Last Summer Read Free Page A

couldn’t wait. She imagined the two of them sprawled out on the beach, gleaming in the Mainesunshine, and she just knew that the rest of her family would love Taryn the way that she did.
    Kelsi thought that Ella, particularly, would adore Taryn. Especially since Kelsi’s sister would get to spend the summer on the old sunporch that doubled as a guest room. Whenever the sisters shared the bedroom—which was every past summer—they spent half their time fighting. Thanks to Taryn, Ella would finally get what she wanted: her own space. The thought of the inevitable Taryn-Ella bond, and the havoc they would wreak, should have scared Kelsi, but instead it made her laugh.
    “Anybody home?”
    At the sound of that familiar, beloved voice, Kelsi jack-knifed into a sitting position and let the rush of joy sweep through her body. It was always this way. Every time she opened her eyes and saw Bennett, she felt like she glowed.
    “Did I leave the front door unlocked?” she asked, drinking in the sight of him from her spot on the sofa.
    “You did,” he said, “and I walked right in. This is not the safety-conscious girlfriend I thought I knew, Kelsi. I’m disappointed.”
    He was nothing of the kind, as the mischievous glint in his eyes attested.
    “You took a very long time to get here,” she chastised him, still not moving, still wanting to soak in the anticipation of his nearness. She wanted to prolong the separation, so itwould be that much sweeter when she reached out and touched him.
    Kelsi studied Bennett as he stood there in the entryway to the family room, looking slightly disheveled from the road. She hadn’t known it was possible to love every single cell of someone else’s body. She loved Bennett’s slightly messy, slightly longish coppery-red hair, and the emo-kid cut he wore it in. She could sink into his warm, intelligent dark eyes behind those adorable Buddy Holly glasses. She loved the stretch of his arms and the way his butt looked in his hipster jeans. She loved the way his smile seemed to light up his whole body, and the way he cocked his head slightly to the left when he aimed that smile at her.
    “I had to make a few stops,” Bennett said, and then Kelsi couldn’t take it any longer.
    She bounded to her feet and threw herself across the room, connecting with his body in a big bear hug that swept him back a few feet and brought her up on her toes. Finally close to him, Kelsi could smell the warm scent of his skin. She closed her eyes and just inhaled him. He smelled like sun and heat and Bennett. Like love.
    “I missed you,” she murmured, her eyes still closed.
    “These were some tough weeks,” Bennett agreed. Kelsi opened her eyes as he pulled back slightly and grinned down at her. Then he lowered his head and kissed her, his lips hotand soft and familiar. The kiss grew in intensity, and they were both a little breathless and giddy when Bennett pulled away again. “But I have a surprise for you.”
    “Who needs a surprise?” Kelsi protested when he pulled even farther away, breaking all contact except for his warm hand around hers. “You’re here!”
    “You’ll love it,” he assured her, and tugged her along behind him into the hall, where Kelsi saw he’d stashed a picnic basket. “Everyone’s away this weekend, right?” he asked in a low voice. Kelsi nodded. “Excellent,” he said.
    Bennett led Kelsi down the hallway, out the back door, and into the warm Connecticut night. In the center of the backyard, he let go of her hand, and set about creating a ridiculously romantic nighttime picnic right there in the grass near her mother’s rhododendrons.
    Kelsi could only stare and then laugh in amazement as he shook out a blanket, and set out tea candles in adorable little lanterns all around it, bathing the blanket in a soft, romantic light. When he was finished, Bennett held his hands out to Kelsi, and pulled her inside the ring of light he’d created.
    “First, dinner,” he said