Maine Squeeze (7 page)

“
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
?” Haley joked. “Or
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
?”

“Ha ha,” Ben said.

“It's nice to meet you, Ben, but I'm beat,” Sam said. “I've got to go take a shower and hit the sack—I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?” She walked over to the door.

Haley covered her mouth as she yawned. “Yeah, I was thinking of turning in, myself. Good night, Ben. Night, Coll.”

“Good night,” we both said. I felt bad that Haley and Sam felt they had to bolt as soon as Ben and I were together. I mean, I wanted time alone with him, but hanging out as a group was okay with me, too. This was their house for the summer, and they should be able to hang out wherever and whenever they wanted.

“So, how was work?” Ben asked once we were by ourselves.

“Work was—” Suddenly I remembered.
Evan
. Sitting on the freezer, giving me a hug, waving at me through the window. Reminding me of his stupid nice ankles. “Um. It wasn't exactly what I expected.”

“Why not?” Ben asked. “Come on, how much could that place change?”

“You'd be surprised,” I said with a faint smile. I really needed to tell Ben about Evan. I'd have to tell Ben who he was, that we'd dated, that he was back in town. Sooner or later, I'd have to tell Ben the whole story, or at least part of it.

But as he wrapped his arms around my waist, I decided the story could wait. I snuggled close to him, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. I felt safe and warm.

“You know what? You smell like … lobster and melted butter,” he said.

I stepped out of his embrace and slapped him on the shoulder. “You'll never be asked to live here if you go around saying things like that.”

“Sorry,” he said, laughing. “I was only joking.”

“No, you're not. You know what? Let me go change and I'll be right down,” I said.

“Okay, but hurry—I can only stay for another half hour at the most,” Ben said. He gave me a quick kiss, then went back over to the porch swing and sat down.

Upstairs, I ran into Sam in the hallway outside the bathroom. “Coll, I know we have the extra room, but … he's not really moving in,” she said. “Is he?”

“No!” I laughed. “It's just this running joke we have.”

“Okay. But is he staying over? I mean … is that cool with your parents?”

“No, definitely not. It's on the list, remember? ‘No sleepovers, especially of the boyfriend variety,'” I quoted.

“Then again, they
are
a few thousand miles away,” Sam said. “How would they—”

“Don't even think it,” I said. “Well, okay, think it, but don't do anything else. Anyway, Ben and I aren't exactly … we don't. You know. Sleep together.”

“No?” Sam asked.

“Not yet, anyway,” I said. For some reason Ben and I were both still waiting to take that last step. Maybe I was waiting because I felt like I'd jumped into that too quickly with Evan and it had made the breakup that much worse. I was a little tentative now, I guess.

I quickly changed into a pair of striped pink Adidas workout pants and a long-sleeved navy fleece, and went back downstairs. On the way, I grabbed an apple from the bowl on the kitchen table.

“So did you really bring a change of clothes?” I asked, pointing to the backpack, now propped against the porch chair. I sat next to him on the porch swing and took a bite of the apple.

“Sure. I mean, why not? I can always sleep out here on the porch.” Ben laughed. “No,
your
parents might be gone, but mine are still very much here. And they're expecting me home in a half hour.”

“Right. Parents.” I snuggled a little closer to him. “I remember those.”

Ben put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me tightly. Then he turned and started to nuzzle my neck, giving me little kisses. I turned to him and kissed his chin, his cheeks, his mouth. I just needed to be reminded of how wonderful Ben was, how he was nothing like Evan, how he worshiped me completely …?

Suddenly the telephone rang, jarring me out of the fantasy that I was worshiped by—well, anybody. Who was calling so late at night? Maybe Haley's mom, I thought. To tell her to go to bed or she'd be tired tomorrow.

“Ignore it,” Ben whispered in my ear as the phone rang again.

“Done,” I said, trying to lose myself in his kisses.

The phone stopped ringing. Seconds later, there was a loud knock on the screen door. “Um, sorry,” Haley said. I pulled away from Ben and looked up to see Haley standing there holding the telephone out to me. “Coll? It's your parents.”

“What? My parents?” Somehow they knew that if they called right now, they'd ruin the one half hour I had to spend with Ben. It was amazing.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver.

“Colleen!” my father's voice cried. “How are you?”

“I'm fine—but are you? I mean, is there an emergency or something?” I asked.

“Goodness, no.”

“Then why are you calling
now
? It's like four in the morning there—isn't it?”

“It costs less to call now,” my father said. “Plus, we have jet lag, and knew you'd just be getting home from work. How was it?”

“Fine, the same as always,” I said, my brain flashing back to the freezer moment, when I first saw Evan. In some ways, yes, work was the same as always, but in some ways it was completely different. I decided to spare my father that particular detail—and it wasn't just that Ben was still sitting beside me. It was that my dad wouldn't enjoy hearing about Evan any more than Ben would.

“And how are all the girls? Did everyone arrive okay?” he asked.

I got up off the swing and went into the house to grab a glass of water. “Yes. One thing, though—Erica is going to live at her grandparents' house instead of here. So we have a free bedroom—yours, in case you decide to come home early.”

Why did I say that? I missed them, but I didn't want them to come home early.

“Oh, no chance of that. I mean, we aren't planning to cut the trip short—but if there's an emergency, or if you need us—”

“No, don't worry, everything's fine. It's going to
stay
fine, too,” I told him.

My mother got onto the phone next, and I talked to her for a couple of minutes. Before I hung up, I had to promise her that I'd stick to every single one of the posted rules and that everyone in the house would stick to them, too—and everyone on the island would, too. I'm actually not sure what I promised. I was really tired, and I wanted to get back to Ben, who was patiently waiting outside for me, even though it was getting chilly. “Yes, Mom. Love you, too. Good-bye!”

She rattled off a few German phrases and then she was gone. Despite the fact they had kind of annoyed me, I was really glad they'd called. It was great to hear their voices. It was just … couldn't I have heard their voices the next morning?

“Your parents have incredibly bad timing,” Ben said when I rejoined him on the porch. I sat on the swing and cuddled up next to him. “Do you think they have a web cam set up or something? You know, ‘Let's see what Colleen's up to'?”

“No, you know what it is. My family, my entire extended gene pool, has really poor timing,” I said. I patted my mouth to cover a wide yawn. “You know that.”

“And yet, I still hang out with you.” Ben lightly rubbed my shoulders. “Why do you think that is?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “Maybe because you know you owe me.”

Ben laughed. “I
owe
you?”

“Yes. You'd never have your summer job now if you'd puked on the ferry that first day of school,” I reminded him.

“You're so romantic.” Ben tilted my face toward his and we kissed.

Telling Ben about Evan now would be a case of bad Templeton timing. Wouldn't it? I mean, here we were, enjoying ourselves, feeling really close. If I told him now, it would be a horrible end to a pleasant evening. We only had about ten minutes left before Ben had to go home.

So, it was settled. I'd tell Ben about Evan tomorrow.

Chapter 6

When Erica, Samantha, and I walked into Bobb's for our staff meeting the next day, I expected to see everyone sitting in the dining room, where we usually got together for these occasional meetings.

Instead, the meeting was in the kitchen. Evan was sitting on top of the stainless freezer once again. Standing beside him was a girl I'd never seen before. I felt my heart start pounding nervously, and my palms got sweaty.
Don't tell me that's his new girlfriend,
I thought.
Please don't tell me it's bring-your-latest-conquest-to-work day
.

She had long, straight blond hair, and wore khaki capris, white sneakers, and a Bobb's T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing off tan, sculpted arms. She looked like a tennis player. Maybe it was the K-Swiss court shoes that made me think that.

Trudy started off by saying something about how being in the kitchen brought us closer to the heart of the restaurant, and how that would bring us all closer together. She talked a lot about needing to be
close
. She was somewhat of a hippie, but she'd also apparently read a lot of business books over the winter and she was just dying to try out their theories.

“So, crew, there are a few new people I want you all to meet. Well, one is new, and one is a returning favorite.” Trudy winked at Evan.

I nearly tossed my cookies into the sink I was standing beside. “Returning favorite”? As if this were a game show and Evan was a former champion or something. Or a feature on the menu. Tonight's returning favorite: Evan the cold-hearted. Served with a side of slaw, also cold.

Maybe I felt so grumpy because I was sleepy from staying up so late with Ben the night before. I couldn't imagine how
he
felt—he'd already been at work for four hours. Poor Ben. He had to be at work at six. Our summer schedules weren't going to work very well together. He kept trying to get the later shift, but since he was the new guy he got last choice.

The new person at Bobb's was the blond-haired girl standing beside Evan. Her name was Blair, and she was taking the place of Kelley, who'd decided at the last minute to work at the Spindrift B&B instead of at Bobb's. (Why anyone would want to make beds and muffins is beyond me, but to each her own, I guess.)

“Blair came to visit for a weekend but decided to stay on,” Trudy said.

That still didn't answer my question: Did she
know
Evan before now? What did she know and when did she know it? Etc.

“Where are you from?” I asked her, smiling and trying to be polite about the fact I was prying.

“The most boring town in the United States,” she said with a sigh. “I am
so
glad to be here.”

Everyone laughed, and I thought, Could she be a little
less
forthcoming? That description didn't sound like Philadelphia, Evan's hometown. But you never knew. Anyhow, my invitation to visit that particular city had been rescinded, so what did
I
know?

“Is this the first time you've ever been here?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“What made you want to stay for the whole summer?” I went on.

“Isn't it obvious?” she asked.

I just smiled at her.
Um, no? That's why I'm asking? Because if it has anything to do with Freezer Boy there, I need to know. Now
.

“This place is heaven!” she said. “I love the ocean, and I love the feel of it here.”

“Yeah, well—see how you feel in July, when you're waiting on a table of spoiled ten-year-olds who just flew in from New York and they expect you to shell their lobsters
for
them,” Evan told her.

“Now, Evan, that's enough of that,” Trudy scolded. “We don't need any negatives here in this kitchen, just positives.” She smiled at everyone, and Evan looked at me and the corner of his mouth curled up in a half smile.