The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(37)

“She’s good at her job,” Jeremiah added, resting his arm across the back of her chair.

“I know Brickton,” Robin said, perking up. “My cousin and her girlfriend just bought a house by that park with the gazebo and the lake. Do you know which one I’m talking about?”

Noelle nodded. “That’s a really nice area.”

“It is,” Robin agreed. “Do you live around there too?”

The people who lived on that side of Brickton had corporate jobs in the city and sent their children to private schools. Their roads were better paved, and they put up elaborate decorations outside their homes every year during the holidays. They were like their own separate community. One that Noelle and the people she’d grown up with in Brickton were not part of.

Noelle simply shook her head. “No.”

“We have an announcement!” Ashley declared.

Noelle silently thanked Ashley for stealing the attention away. As everyone turned to look at the twins, Jeremiah leaned over to Noelle and whispered, “Are you okay?”

“I’m good, thanks,” she whispered back, sparing him a quick smile.

“We’re doing the summer talent show this year,” Ashley said. “We’re going to dance.”

“Oh wow!” Celeste said. “That’s wonderful. Just the two of you?”

“No, Ciara and Zoe too.”

“Ciara and Zoe’s family vacations at the home next door,” Jeremiah explained to Noelle, and she nodded.

“We still need to figure out an appropriate song for them to dance to, though,” Robin said. “We can’t seem to agree on anything yet.”

“We want to do ‘TGIF’ by GloRilla,” Harper said. “But Mom said no because there’s too much cursing.”

“And Dad says no too,” Percy added. “No way at all.”

Jeremiah snorted, and Percy shot him a look across the table.

“I’m sure there’s a Kidz Bop version of that song somewhere,” Jeremiah said.

Noelle covered her mouth to muffle the sound of her laughter.

“How about some dessert?” Celeste asked.

She went to grab the blueberry crumble pie from the kitchen. She placed it in the middle of the dining room table and as she began slicing a piece, Noelle’s mouth watered.

“Noelle, since this is your first time in Heart Beach, the first slice is yours,” Celeste said. “I used one of my parents’ favorite recipes to make this pie. It’s also a top seller for us every summer. I hope you love it.”

Oh, goodness, here we go.

“Oh, um, I’m really sorry,” Noelle said. “But I don’t like eating sweets.”

The words were physically painful to say.

Celeste looked up sharply. Confusion wiped her face blank. The rest of the family blinked at Noelle. She sat up straighter. In a protective gesture, Jeremiah inched his chair closer to hers.

Celeste laughed lightly. “I’m sorry, hon, we’re just a little shocked because that’s not something we hear around here very often, but I understand.” She looked at Jeremiah. “Miah, big or small slice for you?”

“I’m not gonna have any pie either,” he said.

Celeste simply stared at him.

“What? Really?” Amara asked, leaning forward to look down the table at Jeremiah. “Isn’t blueberry crumble your favorite?”

“You’re the same guy who once fought me over the last slice of blueberry crumble pie,” Percy said, laughing in disbelief.

“That happened when I was sixteen and you were nineteen,” Jeremiah said, sighing.

“Have you stopped eating sweets now?” Celeste asked, brows raised.

It was like they’d just found out that Jeremiah had decided to stop brushing his teeth or drinking water. Essential things. But then again, maybe being a fan of sweets kind of was an essential thing in this family.

“Nah,” Jeremiah said. “I’m just full. I’ll have some pie for breakfast tomorrow.”

Under the table, he gently squeezed Noelle’s hand. She realized that he probably did want pie, but he wasn’t going to eat it in front of her while knowing that she wouldn’t have any herself. He was abstaining in solidarity. It was silly and unnecessary, but she felt touched all the same.

“Okay, the first slice goes to Amara since she’s the birthday girl tomorrow,” Celeste said. Amara gratefully accepted her plate of pie.

“You know what I was thinking,” Amara said, changing the subject as Celeste sliced pie for everyone else. “We should do a horror movie night in the backyard with the projector. We haven’t done that since the summer before last.”

“You and these scary movies.” Celeste shook her head as she sat down and scooped pie onto her fork. To Noelle, she explained, “My dad was a horror film buff. He got the kids into it too.”

“That’s where my love for horror started,” Amara said. “I used to watch all kinds of scary movies with Pop when I was younger. I think I liked feeling scared, but I felt protected too because I knew if Pop was there, I’d be okay.”

“I don’t love horror,” Celeste said. “Pop and Jeremiah used to play the worst tricks on me.”

Jeremiah smiled and shifted to face Noelle. “This one time we watched Scream with Pop. I didn’t think it was that scary, more so gory—”