Skinny-dipping

Mara dumped Ryan, the über-hot more >>

Mara dumped Ryan, the über-hot older brother of the kids she's babysitting, and opted out of spending winter break in Palm Beach with the family. Now she wants him back, but is he hers for the taking?

Eliza and Jeremy agreed to see other people at the end of last summer, but Eliza's done a lot more than look at other boys...namely Ryan Perry. Can Eliza keep their Palm Beach hookup a secret from Mara?

Jacqui managed to stick to her no-more-boys rule all year, but when she meets the Perry's newest au pair, Philippe, a gorgeous French guy, she's not so sure she'll be able to maintain her resolve. After all, aren't rules made to be broken?

This summer Mara, Eliza, and Jacqui will manage to find trouble (and a party!) wherever they go. But if they're not careful, their friendships, their guys, and their perfect summer jobs could fade away faster than last year's tans.Chapter One: Eliza discovers fire & brimstone is a new cosmo flavor

It didn't look like much, but then that was probably because it was three o'clock in the afternoon, and Seventh Circle, the newest, soon-to-be-hottest club in the Hamptons, wouldn't get going until after midnight. A potato barn in its former life, Seventh Circle was a large, brown-shingled, rambling wood building set back in the Southampton woods. Only a discreet sign off the highway (seven circles posted to a tree, natch) let the initiated know they had arrived at their destination.

Eliza Thompson steered her black Jetta into the parking lot, feeling at once pleased and apprehensive. She examined her makeup in the rearview mirror, applied a thick layer of lip gloss, stuck two fingers inside her mouth, and pulled them out slowly, just likeAlluresuggested, in order to avoid a grandmotheresque lipstick-on-teeth situation.

She checked for detritus of Chanel Glossimer. Nothing. Perfect.

Eliza grabbed her bag -- the season's covetable metallic leather Balenciaga motorcycle clutch. Eliza had bought it in Palm Beach, during the week she'd spent as a vacation au pair for the Perrys last winter. Inside was a rolled-up resume that listed her sparkling attributes: a Spence education (up until her parents' bankruptcy last year and their subsequent move to Buffalo, that is), an internship atJane(which had entailed fetching nonfat soy lattes and alphabetizing glitter nail polish), and a reference from her longtime friend and Manhattan boy-about-town, Kit Ashleigh.

Life was almost great again for Eliza. Okay, sure, the Thompsons were still living in Buffalo -- a far, far cry from the posh life they'd left behind in New York City -- but they had moved from a sordid little rental to a proper three-bedroom condominium in the only luxury high-rise in the city. With a little help from some old friends and loyal clients, her dad was slowly getting back on his feet, and there was money for such things as thousand-dollar handbags again. (Well, there was credit at least.) With her grades and SAT scores (top 99th percentile -- Eliza was no dummy), there was a good chance she would be able to wing financial aid and get into Princeton after all. This summer her parents were even renting a little Cape Cod in Westhampton. It had the smallest pool Eliza had ever seen -- it was practically a bathtub! -- but still, it was a house, it was theirs (for the summer), and it was in the Hamptons.

The only thing keeping Eliza off balance was the Big Palm Beach Secret from last winter. Something had happened while she was t << less