Read Last Summer for Free Online

her earbuds out of her ears. Any closer and it might have hit her.
    She bent over to pick up the baseball, and had a sudden, perfect memory of the years she’d spent playing Little League way back when, in Martin. She wound up, and then threw the ball as far as she could, back in the direction of the baseball diamond—
    And directly over the drill sergeant’s head.
    Not that he was really a drill sergeant. As he walked closer, Beth could see that he was actually a cute auburn-haired guy maybe a year or so older than she was, who happened to be wearing the same uniform as all those kids.
    Beth couldn’t help but notice his tight T-shirt that emphasized the long, captivating muscles of his torso, andshorts that rode low on his narrow hips. He was grinning at her.
    And to her surprise, Beth found herself grinning back.
    “You have a great arm,” he said, still smiling. “If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have walked all the way over here.”
    “Thanks,” Beth said. Then the strangest thing happened. It was like the spirit of Ella rose within her, and Beth found herself saying almost the same thing her cousin had two weeks ago: “I have many talents.”
    What? Had she really just said that? To this total stranger who might think she was flirting? Was she flirting?
    “I bet you do,” the guy said with another smile. “Unfortunately, I have campers.” He looked back over his shoulder, where at least fifteen ten-year-old boys stood at the edge of the baseball diamond, singsonging high-pitched teasing rhymes. He turned back to Beth. “But maybe I’ll see you around.”
    “You never know,” Beth said, again as if she were someone else—someone who flirted, someone who enjoyed being flirted with—and he laughed at that, and then jogged back toward his campers.
    Beth stuck her earbuds back in her ears and started to run, but she couldn’t pretend that her mind was really in it any longer. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d even noticed a cute guy. It was as if she’d put that part of her lifein storage after she and George had broken up last fall. She’d been a boy-free zone for a long time now.
    And she’d kind of thought that might be a permanent condition.
    But look at her now! Beth felt a little bit giddy, and also impressed with her own boldness. She hadn’t had any idea what was going to come out of her mouth.
    And the truth was, it felt great.
    Because if she was honest with herself, Beth realized as she rounded the track once more, she’d spent a long time getting over George. She didn’t regret breaking up with him. But breaking up with him wasn’t the same thing as being over him.
    Maybe today signaled a new phase in her life, when she’d least expected it.
    Maybe she was finally moving on.
    Naturally, Beth ran into George exactly four days later.
    It was a gorgeous Maine afternoon, with not a cloud in the deep blue sky, and Jamie had actually put her books aside for a change. She and Beth had walked into town together and had lunch down on the beach. They’d gotten hot dogs and waffle fries from their favorite greasy snack vendor, taken their flip-flops off, and walked down to put their toes in the wet sand near the water’s edge.
    “Wow,” Jamie said, swallowing reverently. “I can feel the grease, like, congealing inside my body.”
    “And it’s delicious,” Beth replied around a mouthful of crispy fries.
    “A mazing ,” Jamie agreed happily.
    When they were finished stuffing themselves, they washed their hands off in the bay, and then decided to wander around town.
    They darted in and out of the cute little shops that dotted the main street of Pebble Beach. Jamie became entranced by some crystals in the New Age store, which, Beth knew from experience, could keep her occupied for hours.
    Beth looked out the back door of the shop, to one of the many courtyards that made the town so cute. You could access them from small gates along the main road or from the back doors of the