Beach Blondes: June Dreams, July's Promise, August Magic (Summer) (11 page)

“Good morning, Frank,” Summer said. The bird gave her a fishy look and turned away.

“Must be the uniform,” Summer muttered. She was dressed in her brand-new Crab ’n’ Conch uniform, consisting of a too-short white-and-blue sailor-suit dress, a white apron with a huge starched bow, fishnet panty hose, a really dorky sailor hat, and her own black Reeboks.

“What would
CosmoGirl
or
Seventeen
say about combining black leather running shoes and fishnets?” she asked Frank. “I’m thinking it’s a major ‘fashion don’t.’”

Frank spread his wings and flapped off.

Pretty much the same reaction as the one she’d gotten from Diver that morning. She’d gone into the bathroom to change and had emerged as he was eating a bowl of cold cereal. She’d been hoping for some sort of reassurance, but he had almost shuddered at the sight of her.

Like a guy with exactly one piece of clothing in the world was one to criticize.

Summer was too tired to care. Between the party, doing the latest installment of the video blog for Jennifer, and trying through bleary eyes to read at least some of the employee manual, she’d had very little sleep.

She ran into Diana on the lawn of the main house. Diana was in a fully reclined lawn chair, wearing a bathing suit showing off a disgustingly tan body, talking in a low murmur on a portable phone from the house. She glanced up almost guiltily at Summer. “No, she’s not here,” Diana said into the receiver. “She went to work.”

A pause while Diana listened, eyeing Summer’s outfit pityingly.

“The Crab ’n’ Conch, from the look of the uniform she was wearing,” Diana told the telephone. “Yes, she looked very cute in the uniform.” Rolled eyes.

Summer gave a little wave.

Diana returned her attention to her mother, a somewhat shrill voice in the phone, long distance from Ohio. “Sorry, what did you just say?”

“I asked if Summer likes the room.”

“The room? The room. Oh, well, she decided she didn’t want to stay in the room.”

“What are you talking about, Diana?” Her mother was using her dangerous I-suspect-you’ve-been-up-to-something voice.

“You know what happened? She saw the stilt house and absolutely fell in love.
Her
words—‘fell in love.’ So she’s staying out there.”

Diana held the phone several inches away from her ear, anticipating the response.

“Little Summer is out in that pile of rotting wood?” Mallory shrieked.

“I know, I was surprised too,” Diana said blandly. “Different people have different tastes, I guess.”

“You
guess
? Why do I have the feeling you had something to do with this?”

Diana tried her best to sound outraged, but she hadn’t been expecting the phone call and was unprepared. “Me? Why would I have anything to do with Summer being out in the stilt house?”

“I don’t want to go into this over the phone, Diana. Just get your cousin moved into the house.”

“I think she actually does prefer it out there,” Diana said stubbornly. “She’s kind of a private person.”

“Uh-huh. I have a pretty good idea who the private person is behind this,” Mallory said.

Diana offered no response. Giving her mother the silent treatment was often the most effective thing to do. Then Diana noticed with a shock that Summer hadn’t left yet. She was still standing a discreet distance away, looking as if she wanted to talk to Diana.

Oh, man, had Summer been able to overhear? Maybe not—the gardener at the house next door was running electric hedge clippers. Diana hoped she hadn’t heard.

“Well, what’s done is done, I guess,” Mallory said in Diana’s ear. “But there is one thing I absolutely insist on.”

“What’s that?” Diana asked guardedly.

“Get someone down to make that stilt house livable. Get her a decent bed, at least. You can move the one out of the guest room. And have someone make any other repairs. Call what’s-his-name. The old man.”

“Mr. Warner?” Diana suppressed a smile. Mr. Warner was Seth’s grandfather. Seth worked for him during the summer. She liked Seth—it was almost impossible not to. He was a little like Summer in that way. The two of them should get together. They would represent more concentrated wholesomeness than existed anywhere else in the Keys.

“Yes,” Mallory said, breaking into Diana’s cynical reverie. “I want that stilt house made fit for a human being. Summer’s mother would kill me if she saw where her daughter is living.”

“Okay,” Diana said. “I’ll call Mr. Warner right away. Bye.” She pressed the disconnect button and put down the phone.

Well, the situation wasn’t ideal. Ideal would have been scaring Summer all the way back to Minnesota. But at least this way she wouldn’t really be a part of Diana’s daily life.

“Diana?” Summer came back over and stood in front of Diana.

“Uh-huh? Don’t you have to get to work?” Diana asked. “Black fishnets with running shoes?”

“That’s the uniform,” Summer said, blushing a little. “I have kind of a stupid question to ask you. I mean, maybe it’s stupid, I don’t know.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I went to this party last night. You know, over at the Merrick estate?”

“So?”

“Well, it’s just that you used to go out with Adam.”

Diana’s heart skipped several beats. What did Summer know about that? Had Adam actually told her something? “Used to,” she said guardedly.

Summer dug her toe into the grass awkwardly. She stared down at the ground, looked up, smiled her big smile, then looked down at the ground again. “It’s just that, what would you think if he was going out with someone else?”

“I guess I’d have to think something like ‘life goes on,’” Diana said, sounding much cooler than she felt. In fact, her heart was pounding at near-panic intensity.

“So you don’t mind if, like, I—”

“
You?
You and Adam?”

“I don’t have to if it would upset you,” Summer said quickly.

“Why should it upset me?” Diana asked. “It’s all in the past.” All of it. In the past.

“Cool,” Summer said. Again the smile. “I’d better get going. Don’t want to be late my first day of work.”

“Have fun.”

Summer trotted off across the grass, hurrying to make up for lost time.

Summer and Adam. Adam and Ross.

Diana shuddered and tried to thrust away the memory. It had all happened last summer, a year ago, a long time. And Ross had been doing a lot of drugs back then. A lot. And everyone said he’d calmed down quite a bit, had spent six months in rehab.

Nothing to worry about. Summer was a big girl. She could take care of herself.

In which case Summer would have Adam, Diana realized with a wrenching feeling that brought a grimace to her face.

And if Summer
couldn’t
take care of herself?

“Not my problem,” Diana told herself firmly. “I didn’t even want her here.”

“Hey, everybody, this is Summer Smith!” Marquez announced in a brassy yell that managed to carry over the roar of the dishwashing machine, the clash of plates, the pounding of knives on cutting boards, and a radio that was blaring salsa music. “She’s a new waitress.”

“Poor kid,” another waitress remarked.

“She have a boyfriend?” the dishwasher yelled.

“Yeah,
me,
” the smaller of the two male cooks replied, laughing.

“She doesn’t date outside her species, Paulie,” Marquez shot back.

“Good one, Marquez,” offered a female cook with a nearly shaved head and a long tail of hair down the back. “She don’t need none of what passes for males around here.”

“Wait a minute, Skeet,
you
pass for male around here,” the taller, cuter cook said.

The woman named Skeet Frisbeed a slice of tomato at him.

Marquez took Summer’s arm. “The tall one who thinks he’s funny is J.T. The stupid-looking one is Paulie, and that’s Skeet.”

“We may be stupid, but we have knives,” J.T. said. “So you have to obey us in all things. Just pick up your food when it’s hot and we won’t have to hurt you.”

Skeet and Paulie both laughed.

“Ignore them,” Marquez said. “Cooks are all crazy.”

They stepped out of the loud, boisterous, and brightly lit kitchen into the dining room, an area as big as a football field with what looked to Summer like a thousand tables.

“Okay,” Marquez announced, “so you read the employee manual, right?”

“Yes, last night.” Summer yawned.

“Cool, now forget everything in the manual. All that stuff is bull. Just follow me around and I’ll teach you what to do.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” Marquez said, laughing. “You’re my slave for the day, honey. Good thing, too, because I’m beat. I’m all sore, especially my legs from dancing.”

Summer nodded. “Now what?”

“Well, we’ve done our setup work, we’ve introduced you to everyone. Now we stand around and wait till the customers start to show up. And while we’re doing that, we gossip. Like you tell me more about Adam.”

“Today I asked Diana if it was okay for me to go out with him,” Summer said.

Marquez nodded. “That was a stand-up thing to do. I have this guy I was seeing for a long time. We just broke up a couple weeks ago, and I don’t know if I’d want my cousin going out with him. What did Diana say?”

“She said she didn’t care because it was all in the past.”

Marquez nodded. “Yeah, she’s right. Past is past.”

“Tell me about this guy. The one you were going with?”

Marquez sighed. “He was okay, I guess. Only, he was screwed up in the head. His family is totally screwed up. I mean, like his mom is completely weird.”

“Why did you break up?”

“Found out he was going out behind my back.”

“With another girl?” Summer asked.

Marquez rolled her eyes. “Actually, it wasn’t anyone, that I know of. It’s just that he suddenly says he’s not happy and wants to start seeing other girls. The jerk.”

“Wait, so now you don’t see this guy anymore?”

“I see him around,” Marquez said with a shrug. “It’s J.T., okay?”

“The cook? The tall one?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“But neither of you acted like…”

“Hey, we’re at work, right? We have to deal with it, so we both act like it’s no big deal.”

Summer noticed a waitress crossing the dining room toward them, swinging her petite hips through the close-packed tables with practiced ease. Her red hair was swept back in a ponytail held in place with bright scrunchies.

Lianne.

“Hi, Marquez,” Lianne said.

“Hey, Lianne. Back to the grind, huh?” Marquez said.

“Just like last summer,” Lianne said. “This place hasn’t changed. You have, though. You look wonderful, Marquez. I love your hair.”

Marquez nodded noncommittally. “You two met at the party last night, right?”

“We didn’t actually meet,” Lianne said. She flashed a killer smile at Summer. “I was so excited to see Seth again, it was hard to concentrate on anything else. It’s been
days
.”

“Uh-huh. Well, Summer, meet Lianne, and vice versa. Lianne waited tables here last summer, like me,” Marquez explained.

“Summer? I think that is the most beautiful name,” Lianne said. “It must be great. Every time anyone thinks of you they’re going to think of sunshine and warm breezes. And you have the looks to go with the name.”

Summer was a little taken aback. Lianne seemed very sweet. “Thanks,” Summer said, feeling flustered because she couldn’t think of a way to return the compliment.

“I’ve heard of you, you know,” Lianne said. “From Diana. She and I are good friends.”

“Still?” Marquez said skeptically.

Lianne looked sad. “We
have
grown apart, I’m afraid. I suppose Diana has outgrown me.” She made a wistful, bleak smile. For a moment Summer thought Lianne might actually cry.

“Diana has outgrown everyone,” Marquez said.

Lianne put on a brave face and directed her smile at Summer. “Anyway, now I feel like I have a new friend. At least I hope we’ll be friends, Summer.”

“Sure,” Summer blurted.

“Well, happy happy, joy joy,” Marquez said dryly. She peered across the dining room and became more serious. “Okay, we have a party of two. We call that a deuce. Deuce, three-top, four-top, et cetera. Pour two glasses of water, Summer. Gossip time just ended.”

Marquez took off and Summer started after her. But then she felt a hand on her arm, holding her back.

Lianne pitched her voice low, so no one else would hear. “Summer, since we are going to be friends, I should just warn you about one thing. It’s Seth. I know he’s pretending like we broke up, but we didn’t. Seth has a little problem with the truth sometimes. And if you get in the middle, you’re just going to get hurt, because Seth really does love me.”