It takes a surprising amount of leg muscle climbing the steep ladder to get back on again so by round ten, we’re both taking ragged breaths. We flop on our backs in the center of the fabric and stare up at the bright blue sky.
“What are you parents like?” Reed asks. “I’ve only ever spent that BBQ and a couple of bonfires with them. They seem pretty great.”
“Yeah, they are,” I agree. “Maybe a little overbearing at times, but it’s just because they care about me. My mom battled cancer a few years ago, but you’d never know that aside from the scars on her forearms from all the IVs.”
Reed’s palms rest on his bare chest, and droplets of water glimmer from the tips of his curls as he looks at me. “I’m sorry, Teddy. That had to have been hard to watch.”
“Yeah, it was. It’s why we didn’t come back here after my first summer. She’s in remission now though, and her doctor thinks she has good odds of keeping it that way. She’s happy here too.”
“That’s good.” He smiles. “And your dad?”
“He never leaves her side,” I say, turning to take in the cloudless sky above me. I think of my dad and how, just the other night, he covered my mom’s shoulders with her grandmother’s afghan when she fell asleep in front of the fire. Thinking aboutthat sweet gesture, I gaze at the abyss above me. “I want a love like theirs one day.”
“Sounds nice.” He sighs.
“What about your parents? They seem happy together.” All I have to pull from are our weekly boating trips. Never once have I seen them raise their voices at each other.
“They are, and they aren’t. I think my dad has a lot of want. He’s a dreamer, and my mom is content with her lot in life.”
“I can see why.” I shift my head, getting a good view of the Morgan property. The garden, the wildflowers, the trees… it only lookslusherfrom out on the water. “Do you ever think they’ll sell this place?”
“No, that’s the one thing I admire about my dad. He brings his dreams to us. He won’t ever leave her for them. Not like…”
When he trails off, his face looks like he’s said too much, and I can’t help but wonder if he was talking about Miles.
“What do you do for fun when you’re not here for the summer,” Reed asks, changing the subject.
“The same things I do here, honestly. I’m not any different there. I used to draw, but just took up watercolor last fall.”
“Used to?”
“Still do. Just haven’t felt very inspired lately,” I admit.
“Miles said you’re amazing. You should show me your art sometime… you know… if you want to,” he says.
“Okay.” I nod, taking in his smile and melting at the sight of that carved dimple that I’m now noticing properly for the first time… when it’s right in front of me… beckoning me to move closer.
“Speaking of Miles… did anything ever happen between you two?” he asks.
“What?” I falter from staring at his dimple.
“Do you like him. Miles, I mean. You know, as more than a friend.”
“Miles has a girlfriend,” I remind him, as if he doesn’t already know that.
“Reed, Teddy, it’s time!” Mrs. Morgan shouts from the upper deck of their patio, and relief washes over me.
I don’t want to lie to Reed, but I know how close the two of them are and I would have, just so my feelings didn’t get back to Miles.
“We should head back,” I say, standing first.
“Last one there eats a pickle!” he yells, and sails off the side of the trampoline.
When his hair flicks away from his face, spraying water from a streak of curls, he backstrokes to the shore, immobilizing me with his grin. I shake my head, get a running start, and pray it will be enough to close some of the distance between us. Otherwise, I’m having a pickle for lunch.
Reed shows up at my door with a single wildflower clutched between his hands the night of our dare date. Instead of holding it out to me, he fashions it in the half-up clip of my hair.
“Beautiful,” he says.
