Free Love Notes from Vinegar House by Karen Tayleur

Rumer eventually made an appearance. Instead of thanking me for waiting, she swished past me. I felt like locking the door behind her and going upstairs to my room, but changed my mind when I turned to see Grandma watching me through the open dining room door. I gave Grandma a little wave then ran after Rumer down the driveway.
    “Where are we going?” I asked, following as usual.
    “To the beach, of course,” she said.
    She walked ahead of me, talking on her mobile and laughing every now and then. It was the happiest I had seen her since I’d arrived at Vinegar House.
    There were two ways to access the beach at the bottom of the bluff. One way was to follow the road in a meandering path down to a sheltered area enclosed by tea-trees, then traipse through the dunes, until you reached the beach on the other side. This took at least 20 minutes on the way down and longer coming back up. The second way was to take a short cut down the beach access track that one of our long-dead relatives had hacked into the side of the bluff many years ago. This route only took five minutes, though the final section of path was inaccessible during high tide. It was also highly dangerous and forbidden by the adults.
    At the end of the driveway, Rumer turned left towards the short route.
    “Short cut?” I said.
    “She won’t know,” said Rumer.
    We looked back at the house. Someone was flapping a tablecloth out near the front door. We both turned right and took the long way down to the beach.
    Rumer seemed back to her old self, chattering away about nothing much. I did notice there was no mention of a boyfriend, which was strange, as Rumer had been talking about boyfriends ever since she learned to speak.
    “Are you still going out with Gerard?” I asked when she stopped talking long enough to take a breath.
    “Gerard?” Her face was a question mark, then it cleared as she laughed and said, “Oh, Gerard. That was ages ago.”
    “So who is it now?” I was kicking a clod of earth down the path, so I wasn’t really paying attention. When it took Rumer more than two seconds to answer, I looked up to see a strange expression on her face.
    “No one,” she said quickly. “I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.”
    I snorted.
    “It’s true,” she said, with a toss of her head. “Not that it’s any of
your
business. I’ve decided to concentrate on my studies this year.”
    This sounded like an Uncle Lawrence suggestion rather than an idea from Rumer.
    “But you have someone in mind?” I guessed.
    Her cheeks were flushed, though it could have just been the cold wind affecting them.
    “Maybe,” she said. “And is Isabella still a free agent?”
    I nodded. I noticed she didn’t ask me if I had a boyfriend. Probably thought I was too young. Or too ugly.
    “Do you remember that time you tried to swim to Seal Rock?” she said with a laugh, one hand shielding her eyes as she looked out to sea.
    “I wasn’t trying to swim to Seal Rock,” I said.

    I had tried to swim to Seal Rock a couple of months after Rumer had ruined my summer holiday at Ocean Side. The Harts needed to go to Port Eden for the weekend to check out a college for Megan, and Luke had resisted going along with them. Mum offered to take him with us to Vinegar House for the weekend. She seemed to think I would be pleased. Sometimes parents are so dense.
    We left straight after school on the Friday. Dad was due to arrive later that night, something to do with work, which is why we had extra room in the car. I sat in the back, looking out the window, glad that Luke was a whole Oscar body width away from me. He and Oscar spent the trip going through Oscar’s swap-card album. Luke tried talking to me a couple of times, but I had my earbuds in and pretended I couldn’t hear him.
    I expected things might get a little strange when Luke and Rumer met up again, but she greeted him as if they were old friends, and the moment passed smoothly. The twins, Angus and Lee,