Free Full Share (Shore House Book 1) by Eliza Freed Page B

thought of my housemates. They were either at the beach or in bed. Some of them would be in bed together. Last night was the second Friday night I’d missed since the summer began. My seven to three fifteen shift on the phone today had kept me home. Making this also the second Saturday I hadn’t woken up with cotton mouth and dry eyes.
    My car just fit into the last parking spot on our lawn. Technically, it was on our neighbor’s lawn, too, but I hoped they’d let me slide since I was just arriving, and they’d already had an entire day of fun.
    “Why did you invite her?” Blaire’s shrill voice carried onto the front lawn from inside the house. It sounded like she might cry. It sounded familiar.
    “What’s the big deal? She’s meeting us at a bar. It’s not like I invited her to a wedding. She’s my sister’s best friend.”
    “That you fucked!” A door slammed inside the house and followed the noise of their latest fight into the driveway. “You left that part out. ‘She’s my sister’s best friend that I fucked’ . That’s the big deal.”
    “You’re ridiculous. We were fifteen and on a ski trip.”
    “No, you’re ridiculous. You never consider me.” Blaire would wait the rest of her life for that. Yes, he loved her. He just didn’t want her to come before himself.
    I stopped next to my car, unwilling to move my feet forward toward the house. What if no one else was in there? What if I was trapped inside with them?
    Stone came around the side of the house, shaking his head and carrying a beer. “Here.” He handed the bottle to me. “They are a fucking nightmare.” I took a sip of the beer. A long one. “Like, literally. They’re fucking each other, and they give me nightmares.” He leaned back against the quarter panel of my car. “Why are you just getting down?”
    “I had to work.”
    “Ew. Gross. Sorry.” He stood straight and turned toward the house. “You coming in?”
    “Fuck you, Rob!” Blaire’s shriek could shut down happy hour within a two-block radius.
    Stone turned around and came back to me. He took the beer from my hand and finished it. “On second thought, let’s just go out.”
    My choices were limited. Try my luck with Rob and Blaire, who were hitting a new level of screaming, or Stone, who was always one beer away from being a complete prick.
    “I promise I’ll be good.” He stood very still. He was calm and serene and appeared sincere.
    “No fighting.”
    He held both hands up. “Promise.”
    I looked at Stone and back at my car. I took a deep breath. This was a mistake.
    “You’re smothering me!” Rob yelled at Blaire before another door slammed.
    “Okay.” I unlocked my car and threw my bag back into it, letting it fall to the floor of the back seat before relocking the car. I put my small cross body bag over my head.
    Stone smiled. Not kindly. More like he was satisfied that I’d finally figured out he was smarter than me and had let him make the decision. He was smug. I preferred it to him being angry. “Why is there a Scooby Doo book in the back of your car?”
    I wasn’t used to sharing Rufus with anyone, but now that Stone had asked, I wasn’t sure why. “Why do you care what’s in the back of my car?”
    “Okay.” He walked toward the curb, and I followed him.
    Tank and Jack were walking back to the house barefoot with boogie boards under their arms and towels around their necks. They were joy and happiness. I was out with the heat miser. This weekend already made no sense. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to be anywhere near Blaire. I hoped the fight escalated to the point of her going home, and then Rob could come out and party solo. That never happened though. Blaire’s tolerance for annoying arguments and wasted time was higher than any other human being I’d ever met. She’d rather ruin her own night and be present than salvage it and be away from him.
    “Hey! Where you guys going?” Tank asked with a