Last Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

figurine held his customary position on the shelf above her light switch. Outside, wind chimes made soft murmurs in the breeze, and Beth could smell the fresh kick of the sea wrapped in the scents of woods and earth.
    She had been in Maine for two weeks so far. She was happy here. She loved it here.
    But something was missing.
    Beth headed out into the bright June morning, wavingat her younger cousins, who raced around the grassy central area of the Tuttle compound, playing Capture the Flag. They waved back, but then turned their attention back to their game.
    “You have to surrender!” Jessi commanded her brothers, making Beth smile at her bossy tone.
    Beth had been something of a loner so far this summer. Kelsi and her college friend were inseparable—constantly making little outings to various places in Pebble Beach, or driving to the outlets in Freeport. They’d invited Beth along, but the few times she’d taken them up on it, she’d felt like a third wheel. The two of them had lived together for a whole year in college, and now spoke in a sort of abbreviated code about their common experiences and friends. Which was mostly funny, but sometimes kind of overwhelming, too. Beth didn’t like having to ask for explanations every two minutes.
    Jamie, who Beth had imagined would be as interested in finding things to do as Beth was, was instead proving to be hard to pin down this summer. She disappeared for hours at a time, or was always reading. She marked up big books with her pen and copied huge passages in her journal. Beth couldn’t tell if she was up to something, or was just relaxing in anticipation of her freshman year at Amherst. She also didn’t think Jamie’s version of reading looked relaxing—it looked a lot like homework to Beth.
    Meanwhile, Ella, who was usually the life of any given party, was completely wrapped up in her lifeguard boyfriend. As far as Beth could tell, Ella spent all day, every day, lounging around the beach, waiting for Jeremy to have time off.
    Okay, Beth thought then, heading down the dirt road away from the cottages, that wasn’t entirely fair. Ella had spent entire other summers doing exactly the same thing, just without the lifeguard boyfriend. Ella simply liked to lie around on the beach, doing as little as possible.
    Beth couldn’t imagine living that way. It was just one of the reasons she and her cousin were so different. Today, for example, Beth decided to walk over to the local high school so she could work on her times on the track there. She usually just ran in the woods and on the walking trails all around town, but she wanted a change of pace.
    It took her about twenty minutes to walk inland across town to the high school. Only the summer people built houses so close to the water, Beth knew. Locals had a much healthier respect for the winter sea, and kept their homes and other important buildings at a distance from the water.
    Beth made her way through the bleachers to the track, passing what looked like a summer camp set up on the nearby baseball diamond. Kids were performing calisthenics to the barked commands of a very convincing-sounding drill sergeant. But it was obvious by the way the kids were laughing and having a ball that they loved the guy. Beth hada flashback to some of her favorite times as a kid—at soccer camp with her hard-ass, completely cool, college-age counselors, who were Beth’s idols. She could immediately see how much the drill-sergeant guy fit that same image.
    Beth grinned to herself, and then scrolled through her iPod playlists to her collection of Training songs, which were differentiated from her Running songs, which were in turn different from her Weight Room songs. She took a couple of breaths as Franz Ferdinand’s “The Fallen” began, and then set off running as the drums kicked in.
    She was nearing the end of her ninety-minute mix when a baseball bounced onto the track in front of her, then rolled. Beth slowed her run, and pulled