Girls in Love Read Free Page A

mothers do you know who can fit into a size 2?”
    Greer sighed. “That’s beside the point. It’s my skirt, and you shouldn’t have taken it.” And you really shouldn’t be wearing it at your age , Greer thought. But she kept her mouth shut. Because in truth, she felt a little sorry for Cassandra. Ever since her marriage ended (which had come after years of separations and threats of divorce), Greer’smother had been at loose ends. Meanwhile her dad was off in Ibiza with a girl barely older than Greer. She shuddered at the thought.
    Greer steeled herself to tell her mother the hard truth. She couldn’t tell her dad not to wear a Speedo and chase girls half his age because he was on the other side of the world. But her mother was right here, on the big, cedar deck, and Greer was going to give her a piece of her mind. “You really shouldn’t throw yourself at men like that,” Greer asserted. Her mother only smiled, so Greer went on. “Act your age, Mom. And I mean the age you really are, not the age you tell everyone you are.” There. She’d said it. It was mean, maybe, but it had to be done.
    Cassandra reached for a bottle of champagne that was chilling in a silver ice bucket and popped the cork on it loudly. As she poured herself a glass of the golden liquid, she looked right into her daughter’s hazel eyes. “Look,” she said. “I’ve been miserable for the last six months. I’ve come to the beach to have some fun. And I’m going to have it, whether you like it or not.”
    Greer sighed. “So you’re going to start drinking in the afternoon?”
    Cassandra shook her head. “Only today, darling. It’s our first day—a special occasion!” Cassandra smiled mis-chievously. “Summer is for fun, darling. And doesn’t fun mean boys?”
    Greer gazed out through the waving beach grass to the golden sand and the blue ocean beyond them. As much as she hated to admit it, Cassandra had a point. Greer just hoped she could get to the boys before her mother did.

3
    Lara squinted into the mirror in the big bathroom she was sharing with Greer and Jessica for the summer. On the white, marble surface that surrounded the two deep sinks, Lara had spread out all the makeup she’d brought with her from Chicago. She held two blushes up, one to each cheek, and tried to decide which one looked more appropriate for that sun-kissed, beachy look. Not that she was sun-kissed at all yet; she was still pale from spending her days in the library, studying for finals. After staring confusedly at her cheeks for about five minutes, she put down the blushes and picked up a mineral bronzer, hoping that it would bring some color to her smooth, ivory skin.
    She felt a little silly, honestly. Normally she was a lip-gloss-and-a-swipe-of-mascara kind of girl. She spent hertime shopping for funky vintage dresses and jewelry from the sixties like Bakelite bracelets and beaded necklaces, not applying layers of makeup in front of a bathroom vanity. But she wanted to make sure she looked her best at dinner tonight, because it would be the first time she’d seen Drew in a month—and the first time she’d talked to him in three weeks, ever since their phone fight.
    Drew and Lara had met last summer when they both got jobs waiting tables at Ahoy Grill. Their attraction had been immediate—after their job interview, they’d had the best spontaneous date ever—but then later that night, much to their mutual horror, they’d learned that they were step-cousins. That had been a very awkward moment, Lara remembered. And many more awkward moments had followed as they’d tried to ignore their feelings for each other.
    When they couldn’t ignore them any longer, there’d been the problem of keeping their relationship a secret. Because as nice and understanding as the Tuttle family was, Lara didn’t think they were ready to embrace the whole cousins-as-lovers kind of thing. And she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her mother’s