“You got inked?”

“What?” Abby cries, swimming over.

“We all did.” I explain.

Max shakes his head. “Who’s we? When?”

“My sisters. We got them when you guys went fishing.” Max looks over to Jameson as if to confirm this.

“You never said anything.” Max’s wounded expression fills me with guilt.

“You? She never said anything to me either!” Abby wades over to me, her light brown eyes narrowed on me.

“We kind of forced her,” Kendall offers. “We decided we wanted to get a tattoo together and thought she might say no so we kind of just brought her.” Max carefully lifts the band of my bathing suit to reveal the entire piece and nothing more. “We all got the same thing.”

“Did that hurt?” Abby asks, touching it lightly with her finger. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me, Harper Jo!”

“It’s not that I was keeping it from anyone. It just wasn’t that big of a deal,” I say, feeling slightly indignant. “Now that it’s healed I kind of forget about it because I don’t really see it.”

“Where’s yours, Kendall?” Abby asks.

Kendall turns around and pulls her bathing suit down to reveal her hip.

“They look so sexy!” Abby cries. “I want one now!”

“Ace hated it, said it was cliché.”

“It is cliché,” I correct her, going to retrieve the basketball.

“Max, this is Jesse. Jesse, this is my boyfriend Max,” I say, swimming back to them. Jesse looks from me to Max and a look of curiosity crosses his face that I ignore as Jameson starts the game by separating teams.

Max and I lie on his bed watching a movie. My parents are off at a fundraiser, and we both still have a hint of chlorine dancing on our skin. I snuggle in closer to him, trying to get some sort of reaction. All evening he’s seemed a bit distant.

After watching far too much of the movie without incurring any distractions or interruptions, I reach over and press pause on the remote. “Talk to me. Please.” I grip one of his hands within mine. Max looks up at me and then lets out a deep sigh. “What’s wrong? Is this because I didn’t tell you about the tattoo?” I ask. “Really, I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.”

“I don’t know. It’s not that I didn’t know, it’s that I found out at the same time some other dude did. He looked at me like I’m either the biggest asshat or doesn’t think we’re serious.”

“Max, I’m sorry. Really, I am. But who cares about Jesse? He doesn’t even know you. Hell, he barely knows me.” I tighten my grip on his fingers. “When you got home I was just distracted with trying to distinguish if you had feelings for me, and what those feelings were, that it kind of got moved to the back burner. Hell, if I’d have thought about it, I probably would have shown you in an attempt to flirt with you.”

“I know, I was too, and I understand it all. It’s just the look he gave me.” He pauses, running a hand over his head a couple of times. “It just pisses me off.”

I nod in understanding and sit up to straddle Max’s waist. His hands come up to rest on my thighs. “It’s probably a good thing I was distracted by being pissed off though. That bikini you wore today should be framed. That’s why Paul’s such a creeper. If I didn’t want to bash in his face, I might actually feel a little bad for him.” A slow grin turns the corners of his lips up before I playfully shove him against the pillows.

He rolls me onto my back in one quick move, hovering over me. I let out a laugh, holding onto his biceps, and watch as his eyes scan my body.

“Can I see it again?” His voice drops to a near whisper and I nod, reaching down to lift the side of my tank top. Max shakes his head once and pulls the cotton from my fingers. He slowly lifts it, exposing the same amount of me that I was going to, possibly less. The fact his hand is the one revealing my skin makes my lungs constrict and my heart flutter. He gently slides a hand under the strap of my bikini to push it up and softly traces the small image with his finger before dipping down to do the same with his lips.

“It is sexy as hell,” he whispers, running his hand over it again, and then down my ribs, “But that had to have hurt like a bitch.”

I can’t formulate words. Barely succeeding in making my breathing not sound as labored And I know that the pain was well worth it, just for this moment.

Saturday morning arrives. It’s moving day.

Abby and I had rented an apartment at the end of May and had gotten all of our furniture and decorations completed by the time summer arrived so she’d have a place to stay since she originally decided she wasn’t going home to Jersey this summer. She had changed her mind after receiving a few calls from her family and friends, but it didn’t affect anything, except making moving a lot easier. All I have to worry about are my clothes and toiletries. Granted, that still requires my car, my mom’s impractical Southern California SUV, and Max’s Jeep.

Abby bounds down the stairs, wrapping her arms around me as she squeals and bounces in place.

“Hey, Abs!” I say with a laugh as I hug her.

“I brought Jesse to help,” she says, looking over her shoulder. I follow her gaze and see Jesse slowly approaching us. I can’t quite get a read on him, and he seems to be looking at me with the same thought.

Abby opens my back door, grabs a pile of clothes still on hangers, and heads for the stairs as Jesse lifts a box from my passenger seat.

“Well, Ace, if there was ever a concern that you weren’t your mother’s daughter, I think it was squashed today,” Dad says, eyeing the mountains of clothes around my room. “Where are they all going to fit?”

I shrug and open a box filled with shoes.

“How many pairs of shoes do you own?” Jameson asks, dropping another box labeled shoes beside me.

“I know you helped Kendall move, so I don’t want to hear anything.”

“Alright, sweetheart, we have to get going. Your father and I are supposed to be attending a charity dinner this evenin’ for the hospital,” my mom says.

“If you think of anything you forgot or need, you just holler.” She stands, straightening her red blouse. “The house is going to feel so empty again,” she says quietly, as a couple of stray tears run down her cheeks.

I stand up and pull her in for a hug. She holds me tightly, running a hand over my hair several times while whispering how much she loves me, as the scent of her sweet, floral perfume, makeup, hairspray, and home linger in my senses, even after she pulls away to go hug Abby. I watch as she releases her and moves onto Jameson and lastly Max.

“You take care of my baby,” she says as Max wraps his large arms around her small frame. “Don’t let her try walking to class when it’s dark. She thinks no one is ever going to bother her. What she doesn’t realize is that everyone notices her. Everyone.”

“I’m only ten feet away, Mom.”

“I promise I’ll watch out for her and keep her safe,” Max assures her.

I roll my eyes, turning to my dad. Even though I’m less than an hour away, saying goodbye to him is the hardest part of being away at college. I’ll miss our morning catch ups and having him around. I take a deep breath, willing myself not to cry, and press my face firmly against his shoulder. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I immerse myself into the safety and warmth of his embrace.

“Time goes too fast,” he says quietly as he holds me close. “I love you, Ace. More than you’ll ever know.” He kisses the top of my head and gives me a final squeeze. “I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks, right?”

I nod and force a smile. “And I’ll call you after Newsroom.”

“You’d better call me more often than that!” He guffaws. “Now that I have texting, instant messaging, and that walkie-talkie thingy you girls put on my phone, I better get updates at least three times a week.”