“Can I ask you something?” Cody asked with a smile that told me I better be ready for incoming fists. “I mean this genuinely. Is the puka shell thing making a comeback, or is that just a you thing? Because I feel like boy bands are back.”
Bodhi blinked.
“I thought we were doing an eighties fashion revival but maybe we’re up to the nineties.”
“Fuck you, man,” Bodhi said.
Cody shooed him away. I waited but no one was throwing fists.
“We should go,” I said. “I’m not interested in fighting the locals.”
We closed the tab, making sure to leave a healthy tip. We walked along the beach back to the house.
“You remember that summer when Dad grounded us both for two weeks and we snuck out anyway.”
I knew exactly which summer. “I was thirteen.”
“That whole group of kids used to meet down by the jetty after dark. Capture the flag. We used those glow stick things for the flags.”
“Different time,” I said.
“Different everything.”
“Remember that kid Tyler?” Cody asked.
“The one who broke his wrist falling off the pier.”
“Yep.”
“I wonder sometimes about all of them,” I said. “That whole crew. Summers just felt like they lasted forever back then. Like we owned this beach. Like nothing was going to change.”
“Everything changed,” he said. “Still changing.”
We reached the gate to our property. I punched in the code and headed up the path. I remembered the many nights we dragged ourselves home sunburned, covered in sand and completely exhausted. Those had been the best days of my life.
“You happy?” he asked.
I looked at him.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Not asking to be a pain in the ass. I genuinely want to know.”
I thought about it. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m good at what I do. I’m good at seeing where money should go and making it go there. I don’t hate the work.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I thought about the mornings I went for a run on the beach and the way everything just felt right. Sitting on the patio watching the sunset with a cold beer in hand. Listening to music with a beautiful blonde.
I didn’t say any of that.
“I’m working on it,” I said.
Cody nodded. “Yeah, me too. Being here makes me think we might be doing life wrong.”
I didn’t say anything because I was thinking the same thing.
CHAPTER 15
SUMMER