because her face cleared.
“Are you kidding?” she asked. “Maybe he didn’t tell you this, but he’s been obsessed with Carlos Delgado since he was, like, nine. I mean, total hero worship. This is a fantasy come true for him.”
“I know, and I think it’s amazing for his career and his art,” Kelsi said quickly.
“This is his dream, Kelsi,” Taryn said. She looked confused, and taken aback. “I thought you understood that.”
“I do,” Kelsi said, feeling like the conversation had completely gotten away from her. “That’s not what I meant at all.”
But she didn’t know how to explain what she meant. She didn’t know how to talk about her boyfriend to her best friend, when the boyfriend in question was her best friend’s brother, and Taryn was clearly feeling protective. And Kelsi knew why: Taryn had confided that she had spent years running interference with high school girlfriends of Bennett’s who had tried to get to him through her. Kelsi understood.
But it made her feel so alone.
Taryn decided to get the stuff to make s’mores then, and Kelsi sat solo at the picnic table, inhaling citronella fumes and mentally kicking herself.
How was Taryn supposed to respond? Bennett was her brother. The fact that she and Kelsi were best friends just made moments like this incredibly awkward.
Because while Kelsi knew what a huge opportunity working with Carlos was for Bennett, she wasn’t sure it was the best thing for him . Like, for his character . Tonight wasn’t the first time she’d thought he was becoming kind of snobbish about art. She would have thought that the generous, enthusiastic guy she knew so well would have welcomed the opportunity to find something pretty for a nice old lady, instead of mocking her.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out. It was a text message from Bennett:
SORRY, BAD DAY, LOVE U.
And just like that, Kelsi’s entire mood lifted.
How pathetic, she thought. She should be ashamed of herself for being such a girl. But she couldn’t deny the flush of happiness that washed through her, altering the whole night around her. She couldn’t deny that just hearing from him when she didn’t expect to made everything seem better. So what if it was pathetic—it was also true.
She vowed to be more supportive and less judgmental.
It was only a summer, after all.
Only a summer , Kelsi thought, and it’s halfway over already.
“You better save me some marshmallows!” she called across the clearing to Taryn, and found she was all but skipping as she got up and headed toward her friend.
12
The first step was to make sure that what she thought was happening was really happening, Ella told herself. There was no point doing anything until she was sure.
After all, Peter was beautiful and smoldering, and he could lure any unsuspecting girl into his little web. Ella knew this better than anyone. It wasn’t so hard to imagine a scenario in which Taryn accidentally got involved with a hot guy one evening, only to discover later that it was the hot guy who’d treated Kelsi so badly way back when. In this imagined scenario, Ella found she could give Taryn the benefit of the doubt.
But she knew that was only because she didn’t believe it.
Taryn knew exactly who and what Peter was. Ella was certain of that.
And because Ella was certain, she wanted to be extra careful in proving it. Because she could tell that Kelsi wasn’t going to accept the ugly truth about her supposed best friend without a boatload of evidence.
This was how Ella convinced herself that her only option that Friday night was to follow Taryn.
Kelsi had gone down to New York again, a last-minute trip brought on because Bennett had to cancel coming up once again. Ella didn’t think it was too cool that he kept doing that to Kelsi. She happened to be an expert on the long-distance thing, having first failed at it, and then succeeded at it, all during this past year. With the same person, in
“Are you kidding?” she asked. “Maybe he didn’t tell you this, but he’s been obsessed with Carlos Delgado since he was, like, nine. I mean, total hero worship. This is a fantasy come true for him.”
“I know, and I think it’s amazing for his career and his art,” Kelsi said quickly.
“This is his dream, Kelsi,” Taryn said. She looked confused, and taken aback. “I thought you understood that.”
“I do,” Kelsi said, feeling like the conversation had completely gotten away from her. “That’s not what I meant at all.”
But she didn’t know how to explain what she meant. She didn’t know how to talk about her boyfriend to her best friend, when the boyfriend in question was her best friend’s brother, and Taryn was clearly feeling protective. And Kelsi knew why: Taryn had confided that she had spent years running interference with high school girlfriends of Bennett’s who had tried to get to him through her. Kelsi understood.
But it made her feel so alone.
Taryn decided to get the stuff to make s’mores then, and Kelsi sat solo at the picnic table, inhaling citronella fumes and mentally kicking herself.
How was Taryn supposed to respond? Bennett was her brother. The fact that she and Kelsi were best friends just made moments like this incredibly awkward.
Because while Kelsi knew what a huge opportunity working with Carlos was for Bennett, she wasn’t sure it was the best thing for him . Like, for his character . Tonight wasn’t the first time she’d thought he was becoming kind of snobbish about art. She would have thought that the generous, enthusiastic guy she knew so well would have welcomed the opportunity to find something pretty for a nice old lady, instead of mocking her.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out. It was a text message from Bennett:
SORRY, BAD DAY, LOVE U.
And just like that, Kelsi’s entire mood lifted.
How pathetic, she thought. She should be ashamed of herself for being such a girl. But she couldn’t deny the flush of happiness that washed through her, altering the whole night around her. She couldn’t deny that just hearing from him when she didn’t expect to made everything seem better. So what if it was pathetic—it was also true.
She vowed to be more supportive and less judgmental.
It was only a summer, after all.
Only a summer , Kelsi thought, and it’s halfway over already.
“You better save me some marshmallows!” she called across the clearing to Taryn, and found she was all but skipping as she got up and headed toward her friend.
12
The first step was to make sure that what she thought was happening was really happening, Ella told herself. There was no point doing anything until she was sure.
After all, Peter was beautiful and smoldering, and he could lure any unsuspecting girl into his little web. Ella knew this better than anyone. It wasn’t so hard to imagine a scenario in which Taryn accidentally got involved with a hot guy one evening, only to discover later that it was the hot guy who’d treated Kelsi so badly way back when. In this imagined scenario, Ella found she could give Taryn the benefit of the doubt.
But she knew that was only because she didn’t believe it.
Taryn knew exactly who and what Peter was. Ella was certain of that.
And because Ella was certain, she wanted to be extra careful in proving it. Because she could tell that Kelsi wasn’t going to accept the ugly truth about her supposed best friend without a boatload of evidence.
This was how Ella convinced herself that her only option that Friday night was to follow Taryn.
Kelsi had gone down to New York again, a last-minute trip brought on because Bennett had to cancel coming up once again. Ella didn’t think it was too cool that he kept doing that to Kelsi. She happened to be an expert on the long-distance thing, having first failed at it, and then succeeded at it, all during this past year. With the same person, in
Similar Books
