“Dang, Jazz. Gimme a chance, you haven’t even given it to me yet.” She laughed as we rode our bikes over the hard damp sand, our hair streaming behind us, our baskets full of firewood, newspaper, spicy corn chips, and chocolate milk. Oh and Nana’s pimento cheese spread and crackers. Dinner of champions.
The setting sun behind us turned the blue sea to deep iridescence. If we were on the other side of the island right now and facing the sun, it would have set the water to flame. The left over gullies from the tide were carved into the sand and gleamed silver in the low light. “We live in the best place on earth,” I yelled and reached out my hand, laughing. Keri Ann did the same and we rode side by side, our fingers touching.
We saw the group of our classmates up ahead. The wind whipping past our ears stole our laughter as it passed and drowned out any sound from the group, but a faint bass beat of their music grew louder as we approached.
Someone let out a whooping yell. Cooper. I shook my head, amused. “Yeah,” he yelled. “Now it’s a party.”
“Glad to oblige.” I laughed and let him take the handlebars and steady the bike as I climbed off.
“It’s my favorite gypsy girl.” He tugged my long braid that hung loosely over my shoulder, giving me his goofy grin and grabbed the firewood bundle out of my basket.
Cooper was everybody’s good friend, but he had a problem with authority and for a while always seemed to be in trouble. It didn’t help that his father had been away fighting in Afghanistan for most of his teen years, and then died two months before his tour was up when we were in tenth grade. It had been a tough time for Cooper, but we all loved him to bits and felt his pain along with him. My mother had a lot of opinions about Cooper Jenkins being part of our friend group, as did most of our parents and teachers. But we pretty much ignored them, and Cooper calmed down eventually.
The fire had already been started in a hollowed out dip in the sand, and Cooper threw our log bundle to join the other wood supplies off to the side. I looked over and caught another friend, Vern’s eye, and he gave me a wave as he chatted with a boy I recognized from the grade below ours. Keri Ann was chatting to our friend Jasper.
“So,” Cooper said as we flopped down cross-legged on the sand. I knocked my chocolate milk against his can of Cheer Wine. “When do you leave for college?”
“I’m going to Beaufort, idiot.” I smiled and took a sip. “I’ll be living at home and driving to classes if I get a car. I’ll still be around.”
Cooper scratched his head. “Oh yeah, I forgot. I keep thinking everyone’s going off to school and leaving me behind.”
“What about you? You decide what you’re doing yet? Are you going to stay on at the garage?”
“I like it there, you know. Makes me feel closer to my old man. And I’m good at it. My only other option is to enlist. But I’d give my ma a damned heart attack if I went and did that.” He shook his head. “Hey, so I’m working on a VW Bug right now, and I think the owner might be looking to sell it. It needs a new transmission, and the guy doesn’t want to pay for it. But once that’s done, it’ll be rolling.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Do you know how much he might ask?” I asked. I was excited but I still had to earn enough cash. “Or if he’d be willing to get paid in installments.”
“I can ask.” Cooper shrugged.
I bumped his shoulder affectionately. “Thanks, Bud.”
“Oh my God!” I heard my friend Liz whisper behind me to Keri Ann who was sitting next to her. “Did you guys invite Joey and Colt?”
I looked to where she was pointing. Sure enough, Keri Ann’s brother and his friend Colton Graves who was a tad stockier and darker haired than his high school buddy were walking down the beach toward us. I turned and caught Keri Ann’s eye. Her cheeks were pink. “I didn’t know Colt was home too,” I said.
She shrugged and shot me a threatening look, begging me to shut my mouth. She’d had a tiny crush on Colton when we were in eighth grade. “Me neither.”
“Ugh,” moaned Liz. “Could they be any hotter?”
Chase hadn’t shown up and probably wouldn’t so hopefully I wouldn’t have to worry about Joey being a bonehead to him.
I wanted to know how Joey’s interview had gone. Somehow since our breakfast last weekend, it felt like we were finally becoming friends in our own right rather than just through Keri Ann. It made me feel warm inside. Like my family just expanded.
THE SUN HAD set, we were all cast in firelight, and Chase hadn’t shown up. People arrived in dribs and drabs, and there ended up being about thirty of us. Joey and Colt had been surrounded and peppered with questions about college and memories of Butler Cove’s football glory days when they’d been on the team. Butler Cove High hadn’t had a great team since they’d left. Music pulsed from the old school battery-operated stereo Vern had brought down. Ever the traditionalist.
Joey finally got a break and wandered over to me as I pulled my cardigan out of my bicycle basket.
“I shoulda worn jeans,” I said as I pulled it on. “Who knew it would be so chilly in May.”
He shook his head. “Right? And it was sweltering today.”
“Sooo?” I sang, cocking an eyebrow. “Dr. Barrett?”