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I had to think for a second about whether he was being nice orfun of me His expression looked noroing to pretend our fight from before hadn't happened, then so would I

"Who knows," I said, ruurt "Who cares?"

"Lover's spat?"

The s look on his face madedown next to hiurt It was Susannah's fat-free stuff, and the top looked watery and solid I closed the foil flap on the yogurt and pushed it away

Conrad pushed the watermelon over to me "You shouldn't be so hard on people, Belly" Then he stood up and said, "And put your shirt on"

I scooped out a chunk of waterure Why did he make me feel like I was still thirteen? In my head I heard , Belly Not without your permission Eleanor Roosevelt said that I almost naht I wasn't giving him permission to make me feel bad, not anymore I just wished my hair had at least been wet, or I'd had sand in , even if we hadn't been

I sat at the table and ate watermelon I ate it until I had scooped out half of thefor Cam to come back inside, and when he didn't, I only felt madder Part of me was tempted to lock the door on hiuy and become best friends with him, and then he'd tell me the man's life story the next day Not that there were any houys on our end of the beach Not that I'd ever seen a homeless person in Cousins, for that matter But if there was, Cam would find him

Only, Cam didn't come back to the house He just left I heard his car start, watched from the downstairs hallway as he backed down the driveway I wanted to run after his car and yell at his and he didn't like ht I lay in bed, thinking about how summer romances really do happen so fast, and then they're over so fast

But the next , when I went to the deck to eat my toast, I found an empty water bottle on the steps that led down to the beach Poland Spring, the kind Ca There was a piece of paper inside, a note A e in a bottle The ink was a little smeared, but I could still read what it said It said, "IOU one skinny-dip"

Chapter thirty - three

Jereuarded I'd never been inside the country club pool It was huge and fancy, so I jumped at the chance The country club seemed like a mysterious place Conrad hadn't let us co

Midafternoon, I rode reen; it was surrounded by a golf course There was a girl at a table with a clipboard, and I went over and told her I was there to see Jeremiah, and she wavedin the lifeguard chair, talking to a dark-haired girl in a white bikini He was laughing, and so was she He looked so important in the chair I'd never seen him at an actual job before

Suddenly I felt shy I walked over slowly,the pavement "Hey," I said when I was a few feet away

Jererinned athis eyes with his hands like a visor

"Yup" I swunghad ift frouard"

Yolie reached over and shookto do for sorip, so my mother would have appreciated "Hi, Belly," she said "I've heard a lot about you"

"You have?" I looked up at Jeremiah