The Summer We Believed (Denim Days #1)

Day 7 -- Duncan

Drive-in guy connected the cables and the engine roared to life.

"You probably had the radio on with your running lights and that wore the battery down. You should be fine." He released the rod that held the hood up and let it slam shut.

"Thanks." I held a ten-dollar bill out to him, but he waved me off.

"It's on the house." He smacked the roof and we drove off.

On the way back, Mel was quieter than normal and I didn't talk much either. I was lost in thoughts like:

That was fantastic.

Better than any other hook-up.

It's Mel—that wasn't a hook-up.

I leave tomorrow.

This boner is killing me.

Mel's practically a sister.

Is this like incest?

Am I sick?

A sexual deviant?

I assumed Mel was having some thoughts of her own.

When we pulled into the long, shared driveway, the headlights illuminated Mom and Mel's mom, both in their bathrobes, sitting in Adirondack chairs, each holding a glass of wine.

"Thank God you're back, we were starting to worry," Mom said.

"And had to break into the wine."

They laughed together.

I shuffled from foot to foot, pushing gravel with the toe of my Nike's. "The battery died and the guy from the drive-in offered to help, but he had to run home to get the cables."

Mom raised one brow, skeptical. "You could have called."

"I thought it would stress out Dad."

Mom took a sip of wine and said, "He's sound asleep, but I was just lying here, so I came out to watch for you. Kathleen was already out here."

Mel's mom got up from the chair and walked over to Mel, then draped her arm around Mel's shoulder. "As long as you're both safe," she said more to Mel than to me. "It gave us a chance to reminisce, and we pretty much killed this bottle of Merlot." She gave the bottle a little tip back and forth, then pretend-jogged over to my mom and poured the rest into her empty glass. It was more than a few drops, but not much more.

"I think I have another bottle inside. C'mon, we never finished talking about when Colleen's husband dug up their backyard."

My mom laughed hysterically. "How he thought he could DIY an in-ground pool, I'll never understand."

They hardly knew we were there as they headed into Mel's house. A moment later, the light went on in the kitchen.

I took over mom's chair and Mel was poised half-on-half-off of the arm.

"C'mere." I pulled her into my lap. Her body warmed me from the cool breeze coming off the lake. She'd braided her hair again tonight, like she always did. I kissed a spot behind her ear and tugged at the elastic.

"What are you doing?"

"Once there was a princess with reddish-brown hair and she kept it tied up, like her hair was a prisoner."

Mel laughed.

"A prince came along to rescue it." I slowly unbraided her long hair.

"Not a knight this time?"

"Ssshh." I finished unbraiding her hair and shifted so that I could fluff it around her face. It hung in loose waves. "That's better." I leaned in and kissed her again. There was no way we could go back to where we were at the drive-in, not with our moms a few feet away.

"Maybe they'll polish off that bottle and pass out. That'd give us some privacy," Mel joked.

Does she want what I want?

I didn't need an invitation. We kissed a few more times and I started to get amped up again. "Wait," I said when we took a break. "I want you to know how great my vacation was this summer. They're always great, but this year was special."

Mel looked down, and I tipped her chin up to me. "I'm moving away, Mel." She shook her head. "I am. We'll be at different colleges and it will suck not seeing you every day. You're going to meet a lot of people."

"No I won't."

"You will. And some of those people will be guy people. And some of those guy people will want to take you out."

"Yeah right. What's gonna make it any different than it's always been?"

"It will be. So no promises, okay?" I brushed her hair away from her face.

Mel looked away. I could see the gleam of tears in her eyes. "What if I don't have a problem with promises?"

"No promises, Mel." I pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. "We've never broken one to each other and I couldn't bear it if we started now."