seat had a view of her huge, beautiful backyard and the new garden sheâd been working on. Lisa started talking on her cell phone.
âMilan, where are you? Today I would like to take you for burgers at this cool place near my house?â he texted. Cece and I checked his Tracebook page last night. The video he took of me at the party was on there.
âNo. Rain check. Monday or Tuesday,â I texted.
âStewart will be here any minute,â Lisa said.
âBusy girl. I hope you can find time to see poor Merek.â
âYou can always play that video of me if you miss me,â I texted.
âI have.â
âUhh!â
âAre you mad?â he texted.
âCan you take it off your TB page?â
âHow did you see? It is private,â he texted.
âI donât know, I just searched.â
âUhh!â
âYou mad?â I texted.
âNot really. Just making fun of you. I will take it down if you agree to go to for burgers tomorrow night.â
âWhy at night?â I texted.
âStars.â
I noticed Lisa taking a piece of my pie. âHey,â I said.
âYou didnât look like you were eating it.â Had she totally finished her own piece already? I remembered my mother once telling me that nice girls never inquired aboutwhat others had eaten. Something about the smell of that pie reminded me of Noel. He loved pie. The first summer he came with us to SH we swam every single day. Then weâd get a slice of pie at the club after. Whatever they had on special. His favorite was sweet potato.
Noel was a really good swimmer, I remembered. Weâd swim at the club and then go get lunch together. Mama would pick us up afterward. One day he said to me, âIf my Mom hadnât died, I just wish she could be with me and I could be here with you. We could all be together doing things like how we do things with your mom. That would be like heaven.â I held his hand then put my head on his shoulder. I remember wishing for him that his mother were there too. Now I knew too well how he felt. He was so funny. He had these all-American swimming trunks. They had red, white, and blue stripes on the sides.
âWhere did you get those swim trunks?â I asked him.
âThey were on a major, major sale at an outlet. The greatest part is that my trunks are green. One hundred percent bamboo.â
âWhoa,â I said.
âForget my trunks. Letâs practice your backstroke some more. Iâll spot you.â
âI donât, I canât.â I was so nervous I couldnât even think straight. âNo deep end.â
âStop it, Milan,â he said.
âI canât go past five feet.â
âNo, just relax. Iâll be with you the whole time. Come on, just turn onto your back and move your arms like I showed you,â he said. Every day he made me practice mybackstroke. Now it was my favorite way to swim freestyle. I felt a smile on my lips. Thatâs when I started reading Lisaâs lips.
âI bought Stewart season tickets to the Knicks for his birthday. You kids can go,â Lisa said. Back to reality, I had to remind myself.
âMaybe.â Yikes! Lunch was amazing, but if Lisa was trying to add another boy to my list I would have to kindly decline. I was beginning to question my love. What was love made of? Was it possible for me to love again if I was already in love? Was I in love with Noel still? Everywhere I looked something in South Hampton reminded me of him.
âS.O.S.,â I texted Sierra. I was on my last bite of the most decadent Southern-style lemon meringue pie, second only to my grandmotherâs. If the way to a manâs heart was through his stomach, Mamaâs mom could definitely show me how to win Noel.
âOh, I have to show you my new office space.â There was more.
âOkay.â Anything other than Stewart was a topic of interestâalthough he
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