“Yep.”
“Was it because of Levi?”
“Weirdly, no. For once it had nothing to do with him. It was actually…an okay conversation. Not like the last time. I think…I think we’re done.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“I…” I nuzzled my head against Lee’s. “Not really. But I guess I’m gonna have to figure out a way to be.”
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he told me. “And I’m not just saying that because my brother broke up with you and I feel sorry for you. You’re right. I have to grow up a little. I know I do. I’m just…finding it hard.”
“You’re forgiven.”
“What, I don’t get an ‘I’m sorry’ back?”
“You do not.”
He considered it for a moment. “That’s fair. But please never shout at me like that again, Shelly. It does not feel good. Even if I kind of maybe probably deserved it.”
“I think you kind of maybe definitely deserved it. Honestly,” I said, laying on the sarcasm now, “telling me I wasn’t putting our friendship first and something was always going to get in the way of it. You’re a literal five-year-old sometimes, you know that?”
“A literal five-year-old,” he deadpanned. “Are you sure you got into Harvard?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
The next two weeks slipped by in the blink of an eye. Noah spent most nights back at home with his parents or slept on the sofa if he did stay at the beach house; he might’ve been able to stay in Lee’s old bed, in Amanda’s room, but Lee and I had kind of ruined the mattress in a bucket-list prank that had seen it in the ocean, with an unsuspecting Rachel napping on top of it.
Lee had also let up on the bucket-list frenzy now, so I took extra shifts at work. Levi kept his distance and ignored my messages when I tried to get in touch.
I was glad for the space from everyone, to be honest, especially from Noah. It was rough, being so close to him and not being with him. I cried myself to sleep in our bed a couple of times, but having more time to myself (even if I was working a lot) did help me to come to terms with the breakup a little more.
I even went home one evening to join Dad, Brad, and Linda for dinner. And I helped Linda with the dishes afterward and stuck around to play Uno with everyone. And I laughed at her lame jokes. And I apologized to her for yelling at her over Monopoly.
Like a mature adult.
Amanda and Noah spent a lot of time together, and Noah helped out with most of the handiwork that we’d been putting off around the beach house—or that we found out Lee had straight up canceled, whenever workmen were supposed to show up. Ashton and his girlfriend came to hang out a couple of days, and the guys came around for a few movie and game nights, although Levi didn’t join us.
It was weird, how almost normal things felt.
It was a little delicate, but it was normal.
And I could finally breathe again.
Besides, Lee and I were down to about three things on Lee and Elle’s Epic Summer Bucket List, none of which would be as big or crazy to pull off as race day, so we’d have no trouble ticking everything off. (Really, how hard could it be to set up a line of dominoes through every room in the beach house? We’d already ordered a massive set from Amazon.) Without all the stress, and now that Lee and I had really cleared the air between us, I could get excited about it.
Then June broke the news one morning.
Amanda was back to see her parents for the day; Rachel was down on the beach with some of the girls. Noah was supposed to be fixing the pool filter (again), but June told him it could wait and called him inside and told Lee and me to take a break from the dominoes. She made us all take a seat in the lounge, which was when I knew it was serious.
I half wondered if it was about Noah’s and my breakup for a second, until—
“We’ve had an offer,” she told us, “on the beach house. And we’re planning to accept it.”
The three of us were silent for a long while.
It was Noah who broke the silence. “So why am I wasting my time fixing the pool filter?”
“It’s conditional on the fixing-up we said we’re doing,” June explained. “Obviously.”
“Obviously,” Lee muttered, and scoffed.
Sensing dissent in the ranks, June went into full army-general mode. She squared her shoulders, planted her legs firmly apart, set her jaw (I suddenly saw where Noah got it from), and placed her hands on her hips. A full-on Wonder Woman stance, with a stony look that lingered on each of us.
“We’re planning to accept the offer, and we expect the sale to be complete within the next two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” Lee and I cried.
“So I’m expecting this place to be spick-and-span. I’m going to need you guys to clear everything out and finish fixing things up. Okay?”
From the way Lee shuffled his whole body in his seat, grumbling quietly, and the scoff Noah let out, no, it was not okay.
My stomach sank with the news, too. We’d all been playing along with this stuff, letting contractors come in to fix the tiles on the roof, finishing some of the landscaping out back, but none of us had really been expecting this.
June cut us all another look. “Okay?”
“I’ve gotta finish working on the pool filter,” Noah grumbled. He hauled himself off the sofa to storm outside, pulling the doors shut behind him and pressing play again on the portable speakers he’d taken out with him that morning.
“Guess I’d better go get some boxes to pack up our cherished childhood memories,” Lee muttered, pushing himself up. He snatched his keys, kicked over some dominoes, and slammed the front door behind him.
June sighed, then looked at me.
“I suppose I should, um”—I ran a hand over the arm of the sofa before getting up—“get to work on the rumpus room. We never got very far.”
I didn’t get very far now, either, because June called after me as I got to the door.
“Elle, come sit down a minute.”
Heading back toward her, I joined her in the kitchen and sat at the counter while she made us both some coffee.
Great. Whatever this was, it was a conversation that required a coffee.
“I was really sorry to hear about you and Noah,” she told me once she’d filled two mugs and sat beside me. June put her hand over mine, giving me a soft smile, her strict demeanor all gone now. “He told me a couple weeks ago. I was kind of waiting for you to talk to me about it.”