Feels Like Summer (on pause)

three

 As the three of them walk across the sand and up onto the boardwalk, Rosie's phone buzzes a few times in the pocket of her shorts. She quickly checks the caller ID: Anna, hoping for an update on Emerald Cove so far. Rosie grins and slips the phone back into her pocket. She'd tell Anna that night about her day spent with the cousins and later Finn. Anna would probably tell her that her beach boy fantasies were coming true.

"Downtown is probably the most interesting part of Emerald Cove, but that's not really saying much," Finn says, interrupting Rosie's chain of thought. "We're a pretty small beach town, so don't expect anything crazy."

"This is adorable!" Rosie cries as the main street comes into view. "Nora, look!" But Rosie doesn't have to guide Nora's attention, because Nora is already drinking in the view. Downtown Emerald Cove is painted just as colorfully as the houses they'd passed earlier, but now the buildings are full of cute boutiques and restaurants rather than family homes. "This is amazing."

"It's something, alright," Finn says.

Rosie turns to him. Unlike her and Nora, Finn seems wholly unimpressed with the view before him. "Oh come on, Mr. Cynical. This place is the cutest thing I've seen in my life."

Finn shrugs. "I mean, I've lived here my whole life. Sometimes it feels a lot less cute and a lot more stifling."

Rosie thinks about that for a minute, but before she can think too hard, Nora's dragging her across the street and towards a building with a shiny sign.

"I see she's found the arcade," Finn chuckles as he follows them.

"No freaking way," Nora exclaims. "A retro arcade? You're kidding."

Finn smiles. "It is kinda cute, huh?"

"Can we play? Please?" Nora begs, tugging at Rosie's shirt.

"I've only got five bucks, Nora, so spend it wisely," Rosie tells her, handing over the crumpled bill as they walk through the door.

"No, no," Finn says. "I've got this." He pulls out a twenty from the pocket of his shorts. Rosie immediately starts to protest, but Finn shakes his head. "It's the least I can do for the girls who cheered me up out of my post-breakup depression."

"You're too nice. Seriously," Rosie says as Nora darts off, the twenty dollars clutched tightly in her hand. "We've known you for maybe half an hour, and you're already spending big bucks on us?"

"I wouldn't call twenty dollars 'big bucks'," Finn teases, "but yeah. My friends say I am too nice though, sometimes."

"They say that about me too," Rosie confesses. "But thank you."

They sit together in the small restaurant portion of the arcade, and Rosie uses her leftover five dollars to buy an order of fries to split. They watch Nora dart from game to game, winning a surprising amount of tickets along the way. And they talk.

"I really am sorry about your breakup," Rosie says. "I've never had a boyfriend, so no one's ever broken up with me, but I imagine it sucks."

Finn chuckles drily. "Yeah, you could say that. And the worst part is like, I thought things were going well? But they needed space I guess, to figure themselves out."

"Oh, the dreaded 'it's not you, it's me'?" Rosie asks.

"And I thought you said you never had a boyfriend," Finn teases.

"I've seen a lot of rom-coms, okay?" Rosie says. "Don't judge me."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare."

They go back and forth, and Rosie is surprised at how easy it is to talk to Finn. Normally around boys who aren't family, she goes completely silent, but being with Finn is like hanging out with someone she's known forever. Maybe Rosie will get a cute beach boyfriend after all. After he gets over his ex, of course.