Becca giggles again, and Zeb says something about having to get the groceries back to their beach house before the ice cream melts. Kaylee promises to text Becca later, and soon we’re back in Emilia’s car, en route to the liquor store.
“I don’t remember her,” I confess to Kaylee. “How do you—?”
“Really?” Kaylee shoots me an odd look. “I mean, it’s been a few months, but she was at all of Wanda’s parties last winter. I feel like you and Becca had a marathon conversation about some boring shit like acrylic paints once.”
“She’s an artist?”
“Here, here, turn in.”
I steer the car into the liquor store lot. “We know her from Brooklyn?” I ask, pulling into an open spot.
“Where else?”
Inside, Kaylee grabs a small shopping cart and takes off past the wine displays and toward the aisles of hard alcohol like she owns the place. By the time I catch up, she has our cart stocked with a bottle of Jose Cuervo, a bottle of Bacardi white, and a yellow-green jug of margarita mix.
“Have you been here before?”
Kaylee tilts her head to one side and squints at me. “It’s a liquor store, Anna. They’re all the same. See if you can find us some pineapple juice and seltzer in the back?”
I nod and do as instructed. While I’m pulling a six-pack of little pineapple juice cans from the cold case, I hear a throat clear behind me. I straighten up, prepared to move out of the way.
“Anna?”
I spin around. “Penguin guy.”
“I prefer penguin expert,” Max says, grinning. He brushes a piece of floppy brown hair out of his eyes, and it falls right back.
“Of course.” I grin back. He’s even cuter out of his aquarium uniform, and unlike Caden, he’s unlikely to come with baggage of the missing fiancée variety. But despite myself, I can’t help wishing it were Caden standing before me, eyes and smile glittering in the neon liquor store lights.
My gaze drops down to the giant shopping cart parked in front of him. It’s filled to the brim with cases of beer and a few bottles of vodka and gin. “You do your shopping in Herron Mills often?”
He laughs. “Not really. Just finished up at the aquarium, and this is the best liquor store on the way back to Montauk. Most places don’t have both the hard stuff and a great beer selection.”
“Right,” I say, “the party.”
As if on cue, Kaylee wheels our significantly smaller cart around the corner and pulls up next to Max and me. “Party?”
“This is Kaylee,” I say. “Kaylee, Max.”
She sticks out her hand, eyes flashing bright, and he takes it in his. She can have him, I tell myself. You didn’t want him anyway. The bigger issue is Max’s party on Montauk. I’d put it immediately out of my mind after he invited me; it feels like a lifetime has passed between Monday and today. Drinking with Kaylee in the pool house tonight is one thing. We’re unlikely to get into that much trouble, just the two of us. But a Fourth of July party on the beach … As Max gives Kaylee the details, my stomach churns.
“I thought you had to work,” Max says, and I realize he’s speaking to me.
“I did,” I say. “I mean, I thought I did. But Paisley’s with friends for the weekend.”
“That’s settled then.” Max reaches into Kaylee’s cart and transfers our bottles over into his. “These are on me. Meet you in the parking lot?”
“I told you not to worry,” Kaylee says when we’re outside with our bags of seltzer and pineapple juice. I watch Max through the big store window, unloading case after case of beer onto the conveyer belt and chatting with the white-haired man behind the register. He definitely would have carded us.
“Pretty convenient,” I concede, wondering if Herron Mills really has the best liquor store between Riverhead and Montauk. On the other hand, it’s not like Max followed us. The contents of his cart indicate he was definitely in the store already when we pulled up. There’s nothing to be paranoid about.
A few minutes later, Max is handing our tequila and rum over to Kaylee and I’m trying not to be embarrassed that he so clearly knew we were underage. I remind myself it doesn’t matter. He’s too old for me, and I’m not into him anyway. Kaylee doesn’t look embarrassed at all. We stay to help him load up his trunk, then hop back into Emilia’s car with