Killer Summer, Lynda Curnyn [books suggested by bill gates .txt] 📗

me but I’m not sure what time Tom is getting to the beach tonight. I guess we can talk to him in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll see you out there, then.”

“See you at the beach.”

Chapter Forty-three

Nick

Busted

What ferry did you say your dad was coming on?“

Francesca narrowed her eyes at me, as she braced herself on the bathroom vanity. “I didn’t. But he’s not here now. So why don’t we stop talking and start fucking.”

I smiled down at her.“You got some mouth on you, little girl.”

“And you love it,” she said, pulling my hips until my erection had nowhere to go. Except in her, of course.

Ahhhh. Oh, man, this was good, I thought, looking up into the mirrors that surrounded us, gazing at Francesca’s hair falling over her back, her sweet little ass sliding backward on the counter as I pounded her. Clearly Sage and Zoe had gotten the better bedroom out of this deal. Who knew their bathroom had such possibilities?

“Harder,” Francesca cried out, sinking her teeth into my nipple.

Oh, fuck. That hurt. Not in a bad way.

I pounded harder. So hard, in fact, I thought I might slam her into the mirror. That’s all I needed was to break the damn thing. Reaching around, I slid my hands over her ass to brace her, knocking over the water glass on the sink in the process.

Crash!

“Shit!”

“Nick?”

I looked down, though I was fairly certain that wasn’t Francesca calling out my name.

“Is that you in there?”

Sage. I froze, staring at Francesca’s flushed face. Oh, fuck. Sage must have gotten an early ferry. She was right outside the door!

Something told me that might even be worse than having Tom out there.

I held my fmger up to my lips in a shushing motion as I disentangled myself from Francesca’s limbs. She smiled up at me, ready to jump off the counter and right out that door, until I stopped her. Wait here, I mouthed to her, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my waist.

I slipped out the door, quickly closing it behind me. “Sage, you’re here bright and early,” I said, smiling at her.

She folded her arms. “What were you doing in there?”

“Using your shower?”

She narrowed her eyes at me.“l don’t hear any water running.”

“I was, uh, just finishing up—”

Suddenly the door swung open, and out popped Francesca, wearing only a bath towel and a smug little smile on her face.

“I can’t believe you, Nick,” Sage said, once Francesca had paraded herself past us and out the bedroom door.

“I can explain,” I replied, pulling the towel around my waist tighter, as if it might somehow protect me from the rage I saw in Sage’s eyes.

“Oh really?” she replied. “Then what I want to know first is, why you are carrying on your sordid little affair in my bathroom!”

I gave her a sheepish smile.“You’ve got some awesome mirrors in there.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Nick, this is not funny. The only thing I asked you to do this summer was to steer clear of Tom’s daughter—”

“Oh, was that the only thing?” I challenged her, suddenly feeling pretty mad myself. “What about the request that I refrain from talking up my label to your friends? Schmoozing, I think you called it. Or the unspoken request that I disappear into thin air whenever you ran off with one of your boy toys—”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I haven’t been with any of my so-called boy toys all summer.”

“No, you haven’t,” I agreed. “Except for Chad.”

I watched as her face turned bright red. Oops. Bad example. Still, she didn’t run my life.“Look, Sage, I’m entitled to a little fun, too, you know. Isn’t that the reason you dragged me and Zoe out here? At least I thought that was the reason. But ever since the summer began, it’s like we’re all living on your fucking planet. And we can’t have any fun on Sage’s planet. Nooooo. We can only have fun when you want us to have fun, laugh when you want us to laugh—”

“That is so not true.”

“Well, it certainly feels like that. Sometimes I think the only reason you keep me and Zoe around is for props on the set of your latest adventure. Hey, folks, tune in as Sage Daniels and Friends Do Fire Island! Hey, don’t worry about us friends—we’re just walk-ons in the set of Sage’s life!”

“Is that what you think? That I don’t care about you? That I only invited you out here to make me happy?”

Her voice cracked, and I thought I saw tears filling her eyes. Oh, shit.

“I thought I was doing this for all of us!” she cried.“Ever since Bern left town, you seemed so down in the dumps, Nick. And Zoe—” She swiped at the tears that began to run down her face. “Forgive me for giving a shit about you!”

Now I felt like an ass. Especially when Sage sat down on the bed and really started crying.

I sat down next to her. “Sage, I’m sorry.”

She looked up at me, her eyes so red I felt like fucking crying. When did she get so sensitive and shit? Maybe it was that time of the month.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” I began.

“Well, how did you mean it, exactly?”

I sighed. There was no getting out of this conversation.“It’s just that’s what it feels like sometimes. Like I’m living in the shadow of your happy little life. Everything just seems to come so easy for you.”

“Everything comes easy for me?” she said, her eyes going wide. “Goddammit, Nick, how could you say a thing like that?”

Shit. I might as well salt up my foot, because I was bound to put it in my mouth again. Now she was crying even harder. Crying like I hadn’t seen her cry in a long time. Come to think of it, I wasn’t entirely sure I’d ever seen Sage cry. Not even at her sister’s funeral.

Oh, yeah. I guess she hadn’t had