Welcome to Corbet's Inlet, North Carolina, where the teenagers act like adults and the adults act like teenagers. It's Griffin Connolly's favorite place in the world. And while she may not be good at making decisions when it comes to her own life, s...
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The socks and sandals and cargo pants were gone.
They were replaced by flip flops and a backwards baseball cap and a well-worn pair khaki shorts. Based on the way his t-shirt stretched over his shoulders and how tall he'd gotten, he probably wouldn't look anything close to awkward swinging a tennis racquet now. The hair sticking out from underneath his hat wasn't blond but it wasn't fully brown either, and there was a softness to his jawline that didn't match the rest of his face, like he still hadn't grown into it yet...
But, when Griffin looked hard enough, she saw it: a tiny shred of resemblance between Fourteen-Year-Old-Charlie and Present-Day-Charlie. It wasn't much, but it was definitely there. And it freaked her out.
Charlie held out his hand. "Griffin, right? Good to meet you."
Whoa—wait.
Was he serious?
"Yeah," Griffin said, scrunching her eyebrows at him. She made sure to squeeze his hand as hard as he squeezed hers. "We've met."
He gave her a crooked smile and readjusted his hat with is free hand. A single dimple pressed into his cheek. "Ah, yeah. My bad."
"Chuck, remember Matty and Lauren?" Evan asked.
Matty and Lauren had materialized on either side of Griffin with matching grins. Matty pressed his finger into the small of Griffin's back, like he was trying to get her to pay attention to something. Griffin reached back and smacked his hand.
"Yeah, great to see y'all again," Charlie said, pulling his hand away and dimpling at her two best friends.
Charlie clapped Matty on the shoulder when they shook hands (apparently a go-to move), and he full-on hugged Lauren when she breathlessly re-introduced herself.
Griffin sat down at the picnic table. So Matty and Lauren get a 'great to see y'all again'? Cool.
Lauren and the boys followed once everyone finished bro-hugging it out. Griffin made accidental eye-contact with Charlie as he perched himself at the end of the opposite bench. She looked down before he could see how awkward she felt about it.
A waitress stopped by the table to take drink orders.
Meanwhile, Lauren was still in megawatt status. "Charlie, it's been so long since the last time we saw you! Did you guys just get in from Raleigh?"
Charlie pointed a thumb at his cousin. "Evan did. I came up from Mount Pleasant this afternoon."
"Where's that again?" she asked.
"South Carolina. Near Charleston."
There was enough interest in Charlie's tone to sound polite, but not enough to pass as sincere. Griffin wanted to ask him if they were boring him already. Lauren wasn't the type who needed someone to step in and defend her, but Griffin still wanted to.
