,” Elena said. Daphne exhaled as soon as sheheard her voice, muscle memory at work. Despite what had happened with April, despite the truth of who and what Elena was, she knew Daphne. Knew her through and through, and that settled around Daphne’s heart like a hug.
