“You bitch!” Spencer screeched. She grabbed the water-filled cup her mother was using to wash her brushes and splashed it in Melissa’s face. Green-colored liquid spilled down her cheeks.
Melissa wiped her eyes and gnashed her teeth. She lunged for Spencer, her arms outstretched. “I’m going to kill you,” she growled.
“Girls!” Mr. Hastings appeared above them from out of nowhere, wearing a golf shirt and a pair of plaid shorts. “What the hell is wrong with you two?”
“She put blue hair dye in my shampoo!” Melissa wailed.
“She stole the guy I was interested in!” Spencer shot back.
A look of recognition flashed across Spencer’s mother’s face. “Wait. Melissa stole the guy you liked?”
Melissa scoffed. “I didn’t steal him. He chose me.”
“That is such a lie!” Spencer yelled and stomped her foot. Her Havaianas made a smack against the floor.
“You two are acting ridiculous,” their father boomed. “You’re too old to fight like this.”
“Your father’s right,” their mother said, placing her hands on her hips. She strode forward and positioned herself next to her husband. “Melissa, you’re twenty-two years old. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Spencer shot a satisfied look at her sister. It had been years since Melissa had been reprimanded.
“Not that you’re any better.” Spencer’s father turned to her, as if reading her mind. “You girls should have learned your lesson about being interested in the same boy. There’s no excuse for putting hair dye in your sister’s shampoo.” Spencer’s parents exchanged weary glances with each other, letting out matching sighs.
Melissa reknotted her robe and yanked the patio door open. “I have to call the salon right now and see if I can get this disaster fixed,” she said, then flounced away.
Her footsteps could be heard all the way up the stairs. Spencer’s father began to sweep up the broken pottery shards with a dustpan.
Her mother turned to her and shook her head. “When I told you to do whatever it took to get that boy, I didn’t mean for you to ruin your sister’s hair.”
“Mom, I—”
But her mother cut her off with a wave of her hand. “Save it.”
Then she and Mr. Hastings wandered toward the pool, muttering quietly to each other. Spencer watched as her mother leaned into her father, and her father put an arm around Mrs. Hastings’s shoulder. Spencer couldn’t help but smile. It was the closest they’d come to embracing in days.
Nothing like two warring children to bring a couple back together.
Chapter 13
A Jump into the Unknown
A few hours later, Spencer stood on the dock next to the Finger Lickin’ Ice Cream Shop and the jewelry store whose front window featured glittering Rolexes and sleek Cartier bangles. A huge crane extended over the bay, and a big banner that said LONGBOAT KEY BUNGEE JUMP had been stretched between lampposts, surrounded by red, white, and blue bunting.
Just like the pre–New Year’s party, the bungee jump was an annual tradition—her family always came and shook their heads at the people crazy enough to plummet over the bay with only a piece of rope saving them from instant death. This year, Spencer was old enough to bungee without getting her parents’ permission, and that was exactly what she’d planned to do. It seemed like the kind of thing Colin would be into, and since Melissa would be spending the whole day in the hair salon to de-blue herself, it meant Spencer could finally get some alone time with him. She hoped.
She looked around at the crowds of college kids, twenty-something adrenaline junkies, and men suffering from midlife crises lining up to jump. In fifth grade, the last time her family and Ali’s had both visited Longboat Key over the winter holidays, Ali’s brother, Jason, had waited eagerly in line, clutching the release form he’d had signed from his parents. Ali and her cabal of friends had stood near him, teasingly asking if he was nervous, if he worried about getting whiplash, or if he’d ever heard the rumor that bungee jumping sometimes made guys’ testicles explode. Spencer had snickered at that last jibe, and Ali had spun around and given her a nasty look.
Spencer continued to scan the line. Sure enough, Colin was waiting at the front. She felt a little flutter inside her gut at the sight of him. He was tapping on his phone, his brow furrowed.
Spencer took a deep breath and walked over. “Everything okay?”
Colin looked up. “Oh, hey. Yeah, I was just texting Melissa. She told me she’d meet me here, but I haven’t heard from her. Do you know where she is?”
“She told you she was going to meet you here?” Spencer made a face. “This isn’t her kind of thing at all. She’s at the salon, getting her hair done. She’ll probably be there all day.”
Colin slipped his phone back into his pocket, a strange look crossing his face. “The salon? Seriously? She doesn’t strike me as that kind of girl.”
“No?” Spencer leaned against one of the wooden posts and watched as a tiny speck of a person plunged from the bungee crane. The crowd applauded. “She’s a salon addict. She gets her arms waxed, highlights, a monthly facial, and then there’s nails, Reiki treatments, the tanning booth . . . she’s super high-maintenance.”
“Huh.” Colin ran his hand over his chin and looked at Spencer.
A long beat passed. Colin didn’t look away until the crane started to groan and the elevator winch slowly pulled the next jumper into the sky. Colin glanced at his phone again. “So was what you said at the beach yesterday true? Does Melissa really have a felon for a boyfriend?”