Joe’s head comes out from under the sheet. “Damn, Sunny. Why’d you have to tell her?”
“Girl talk. Alcohol. It just came out,” she grumbles. “Why are you here so early?”
“I missed my morning sunrise.”
Sam and I groan in unison.
“You know what?” I say. “You can have sex in my bed if it’ll get you to stop being such a cheese ball.”
When I glance towards Sam, I realize he’s staring at me. Not at my face, but at the nearly sheen peach nightgown I went to bed in. The one with nothing underneath.
“Lookin’ good, Amelia. Bangin’ for sure. You’ve filled out since high school. In all the right places,” he emphasizes, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Sam!” Sunny and I screech collectively.
“God dammit, Sam. Why ya gotta go and make it creepy? Plus, did you see the dude she was makin’ eyes at last night? You don’t stand a chance.”
Sam holds his hands up, his gaze rising to finally meet my eyes. “Hey, man. No offense intended. Just sayin’. Can’t a guy compliment a lady?”
Well, since he practically saw me naked, I might as well embrace it. “Thank you, Sam. I’ve recently taken up Pilates.”
His nose wrinkles. “What the hell are Pilates?”
Sunny groans and pushes Joe off the bed. “Both of you out while we make ourselves decent.”
“But, Sunnybear, you know I hate it when you’re decent.”
“Ugh, Joe, get out of my room before I kick you in the nads!” I threaten.
He grins, placing his hands over his balls. “Gotta keep these bad boys safe so I can have little balls of sunshine running around some day.”
Before Sunny can throw a pillow at him, he hightails it out of the room, with Sam close behind.
“He’s so annoying. And handsome. And sweet.”
“Please, Sunny, gush some more about your annoyingly sweet, handsome boyfriend. You poor, poor thing.” My sarcasm does nothing to remove the dreamy expression from her face, so I snap my fingers, bringing her out of it.
Her eyes blink before she refocuses her gaze on me. “All right, Amelia. I don’t have to be at the bar until six tonight. What do you say we round up some breakfast, put on tiny bikinis, and spend the day trying not to melt in the summer sun? Perhaps we’ll meet a new friend along the way.”
“It’s not like he knows where I live,” I retort.
Except I realize it’s a lie. He knows exactly where to find me. Not that I tell Sunny that.
“Honey, Crystal Cove isn’t that big. He wants to find you? He will. And something tells me the boy really, really wants to find you.” Her eyes light up in a way that kind of scares me. “And if he comes callin’, you’ve got to make him drool. What kind of suit did you bring?”
I cross to my dresser drawers and remove one of several modest one-piece bathing suits.
Sunny groans when she sees them. “Amelia, darlin’, I love you, but trust me on this. That city hunk is miles above Robert. Not that you can’t on your own, but girl, you gotta knock him off his ass. Wow his socks off. Make his pleasure pump stand at attention and salute at the sight of you.”
I roll my eyes. “Oh my god, I get it. What’s wrong with those suits? He liked me well enough in my Daisys last night.”
She’s shaking her head, and I already know I’m going to lose this one. “Joe took me shopping in the city a couple of weeks ago and I got a few new suits for the summer. One is this gorgeous teal-colored suit with high-waisted bottoms and a to-die-for tube top. We’re the same cup size, and I’ll have you know Joe really liked what he saw.”
“First of all, if you want to convince me to wear one of your suits, you probably shouldn’t emphasize Joe’s reaction. Secondly, a bikini? Sunny, I don’t know…” I protest, because in all of my life, I’ve never worn a two-piece. Sure, Grams told me to have fun. If she saw me in a teeny bikini, she’d probably get the vapors.
“Amelia, it’s a heat wave. It’s going to be bad enough out there with the hot temperatures. You’ll be more comfortable this way. Come on. Trust me. Would I steer you in the wrong direction?”
She absolutely would.
And I find I’m totally cool with that.
I should always trust my best friend not to steer me wrong. After nourishing our minor hangovers and appeasing the boys with promised breakfast, we put on our suits—if you can call them that. Sunny’s matches the one she gave me, just in a peach color instead of teal. Instead of going to the dock, we walk about half a mile to a private shore that’s still relatively hidden from most out-of-towners. Considering the sweltering temperatures, I’m not surprised that the four of us have the beach all to ourselves.
Once our towels are spread out, I hesitate to strip down to my suit.
Sunny whips her T-shirt off and throws it at me. “Come on, chicken. It’s just the four of us, and if you recall, Sam already saw your nipples this morning.”
I look to Sam, whose head swivels around in every which way except for mine. Considering he seems more embarrassed about it than I am, I decide c’est la vie. I drag my top off and shimmy out of my shorts, feeling practically naked. But Sunny was right. As sweat droplets race down my back, the breeze is welcome against my bare skin.
Joe lets out a low whistle. “Damn, babe, you had to let her borrow that one?”
“Can I look yet?” Sam yells.
“Sure, Sam. Soak it all in,” I tell him.
Sam’s fisherman’s hat nearly falls off his head with how fast he swivels it towards me. He echoes Joe’s whistle. “Killer, babe. Fuckin’ killer. Sure you don’t want to forget the city slicker you met yesterday and repeat the glory of the summer of ’75 with me?”
Ah, the summer of ’75. Before I can reminisce, Sunny chimes in.
“Wait a minute. The summer of ’75? Was that the summer I was grounded for the whole month of June—”
“—for hitchhiking to Johnson City with Patti Hartsock to see Kiss in concert,” I finish for her. “Not my fault you weren’t around to tell.”
“It was Gene Simmons! And you know what, for one month’s grounding, it was sooo worth it,” she says, sighing with a wistful smile.
Joe rolls his eyes, and Sam sticks his tongue out in perfect Kiss fashion.
“Sunny, you should have been grounded till you were eighteen! Do you know how many girls go missing when hitchhiking? You can’t get into cars with complete and total strangers.”
“Oh, Lord. Not the serial killer spiel again.” She drops Joe’s hand and inches towards Sam, a sickeningly coy smile crossing her lips. “So, Samuel, what did you mean about revisiting the past in 1975?”
He coughs, casting me a pleading look. But I have no shame from it, so I shrug, keeping silent, and letting him field this one.
“Uhh, well, umm…” He places a hand on the back on his neck, rubbing, and stalling as he tries to figure out how truthful he wants to be. “Well, you were grounded, Joe was always working at Mickey’s, and I happened to run into Amelia on the way to the movies.”
Sunny looks back and forth between the two of us. “You guys went on a date in ’75? And you never told me?”