After Summer Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t get these into my locker like right now, my arms might fall off.”
    “And now you’re changing the subject.” George trailed after Beth as she hurried along the hall. “Evasive tactics won’t work. You’re busted.”
    “I heard every word you said,” Beth told him, over her shoulder and without slowing her stride. “And I think you’re crazy.”
    “Because I could tell you weren’t paying attention to my amazing idea that will make us a trillion dollars?”
    “Because no one is going to pay you anything, much less a trillion dollars, to make George: The Televised Years. ” Beth grinned at him as they approached her locker, and propped her books up with her knee while she wrestled to open the metal door. “Trust me on this.”
    “I think there’s market demand,” George said, leaning back against the next locker over and shoving his hands in his pockets.
    Beth felt herself weaken when she looked at him. His curly hair went every which way, and he’d acknowledged the cold snap outside with a long-sleeved T-shirt beneath the short-sleeved political one, with a donkey wrestling an elephant, which was his current favorite. He felt Beth’s eyes on him and smiled.
    “What?” he asked.
    “You’re pretty much looking at the market for George,” Beth replied. “In its entirety. I hate to break it to you.”
    “You say that now,” George retorted, unfazed. “But I bet you’ll change your tune when I come up with a screenplay of such genius that I’ll have every director in Hollywood on the phone.”
    “When that happens, I’ll definitely change my tune,” Beth agreed. She zipped her books into her backpack and slammed her locker shut. “In fact, I solemnly swear that the day Hollywood directors start calling you, I’ll serenade you from the highest building in Martin. I’ll even climb up there myself.”
    George’s dark eyes fastened on hers, and Beth felt a shiver trail along her skin. She knew they were both thinking of last summer, when Beth had proven her love to George by climbing up to a rooftop in Pebble Beach and shouting her true feelings into the night sky, in complete defiance of her paralyzing fear of heights.
    George moved closer and pulled Beth to him, his warm lips teasing her neck.
    “That ended up being the best night of the summer,” he said, holding her tight.
    Beth felt guilt wash over her. Because she knew that night hadn’t started off as “the best” or even close. The truthwas, Beth wouldn’t have had to prove her love to George if she hadn’t risked it all—with a lifeguard named Adam.
    Here in the hallway of their high school, in George’s arms, Beth couldn’t believe any of that had ever happened.
    “That was definitely the best night of the summer,” she agreed, squeezing him.
    “Almost worth the crap that came before,” George said. His tone was light, but there was a distance in his eyes that Beth hated. She didn’t know what to say so she kissed him, apologizing once more with the touch of her mouth against his.
    “I was thinking I would get right to work on my Oscar-winning screenplay,” George murmured, running his hands along her arms. “But before I get down to the writing, I think I need food. Want to grab a burger?”
    “I can’t,” Beth replied with a sigh. “I have swim practice.” She knew the little shiver of joy that still coursed through her when she thought about the fact she’d made the team would fade, but it hadn’t happened yet.
    “What do you mean?” George asked, knitting his brow. “It’s not even three o’clock yet. You don’t have to be at practice until six. You have three entire hours.”
    He was right, but that meant Beth only had those three hours to go for a run, do her homework, eat dinner, appease her mother with some long-overdue chores, and drive theforty-five minutes into Boston to make it to practice on time. And sometimes the drive took more than an hour and a half at that time of day. There was