Free Maine Squeeze by Catherine Clark Page A

“I work at the Landing—you know, the shack down by the water with coffee and ice cream—”
    â€œWhere are you from?” Blair interrupted.
    â€œHere,” Haley said.
    â€œYou have that accent. I love that accent,” Blair said.
    Haley shrugged. “I can’t help it. I’m going to try to get rid of it in college.”
    â€œOh, yeah? Where are you going—Paris or something?”
    â€œNot quite. Dartmouth.”
    â€œOh, God. Dartmouth. I got rejected by them before I even submitted my application. When I requested a catalog they sent it to me with this big DON’T EVEN BOTHER sticker on the front cover.”
    Haley laughed. “They didn’t.”
    â€œPretty much,” Blair said. “Ivy League … I mean, I’d kill to be Ivy League. I’m actually taking a year off so I can reapply and try to get in somewhere good next time.”
    â€œI don’t care that much about whether it’s Ivy League,” Haley said. “I just want to be somewhere where the other people are smart. It’s a lot of pressure, you know?”
    â€œYeah, but it’s your ticket to everything when you graduate,” Blair said.
    â€œMy ticket’s going to be to Europe. One way,” Sam said. “Right, Colleen? We’re going to Europe for three months after we finish college.”
    â€œRight,” I said. “Just as soon as my parents do all the groundwork this summer and figure out where we should go.”
    â€œYeah, but you wouldn’t want to go or stay where your parents like. Would you?” Blair asked.
    â€œShe has a point,” Sam agreed.
    â€œColleen’s parents think classical music is fun,” Haley said. “They read about ten books a week, and their last big road trip was to … Where was it? Historic Colonial Inns of Massachusetts?”
    Everyone laughed.
    â€œHey, at least they have a great house, and we’re all really lucky to be here.” Sam raised her glass. “To the Templetons.”
    â€œTo Starsky and Hutch!” Haley grinned at me.
    â€œStarsky and Hutch?” Blair said.
    â€œOur cats. Are you okay with cats?” I asked.
    â€œUm. Sure,” Blair said. “Are they nice?”
    â€œSupersweet.” Erica raised her glass in the air. “To a great summer!” She turned to Blair. “Your turn.”
    â€œTo … oh, my gosh, I can’t think of anything original,” Blair said. “To … the ocean! And my new view of it. Thanks, guys.”
    To ex-boyfriends, I thought. To new boyfriends . “To friends!” I said.
    We all reached forward to clink our glasses together.
    I guess I must have clinked too hard, because my wineglass splintered into a hundred pieces and we all jumped back to avoid the shattered glass.
    Maybe I should have taken that as an omen, but I didn’t. It just seemed like something clumsy at the time.

Chapter 8
    â€œColleen?” Trudy stopped me on my way back into the kitchen on Friday. I was done, for the moment, with my lunch tables. “Could you help me out with something? There was just a woman here who insisted on looking at every single T-shirt we had for sale, and she and her kids must have tried on about twenty shirts. Could you do me a favor and go refold them all?”
    â€œSure,” I said.
    â€œAnd there’s some additional stock in the drawer underneath the cabinet. If you wouldn’t mind restocking, too, while you’re at it?”
    â€œNo problem.” I quickly washed my hands in the sink and then went out front. No one was working at the register, and Erica was nowhere in sight, which was odd. But, knowing Erica, she was probably carrying leftover boxes of food out to someone’s car, or driving them home, or something. The phrase “above and beyond” was created for her.
    I picked up the pile of T-shirts from the counter and moved them over, away from the