So Inn Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Crandall’s to kick off the summer.”
    “It’s tradition. You have to come,” Hayden said.
    “Have to,” Claire repeated, not sounding convinced. “Or…?”
    “You know what happened earlier?” Richard asked her. “Cold seawater, up your nose? More of that.”
    “Are you even supposed to be up here?” Claire asked. “I thought there were some fairly specific rules about ‘fraternizing.’ In other words, don’t.”
    “Don’t tell me you guys are follow-the-rulestypes,” Hayden said.
    “Not always,” I said. “But on our first night? Kind of. Especially since we’re new here, and people seem to love giving us a hard time about that.”
    “We’d never do that,” Hayden said. “Us?”
    “No, of course not,” I said. “And we’d never throw seaweed at you.”
    He smiled at me.
    Caroline pushed her way through the crowd. “If they don’t want to come, don’t make them,” she said. “Maybe they just want to hang out here.”
    For some reason, that settled the matter for me. “Hang out here? In the dreaded Two-thirteen? I don’t think so. Come on, Claire. Let’s go.”
    “But—”
    “It’ll be fun,” I said. “Grab a sweater.”
     
    “So this is Crandall’s Point. Who or what is a Crandall?” Josh asked.
    “It’s the huge place up there, the one you can see from here.” Caroline pointed to a gigantic, secluded house that looked almost as big asthe Inn. “It belongs to the Crandall family and has for years. They made tons of money in the shipping business. You know, back when it was with actual ships. The eighteen hundreds.”
    She was acting like such a know-it-all that it really bothered me.
    “Legend has it that Captain Crandall was out at sea, and he was several weeks late getting home. His wife used to pace back and forth on the widow’s walk up there, looking for him and waiting, and she actually fell off—or jumped, some people say. He came home safely, but she was dead,” I said.
    “What? How did you know that?” Hayden looked at me, impressed.
    “I used to come here with my grandparents. Way back when.” When Caroline wasn’t so annoying .
    “I’ll never look at the house the same way again,” Richard said. “I had thought it was a bunch of old money, but now it’s a lot creepier.”
    I thought of the time Caroline and I had met a Crandall cousin when we were taking a kayak class offered by the yacht club. Afterward we’d decided to go visit him, so we’d goneup to the Crandalls’ house, rung the doorbell, and then ran away when we chickened out. I think a butler came to the door. I’m not sure, because my view had been blocked by the hedge I’d hid behind.
    I wondered if Caroline remembered that, too. “But they don’t own this part, do they?” another new girl named Brooke asked.
    “Own the sand and rocks?” Caroline scoffed. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, they’re not that rich.”
    “So how does the Inn get away with having a private beach, then? They must own it, too, right?” Josh asked.
    “Some ancient law preserves their right to it, I think,” Hayden said. “They don’t own it, exactly, but no one else can use it. Go figure.”
    “So, can these Crandall people see us down here?” Claire asked.
    “No. Well, if they can, they don’t care we’re here,” Zoe said. “At least they’ve never said anything before.”
    “Having said that, I wouldn’t run aroundnaked or anything,” Hayden suggested. “Just to play it safe.”
    “Oh, good, I’m glad you warned me, I was just about to do that.” Claire rolled her eyes. “You know, you can take them out of high school, but can you take high school out of them?” she asked, and all of the girls laughed.
    “Yes, but it’s a painful procedure,” Zoe said, and we laughed again.
    Some of the other guys walked up carrying pieces of driftwood they’d collected. They dropped them into a fire ring made of stones and arranged them for lighting.
    “Are we supposed to have fires