An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach), Mariah Stewart [best classic novels TXT] 📗

“What do you want to do someday, Nat?” he’d asked her that last night. “After college.”

“I’m not sure, but I think I might like to teach. Maybe something that would help kids to learn something important.”

“You mean like special ed? Something like that?”

“Maybe. How ’bout you? If you weren’t going to be a rock star, what would you do?”

“Something to do with music. Teach, maybe.” He’d smiled. “So when everything falls through and I come back to Wyndham Beach, dragging my guitar behind me in defeat, maybe we both can teach here.”

“There’s no way you are going to fail, Chris. You are going to soar like . . .” She’d looked up at the sky, where a star shot across the night in a flash of light. “Like that shooting star. Did you see it? Quick, make a wish, and I will, too.”

He’d closed his eyes. When he’d opened them, he’d asked, “What did you wish for, Nat? A summer full of Italian lovers?”

“I wished that your dream would come true. That your band would be what you hoped for.”

“Aw, Nat, that’s sweet. But you shouldn’t have wasted your wish on me,” he’d teased. “Wish something for yourself.”

“That is for me. I wish for you to be happy, and that will make me happy. Besides, if you wished that, too, that’s a double wish. Double wishes always come true, so it wasn’t a wasted wish.”

He’d turned her face to his and stared into her eyes for a long time. Finally, he’d said, “I will never forget you, Nat. And I will always remember this . . .” And then he’d kissed her. One long, slow, perfect kiss, the very one she’d dreamed of all summer, one that had left her wanting more. “I’ll remember, I swear it. No matter where I go, whenever I see a shooting star, I’ll think of you.”

From time to time over the years, whenever she saw a shooting star, she remembered that night, and she wondered if he remembered, too.

“Can you believe we’re actually doing this?” Natalie opened her front door when she saw Grace’s car pull up. They hugged quickly before Natalie closed the door behind them. “Going to a rock concert together. And not any concert.”

“Honestly, I almost thought he wouldn’t come through with all this, but he did.” Grace went straight to the hall mirror and checked her makeup and her hair, which she wore in a very high ponytail, one that matched her sister’s. “Oh God, do we look like the Flynn twins or what?”

Natalie laughed. They’d both worn jeans, ankle boots, and long silver earrings. They wore the matching T-shirts Chris had sent them, with his face in the center and the date and venue under his likeness.

“It’s too late to change.” Natalie pointed out the window to the street, where a long white car had stopped. “Let me run in the kitchen and kiss Daisy good night. I was lucky to get her favorite sitter for the night, so she doesn’t care that I’m leaving.”

“Tell Daisy I’ll see her in the morning,” Grace said as she dashed out the door.

Natalie hadn’t been exaggerating. Daisy barely lifted her head for a goodbye kiss. The babysitter had brought a bag of finger puppets, and they were busy telling a story.

Natalie and Grace sat in the back seat of the limo, holding hands and giggling like schoolgirls.

“Do you have your backstage pass?” Grace asked.

“Are you kidding?” Natalie laughed. “I’ve been sleeping with it so I wouldn’t lose it.”

“Me too. I’ve never been backstage after a concert. I read it’s wild.”

“I don’t know. It’s hard for me to think of Chris as wild,” Natalie said.

“I can. Remember, I saw him not too long ago. Went drinking with him. The guy’s a stud, Nat. Why he’d be excited about having two of his childhood friends at his concert is beyond me.”

“What makes you think he’s excited?”

“I was there when you two were on the phone, talking about it. I saw the look on his face after he passed the phone back to me.” Grace narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure there wasn’t something going on between you and Chris back then?”

“Nothing really. I mean, we were friends. Close friends for a while.” Natalie shrugged. “I don’t think it would ever have been more than that. Oh, look.” She changed the subject adroitly. “Is that a cooler of drinks for us?” She switched her seat and opened the cooler. “OMG. Champagne!”

She slid up to the panel separating the passengers from the driver and moved the glass to one side.

“Excuse me.”

The driver’s eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. “Miss?”

“There’s a bottle of champagne back here, and we were wondering . . .”

“Oh, yes, miss. That’s for you. There are glasses in there, too.” He smiled. “Just please close the panel before you pop the cork.”

“Will do.” She turned to her sister. “It’s for us. Let’s open it.”

Grace grabbed the bottle. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

The bottle opened and the drinks poured, they toasted each other and their luck in sharing such a fun adventure.

“When was the last time we went out together to have a good time?” Natalie sank back into the seat and sipped her champagne.

“Before I was married. Back when we were in college. One of those weekends you were home from Penn State and came down to see me at Delaware.” Grace appeared to be debating whether to pour another drink.

“Your sorority had some epic parties.”

“We did.”

The sound of a horn blowing got their attention. Their driver had cut off another car on Broad Street and was now apologizing for it.

“Oh, we’re here.” Natalie drained her glass and put it back into the cooler as the limo rounded a corner and crept slowly behind the Wells Fargo Center. “You don’t happen to have a Taser, a torch, fireworks, or brass knuckles on you, do you?”

“What?” Grace stared at Natalie.

“How ’bout a box cutter? A drone? Skateboard?”

“Are you crazy? What are you talking about?”

Natalie laughed. “Chris