Welcome to Corbet's Inlet, North Carolina, where the teenagers act like adults and the adults act like teenagers. It's Griffin Connolly's favorite place in the world. And while she may not be good at making decisions when it comes to her own life, s...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Boys!" Lauren called out. She raised a hand over her head and snapped her fingers. "We're over here."
Griffin didn't turn around. She grabbed her water glass and sucked down half of it through the straw. Still didn't douse the nerves.
She should've texted Charlie back before he got here.
He was going to see she had her phone on her and purposely ignored him. Griffin was already a little paranoid he was going to revert to Chuck once he got back from Charleston. Like, what if now that the Wake Forest thing was a done deal, he'd have to find something else to hassle her with? She couldn't deal with having their kiss held over her head for the rest of the summer. Especially if he was still filling up his social calendar with Mary Kyle Bowman.
"Yoooo, look at this crew!" Evan appeared at the head of the picnic table, arms stretched wide. "Y'all made it!"
"Pretty sure we invited you here, dude," Lauren said.
Evan grinned. "No, I meant, y'all made it three and a half days on this stupid island without me and Chuck around to entertain you. How bored did you get? Be honest."
Lauren was unimpressed. "This coming from the kid who spent his first real taste of college blowing up my phone instead of actually experiencing college."
Something brushed Griffin's shoulder. She looked down to see what it was...then flinched all the way back into Matty.
There was Charlie, right beside her. In person. Swinging one leg over the wooden picnic bench and sitting down astride it like it was the most casual thing in the world. His hat was backwards and his sunglasses were on, and he had a tear along the left hem on his khaki shorts that pulled tight across his thigh as he settled in.
"—whole time I was out in LA, too," Lauren said across the table. "Y'all need to calm down with the group chats already."
"You love the group chats, Lo. Don't lie," Evan said.
Charlie smiled.
"Hey," he said, just to Griffin.
"Hey," Griffin said back. Her face was too tingly and warm to look at him head-on like this, so she grinned down at her lap. She could see his leg bouncing fast under the table.
"What up, Chuck?" Matty said, shifting to reach behind Griffin for a bro-handshake. Griffin didn't realize she was still leaning on him and fell back awkwardly into his chest. "Y'all do it big down in Charleston for orientation?"
"Yeah, it was good, man," Charlie said, clapping hands with him. "Glad to be back, though."
"You've met my boss, Cutter, right?" Matty asked.
To his credit, Cutter looked pretty composed considering the volume level at their table had shot up about twenty notches courtesy of Lauren and Evan. With all the insider information Griffin was sitting on about him and Matty, she felt even worse he was now playing involuntary audience to the freak show her friend group could be sometimes.
