Read The Summer We Came to Life for Free Online

before I die of excitement!”
    I fell happily into her warm embrace that always smelled of Chanel No. 5. Jesse splattered me in lipstick kisses.
    Lynette, with her carefully bobbed blond hair and her red tunic and jeans, waited a step behind before taking her turn hugging us and laughing.
    The two men hovered awkwardly back a few paces. Arshan looked ready for class, with his collared shirt, pressed khakis and stern expression. Cornell’s clothes were more casual, but his face was just as manly serious.
    â€œOh come here!” I hugged them both. Cornell instantly relaxed, but Arshan tensed more. I thought of Mina, trying to remember if I’d ever seen them hug.
    Jesse took my hand and petted it like a Chihuahua. “Ok, my precious little angel, let’s get those automobiles, shallwe? Let’s get this show on the road! Tradition is tradition. The Opening Ceremony begins.”
    Â 
    The party was a huge success. Shakira blasted from speakers attached to Isabel’s iPod. Isabel spilled her news and Jesse launched a campaign to get her to move home. Lynette and Cornell danced and smooched in the middle of the room. Arshan helped me in the kitchen with the drinks. I’d insisted on Johnny Walker Black with club soda, the Honduran drink of choice, and Arshan was effusively appreciative. Well, effusively for Arshan.
    When Beyoncé came on, Jesse called us onto the dance floor/roller rink. We danced and shook our hips until Lynette begged me to turn on the air-conditioning and I burst out laughing. Everyone collapsed into plastic chairs to fan themselves and started gabbing again. I went out to the balcony to get some air.
    I was out there less than a minute when Arshan joined me, sliding the door closed behind him.
    â€œHey,” I said, surprised. I could count on a single hand the number of times I’d spoken one-on-one with Arshan Bahrami. Even in all our research, Mina and I hadn’t included her father the astrophysicist. It was mostly at her request and I hadn’t insisted; I knew how difficult it was to forgive fathers who let you down.
    â€œHello, Samantha. I want to thank you for inviting me on this trip. It’s been very hard since Mina—”
    â€œIt wasn’t my decision—” That sounded like I didn’t want him to come . “I mean, we all thought you should come.” That wasn’t exactly true. Jesse didn’t ask me before inviting Arshan and Cornell. Things change, Jesse said later. Adjust, darling. Or sit in a corner and lament. Sitting around lamenting was a cardinal sin in Jesse’s book.
    Arshan was no dummy. He knew who had invited him. He stood and looked out across the city lights. “It’s beautiful,no? It reminds me a bit of Tehran, the city lights in the mountains.”
    I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye. I always forgot he spent half his life in Iran.
    â€œSo, you’re going to become a married woman, huh, Sammy?”
    I don’t know what shocked me more—his question or the nickname. “They told you? Lynette and Jesse?”
    Now he seemed surprised. “What do you think we talk about?” He looked at me. “We talk about the four musketeers.” His gaze darted away quickly. “About all you girls.”
    Three musketeers, not four. A pointy triangle that doesn’t roll. Oh, Mina. Why am I here and not you?
    Something cool and smooth touched my shoulder. Arshan picked it up between his fingers and stared at the maple leaf in wonder. He looked up at the sky, then behind us on the balcony. He’d raked thousands of these in his yard. The deep line between his eyebrows almost made me giggle. I took this new leaf by its stem and twirled it between my fingers.
    â€œThere are so many things Mina and I never talked about,” he said as he watched the leaf.
    I didn’t respond and we both lapsed into thought. I remembered when Mina and I were children, how we were left