The Last Song - Страница 39

Despite the cages that had been built to guard the turtle nests up and down the beach, raccoons had burrowed beneath the wire mesh and destroyed six nests. As soon as Ronnie learned what happened, she insisted they take turns guarding the nest behind her house. There was no reason for both of them to be there all night, but they spent most nights holding each other, kissing, and talking quietly until long after midnight.

Scott, of course, couldn’t understand it at all. More than once, Will was late for practice and he’d arrive to see Scott pacing in agitation, wondering what had gotten into his friend. At work, in the rare instances that Scott asked how things were going with Ronnie, Will didn’t volunteer much-he knew Scott wasn’t asking because he was truly interested. Scott did his best to keep Will’s attention focused on the upcoming beach volleyball tournament, usually pretending either that Will would come to his senses soon or that Ronnie didn’t exist.

Ronnie had been right about his mom, though. While she hadn’t said anything directly to him about his new relationship, he read her disapproval in the way she had to force a smile at the mention of Ronnie’s name and in the almost formal demeanor she adopted when he brought Ronnie to the house. She never asked about Ronnie, and when he said something about her-about how much fun they’d had or how smart she was or how she understood him better than anyone-his mom would say things like, “You’re going to be at Vanderbilt soon, and long-distance relationships are hard” or would even wonder aloud if he thought they were “spending too much time together.” He hated when she said those things. It was all he could do not to snap at her, because he knew she was being unfair. Unlike practically everyone else Will knew, Ronnie didn’t drink or curse or gossip, and they hadn’t gone any further than kissing, but he knew intuitively those things wouldn’t matter to his mom. She was locked into her prejudices, so any attempt to change her opinion of Ronnie would be pointless. Frustrated, he started making excuses to stay away from the house as much as possible. Not only because of the way his mom felt about Ronnie, but because of the way he was beginning to feel about his mom.

And about himself, of course, for failing to call her on it.

Other than Ronnie’s preoccupation with her upcoming court appearance, the only blemish on their largely idyllic summer was the continuing presence of Marcus. Though they’d mostly been able to avoid him, it was sometimes impossible. When they did run into him, Marcus always seemed to find a way to provoke Will, usually with a reference to Scott. Will felt paralyzed. If he overreacted, Marcus might go to the police; if he did nothing, he felt ashamed. Here he was, dating a girl who’d stood in court and admitted her guilt, and the fact that he couldn’t summon the courage to do the same had started to torment him. He’d tried talking to Scott about coming clean and going to the police, but Scott had rejected the idea. And in his own indirect way, he never let Will forget what he’d done for him and his family that horrible day when Mikey died. Will admitted Scott been heroic, but as the summer wore on, he began to wonder whether a previous good deed meant a later bad one should be completely overlooked-and, in his darkest moments, whether he could bear the true cost of Scott’s friendship.

One night in early August, Will agreed to take Ronnie out to the beach to hunt for spider crabs.

“I told you I don’t like crabs!” Ronnie squealed, grabbing hold of Will’s arm.

He laughed. “They’re just spider crabs. They won’t hurt you.”

She squinched up her nose. “They’re like creepy, crawly bugs from outer space.”

“You’re forgetting that doing this was your idea.”

“No, it was Jonah’s idea. He said it was fun. Which serves me right for listening to someone who learns about life by watching cartoons.”

“I would think someone who feeds slimy fish to otters wouldn’t be bothered by a few harmless crabs on the beach.” He swept his flashlight across the ground, illuminating the fast-moving creatures.

She scanned the sand frantically, lest another crab dart near her foot. “First off, there aren’t a few harmless crabs. There are hundreds of them. Second, if I’d known that this is what happens to the beach at night, I would have made you sleep by the turtle nest every night. So I’m a little angry at you for hiding this fact. And third, even though I work at the aquarium, it doesn’t mean that I enjoy having crabs run over my feet.”

He did his best to keep a straight face, but it was too hard. When she looked up, she caught his expression.

“Stop smirking. It’s not funny.”

“Yes, it is… I mean, there must be twenty little kids and their parents out here, doing the same thing we are.”

“It’s not my fault if their parents lack common sense.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“No, it’s fine,” she said. “You’ve already lured me out here into the middle of the infestation. I might as well put up with it.”

“You do know we’ve been walking the beach a lot lately.”

“I know. So again, thank you for bringing the flashlight and ruining the memories.”

“Fine,” he said, turning it off.

She dug her nails into his arm. “What are you doing? Turn it back on!”

“You’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t like the flashlight.”

“But if you turn it off, then I won’t see them!”

“Right.”

“Which means they might be surrounding me right now. Turn it back on,” she pleaded.

He did, and as they started down the beach, he laughed. “One day, I’m going to figure you out.”

“I don’t think so. If you haven’t done it yet, it just might be beyond you.”

“That could be true,” he admitted. He draped an arm around her. “You still haven’t told me if you’re going to come to my sister’s wedding.”

“That’s because I haven’t decided yet.”

“I want you to meet Megan. She’s great.”

“It’s not your sister I’m worried about. I just don’t think your mom wants me to come.”

“So? It’s not her wedding. My sister wants you there.”

“You’ve talked to her about me?”

“Of course.”

“What did you say?”

“The truth.”

“That you think I’m pasty?”

He squinted at her. “Are you still thinking about that?”

“No. I’ve forgotten all about it.”

He snorted. “Okay, to answer your question. No, I didn’t say you were pasty. I said you used to be pasty.”

She elbowed him in the ribs, and he pretended to beg for mercy. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding… I would never say that.”

“What did you tell her, then?”

He stopped, turning her to face him. “Like I said, I told her the truth. That you’re smart and funny and easy to be with and beautiful.”

“Oh, well, that’s okay, then.”

“You’re not going to say that you love me, too?”

“I’m not sure I can love such a needy guy,” she teased. She slipped her arms around him. “Or you can take that comment as payback for letting crabs run over my toes. Of course I love you.”

They kissed before resuming their walk. They’d almost reached the pier and were about to turn around when they saw Scott, Ashley, and Cassie approaching from the other direction. Ronnie tensed under his arm as Scott veered off to intercept them.

“There you are, man,” Scott called out when he was close. He stopped in front of them. “I’ve been texting you all night.”

Will drew his arm tighter around Ronnie. “Sorry. I left my phone at Ronnie’s. What’s up?”

As he answered, he could feel Ashley staring at Ronnie from a distance.

“I got calls from five of the teams that are going to be in the tournament, and they want to do some pre-tournament scrimmaging. They’re all pretty good, and they want to put a mini-boot camp together to get everyone ready to face Landry and Tyson. Lots of practice, lots of drills, lots of games. We’re even thinking about switching up the teams now and then to improve our reaction times, since we all have different styles.”

“When are they coming?”

“Whenever we’re ready, but we were thinking this week.”

“How long are they going to be here?”

“I don’t know. Three or four days? Pretty much right up until the tournament. I know you’ve got wedding stuff and rehearsals, but we can work around all that.”

He thought again about the fact that his time with Ronnie would soon be coming to an end. “Three or four days?”

Scott frowned. “Come on, man. This is just what we need to do to get ready.”

“Don’t you think we’re ready now?”

“What’s gotten into you? You know how many coaches from the West Coast are coming to watch the tournament.” He pointed a finger at Will. “You might not need a volleyball scholarship to go to college, but I do. And this is the only chance they’ll get to see me play.”

Will hesitated. “Let me think about it, okay?”

“You want to think about it?”

“I have to talk to my dad first. I can’t just agree to take off work for four days on such short notice without asking him. And I don’t think you can, either.”

Scott glanced at Ronnie. “Are you sure that work is what this is all about?”

Will recognized the challenge but didn’t want to get into it with Scott right then. Scott, too, seemed to think better of it and took a step back. “All right, fine. Talk to your dad. Whatever,” he said. “Maybe you’ll find a way to squeeze it into your schedule.”