Beach Blondes: June Dreams, July's Promise, August Magic (Summer) (16 page)

“How am I supposed to know? Maybe. Not that I believe any of that stuff. I mean, cards? Puh-leeze.”

“You excited about seeing Adam tonight?” Marquez asked.

“As long as I can get a totally perfect tan between now and then I’ll be happy.” Summer twisted her head around to try and see the back of her legs. They looked pretty white. She was still an official chalk person.

“Where’s he taking you? Somewhere
dangerous
? Somewhere
mysterious
? Or somewhere just
right
?”

Summer shrugged. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. I asked and he said just to leave it to him.”

“Oh, the mighty macho man in control,” Marquez mocked.

Summer flicked sand at Marquez. “That kind of reminds me of something. Guess who I talked to.”

“Do I care?”

“I think you will,” Summer said cockily. “I think you’ve been wanting to ask me all afternoon.”

“I saw you,” Marquez said, sounding utterly bored. She pretended to yawn. “I saw you talking to J.T. I was wondering if you were going to bring it up.”

“He seemed very interested in
you
,” Summer said.

Marquez sighed dramatically. “Okay, you might as well tell me what he had to say.”

“I wouldn’t want to bore you. I can tell you’re not really interested.”

Marquez pointed. “See that guy down there? The big hairy old guy? If you don’t tell me exactly what J.T. said, I’m going to tell that guy you’re hot for him.”

Summer related the conversation with J.T. as accurately as she could.

When she was done, Marquez slapped Summer’s arm. “You weren’t supposed to tell him his name was still on my wall.”

“Oww. Why not?”

“He’ll think I still like him.”

“Do you?”

“Duh. I’ll tell you one thing—he’d better not be your third tarot card.”

“He’s cute,” Summer said. “But you know how sometimes a guy will be cute, but you don’t react in
that
way?”

“No. Absolutely not. Okay, sure, I know what you mean.”

“J.T. is cute, though,” Summer repeated. “And he seemed nice.”

“Yeah. He is cute. And he knows it. He has that Anglo, Nordic, blue-eyed thing going for him. Also, he’s excellent at kissing. The creep. The subhuman.” Marquez pounded the sand, but not so much in anger as in frustration. “He reminds me of you that way.”

“What, you mean
I’m
a subhuman? Or has someone told you I’m excellent at kissing?”

Marquez laughed. “No, I mean the blue-eyed Nordic Midwestern guy or girl next door thing. Speaking of which, we’d better get out of here before you get burned.” Marquez stood up and began brushing sand off her stomach.

“So how come you and J.T. don’t just make up?” Summer asked.

Marquez gave her a look that was cold as ice. “Because no guy ever gets to treat me like crap twice. Once. That’s the limit. I don’t hang with people who mess me up. I have more important things in my life, you know?”

The look surprised Summer. “More important than true love?”

“It isn’t about what happens
now,
Summer. I’m just having fun now, but my life is about succeeding and making something out of myself and making my parents and my brothers proud of me. I’m not going to waste my mental energy dealing with jerks.”

Summer stood looking at her.

“Sorry,” Marquez said, rolling her eyes. “Sometimes I get this sudden attack of seriousness.” She pointed up the beach. “See that point there? Up by the rocks?”

“Sure.”

“That’s the spot where my parents and my big brothers and little tiny Maria Marquez landed in this country.” Marquez measured with her hands how tall she was at the time. “My dad was three years in prison in Cuba for complaining about the government. When he got out, we left. We were in a rowboat at night, and a Cuban navy patrol boat passed by only about a hundred yards away. If they’d spotted us, my dad and mom would have been thrown into prison and all us kids would have been taken away from them. We got blown around in the sea. I mean, I can still remember it a little. My mom was trying to act like it was this big family picnic, right? So eventually we bang right into good old Crab Claw Key in the good old USA. We had the clothes we were wearing. That’s it. No money. My dad and mom couldn’t speak any English. Now my dad owns the gas station.” She made a self-deprecating face. “Big deal, right? A gas station.”

“Yes, a big deal,” Summer said softly.

“He loves it, I can tell you that. You’d think that one gas station was the whole Shell Oil Company.”

They began to cross the beach, feet sinking in the burning sand.

“Well, anyway, the thing is that I have to do better. Better than a gas station.”

Summer gave her a quizzical, skeptical look. “Wait, so you can’t forgive J.T. because you have to succeed?”

“That’s right,” Marquez said firmly. Then she made a sly grin. “You know, unless he begs. And crawls.” She nodded thoughtfully. “Crawling would be good.”

Lianne Greene watched from cool, air-conditioned comfort as Summer and Marquez made their way across the beach and paused at the low seawall to brush the sand from their legs.

She sat in the window of a small café, sipping an iced tea with mint. A raucous, Spanish-language game show was playing on the TV over the bar. Lianne had been there since the girls had arrived, having followed them from work to Marquez’s house and then to the beach. She didn’t mind waiting. It was boring, but she knew the next act in the little drama would make up for the long, dull wait.

Lianne left two dollars on the table and went outside. The heat seldom bothered her the way it did so many other people. It was all a trick of the mind, she believed. Stay calm and cool inside, and the sun couldn’t reach you.

She followed Summer and Marquez at a safe distance, not that they would have noticed her had they turned around. She was wearing big sunglasses and a white cap with the bill low over her forehead.

Several times Summer and Marquez would stop just to laugh or playfully slap at each other. They were having a fine time. Especially Summer. And why shouldn’t she be? She was on her way to pick up Seth.

A little knot of rage burned in Lianne’s stomach. Seth was just a fool to fall for a girl like that. But then, that was Seth all over. He was too kind and decent to realize how people used him. He was too sweet to understand what a two-faced little manipulator Summer Smith was. And it was so obvious. Lianne had recognized her type right from the start.

They stopped at Marquez’s house again, presumably so Summer could change clothes. Good. Lianne had plenty of time.

She knew Seth’s house, inside and out. And she knew Seth better than anyone. That would make it all work. Then it would be bye-bye Summer.

And Seth would be right back where he belonged. Right where he would stay.

With her.

At four in the afternoon, the sun was still high and hot. The same clouds Summer had watched from the beach were darkening and building up over the water, threatening an afternoon thunderstorm.

Summer had showered quickly at Marquez’s house and changed clothes. Marquez had turned up her nose at the top Summer was wearing and convinced her to borrow one of hers instead. Now Summer was walking across Seth’s lawn, feeling conspicuous and worried that she was sending a message Seth might easily misinterpret.

“Yes,” Summer muttered under her breath, tugging at the tight top, “this is how I always dress when I go to hardware stores.”

Seth’s grandfather’s house was a low, flat-roofed bungalow, dwarfed by massive shade trees on all sides. One was a banyan, a tree that fascinated Summer. It looked like something from another planet, but its leaves defeated the sun and spread a welcome coolness.

There was a screened porch that went around two sides of the house. The screening was old and nearly opaque in the shade.

Summer was confused. There was a regular door on the left side and the screen door on the right. Which was the front door?

Then she heard a sound, the creak of springs, as if someone was sitting down in an old chair. The sound came from the porch. Summer headed toward the porch, still feeling ridiculous in the gaudy top Marquez had loaned her. Still feeling a quaking in her stomach, a feeling of uncertainty mingled with anticipation.

“Seth?” she said as she neared the screen door. No answer.

She climbed three stairs to the door. She cupped her hands around her face and pressed her nose against the screen to see inside. There was a rocking chair. Laid across the rocker, a pair of men’s jeans. And over the jeans, Summer saw a white lace bra.

Close against the wall of the house, there was a bed. The bed wasn’t empty.

“Oh, my gosh!” a female voice yelped. “Summer! What are you doing here?”

Lianne leapt up from the bed, snatching thin covers around her bare shoulders.

Summer could only gape, openmouthed.

“What are you doing here?” Lianne demanded again.

From inside the house, Seth’s voice. “Lianne?
Lianne?
”

Summer stumbled back down the steps. “Sorry. I’m really, really sorry.” She turned and ran as fast as she could back to the road.

Summer was nearly home by the time Seth caught up with her. She had been walking fast. Very fast.

She noticed him when he was still several blocks behind, trotting along in her wake, dodging the occasional car. He called to her to wait, but she continued doggedly. She was dangerously near tears.

They were both panting when she felt his hand seize her arm. “Leave me alone,” she snapped, shaking him off.

He fell in step beside her. “Look, Summer, that was not what it looked like.”

“No? You mean that wasn’t Lianne, lying in your bed when you knew I was coming over?” Summer wished she didn’t sound so much like she cared.

“Will you hold up a minute? You’re practically running.”

“Go away.”

“Come on, Summer, you at least owe me a chance to explain,” Seth said angrily.

“Explain what? Why should you explain? You tell me it’s over with Lianne, and then, whoops! Surprise! She’s in your bed. While her clothes are not. No, her clothes are over with your clothes on the chair. What happened, you got up to get a drink?”

“Summer, this whole thing is just a setup. Lianne can’t accept the fact that it’s over,” Seth said.

“You can’t accept the fact that it’s not,” Summer shot back.

“That was low,” Seth said.

“Don’t tell me what’s low,” Summer muttered. Diana’s house was just ahead. She raced up the driveway, around the side of the main house, down a narrow walkway lined with rosebushes.

Seth followed her, saying nothing while they were under the shadow of the main house. But out on the back lawn he exploded. “This is not fair, Summer. You have to give me a chance to explain.”

“No. I don’t.”

“You
want
to be mad at me,” Seth accused. “You want to believe what you think you saw is true so you can push me aside and go off with Richie Rich. Now you’ve had a good look at my house compared to Adam’s house. I guess it’s cooler to be going with a billionaire, huh?”

They had reached the walkway out to the stilt house. Suddenly Summer stopped and turned to face him. “This is my home, at least for now, and I don’t want you in it. You can finish the work you have to do, but that’s the end of our relationship.”

She stomped several paces down the walkway, struggling to control her anger. She lost the struggle and turned again. “You talk about Adam’s house and your house? The difference is that Adam doesn’t have his girlfriend in his bed at the same time he’s giving me all kinds of lines about…about air catching on fire and people being meant for each other.”

Seth shook his head bitterly. “I was wrong about you. You’re not so special.”

“Jerk.”

“Jerk.”

“Go back to Lianne and leave me alone, you lowlife.”

“Maybe I should,” he said.

“Great, because I have better things to do. I have a date tonight.”

“With Adam, I know.”

“That’s right, with Adam.”

“Fine, go with Adam. I don’t even care.”

“Run home to Lianne, Seth. If you hurry, maybe you can get back
before she gets dressed
!” The final shout echoed off the water.

This time Summer didn’t turn back. She blew past Frank like a storm cloud, causing him to spread his wings and glide off toward a more peaceful perch.

The time Summer had allocated to be with Seth, to get to know him and to decide whether there was anything real between them, was spent instead on crying, storming around the house, wondering whether he was telling the truth somehow, and ultimately deciding to put him out of her mind for good.

By eight o’clock the swelling in her eyes had gone down with the help of two ice cubes. The anger was gone, too. It was all silly, she told herself. One of those things she’d look back on someday and laugh about. Ha ha. Seth wasn’t the only guy in history to lie about having a girlfriend. He was a low, scum-sucking snake who masqueraded as a nice guy so he could seduce girls at the airport, but hey, Summer could handle it.

Ha ha ha. Just another jerk. He wouldn’t be the last she’d run into. But being cool—as she was—she’d just laugh it off. Ha ha.

She was dressed and ready and completely
not
angry anymore by the time she heard the engine of Adam’s boat on the water outside.

Adam was standing at the wheel of the boat. Its long prow nosed in under the stilt house as Summer descended slowly, a bit cautiously, through the hatch.

He had an almost dreamy smile on his face and was shaking his head admiringly. “That was a very nice start to the date,” he said, offering his hand to help her aboard.

“What was?” she said, with just a trace of a snap in her tone.

“Watching you come down the stairs. Like an angel descending from heaven to visit earth.”

“White as an angel, anyway,” Summer said, blushing in a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment.

She stumbled a bit as the boat rolled. Adam caught her easily. He kissed her, just a playful kiss on the forehead. Then the playfulness went out of his eyes, and he kissed her lips.

Summer gasped when he pulled away.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since the other night,” Adam said. “I’ve been thinking of nothing else.”

“Sure, right,” Summer said. It had been a very nice kiss. She would have enjoyed it even more if she hadn’t still had half her mind on Seth.

“Cross my heart,” Adam said. “This morning I woke up thinking of you. I was imagining you here, in this house, warm and cozy in your bed. By the way, what
do
you wear to bed, just so I can be sure I had the picture right in my mind?”

“At home in Minnesota I wear a flannel shirt I got from my dad. And socks.”

Adam grinned and gunned the engine a little, backing the boat away from the house. “I wasn’t picturing you in Minnesota.”

He steered the boat toward the open sea. Even at eight o’clock the sun was still bright, though it hung within inches of the horizon. “I guess you don’t want to know what
I
wear to bed, huh?” Adam asked.

“Not especially.”

“Pajamas with feet on them. And the little flap in back.” He said it with such absolute sincerity that for a moment she believed it.

“Uh-huh. Right.”

Summer drew a deep, steadying breath. Wait a minute, she told herself, she was letting Seth ruin her time with Adam. And that was stupid. She slid her hand into his as he opened the throttle. He squeezed her hand.

They motored clear around the circumference of Crab Claw Key, rounding the old side point, following the line of beach where Summer had sunned that afternoon with Marquez, gliding under the causeway, past the marshy, uninhabited north end of the island.

“What’s all that white stuff in the trees over there?” Summer asked.

Adam turned the boat closer to land, and Summer could see that the “white stuff” was actually dozens, maybe even hundreds, of wood storks. The birds seemed too large to be resting in trees, but there they were, looking like snow where no snow had ever fallen.

Slowly the last thoughts of Seth really did fade away, perhaps some effect of water and salt breezes. It was amazing how quickly every problem that existed on land seemed to evaporate, how alien the land seemed as they rode over gentle waves. It was as if the land were just some curiosity, a zoo filled with familiar creatures in familiar cages of stucco and wood.

From the sea, the interesting parts of the land weren’t the things made by people, but the trees—tall, pencil-thin palms that swayed on the slightest breeze; stunning trees that were an explosion of garish red or lavender flowers; mangroves that grew right from the edge of the water.

They rounded the north end and again passed under the causeway, now cruising south along the new side’s outer shore. This shore was lined with a mix of fantastically large new homes and smaller, humbler bungalows. Then the homes stopped abruptly and gave way to manicured grass and perfectly formed oaks fronting a stretch of pristine beach.

“This is the beginning of the estate,” Adam said.

“Does it ever seem weird to you having all this land and this monster house?” Summer asked.

“I guess not. I guess it would seem weird to me if I just had a normal house. You get used to what you know.”

“Must be nice,” Summer said. “Everything always perfect and beautiful.”

“Not
always
perfect,” Adam said. “Even rich people have problems.”

Summer laughed. “Sure. Look at the Quarter-maines.”

“Who?”

“They’re the rich family on
General Hospital.
Divorces, murders, evil twins, all kinds of problems.”

“We haven’t had any murders yet,” Adam said dryly. He looked at Summer closely. “What did Diana tell you about me?”

“Nothing,” Summer said. “Diana and I don’t talk all that much. I think she’s—Never mind.”

“What? What were you going to say?”

“Just that she seems very sad to me. I’m probably wrong. Even Marquez says Diana always used to be a little antisocial but that she’s gotten a lot worse. But I guess you know her a lot better than I do.”

“I don’t think she’s gotten any worse,” Adam said shortly. He was twisting the wheel in his hands. “I think she’s the same as always. She was always a little different.”

“It’s like you can’t quite communicate with her,” Summer said. “Like you reach out to her, but she’s never exactly there.”

“Whatever it is, she’ll get over it,” Adam snapped. Then he forced a smile. “Let’s not talk about old girlfriends or old boyfriends.”

“I don’t have any old boyfriends,” Summer said.

“Maybe that’s about to change,” Adam said. The usual cocky yet self-mocking grin was back.

The boat rounded the point and entered the bay again, sidling up to the Merrick estate dock. Summer glanced across the water. The little stilt house stood out quite clearly, as did Diana’s house.

“Thanks for the ride,” Summer said as she climbed over to the dock.

“Anything in particular you’d like to do now?” Adam asked.

Summer shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

“I wanted to check first because I didn’t want to just be taking charge,” he said.

“That’s okay. If there’s anything I don’t want to do, I’ll tell you,” Summer said. She was feeling mellow to the point of dopiness after the boat trip.

“Well, I was just going to do some horseback riding, have dinner, watch a movie…”

“Wow.”

He looked doubtful. “Too much for a first date? Does it look too much like I’m trying to impress you? At least I decided against trying to get the use of the helicopter to take you to a club in Miami.”

“Now, that would have been too much,” Summer agreed. “I don’t have the clothes for a club.”

“But how about the rest? Have you ever ridden a horse?”

“A horse?” Marquez asked, curling her lip in disgust. “Have you ever ridden a horse?” She took another of Summer’s potato chips and crunched it noisily. She was still wearing her work uniform, having come straight over from finishing her dinner shift.

“I told him I hadn’t,” Summer said. “I wanted to make him tell me all this stuff about how to ride and all. Then I showed him.” Summer giggled at the memory of Adam’s face.

“Showed him what?”

“I started riding when I was like six years old,” Summer said. “My grandmother owns a stable outside of Owatonna. That’s a town in Minnesota,” she added, noting the blank look on her friend’s face.

“Of course. Who hasn’t heard of Owatonna?”

“Anyway, it was good to be better than him at something. He’s so sure of himself.”

“So you rode, then what?”

“We had dinner. It was amazing. We had a picnic in this tower they have with windows all around, where you can see everything. We ate all this cool stuff that their cook made up. Little tiny sandwiches and shrimps and dessert.”

Marquez crunched another chip. “Are you going to get to the good part? I just got done waiting on about a thousand tables. I don’t want to hear about food.”

“That
was
the good part. We had all this excellent food and watched the sun go down, only there weren’t enough clouds to make a really excellent sunset.”

Marquez looked shocked. “What? The Merrick family can’t control the sunset?”

Summer sent her a pitying look. “Envy is so beneath you, Marquez.”

“Come on, let’s get on with the story. I didn’t come all the way over here at practically midnight to hear
this
stuff.”

“So then we watched a movie in their theater. Their own theater, with a projector and a screen and a popcorn machine.”

“What movie?”

“That new Orlando Bloom movie.”

Marquez closed her eyes and let her head float back and forth dreamily. “Orlando Bloom. That boy could get his name on my wall in very, very big letters.”

Summer shifted uncomfortably on her bed. “Then we made out a little.”

“How little?”

“A lot.”

“Oh, a
lot
little.” Marquez leaned close. “Okay. How was it?”

“It was excellent and fantastic, and I was scared because it was like if he’d tried to do anything more I don’t know what I would have said, all right? It was like, so
much,
you know? The boat and the horses and the food and this romantic movie…”

“You were seized by the moment,” Marquez said eagerly. “You were caught up, overwhelmed, carried away!”

“I wasn’t carried away,” Summer said. “I maybe could have been carried, though.” She shook her head and rolled her shoulders to get rid of some tension. “I guess it’s like Seth was saying about people coming here and losing their minds. I think I’m losing mine.”

“So you’re falling big time for Richie Rich, huh?”

Summer jumped up and walked nervously across the room. “I don’t know, Marquez. Yes. Maybe. I mean, when I was with Adam, the answer was yes, definitely.”

And when I’m with Diver…and with Seth, even though he’s a toad…

“Well, you could do worse. Adam is major
A
-list material. He’s beyond
A
-list. But speaking of which, what about Seth? Did you guys go to the hardware store?”

Summer told Marquez what had happened that afternoon. Marquez reacted with exactly as much sensitivity as Summer expected—she let out a loud whoop of delight.

“Oh, man, why don’t things like this ever happen to me?” Marquez wailed.

“It wasn’t exactly a good time, Marquez,” Summer said.

“Not a
good
time, no,” Marquez allowed. “But so extreme! Who’d have ever figured Mr. Moon was so twisted?”

“He hides a lot behind that innocent, Midwestern face,” Summer said darkly.

“Unless he’s telling the truth,” Marquez said.

“Oh, puh-leeeze.”

“I’m just saying, it could be.” Marquez shrugged.

“How do you figure that?” Summer pressed.

“Does it matter? Don’t be worrying about two guys at once, Summer. One guy is already too many. Two is
way
too many.”

How about three?
Summer couldn’t help adding silently.

She turned things over in her mind, biting an uneven fingernail. It was possible Seth was telling the truth, she supposed. Just barely, slightly possible.

“It’s not
my
fault,” Summer said at last. “I just don’t know what to do. I mean, Adam, Seth…”
Diver,
she added to herself. “How are you supposed to know?” Summer said. “How are you supposed to figure out the truth? How do you know if guys are interested in you or not? And how are you supposed to know if you really like them? How do you know if it’s real?”

“I don’t know,” Marquez admitted. “I guess you should go out with both of them and see how you feel.”

“What if one of them won’t even go out with you?” Summer asked, voicing the question before she’d thought about it.

“Seth won’t go out with you? Sure he will. Don’t be stupid.” Marquez stopped. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me there’s a
third
guy? You’re not, are you, because I can’t take any more complications.”