Shipwrecked Summer (4 page)

   Without another look at Jeff, I stood up and walked back up the beach next to my…my what? My savior didn’t sound right and he certainly wasn’t my hero or even my knight in khaki shorts. I settled on just thinking of him as a nice guy. Whatever he was, it was opposite of Jeff, and that was good enough for me.

    “Thanks,” I said to him before we reached the bonfire. “You didn’t have to do that.”

   He shrugged, but didn’t meet my eye. “I was just taking a walk and heard the end of your conversation. Didn’t sound like something any guy should say to a girl.”

   “Well, thanks. Really.” I looked down at my phone and realized it was almost midnight. My eyelids suddenly felt heavy and I stifled a yawn. “Anyway, I think I’m going to head back to my house. Have a good night, okay?”

  He nodded and raised a hand in farewell before walking back towards the porch, leaving me standing there, somewhat stunned by this mystery man and his silent ways.

   Interesting.

  I scanned the area for Pia and Joey, but didn’t see either of them, so after shooting them both a quick text letting them know I was turning in for the night, I made my way down the beach to Grandma and Poppy’s shore house.

    My first day in Ship’s Wreck had offered way more than I’d bargained for.      

Bright, intrusive sunlight woke me the next morning. I felt a small pit lodged in my stomach and couldn’t figure out why. It was way too early for anything to be bothering me already.

    But then I remembered last night. Jeff the Lifeguard was really Jeff the Jerk. It hadn’t just been a bad first impression.

    Oh, and he had a girlfriend.

    Because he was a Jersey shore lifeguard, after all!

   Not a great start to my summer or my day. I rolled out of bed and walked up the stairs, trying to shake the sleep from my head with a very necessary mug of steaming hot coffee.

   I’d just put the carton of skim milk back into the fridge and picked up my cup to take it out onto the balcony when Grandma came bursting up the stairs.

    “You’re not dressed?”

    I took in my grandmother’s head-to-toe orange outfit and matching lipstick and tried to hide my smile.

   “I just got up.”

   “Well, put down that coffee and get going, Alexa! The new neighbors are anxious to meet you and I said you’d be over this morning. You’re burning daylight just standing there!”

   I glanced at the blinking clock on the microwave. “Grandma, come on, it’s barely nine. They might not even be awake yet! I know I shouldn’t be.”

   “Oh, I already spoke with Bill and Suze this morning while they enjoyed their coffee on their balcony. They’re expecting you.”

   I sighed, catching sight of my bedhead in the microwave’s reflection. I didn’t think Bill and Suze would think much of me if I waltzed into their beach condo in my so-old-it-might-have-turned-yellow white Spring Dells Panthers T-shirt and purple plaid boxer shorts.

   “Of course, you’ll need to change first,” Grandma went on, eyeing my pajamas.

   I nodded, grabbed my cup of coffee, and padded back down the stairs to my bedroom to find something to wear, dreams of a peaceful morning on the rooftop long faded.

   By the time I came out of my bedroom, my grandmother was standing outside my door, staring at her watch. She’d slipped into a pair of heeled purple sandals while I dressed.

    “You’re wearing that?”

   “We can’t all look as snazzy as you, Gram.”

    “I don’t see why you couldn’t have put on a nice sundress at least.”

   I sighed. “Because it’s nine in the morning, I wanted to have my coffee on the balcony, and I don’t care what Bill and Suze think about my appearance.”

   “I think you might want to reconsider when—”

   “I just want to wear this, okay?” I interrupted. My denim shorts and green tank top weren’t going to light anybody’s world on fire, but what did it matter if Bill and Suze thought I looked cute?

    Grandma eyed me for a second before shrugging. “Suit yourself.”

   We walked over to the other side of the duplex and rang the bell. It only took a few seconds for a woman about my mom’s age to answer the door like she’d been hovering behind it, waiting for us.

   “Gerty!” She greeted my grandmother with a warm smile. “Lovely to see you again. And this must be Alexa.”

    “Lexie,” I said. “Grandma’s the only person I know who insists on calling me by my full name.”

   “Come on in.” The woman, I figured it had to be Suze, led us into the foyer of a home that resembled ours exactly. “My family is up in the kitchen. How do you take your coffee, Lexie?”

    “Oh, um, milk is fine. Thanks.”

   We followed Suze up the stairs and as I turned the corner to head to the kitchen, following the promise of fresh coffee, I froze so abruptly that Grandma rear-ended me.

    “Oof, Alexa, dear, if you’re going to stop like that, at least give an old lady some warning.”

   She reached up to readjust her glittery sequined visor that had become crooked during the collision before stepping around me and following Suze into the kitchen.  

    Why, oh, why hadn’t I listened to my wise old grandmother just this once and put on the sundress? It would have taken me only three seconds to change!

    “Lexie, meet my son, Anthony,” Suze said, her back to me as she poured coffee into three mugs.  

   Anthony looked up from his plate piled high with sausage and scrambled eggs as if noticing he had company for the first time. When he saw me, his face broke out into a smile, and I had hope that my blah outfit and bedhead wasn’t the turn-off I imagined it was.

    “Hey!” he said, setting his glass of orange juice on the table. “You’re that girl from the bonfire, right?”

    I offered the nice guy from last night a small smile in return. “Yeah. Thanks again for that. I’m Lexie.”

   He nodded. “Just try not to get yourself tangled up with that dude anymore. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy you, or any other girl, should be hanging out with.”

  I avoided my grandmother’s hawkish stare that I could feel burning into the back of my neck. I knew she’d already made a mental note to ask me about this later and I had zero desire to go down that path with her.

   “Right,” I said, then stared at him blankly, unsure of what else to say. He returned my gaze for a few beats, then nodded and looked down at his plate, dismissing me in favor of his eggs.

    Suze and Grandma exchanged some unreadable look before Suze finally spoke.

  “Lexie, maybe you could show Anthony around Ship’s Wreck this morning. I hear you’re quite an expert on the island and we don’t really know too much about it.”

    I wondered how he’d found the bonfire last night if he didn’t know his way around town, but I kept that to myself.

 “What do you think, Alexa?”

  “Oh!” My cheeks flushed. “Sure, okay. I guess I could do that.”

Anthony didn’t even look up from his breakfast.

  “Wonderful! That sounds like just a divine plan, Suze!”

My grandmother never felt more at home than when she was schmoozing someone else.

    “Anthony,” Suze prodded her son. “Do you have anything to say?”

  He’d just shoveled a few slices of bacon into his mouth (I swear I didn’t know this because I was awkwardly staring at him) and held up a finger in response.

Suze sighed as she waited for him to wash his breakfast down with a few big gulps of orange juice.

    “I guess a tour wouldn’t be so bad.”

  I tried to hide my smile. A morning alone with Anthony? As long as I didn’t embarrass myself, which, knowing me, was never a guarantee, maybe this would be the recipe I needed to forget about Jeff the Lifeguard once and for all. At least I knew Anthony wouldn’t be singing his praises.

   Anthony stood up and carried his dishes to the sink where he rinsed them off and left them to soak. He glanced down at his khaki shorts and wrinkled white T-shirt and shrugged.

  “Want to go now?”

   “Sure.”

I tried not to look down at my own disastrous outfit but couldn’t very well ask him if he’d give me ten minutes to throw on a sundress and a little mascara. And, besides, he’d agreed to go with me when I looked like this. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

    Grandma winked at me as we headed for the stairs. “Don’t enjoy yourself too much, Alexa.”

   I pretended not to hear.

   “There really isn’t too much to Ship’s Wreck,” I said to Anthony as we walked out the front door and onto Gull Boulevard. “The island itself is great, but this town is really just full of houses.”

    Anthony nodded. “Yeah, I sort of got that when we drove in yesterday. The amusement park looked pretty sweet, though.”

   “That isn’t in Ship’s Wreck,” I said before I could stop myself. “It’s part of Mermaid Tail.”

    “Oh. Well, it isn’t that far from here right?”

    “No, not a bad bike ride.”

   “We should go sometime.”

   I sucked in my breath, my stomach already somersaulting, and I just knew my cheeks were growing red and ruining my attempt to play it cool. Had he just suggested a date? What was I supposed to say? And if it wasn’t a date, was I supposed to say something different?

   I realized too much time had passed between the question and my expected response and knew that wasn’t exactly the best way to keep up the illusion that I was calm, cool, and collected about his question.

   “Sure,” I managed to squeak out. “Sounds good.”

I reached up and smoothed my hair, keeping my eyes away from Anthony.

   “Cool.”

    When I dared to look at him, I saw a satisfied smile on his face, like he’d won top prize at a carnival game.  

    Hmmm.

   We’d walked about halfway down Gull Boulveard and I was searching for something—anything—to fill the silence that stretched from here to the mainland.

    “Where are you from?”

    “What?” His question surprised me.

    “Your accent,” he said. “You’re obviously not from around here. So where are you from?”

    “Oh.” I hoped I didn’t blush again. “Spring Dells. Um, that’s in Alabama, in case you didn’t know.”

   He looked at me, the corner of his mouth twitching, amusement twinkling in his dark blue eyes. “Can’t say I’m too familiar with towns in Alabama, no.”

   “It’s really small,” I said without thinking about it. “Some would probably say too small. My parents pushed me really hard in school so that I could get into college on a scholarship, but I couldn’t stay in Alabama. I don’t think they really wanted me, too, either.”

    Anthony stared at me for a few seconds and I cringed, mortified at my inability to close my mouth.

   “I see. Where are you escaping to then?”

    “Wisconsin.”

    “Ah.” He nodded. “Trading the dirty south for the Midwest, eh?”

    I tried not to smile. “Something like that.”

    “You know what I’m in the mood for all of a sudden?”

    “What?”

    He looked over at me with a wide grin. “Ice cream.”

    “I don’t know if I could find a place open right now.”

    His eyes were full of shock. “You? The one who knows everything about this island? You couldn’t find us ice cream?”

    “It’s ten in the morning!”

   “Lighten up, Lexie, I’m just teasing. Surely you people do that down south.”

    I rolled my eyes.

  “Let’s go later,” he said and my heart skipped a beat, my irritation with him for mocking me almost completely faded. “I really don’t need to see the whole island this morning. I came here for the beach so let’s just go back and swim, okay?”

   “Oh,” I said, a little bit flustered at the idea of my sightseeing plan going up in smoke. I’d been mapping the perfect route in my head since his mother’s suggestion. “Okay.”

    “What, isn’t that why you’re here, too?” he asked, picking up on the disappointment in my voice.

   “I guess so,” I said, not wanting to clue him into the fact that I also counted on Fresh Water Island bringing me my greatest summer ever--and love. But in order for me to find it, I needed to find a guy to hang out with. And if the guy I wanted to hang out with wanted to go swimming—and wanted me to go with him—well, I’d be stupid to say no.

    “Meet you at the bridge in ten,” he said as we walked up the stairs to our shared house.

   I made sure the front door closed tightly behind me before squealing and doing something that I think was supposed to be my own version of a happy dance.

    Grandma, as she was apt to do, immediately appeared at the top of the landing. “Back so soon?”

    “We’re going to swim instead.”