By early afternoon she had accomplished twice as much as usual. Birdie was in rare form, rambling on about social media, the upcoming festival, happenings at the ranch, and about a dozen other things. Carly kept up pretty well, at least until another text from Zev rolled in, which had stopped her cold, turning Birdie and the customers to white noise.
The bells on the door chimed and the shop went quiet. “I’m thinking of sleeping with Cutter,” Birdie said, heading toward the kitchen.
“Mm-hm.” Carly didn’t look up from her phone, where her eyes were still glued to the text from Zev. Take a leap of faith with me. Meet me at Silk Hollow at 2.
Birdie was rambling about something, but Carly’s mind was running in circles. Silk Hollow was a swimming hole surrounded by granite cliffs and fed by a small waterfall. It wasn’t far from the Sterling House, and it was known as the best cliff-diving spot around. It was also one of the places she and Zev had put on their one-day list when they were in middle school. His family had been visiting his cousins in Weston, Colorado. Dane had gone to Silk Hollow with his friends, and Zev had been too young to tag along. Dane had come back with exciting stories of the fun they’d had, and after Zev had come home, he’d told Carly all about it. They’d vowed to go cliff diving there together one day and have their own fun.
“Or maybe Beau,” Birdie said as she walked past Carly.
“Okay,” she said absently, mentally arguing with herself about wanting to go see Zev.
Birdie continued talking, her voice fading back to white noise as she walked away from Carly, then becoming louder as she approached from behind.
Carly whipped her head around and found Birdie wearing safety goggles and looking adorably ridiculous in her crop top and high-waisted shorts, holding a fire extinguisher that was as big as her torso. “What are you doing?”
“I have been telling you my plans to sleep with different guys all morning, including the UPS guy, the dude at the coffee shop who we think is hot, Cutter, and even Beau, and you have approved of every one of them! That can only mean that your brain is fried. I’m going to put out the fire.”
“Birdie!” Carly pocketed her phone and tried to take the extinguisher from her hands, but Birdie pulled it away.
“Don’t you Birdie me. I can’t afford for you to have burn-out brain. You’re my guiding light, my mentor, and at the moment, I’m living vicariously through you and really getting tired of waiting for you to do all the dirty things with Zev that I want to!”
“Oh my God. You’re so fired!”
Birdie set the extinguisher down and pulled off her goggles. “No I’m not. You love me, and you know I’m right. Now, hand over your phone. I need to see what’s got you so mind-boggled that you’d say okay to me sleeping with Beau.”
“I’m not giving you my phone. I’m sorry I’ve been out of it today. It’s a weird time right now.”
“Clearly.” She waved to Carly’s shorts and faded concert T-shirt and said, “You’re wearing that shirt and UGGs. News flash! Nobody listens to Journey anymore. And UGGs, Carly? It’s summertime.”
“They’re like comfort food. I just needed them today.”
“But why? You said last night was good, that you talked and cleared the air. Why aren’t you dressing slutty and walking on air?”
“Because Zev makes me want to be the girl I used to be—which was never slutty, by the way—and that’s dangerous. He wants me to meet him at Silk Hollow at two o’clock, and I know that means he’ll want me to cliff dive with him.”
Birdie’s face contorted with confusion. “No, he won’t. He probably wants you to meet him for a picnic so you can get past talking and do more kissing.”
“Trust me. He wants us to dive. Zev has always been a thrill seeker.”
“Then I’m totally confused. You once told me that he knew you better than anyone, but I can’t even get you to ride the mechanical bull because you’re afraid you’ll get hurt.”
“I know, but I wasn’t always that way. Remember when we first met and I told you I used to be adventurous?”
Birdie wrinkled her nose. “I’ve got to be honest. I thought you’d exaggerated. You were having such a hard time, I thought you were just trying to make yourself