Read Last Summer for Free Online Page B

everybody is as much fun as you, that’s all. I drove by the mini golf place the other day, and remembered our hard-core tournaments.”
    “I haven’t played mini golf in a long time,” Beth mused, mulling it over. Of course, she should tell George no. There was no point dredging up all that old stuff again. Hadn’t she just started to feel like she could move on?
    But then again, she told herself as George launched into an impassioned description of how he was, in fact, the TigerWoods of mini golf, it was just mini golf. And maybe the fact that she was starting to move on was why it would be okay to hang out with George. After all, he was still the funniest guy she knew. The funniest person , in fact. She missed laughing the way they’d always laughed together.
    “Please stop talking,” she said, interrupting George’s treatise on how his swinging style had developed over the years.
    George paused, and bit his lip. “Sorry.”
    “I think mini golf might be fun,” she said, eyeing him with one part hope and another part apprehension. His expression looked the way she imagined hers must: wary, but kind of pleased, too. Because if it wasn’t awful, it really would be fun to hang out with George again.
    “Yeah?” He nodded. “Um, okay. Cool.”
    “I guess you should call me,” Beth said, feeling awkward. And then she realized that she didn’t want to sound like she thought it was a date or anything. “Or I can call you, whatever.”
    “Sure,” George said quickly. He looked at her and smiled that fully George smile. “But we’ll definitely do it. It’ll be fun.”
    “Fun,” Beth echoed. “I’m looking forward to it.”
    They smiled at each other, and it was nice, but kind of tentative, too.
    “Okay, well, I should go find Jamie,” Beth said, beginning to feel awkward.
    “Yeah,” George agreed. “I think Dean might be in an ice-cream coma.”
    “See you later.” Beth knew she sounded stilted and strange, but didn’t know how to change that.
    It had never really occurred to her that trying to be friends would be so hard.

5
    Kelsi pushed her way off the subway train, and let the crowd carry her along, up the stairs and out into the sweaty, humid June evening.
    Once free of the foot traffic, she backed up to the nearest building, looked all around her, and let the thrill of it all snake through her: She was in New York City!
    The plan had been for Bennett to drive up and spend the last two weekends in Pebble Beach. The first weekend he’d cancelled, because his new job at the gallery involved a ton of overtime hours, which he hadn’t expected. Then this weekend he’d been supposed to come up again, and when he’d called late last night, Kelsi had steeled herself for yet another cancellation.
    “I have to cover all these galleries for Carlos,” Bennett had told her. “So I can’t come up this weekend.”
    “It’s okay.” Kelsi had tried to sound supportive, even though she was crushed. She didn’t even know what “covering galleries” meant, or why it was so much more important than his coming up to see her, but she didn’t think she should ask that question. She suspected it would sound needy, and she really wanted to sound completely behind him—one hundred percent.
    “It’s not okay,” Bennett replied immediately. “But you should come down. There’s no reason why you can’t come with me while I do the coverage and, anyway—I want to see you.”
    And so here she was.
    Here being the actual island of Manhattan, which Kelsi could hardly believe she was standing on. She’d been to New York before on various field trips to the Metropolitan Museum or a Broadway show—and even once on an ill-advised night out with Ella—but it had never been like this. She’d never been completely on her own, planning to stay in her boyfriend’s apartment and cover art galleries. Bennett was living in such an amazing world this summer, and now she got to be a part of it, too.
    Kelsi pushed