Local Girls : An Island Summer Novel (9781416564171) by Jenny O'connell Page A

grape, how you ever managed to settle that one is still a mystery to me.”
    I almost laughed, which I think was his goal. “No, Henry. It’s a little more serious than that.”
    â€œSo what is it?”
    â€œI don’t know if I can explain it.”
    â€œTry.”
    I don’t know why it was so hard, but it was. It was more than simply saying that Mona wanted to be with her new friends, because that wasn’t entirely true. She hadn’t actually chosen them over me, she just wasn’t willing to choose me over them.
    So instead I just said, “Mona’s changed.”
    â€œAnd that’s bad?” he answered, which wasn’t exactly the response I was looking for.
    â€œYeah, it’s bad. She’s not like she used to be when she lived here.”
    â€œAnd how was that?”
    â€œSee, this is why I said I couldn’t explain it. I don’t know how.” I lay my head back against the headrest and turned to look out the open window. “Don’t you think Mona’s friends are totally different than her friends here?”
    â€œYou mean you?”
    I turned to face Henry. “I mean all of us.”
    Henry was quiet, and I assumed he was thinking about my question. I watched him in profile as he drove, noticing the straight nose that turned up slightly at the end, the highcheekbones that became even more defined when he smiled, all the features that made him resemble Izzy so much and Mona so little. But even if it wasn’t immediately obvious from the blond hair and tanned arms, which lacked even the slightest hint of pink from the beach yesterday, I could see Mona in Henry’s mannerisms. The way he squinted his eyes while thinking, creating little crinkles at the corners that reminded me of ice crackling in the spring. How he folded his thumb against the palm of his hand and rubbed the small, round pad of skin at the base of his pinky without even realizing it. His bare left foot tucked under his right leg while he drove. The big picture may have been all Izzy, but I had a feeling that Henry’s details had to be his father.
    He looked different from this morning, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. He’d changed his clothes, but it was the same style of shorts, this time in olive green, and just another T-shirt. So it wasn’t that.
    â€œI guess I’d have to say they’re not the same, but they’re not that different either,” Henry finally answered, if you were even willing to call his circular logic an answer.
    â€œThat doesn’t make sense.”
    â€œSure it does. Are they exactly the same? No, but who here is exactly the same? I actually think you and Mona are pretty different.”
    â€œHow can you say that? We practically agreed on everything until you moved away.”
    â€œThat’s not true.” Henry flipped on his blinker and slowed down as we approached my street. “Most of the time you’d make a decision and Mona would agree.”
    â€œThat’s what I said.”
    â€œNo, what you said was that you agreed on everything.What I’m saying is that most of the time Mona went along with you.”
    I didn’t really see the difference.
    â€œThis is it, the end of the road.” Henry stopped the truck in my driveway and waited for me to get out.
    I placed my hand on the door handle but didn’t open it. “Are you going fishing again tomorrow?”
    He nodded. “Every day. Maybe I’ll see you for a little breakfast?”
    â€œMaybe, if Shelby forgets something.” I stepped out of the truck, shutting the door behind me. When I turned to say good-bye, I finally realized what was different. “You shaved,” I told him, leaning in the open window.
    Henry reached up and stroked his chin, puzzled. “Yeah.”
    â€œYou didn’t shave this morning.”
    He smiled, looking a little embarrassed. “I was up at four