“We missed you the other night!” Pepper shouted over the phone. “The waves at Fort Point were unbelievable. Why aren’t you here yet? We want to go to the beach.”
“I can be there in a couple of hours.”
“Why so long?”
“I have to walk.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course. Sorry, that was stupid of me. Cheddar, go get Flipper,” I heard her say as she hung up.
I changed into my bathing suit and threw on a T-shirt and shorts over it. And I packed a bag with the usual beach changes—towel, bathing suit—plus a toothbrush, the blue linen dress, sweatpants, sweatshirt, another T-shirt, because I never knew what I was getting into with the Tooheys.
The blue station wagon careened down the driveway just a few minutes later. I got in and sat on the big bench seat. I hadn’t been alone with Cheddar since we had our “yeah, I dunno” talk on the Plunger.
Cheddar waited for me to put my seat belt on. Then he started the car and placed his hands in the ten-and-two position on the steering wheel before executing a careful five-point turn and proceeding out of the driveway. We said nothing to each other on the way, but it was okay. Every once in a while, he’d look over and smile (if the traffic permitted), showing his tiny little jack-o’-lantern teeth.
The gang met us in the driveway and loaded up the way back with a cooler and tote bags full of blankets, towels, and rafts to inflate. Pike got in the front seat, and I shifted over toward Cheddar. Pixie and Pepper got in the back, but then Pepper climbed over the seat into the front and squeezed in between me and Cheddar, pushing me into Pike.
“Why am I back here all alone?” Pixie cried out. Pike got out and got in the back with her.
“I want the window,” Pepper said to me and crawled over me, elbowing me in the face. I had enough, and so I climbed over the bench seat and into the back and ended up sitting between Pike and Pixie, with my legs splayed over the hump in the floor.
I was surprised we weren’t heading for our tiny town beach. People still liked to sit there even though it was stony and too cold for swimming for most people. Instead, we headed inland to a lake two towns over, famous for its warmer water.
The lake was bustling with summer people and local families. There was a playground and picnic tables and a wide sandy beachfront that was freshly dressed with new sand they trucked in each summer and raked every week. Cheddar carried most of our stuff to the beach and set up our blanket, arranging our cooler, towels, and bags around its perimeter. After we blew up the rafts, we floated around in the water.
“We should have invited you the other night,” Pepper said. “Scout said he was taking us out to dinner, but we only went to the holy House of Pizza, then he took off somewhere, and the four of us went down to Fort Point and watched the big surf.”
“We were stupid. Because we can’t hang out tomorrow because of the wedding,” Pixie said.
“Ugh! That wedding,” Pepper said, totally deflated, and slapped the water’s surface. “I forgot all about it.”
“Who’s getting married?” I asked, half-praying it wasn’t Scout, although I didn’t know why I would care since I hadn’t heard from him since I called him an asshole.
“Some kind of cousin.”
“Julie’s our first cousin, once removed,” Pixie corrected.
“Then once-remove us from the guest list, puh-lease,” Pepper said, then brightened. “I know! You could go as Pike’s date! Pike, you had a plus one.”
Once again, I was swept up in their plans.