The Last Summer Read online

  She cleared her throat and said, “Thank you for the dress. It really is perfect.”

  He nodded. “Did you read the note?”

  She pulled a folded envelope out of one of the pockets. It was still sealed. He looked up at her in surprise.

  “You came without reading it?” he asked once he found his voice. She seemed to be struggling with words too and shrugged. He gently took the envelope and opened it, pulling out the folded paper. “Why didn’t you read it?”

  “Because I’m scared,” she whispered.

  He knew she meant more than just reading the letter. She was scared of them, of her upcoming surgery, of the future.

  “Lila.” He moved closer to kneel in front of her and pulled her into his arms. Against her barely-pink hair, he said, “Please don’t be afraid.”

  She sat up and wiped away a tear.

  “You can be afraid of the surgery, that’s understandable, but don’t be afraid of us,” he begged.

  With a quiet laugh, she said, “My mom said almost the exact same thing.”

  “Smart woman.” He pushed himself back up to his seat.

  “What if something happens, Gavin?” Lila whispered after a moment. “What if I really don’t remember you?”

  Her quiet words struck him in the heart. The thought of losing her was pure agony, but his mom’s words came back to him. “Then we start over.”

  When her blue eyes snapped to his, he saw the confusion slowly fade to understanding then wonder. She covered her mouth with one hand. “Gavin…”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, taking her hand. “If you forget me, I’ll reintroduce myself. We’ll become friends again.”

  And he wouldn’t mess it up again.

  “You’d be okay with just being friends?”

  He grinned. “No, but I’ll win you over again.”

  “So confident.” Her playful eye roll filled him with joy. The sorrow and fear were gone, and he was glad. They had no place in his plans for the evening.

  As if on cue, someone changed the music and turned up the speakers they had strategically placed throughout the sand. She let out a soft gasp when she recognized the song. The water was calm around them, and the crowd on the beach quieted. Gavin lifted up his letter and unfolded it.

  “Can I read this to you?” he asked. When she nodded, he looked down at the familiar words. He re-wrote them a dozen times before finishing. “Lila, my earliest memory is of you grabbing my hand and pulling me into the woods behind our houses. We ran through the trees with the sunlight streaming through the green canopy above our heads, and I had no idea where you were taking me, but you were so happy that I didn’t care.

  “You stopped and told me to look up. Then, you started singing one of your Disney songs and, sure enough, birds tweeted back their own melody. I remember you looking at me with tears in your eyes and the biggest smile. Do you remember what you told me?”

  He looked at her. Just like that day, tears brimmed her eyes. She whispered, “I really am a princess.”

  He nodded and continued, “From then on, all I wanted to do was make you smile and feel like a princess.

  “You’ve always been a planner. You plan everything from your meals to your outfits to your daily schedule. What you don’t know is I plan too. I didn’t know what I was doing from one day to the next. It took me way too long to decide on what I wanted to do after high school. But I’ve known since we were five years old—when you dragged me out to sing to the birds—that I never wanted you out of my life. As we got older, I knew that no matter what else happened, we would always be together.”

  He stopped talking and nodded toward the beach. Her mouth dropped open. There weren’t fireworks. Like in the movie, she jumped and moved to look over the side of the boat. It rocked beneath her, and Gavin let out a deep laugh. From one end of the beach to the other, people held glowing paper lanterns. While she was distracted, he reached under the seat to pull out their own and some matches.

  Shades of pink and purple filled their vision as their friends and family released lanterns into the sky. Timed perfectly, the next song on the soundtrack started. Lila turned back to Gavin, biting her lip.

  Two lit lanterns hovered in each of his hands. She sat back down across from him and took one. Together, they let go, and as they watched them soar higher and higher, Gavin reached out to Lila. He pulled her to him, turning her so she sat with her back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her as she sang along softly.

  22

  Saturday

  The crowd thinned as the hours passed. Mrs. Miller closed up the Scoop, and eventually, she and Lila’s parents went home. Lila sat near the dying bonfire between Gavin’s legs, leaning back against him. With his arms around her and her friends beside them, she didn’t know when she’d ever felt so at peace.

  Beth Ann and Dylan sat side by side on Lila’s right with Kaley on her left. A few others from their class lingered by the fire, mostly the graduated baseball players. Lila tilted her head to the side just enough to watch her best friend talking quietly with Dylan. Both wore undeniable smiles as they leaned in close.

  Gavin shifted behind Lila, tightening his hold around her. “We should get going.”

  “Yeah, there’s about twenty minutes before the beach curfew hits, and the police are prompt with their patrols,” Dylan said.

  “Of course, you know that,” Beth Ann teased as she got to her feet.

  Dylan’s eyes dimmed for a brief second, showing the hurt before a smile lit his face. He was known for causing trouble—everyone always joked about it—but Lila wondered if maybe it bothered him more than he let on. Or maybe it just upset him that Beth Ann thought of him the same way.

  “Well, I’m sure he’s seen them plenty from sticking around with Gavin while Mrs. Miller closed the Scoop down at night,” Lila couldn’t help but say. Dylan shot her a barely perceptible, grateful nod.

  Gavin kissed the back of her head. “Come on, babe.” He stood and pulled her to her feet, then he helped Dylan pour one of the coolers full of melted ice on the fire.

  “How are you feeling?” Kaley asked, moving to stand closer to Lila as the others packed up the remaining coolers, blankets, and snacks and dragged it all up to their cars.

  Lila picked up the blanket she and Gavin sat on and walked with Kaley and Beth Ann to the parking lot. “I’m good. I have a little bit of a headache, but it’s not too bad.”

  Beth Ann’s mouth tugged down. “How did I not know something was wrong all this time?”

  Guilt coursed through Lila. She didn’t want her best friend to feel bad for not putting two and two together. Lila took her hand. “Because I didn’t want you to.”

  When the beach cleared, then the parking lot, just the five of them remained. Lila looked up to the stars, watching as they twinkled high above. Despite the bright full moon, the clear sky gave them a breathtaking view.

  “Are you coming with us, Kaley?” Gavin asked.

  Lila looked back and forth between them in confusion. When Kaley nodded, Lila asked, “Wait, where are we going?”

  Dylan grinned. “The party isn’t quite over yet, Princess.”

  They climbed into the remaining vehicles. With the windows down and the music up, Lila leaned against Beth Ann, laughing in the back of Gavin’s car. When they pulled down the familiar dirt road, she met his eyes in the rearview mirror.

  They parked in his driveaway, with Dylan and Kaley stopping behind them in their own cars. The engines cut, and Gavin took Lila’s hand as they all walked between the houses to the wide, mutual backyard. Lila gasped as she took in the twinkle lights and blow-up mattresses around the firepit, each covered in a pile of blankets and pillows. The fire grew tall, as if someone recently added fresh wood.

  “How?” Lila asked.

  Gavin nodded toward her house, where she could see her parents’ bedroom light still on. She smiled and followed him to the cozy area. The mattresses sat just far enough away fro
m the fire to not be a concern. She counted them out and laughed.

  “Looks like I’m sharing with you.” She nudged her best friend’s foot with her own as Beth Ann sat down on one.

  Beth Ann shook her head, wrapping the large comforter around herself. “No way. You hog the blankets.”

  Lila’s mouth dropped open. “I do not! You just don’t like to share.”

  She went to sit beside her, but Beth Ann flopped back, kicking both feet out to take up all the room.

  “Seriously?” Lila rolled her eyes. “Someone’s gotta share. Move over.”

  “No, go share with your boyfriend.”

  Lila was sure her parents did not have that in mind when they set everything up for them. Tucking her hair back, she finally looked over to see Gavin smirking up at her from his own mattress. He slid over and patted the space beside him.

  With a deep breath, she walked over and laid down.

  “I promise I’ll behave,” he whispered, pulling the blankets up and scooting closer.

  Even if they hadn’t been surrounded by friends, she knew he would. Taking his hand, she leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

  “Look up,” he said.

  She smiled up at the blinking stars. Someone turned on music—she assumed Dylan since he couldn’t go more than a couple minutes in silence. She heard Beth Ann and Kaley talking quietly about school and the future, but Lila drowned out everything but the boy lying beside her and the big, open sky above them.

  “I’ll get to check off two more things from this.” She turned, curling up against Gavin’s side.

  His arm went around her, holding her close. “That’s the idea.”

  She chuckled. “Thank you, for all this. I never imagined—”

  “Stop,” he said, turning to stone beneath her. “This isn’t a goodbye, Lila. We still have another full day together.”

  Pushing herself onto her elbow, she looked down into his eyes, barely visible in the glow of the fire. “I know. I just wanted to say thank you for making this all possible. I’m sorry about last night.”

  His hand lifted to her cheek, and he brushed a thumb across the corner of her mouth. “I love you, Lila. I’d do anything for you.”

  Despite their earlier talk and their day together, she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat. He’d said it before, and she could see the truth in his eyes, but it still scared her. She couldn’t return the words, but maybe she could show him. Shifting closer, she pressed her lips to his. His hand tightened at her waist as she moved to lie fully against him.

  “All right, love birds,” Dylan called out. “Don’t forget you have an audience.”

  The heat on Lila’s face had nothing to do with the fire burning a few feet away. She ducked her head down, resting against Gavin’s chest. He vibrated beneath her with a soft laugh. Before long, his breathing evened out, the quiet chatter died, and Lila fell asleep.

  Gavin’s eyes flew open. He quickly reached over and turned off the alarm he set the night before. Looking down at the dark figure draped across him, he smiled. Waking up with Lila in his arms was something he could definitely get used to. He didn’t want to wake her and ruin the moment, but it was their last day, and he wasn’t going to waste it.

  There were still two things left on her bucket list. The sun would rise in the next ten minutes, so that was easy to cross off. But he didn’t have any ideas on what fear she could conquer. He’d kept getting stuck on that one the past couple weeks. Lila always seemed so fearless. Other than her actual phobia of the dark, he couldn’t think of anything. And he wasn’t going to use the dark. It needed to be something that ended in happiness not a panic attack.

  He gently rubbed a hand down her back. Kissing the top of her head, he whispered, “Lila, wake up.”

  She stirred but only enough to curl up against him more. Stars, he loved that girl. “Lila, if you don’t get up, we’re going to miss it.”

  “Miss what?” she mumbled against his neck without moving.

  “The sunrise.”

  With a sigh, she untangled her limbs from his and sat up. The fire had gone out, but the sky had just started to lighten, and he could see her rub at her eyes. She tried to fix her messy hair, but Gavin sat up and kissed her cheek. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  “I’m sure I look like a hot mess,” she said, getting to her feet.

  He stood, pulling the comforter up with him to wrap around her shoulders. She held it tight with one hand while the other found his. He tilted his head toward the woods, and she nodded. They carefully stepped around their friends. When a hand reached out and grabbed his ankle, it took everything he had not to yell. Lila’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. He glared at her but knew it was still too dark for her to see him well.

  “Where are you two sneaking off to?” Beth Ann asked mid-yawn.

  Lila squatted down beside her friend. “We’re going to watch the sunrise. Go back to sleep.”

  She leaned in close to whisper something before standing again. Beth Ann laughed as she rolled back over. Lila tugged on his hand, stopping him from asking what was said. He couldn’t stop his mind from spiraling through all the possibilities. Surely his sweet, innocent Lila hadn’t suggested they were going off for other reasons… His pulse quickened. He’d stopped things from going too far a couple days earlier, but he wasn’t sure he had the willpower to do it again. Not with the impending timeline hanging over them.

  They walked in silence through the familiar woods and past their treehouse. Farther back, just beyond their property lines, the treeline broke at the edge of a cliff. It wasn’t much of a drop off—the ravine below was no more than fifteen feet down—but their parents always had a rule about staying away from the edge. Gavin, of course, had never listened. He could remember Lila yelling at him several times for sitting too close when they were young.

  Now, she sat near the edge with her legs crossed. Joining her, he said, “I didn’t think I’d ever see you out here again.”

  When she looked at him in confusion, he explained how he liked to go out there to be alone and think. It was his place. She had the treehouse; he had the cliff. She lifted the corner of the blanket, inviting him inside. He gratefully accepted. She still had his sweatshirt, and it was freezing that early in the morning.

  Instead of sitting next to her, he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her to his lap before wrapping the blanket around them both. She leaned back into his chest as he held her tight, waiting for the sun to rise and start their final day.

  23

  Sunday

  Dark blue faded into lighter hues before melding into oranges and pinks as the sun broke the horizon. Behind them, birds chirped in the trees. Lila bit at her bottom lip, trying and failing to hold back the tears.

  “It’s beautiful.” Her words were just a whisper, but Gavin’s arms tightened around her.

  He let go with one hand and shifted. She closed her eyes, letting the sun rays warm her. He kissed her temple, and when she opened her eyes once more, he held her phone out with the camera facing them. She smiled, and he captured the moment before putting the phone back down at their side. Beneath the blanket, he wrapped his arm back around, entwining his fingers with hers.

  The sun lifted higher and higher, bringing life to the woods around them. They sat in silence, neither saying a word. Lila never wanted the peaceful moment to end. The pain was minimal, the lush green valley below brightened, and she had the boy she loved holding her.

  The thought nearly stole her breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Gavin asked.

  Of course, he could sense her emotions. He’d always been able to tell when something was off. Until their miscommunication and fighting, he was always the one to cheer her up too.

  She shifted in his lap, turning to see him. “We wasted so much time.”

  “Lila, I—”

  “No, stop.” She put a finger to his lips, cutting him off, and moved to fully face him. “I know we can’
t go back and change things. Just make me a promise?”

  “Anything,” he said, lifting a hand to her cheek.

  “You said we could start over if I forget, didn’t you?” When he nodded, she continued, “Then, come back to me. Meet me again. Annoy me until we’re friends again.”

  He pulled her closer, brushing his lips over hers. She lingered for a moment before leaning back to look in his eyes. She hadn’t wanted to say it—she intended to just show him how she felt—but the words were right there. Waiting.

  With a deep breath, she whispered against his mouth, “Stay with me until I fall in love with you again.”

  After a shaky exhale, he said, “I promise.”

  Lila kissed him again, putting every emotion into the touch. The blanket dropped off his shoulders behind him as his hands skimmed her sides. She rocked forward, twisting her fingers up through his hair. He held her impossibly close.

  Pushing him back to lie on the blanket, she lowered her hands to his chest. His pulse raced beneath her fingertips, and she smiled against his lips. She opened her eyes, sitting up enough to look down at the person she’d known since birth. They’d taken their first steps together, celebrated their first birthdays together. He was with her the first day of school, refusing to leave her side because she was scared when the teacher tried to separate them.

  In turn, she was there the time he had to get stitches from a bicycle crash when they were eight. She sat with him all night, holding his hand, when his parents’ fighting began. She went to every baseball game and tournament to cheer him on.

  Lila sat up. Gavin stared at her, but his confusion turned to desire as she lifted his sweatshirt up over her head and tossed it to the side. He raised up to press his lips to hers before carefully turning and pushing her down to lie in his spot. Her heart hammered in her chest as he hovered over her.