It’s been almost a week and Micayla’s still not talking to me. Bennett stopped by her house the other day to say hi, and he said she was kind of cold to him too. We don’t really know what to do about it. We’ve never seen her like this.

Thankfully, Claire loves helping with the dogs. And Calvin seems pretty into it too. He really only pays attention to Rascal, but it’s okay. I think Rascal needs some one-on-one time.

“So. Two questions,” Claire starts when we’re on our way to Dog Beach. We’ve picked up Oscar, Marilyn Monroe, and Palm. The boys are getting the others.

“Yeah?” I ask, admiring the rhinestone bow Marilyn Monroe is wearing today. I’ve been searching online for doggie hair bows, so I can send her one for the holidays. I kind of want to make sure she remembers me during the rest of the year.

“When are you going to admit that you’re in love with Bennett? And when are you going to make up with Micayla?”

That’s another thing that’s changed since Claire and I have become friends. She’ll just ask really bold questions like it’s no big deal at all. Basically, whatever’s on her mind will come out of her mouth.

It took her pretty much all summer to say that she loved dogs and wanted to help out with the business. And now she’ll say anything.

It’s kind of crazy how someone can change so much in such a short amount of time. Or maybe Claire didn’t really change—I was just willing to look at her in a different way.

Claire’s personality is part awesome and part scary. I never know what she’s going to say, and in a way I’m always worried that she’ll embarrass me. But the good part is that she brings hard-to-talk-about things out into the open, and that can be really helpful.

“I guess my answer is the same for both questions,” I reply. “I don’t know.”

“Oh.” Claire looks at me, but I don’t make eye contact with her. I feel exposed, like she just walked in on me changing out of a bathing suit. “I need to tell you one thing, though. About Micayla. You’re being kind of selfish, you know. She’s the one going through this whole big change. All you need to do is be understanding. So what if she didn’t tell you right away? Maybe it was hard for her. Anyway, it’s boring to talk about this, so that’s all I’m going to say.”

Her honesty stings the way it usually does, but maybe she’s right. She probably is.

“Thanks. I’ll think about it.” I can’t look at her. “But how did you know? About the Bennett thing, I mean. Did your grandfather tell you?” I look at her, finally.

“What? My grandfather?” She laughs. “Why would he know?”

“No reason.” I guess she doesn’t know about our conversation, and now I feel weird talking about it. But it’s pretty clear that Mr. Brookfield isn’t very gossipy. He kept his scream a secret for all these years.

“I know about your crush because it’s crazy obvious,” Claire says. “The way you act when he’s around—all nervous but chatty. The way you look at him. They way you bring him up in conversations when we’re not even talking about him at all.”

“Oh.” I look down at my feet, and at the dogs, basically anywhere but at Claire. I feel even more exposed now, like I’m walking to Dog Beach totally naked.

I wait for her to say something about Bennett. Maybe that he acts the same way around me. Or that she’s overheard him talking to Calvin about me. Or anything, really. But she doesn’t. The conversation ends there, and I’m not sure if we’ll ever talk about it again. I’m not sure if I ever want to talk about it again.

The dogs are all thrilled to be at Dog Beach, and they’re behaving themselves, so there’s not much for me to do. They’re all playing happily. The boys are keeping some of them busy with a wild game of Frisbee. Potato Salad and Tabby are sunbathing together. They’re the oldest dogs of the bunch and they love to lie around, but they love to lie around together. Whenever one’s there without the other, they just roam around gloomily. Lester continues to be the social butterfly, spending a little time with each dog.

After all the dogs are settled, I decide to walk around the beach a little bit and check on them individually. I always focus on them as a group, but they’re all a little like Rascal: They need their one-on-one time.

As I’m walking around, I notice that Mason Redmond isn’t here. He’s been here every single day this summer, and he never mentioned that he was going off-island or anything. I wonder if he’s sick.

Claire and I are sitting on the bench mapping out a plan for the rest of the day. Most of the dog owners wanted a full day of care today, so we had to plan it all out. We collected bowls and plastic bags of food from all the owners this morning so everyone will have something to eat. Sometimes Tabby and Potato Salad like to nap after lunch, so they can just do that on the beach. Marilyn Monroe spends most of the day lounging anyway, and she’s happy to be outside.

When it comes to Rascal, Atticus, and Oscar, they’re happy as long as they’re playing and they’re fed. Lester just likes to keep busy. And Palm is being picked up at noon, so we didn’t need to worry about his lunch.

“Ooh, your boyfriend is coming over.” I look up, expecting to see Mason, since Claire likes to make fun of the whole “let’s go to Sundae Best together” thing, even though he only wanted to discuss the dogs. But it’s Bennett walking over to us. I hope he didn’t hear her say that.

“Weird that Mason’s not here, right?” He looks at me. It’s like he just read my mind. “Is it safe for the dogs to be swimming unsupervised?” He laughs and I do too, and then I feel bad for making fun of Mason. It’s true that he’s not really a dog lifeguard, but he takes his pretend job seriously.

“Maybe he’s sick,” I say.

“Sickly in love with Remy!” Calvin yells, and then Bennett and Calvin high-five. Claire gives them a “come on” kind of look, and my face feels like it’s resting on a campfire.

“Maybe that’s why Micayla’s so mad at you,” Bennett says. “You stole her man.”

“Ugh, my man? Seriously? And I didn’t steal anyone.” I don’t know how I manage to get the words out, but I do. “I need to go fill up Atticus’s water bowl. He looks parched.”

I get up and walk away, but I hear them whispering behind me. I plan to take a very long time filling up Atticus’s bowl. I should have brought all the dogs’ bowls over and filled each of them one by one.

As I’m walking back, trying carefully not to spill all the water, I see Claire running over to me. Immediately I assume something is wrong with one of the dogs, and my heart starts pounding. Maybe we took on too many clients. Maybe we weren’t ready. Maybe Calvin doesn’t take this seriously enough.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“You’re going to kill me.”

“What did you do to Marilyn Monroe’s hair?” I ask. Claire has been threatening to style it in some wacky way, and I have forbidden her to do it.

“It’s not that,” she says tentatively. “It’s worse.”