I Turned Pretty — Book 3 The Summer

Belly’s chest ached. Susannah’s empty chair in the living room still had her favorite blanket draped over it. No one had moved it. No one could.

Conrad looked at her then. Really looked. The kind of look that used to make her stomach drop—back when she was fifteen and he was untouchable. He wasn’t untouchable anymore. He was just… sad. In a way that had nothing to do with her.

“Because I can’t sit at that fire and pretend,” he said quietly. “Pretend I’m fine. Pretend we’re all fine. Pretend Mom—” book 3 the summer i turned pretty

Not yet, anyway. End of scene.

“Then why are you out here?” she whispered. “And he’s down there?” Belly’s chest ached

“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Belly said.

The bonfire on Cousins Beach was smaller that year. Not because there were fewer people—Taylor had dragged her new boyfriend, and Steven had brought a girl from UVA who laughed too loudly at everything. No, it was smaller because the heart of it had split in two. No one could

This is the summer , Belly thought, where every choice is a wound.