My Fake Summer Boyfriend (8 page)

Shortly after dinner Mrs. Stedman announced that they ought to leave since they were taking
Hailey into New Haven early the next morning to see the dinosaur skeletons at the Peabody Museum. I almost cheered, thinking I'd be able to have Alex to myself the next day, but my optimism was short-lived.

"I have an idea."
Nicole smiled directly at Alex. "Tomorrow's Saturday. Let's go swimming at Hammonasset State Park over in Madison."

Alex
shrugged. "Well, I—"

"Come on,"
Nicole urged. "It'll be fun. We can make a foursome out of it. That is, if Katie doesn't mind tagging along."

"Not at all." I dug my nails into the palms of my hands.

"I'll drive," Logan said. He casually put his arm around my shoulders. "Nine o'clock okay?"

"Sure."
Alex stared defiantly at Logan.

I nodded. I wished
Logan would stop being so ... friendly.

"It
's a date, then," Nicole said, obviously pleased.

As everyone headed around front toward the cars to say good
night, Logan propelled me into the rose garden. "I want you to see the Tropicana—it's a beautiful rose, really special."

I wondered how I could appreciate its beauty, since it was almost dark and there were no lights in the rose garden, but I saw
Nicole and Alex go into the rose garden ahead of us, and I wanted to keep an eye on them. I squinted, trying to spot them among the roses and trellises. I heard a slight rustle in the next row of bushes. Then I saw them kissing. My breath came in ragged spurts of anger.

"Here it is."
Logan pointed to a rosebush.

I trembled. I
'd forgotten Logan. "Oh. Yes. Nice rose."

"You
're shaking." Logan took me in his arms. "I'll warm you up."

Before I realized what was happening,
Logan kissed me. My first instinct was to pull away, but the silhouetted image of Alex kissing Nicole flashed in my mind, and I let him kiss me until I heard Alex calling for me. Embarrassed, I drew back. "I have to go."

The next thing I knew,
Logan was escorting me past a smiling Nicole and a scowling Alex. It dawned on me, albeit a bit late, that I might have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Why, in a fit of jealousy, had I let Logan kiss me? I had to let Alex know the kiss meant nothing. I had to let him know that I liked him as much as he'd said he liked me. I would have to find a way to talk to Alex alone tomorrow.

Chapter Ten

My eyes widened as
Logan walked me toward his car. The bright red Pontiac Firebird was polished to a near-blinding shine. But it wasn't the wax job that had me concerned.

"Uh, where
's Nicole?" I asked, as Logan held the car door open for me. I didn't want to spend a day alone with Logan and I definitely didn't want Nicole whisking Alex away somewhere so I wouldn't be able to talk to him.

"Oh," said
Logan, getting in the driver's side. "She walked over to Alex's" He offered no further explanation, and I didn't ask for any. I could figure out for myself that Nicole wanted to be sure that she sat in the back seat with Alex.

Nicole
and Alex emerged from the Stedmans' cottage as soon as Logan pulled up in the driveway. Nicole had her arms looped around Alex, her head resting on his shoulder as she looked adoringly at him. Alex looked back at Nicole, but he wasn't concentrating on her smile. His line of vision tracked in on the see-through cover-up she wore, which did nothing to hide the skimpy black bikini that she spilled out of in all the right places. I looked down at the baggy, gray sweatshirt I wore over my own bathing suit and sighed. I could probably strip naked and Alex wouldn't take his eyes off Nicole.

"Hi,
Katie!" Nicole called gaily, as she climbed into the back seat of the car, followed by Alex.

"Hi,
Katie." Alex tugged at my ponytail. He was treating me like a little kid!

I sat silently during the ride to Hammonsasset. I didn
't even bother to remove Logan's hand from my knee when he rested it there each time he shifted. If only I could find a way to talk to Alex privately! He couldn't have stopped liking me just because Nicole showed up—unless I had been just a summer replacement for Nicole. He'd said the last few weeks with me had been the most fun he'd ever had. He also said he liked me a lot. I was sure he was meant it when he said it. Maybe I'd misinterpreted his tug on my ponytail. It could easily have been a signal that he still wanted my attention. He did seem a bit jealous of Logan. Maybe he thought I liked Logan's overly-friendly attitude toward me. If I could just stop jumping to conclusions about Nicole and Alex and set things straight between us.

When
Logan stopped the car at the entrance gate to pay for parking at Hammonasset, I took a few deep breaths to compose myself.

"Park near one o
f the refreshment stands," Nicole said. "That way we won't have to walk too far when we want lunch."

Lunch! I hadn
't planned on spending the entire day there. I could see it would be a struggle to get any time alone with Alex.

Once we unloaded the car and decided on a good spot on the beach,
Logan spread a blanket on the sand, and Nicole immediately plopped down in the middle of it. "Alex, would you please put some suntan lotion on my back?" she asked, handing him the bottle.

Logan
grabbed my hand. "Come on, Katie. Let's go for a swim." As he pulled me toward the water, I could see Alex stroking suntan lotion onto Nicole's back.

"I
'll race you out to that buoy," Logan pointed to the small red object bobbing in the water.

I dove in, not waiting for
Logan to signal a start to our race. As I cut through the chilly water, with each stroke I repeated to myself,
Don't jump to conclusions, don't jump to conclusions
. I had to stop worrying about Nicole and find a way to talk to Alex alone.

When I reached the buoy,
Logan was there waiting for me, a laconic smile on his face.

"You
'd better give up gracefully. Didn't you know I'm on the swim team at Harvard?"

"I didn
't know." No wonder he looked in such good shape! "Look, I'm tired. I'm going back to the blanket." I started to swim away, but Logan grabbed my wrist.

"Not before I collect my prize."

"Prize?"

"For winning the race."
Logan planted a salty kiss on my mouth.

I blinked as
Logan's lips brushed mine, then I slithered out of his grasp and swam toward shore. After a couple strokes Logan was next to me, effortlessly doing the backstroke as he grinned at me. "You have a lot of determination."

"Oh?" I kept swimming.

"Yes. I like that."

"Lucky me."

Logan laughed. "I think I'm going to enjoy your company."

Don
't count on it
, I thought just as I dove under the water.

Logan
stood waist deep in the water, waiting for me, when I surfaced. He took my hand and held it tight as we walked back to our spot where Alex and Nicole, wrapped around each other on the blanket, were kissing enthusiastically.

Logan
cleared his throat.

Alex
jumped away from Nicole. "Katie! I—"

"
Logan, let's go for a walk." I tried not to show my anger. I wouldn't give Nicole the satisfaction.

"Sure."
Logan put his arm around my waist, and we headed toward the fishing jetty. I heard Alex calling after me, asking me to come back, but I refused to turn around.

Logan
didn't say anything as we walked, and I was glad for that. I wouldn't have been able to speak. I was furious. Furious, but determined, too. I wasn't going to let Alex and Nicole get away with this. I wasn't going to let them laugh at me and talk about me with all their friends when they got back to Hartford, saying, "poor little Katie." I would show them that I didn't care. I still had time to have my own summer romance.

But who was available?
Logan would be convenient, but he was a bit too old for me. Jake! Jake would be perfect. I couldn't wait to see Jake again. I'd have to get things rolling.

"Hold it,"
Logan said. We'd reached the jetty. "Let's sit. I'm not used to walking so fast on sand."

"What? Oh." I sat down. I hadn
't realized how fast I'd been walking or where I'd been going. I looked back down the beach. I couldn't see Alex and Nicole. Thank goodness. I did, however, see someone familiar walking by. It was Jake. Hand in hand with a cute, short blond girl. So much for Jake. Now who was I going to have a romance with? Well ... it would have to be Logan. I didn't have time to meet anyone else. But Logan had to be at least nineteen, and I was not quite sixteen. I considered the age difference. Really, it was only three years as I was
almost
sixteen. That wasn't so much. It would be nothing if we were both in our twenties. I wasn't contemplating a full-fledged affair. Just a fling. Just enough of a romance to keep Alex and Nicole from thinking of me as the loser who got unceremoniously dumped.

But could I handle
Logan? I figured I could, since I had no feelings for him. I wouldn't get carried away occasionally kissing someone I wasn't attracted to.

Logan
waved his hand in front of my face. "Hi, there. Remember me?"

I shook myself out of my reverie. "Of course, I remember you. How could I forget anyone so gorgeous?" Might as well get things started.

Logan looked baffled, then pleased. He grinned and cupped my chin in his hand. "Now that's what I like to hear."

For a moment I thought
Logan was going to kiss me. It briefly occurred to me that I could be playing with fire. But I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. I could handle Logan.

"Let
's go for a walk." I stood up, pulling Logan up by the hand. I wanted to be gone for a long time, so Alex would wonder what I was up to.

We climbed over the jetty and walked along a secluded part of the beach studded with boulders, occasionally circling around couples making out in the shadows. When we ran out of beach we climbed rocks until
Logan suggested that we sit again for a while. "It's a nice view from up here," he said.

I nodded. It was a fine morning. The sun glanced off the waves and skittered across the water. Sailboats silently skimmed over the surface. I could see clear to
Long Island. I could even pick out houses along the beach there. To my left was the curve of land where our cottage stood. And Alex's. For a moment a happy memory with Alex bubbled to the surface of my thoughts, but I squashed it. That was in the past. I still had the last week of summer to create new memories. I leaned closer to Logan.

Logan
slipped his arm around me and pulled me toward him. I turned my face toward his and met his lips in a kiss.
He's a nice kisser
, I thought. Funny how I could decide it was a good kiss when I wasn't even emotionally involved.

My stomach growled.

Logan laughed. "It must be time for lunch."

"Yes," I said, thinking that
Alex must surely be wondering what I was doing by now. "I am hungry. Let's go back."

When we returned to the blanket
Nicole was rubbing suntan lotion on Alex, who looked as if he were asleep. I was torn between an urge to kick sand in his face and a strange desire to wake him gently with a kiss.

"So you two are finally back,"
Nicole commented. "You must have had a good time on your 'walk.'" Her tone was suggestive.

Alex
lifted his head and smiled drowsily at me. Then he saw Logan and frowned. He sat up and stared out at the water.

"How about lunch?" said
Logan. "My treat." He draped his arm across my shoulders.

"Sure,"
Nicole said. She tugged on Alex's arm. "Come on. Let's go."

Alex
whipped his arm away from Nicole. "I'm not hungry."

"Oh, come on,"
Nicole coaxed. She knelt behind him, rubbing his shoulders and nibbling at his ear.

"Yeah,"
Logan said. "It's not every day that I spring for hot dogs for everyone." He hugged me closer to him.

"All right,"
Alex muttered.

Ordinarily, I loved eating hot dogs at the beach, but I swallowed without tasting. The tension between
Alex and me was like a thick smog, almost choking me. For a moment I considered abandoning my plan, but then visions of Nicole laughing at "poor me" cropped up. I hadn't forgotten Nicole and Alex kissing on the blanket, and Alex had been kissing Nicole just as heartily as she had been kissing him. The only thing for me to do now was not to let Alex and Nicole see how hurt I was by pretending to be attracted to Logan. Logan made it easy enough—all I had to do was respond to his advances.

When we all finished eating,
Logan suggested that he and I go for another swim.

"I
'd love to." I flashed a big smile at Logan, as if going swimming with him was the most exciting prospect in the whole world.

"Let
's join them," Alex said to Nicole.

Alex
picked up Nicole and carried her to the water's edge. "I want to go swimming," he said.

Nicole
shrieked gaily as she kicked her long legs. Her shriek ended abruptly, however, when, waist deep in the water, Alex dropped her.

I suppressed a laugh, but
Logan let loose with a raucous guffaw. When Nicole popped up from the water she looked, at first, as if she was going to slug Alex. But she quickly noticed that Alex's attention was focused not on her but on me, so instead she threw her arms around Alex and kissed him.

At that point I dove into the water. I couldn
't take watching any more of Alex and Nicole's love scenes. Logan dove in after me and immediately caught up with me, lifted me out of the water and cradled me in his arms. "Now I've got you," he exulted.

I knew that tradition demanded that I pretend to hang on to
Logan for dear life, but instead I turned to see if Alex was watching. My eyes met his, and just as I thought we were connecting, Logan whirled around and dunked me. By the time I surfaced, Alex was swimming out to the red buoy. Nicole was right behind him.

"Let
's race out to the buoy," I suggested. I wanted to see what Alex was up to.

"I have a better idea,"
Logan said. "Now that Alex and Nicole are out of the way, let's go back to the blanket."

I
'd caught a glimpse of Alex and Nicole bobbing in back of the buoy. I felt my temper rise. "Good idea," I said.

We swam back to shore, and I stretched out on the blanket, staring up at the clear blue sky, wondering how I could be feeling so hurt and confused on such a beautiful day.

"Why don't you pay attention to me?" Logan asked.

"Sure." I forced a smile. "I
'm all yours."

"Don
't I wish." Logan leaned down and kissed me.

I slid my arms around his neck. I wanted it to look good—in case
Alex was watching.