Always Summer Read Online Free PDF Page A

with
Colby. He drops his shades back over his eyes and doesn’t say a
word until we’re secured in his truck.
    “Why didn’t you tell me about you and
Topher?” he asks immediately. He cranks the vehicle and adjusts the
air conditioner. “Of all people, I thought you’d tell me .”
    I lean my head back against the seat. “I’m
just not volunteering information,” I tell him. “I wasn’t sure how
people would react. I dated his brother, and then we had a
horrible, public breakup where I was fired from my job. And then
Vin left and now everything’s a mess. So I really didn’t think I
should announce it.”
    “You obviously didn’t think about how this
would affect me,” Colby says. He looks away from me in the most
dramatic fashion. “Do you have any idea how stupid I looked last
night when Topher and Miles were acting like this was old news and
I didn’t know? You have no idea how dumb I felt when Miles said,
‘Dude, you’re like her best friend and shit. I can’t believe she
didn’t tell you.’”
    I crack up immediately, and I’m not sure
which is funnier – Colby’s offended attitude or that spot-on
impression of Miles. He turns onto the street and tells me that
we’re headed to Shipwrecked because he’s craving fries after
watching Miles eat half a bag of them last night.
    “I thought we were tight, though,” he says.
“After all we’ve been through, the cover band and the Solomons and
breaking my window…”
    “Don’t forget breaking that coffee table,” I
chime in. “Or when your parents showed up and I had to track you
down on the pier. Or when you were going to quit Drenaline Surf and
I was creeping in your living room waiting to give you that speech
I’d prepared.”
    “Exactly!” he shouts at his steering wheel.
“There is no one in Crescent Cove who has been through this much
shit with me. You’re like the one person who always has my back,
even when I’m wrong. I expected better of you.”
    Luckily he lets me off the hook pretty
easily. I guess that’s the perk to being Colby Taylor’s only real
friend. He forgives quickly. He tells me how Topher finished moving
the last of his things in last night, but he didn’t unpack
anything. Miles doesn’t seem to be making himself at home,
either.
    “He’s always leaving to go to Emily’s house,
and I overheard him telling Topher that he’s trying to convince her
to get an apartment with him,” Colby informs me as we pull into
Shipwrecked’s parking lot. “He also told Topher that it’s hard to
live with me because I buy all that ‘organic grass shit that humans
aren’t supposed to eat.’”
    “You should’ve invited him today,” I say.
“Prove to him that you do sneak carbs sometimes, usually with me,
but still. It might would’ve made him happy to see that you are in
fact human.”
    Colby scoffs and shakes his head. “And ruin
my reputation? Are you crazy?”
    I slam the passenger side door and glance at
him over the hood of his truck. “You think eating fries will ruin
your reputation? Have you seen your reputation lately?” I ask.
    The question remains unanswered because he
knows I’ve made a solid point. We slide into a back booth inside
the diner, away from the lunch crowd which mainly consists of
construction workers. I doubt they care about anything Colby has to
say, but he’s surveying the room with careful eyes, just like the
night we met.
    I lean forward on my elbows, trying to study
his face. “What is it? Do you know someone in here?” I ask.
    The waitress interrupts before he can
answer. We place our orders, which include extra spicy fries, and
wait until she disappears to pick up where we left off.
    He shakes his head. “Just making sure it’s
safe to talk,” he says before skimming the room once more. “I
didn’t ask you to lunch to talk about my reputation or whatever you
have with Topher,” he says. “I wanted to show you something.”
    He picks up his phone and opens the