28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand Read Free Book Online

he said, but it was too much money to turn down and he gets to use his pre-med background.
    Jake comes jogging back out. “Coop’s not coming.”
    “What?” Mallory says.
    “He said we should go without him.”
    “But it’s his bachelor weekend,” Mallory says.
    “Just go, Mal,” Fray says from the back seat. “The ball and chain is heavy and it is tight.”

    The Chicken Box is jam-packed. This weekend is the last hurrah for every summer kid on the island. Mallory is proud of how grungy the Box is. It’s a real dive bar, with pool tables and a beer-sticky floor and live music every night, people of all ages waving Coronas in the air while belting out the lyrics to “I Want You to Want Me.”
    Jake slips through the mob at the bar and emerges victorious with beers for everyone. He and Mallory get up close to the stage, and Mallory grabs the lead singer and requests “Ball and Chain” by Social Distortion. They launch right into the song, and while Mallory is happy about this—it’s a hilarious bust on Cooper—she’s also bummed that her brother isn’t here. People have always called Cooper an old soul. He radiates peace, wisdom, an effortlessness that says, Yeah, I’ve been here before, I’ve got this, don’t worry about it. When they were kids doing jigsaw puzzles, he knew where a piece went the instant he picked it up; when Kitty found a knot in the chain of a necklace, she would bring it to Cooper and he would methodically untangle it. Mallory, however, is a brand-new soul, squeaky clean, fresh out of the box, like a pair of penny loafers that needs, desperately, to be broken in. She has always had a difficult time seeing the big picture.
    Except for right now. Because right now, Mallory knows Cooper is taking the fool’s path. He’s letting Krystel ruin their weekend. If Kitty knew that Cooper had declined to join a celebration that was being thrown in his honor, she would be dismayed. Nothing irks their mother more than bad manners.
    Mallory turns around. Leland and Fray are nowhere to be seen, and she’ll never find them in this crowd. Jake is right behind her and suddenly his hand lands on her hip, then lifts. Mallory isn’t sure what to do. Should she turn around and raise her face to his, or is that too obvious? She decides to act natural. She dances like no one is watching.

    Everything is still okay. After last call, the lights come up and the crowd spills out of the bar onto Dave Street.
    “Are you all right to drive home?” Jake asks.
    She’s fine. She had two Coronas and half of a third, but she’s sweated most of it out.
    When they reach the Blazer, they find Fray sitting in the back seat polishing off a beer.
    “Where’s Leland?” Mallory asks. She has known Frazier so long that she can tell just by the set of his jaw that something is wrong.
    “She left.”
    “What?” Mallory says. “Where did she go? Did you two have a fight?”
    “She bumped into a group of people she knew from New York,” he says. “They invited her to go to a bar downtown and she said yes. She didn’t want to stay here, it was too crowded, they don’t have chardonnay or whatever she drinks now.”
    True, Mallory thinks. No chardonnay at the Chicken Box. That’s kind of the point.
    “Didn’t they invite you?” Mallory asks.
    “They did, reluctantly, but these weren’t our type of people, Mal. These were New York people, Bret Easton Ellis people.”
    “Ah,” Mallory says. “Okay. Well, she’s a big girl. She’ll find her way home.”

    Everything is still okay, sort of. Mallory drives safely back to the cottage. She hopes that Leland has the phone number with her, otherwise…well, big girl or not, she’s going to have a difficult time finding the cottage on the no-name road.
    Mallory pulls into the driveway; Frazier jumps out while the car is still moving and storms into the house. By the time Mallory and Jake get inside, Frazier has the bottle of Jim Beam by the neck.
    “She’s not