Trace put her hand out. “So I vow.”
Kat and Wind piled on top with their hands, and Julie followed. They all shouted, “So I vow.”
Wind shot back from the hand pile and waved her arms. “Julie’s got a new man.”
The house fell silent, and then squeals erupted all around her.
“I hate you, Wendy Lively,” Julie grumbled, slapping her forehead and collapsing into the nearby chair.
“But you love me, too.” Wind tugged Kat down to the couch by her side.
Julie shot up so she could escape to the kitchen. “I’ll get some refreshments for us. I’m sure you’re all thirsty since you’re no longer used to the Florida heat.”
Bri stood behind her with a tray in hand already stacked with goodies. “I thought you young ladies would enjoy some cookies and milk while you played.” She giggled and set the treats down on the table.
“You think you’re so cute, don’t you,” Julie said. “My daughter here wants to pay me back for bringing cookies and milk into a study group here at the house when she was in high school. She’s never going to let me live that down.”
“Hey, I won’t turn down a treat.” Trace sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the coffee table and snagged a piece of fruit.
“So I hear that this guy is so special, you’re willing to take on gators and blood-sucking bugs to be with him on our girls-only beach.” Kat picked up a cookie and nibbled on the edge of it.
Julie scanned the room for an easy exit but knew she’d never escape the conversation, so she plopped on the floor next to Trace, snagged a cookie of her own, and leaned against the chair behind her. “Fine. He’s a guy who is opening a charter business. I’ve been introducing him around town to help him.”
“And kissing him,” Wind announced loud enough for all in the room and across the Atlantic Ocean to hear.
“Ooooh!,” they said in unison. Even her own daughter was standing nearby, contributing to Julie’s discomfort.
Still, the thought of the kiss energized her, and she thought she could run a marathon, which was hilarious because she could swim miles but run only a few hundred feet.
“Not just kissed.” Bri touched the top of Julie’s head. “Sucker kissed.”
“Ooooooh!” they all said again.
“You don’t even know what that means.” She looked to Trace.
“Of course I do. And you are so doomed, girl.” Trace gave a crooked smile. “But taking him to our beach for tourists to visit? That’s not like you. So I’m assuming you definitely were sucker kissed.”
“I forbid him to show anyone else,” she said, as if that wiped out her indiscretion.
“Then you admit it was a special visit.” Kat raised a colored, perfectly arched brow.
Julie had forgotten how stunningly beautiful her friend was. They were all beautiful in different ways. Trace had that sweet, blonde, blue-eyed girl-next-door look. Wind was theatrically beautiful and wore darker makeup that accentuated her darker hair and skin. Kat wore makeup, but more subtle shades that highlighted her features and shiny brunette hair.
“It doesn’t matter. None of you know what it’s like now. It’s heartbreaking. Trevor said he’d help clean it up, but even with our effort, there is so much plastic trash, mosquitoes, and that darn gator, we’ll never have our oasis back again.”
Wind slapped her knee. “We swore to keep our beach a secret and that it was ours and ours alone to keep beautiful. Obviously we’ve all failed, so we need to fix it. Tomorrow we’ll go clean out that beach. I’ll rent a couple of small boats with outboard motors that we can raise to get through the canal. We can load those up, and then I’ll hire a service to go spray the area. We’ll get our beach back, girls.”
“Can’t I pay someone to clean it for us?” Kat asked with the corner of her lip raised. She never had liked doing manual labor. Good thing her parents pushed her in school so much.
“And break the girl pact? No way.” Wind puffed out her bottom lip in that dramatic way of hers.
“But she did.” Kat pointed at Julie like a toddler on a playground who had stolen her swing.
“She gets a pass this once,” Trace announced, as if her opinion was law.
Julie liked the thought of working with all of them but knew there was still the danger of the alligator, and they could be aggressive. “It sounds great, except—”
“I’ll call some people.” Trace studied the cookies, and as if she’d given up on her self-control, she grabbed a huge chocolate chip one from the middle of the plate. “We’ll look into humanely relocating the gator since there are nearby homes with children and pets. It’ll be a threat to the community.”
“How are you going to make that happen? You Trace Dundee now?” Kat huffed.
“Something like that. It’s what I do. Swim with dolphins, save penguins, wrestle alligators, and pull hair out of bitter old friends who make fun of my job.”
Bri snickered and left the room. “You were right about them, Mom.”
And with that crumb she’d dropped in the center of curious, rabid, hungry, attitude-flinging friends to devour, Bri hurried back into the kitchen.
“You get a pass on beach but not on trash talk.” Trace dropped her cookie and folded her arms. “What did you say about us?”
Julie held up both of her hands. “Nothing personal, and nothing that wasn’t true.”
They all snarled at her as if she’d committed the ultimate sin: the loyal friendship betrayal. “I know, I know, we never speak about one another to anyone else beyond our friend group unless specific permission is given,” Julie recited the old rule, surprised she remembered it verbatim after all these years.
It didn’t alleviate the harsh glowers, though.
“Hey, remember. Widow here. I thought you were going to cheer me up.”
“Not when you break the rules.” Wind
