A Summer to Remember - By Jessica Gunhammer Page 0,12

me. “Where’s Jesse?”

“I think he’s still sleeping. I could hear him stumbling down the hallway a few times last night,” Steven answered, sounding amused.

After everyone finished with breakfast, Jesse decided to join us.

“Hey.” He flopped down in the chair next to me.

“Good morning, Sunshine. How you doing?” I joked with him.

“I’m never drinking that much again. I feel like hell.”

“You look like hell, too. I’m pretty sure we’ve all said that once or twice in our lives and we never stick to it.” I grabbed a bottle of water off the table and handed it to him.

“Thanks.” He took the bottle and chugged it. “Everything go okay last night?” he asked as we watched Adrian, Lily, and Steven go outside to join everyone else.

“Yeah. Thanks for asking.” I smiled at him. I thought it was sweet of him to keep checking up on me. When I stood up to follow them, Jesse grabbed me by the hand.

“Ava…I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.” He stood up and pulled me toward him.

“Wait, Jesse.” I backed away, trying to make the situation a little less awkward. I knew where he was going with this and I needed to put a stop to this now before it got out of hand. “I think I know what you’re about to say. I’m sorry. I really like you, I do, but just not like that.” Jesse looked down, hurt. “You’re a great friend and I love hanging out with you. I hope things can stay that way.” He looked back up at me with a half smile on his face.

“Well…thanks for letting me know.” He sat back down in his chair. “You just seem to have everything I’ve been looking for.” I sat down next to him when I felt it was safe to enter the friend zone again.

“You’ll find what you’re looking for…just don’t go looking for it in all the wrong places. You know, like your friends’ exes, strip clubs, that sorta thing.” A wide grin spread across his face and we both laughed.

“You guys coming or what?” Lily yelled from the porch.

“Yeah!” Jesse yelled. “I’m not about to miss girls strutting around in bikinis.” He winked at me and we walked out the door.

We packed up the coolers and took the boats and tubes out for the day. I was so happy summer was finally here. I’ve never been a big fan of winter. I would love to live somewhere where I could lay out all day long. We didn’t get back to the cabin until dinnertime. We grilled burgers and hot dogs, then everyone helped clean up and went upstairs to shower.

“I’m exhausted.” I flopped down on the couch in the living room.

“Me too.” Adrian sat down beside me. After spending the whole day together on the lake, I was starting to feel pretty comfortable around him.

“So, tell me a little about yourself, Adrian.” I decided to try my best attempt at flirting, which, mind you, I hadn’t done in a really long time, so I laid my legs across his lap.

“Well, what do you want to know?” He started rubbing my thigh and it made my heart skip a beat.

“Um…I don’t know. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I have two brothers and two sisters, I’m the youngest.”

“Are you close with your family?”

“Not really. I work construction with my dad, but other than that, we don’t spend much time together. I don’t see eye to eye with them very much. They’re fine living paycheck to paycheck but I’m looking for something more. I was the first one of my siblings to go to college. I know there’s more out there for me.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. I could tell the subject was making him feel uneasy. “What about you?”

“I have a younger brother.”

“Are you close with your family?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I decided now would be a good time to try and lighten the mood. “Didn’t you say there’s supposed to be a full moon tonight? You want to walk down to the beach?”

“Sure.” His mood perked up instantly. “I’ll go grab a blanket.” I followed him up the stairs.

“I’m going to grab some warmer clothes.” I walked into my room and Lily walked in behind me.

“Hey missy!” She shut the door behind her. “So what happened last night? I saw that you guys stayed back to ‘put out the fire.’” She plopped down on the bed.

“And that’s just what we did.” Her