Summer Boys Read Online Free PDF Page A

for clingy girlfriends, and that was definitely something Jamie didn’t want to be.
    Ethan sighed and his mouth settled into a straight line. He didn’t respond.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that I thought you’d want us to be…together…,” Jamie said timidly. Suddenly, she was feeling incredibly insecure.
    Ethan tilted his chin away from her, staring off into nothing. He took a couple of deep breaths and then shook his head. Jamie tucked her knees up to her chin and hugged them. Then Ethan faced her again.
    “Hey,” he said as he stroked her bare arm with one finger. “Looks like your sunburn healed okay.” He tugged at her halter strap again.
    Jamie giggled a little bit at Ethan’s teasing comment. Last year she’d forgotten to use sunblock during her final week at the beach, and her fairer-than-fair skin had turned lobster-red, keeping her indoors for the last days of the summer. Her only consolation had been Ethan. While everyone was outdoors swimming and barbecuing, Ethan (who could sit in the sun wearing nothing but SPF 2 and never get burned) sat with his feet propped on the bed reading Slaughterhouse Five to her, and rubbing cold aloe from the fridge on her arms and legs whenever she asked. Jamie had loved the attention, even though she had been all raw and red. She’d had Ethan all to herself, which was what she’d wanted all summer, anyway.
    On the second afternoon, he’d gently slipped her shirt off overher head while she was lying on her stomach, and started kissing all the parts that hurt. Everyone else was down at the beach. Though it had been sweaty and sticky-hot, he’d pulled a sheet over them and traced her bare skin with his hands, which were twice as big as her own. She rolled over and touched the parts of him that fascinated her—his chest, his arms, the crease in his lower back. Then, before she knew it, he reached down and pulled off his boxers. She felt shy for a moment, but then she let him slide her own underwear down. And when they started kissing, she didn’t feel shy anymore. It was thoughtful, slow, and perhaps even a little less passionate than Jamie had expected. It all happened so naturally somehow. Still, more important, when it was over, it felt right. She’d been attracted to Ethan up to then, but that was the moment when she’d felt her life tying up with his in a knot. It was the first time she had felt—dare she say it—like she was falling in love.
    “Those were some good times, huh?” Ethan said, kissing her shoulder. The kiss made her pulse quicken and her heart fill up with sheer joy. She lifted her finger up to the scar on Ethan’s chin, which he’d gotten years ago while riding his bike. Then she ran her hands over his stubble-covered cheeks.
    “Yes, they were,” she replied softly.
    The light had changed within the past few minutes, and the sounds of the waves became somewhat muted and distant. Dusk was Jamie’s favorite time of day. All the colors in the sky transformed from wondrous hues of blues into shades of red and violet. She slid a hand under Ethan’s T-shirt and ran her fingers over where his boxers covered his left hip bone. This subtle spot was one of her favorite parts of his body—she couldn’t get over howperfectly sculptured he was. But her attraction to him wasn’t just physical. She had the same feeling now that she had that day they spent under the sheets. She wanted him to see her soul in her eyes and know that it was meant to be.
    She wanted this to last forever. There was no reason why it shouldn’t.
    But their earlier tiff had left a bit of awkwardness in the air between them, and it wasn’t so easy to send away. It lingered in the back of her mind until she let herself be swept away by the sight of the sunset. Then when Ethan turned to kiss her again, she stopped thinking about anything at all.

5
    Ella sat at the picnic table by the grill, her chin in her hands so that her full, freshly