Summer Loving

by Lise Gold et al.

  “Order up!” Vinny bellowed again, sounding a little more impatient this time. It was early in the season – and still early in the day – and the drive-in burger joint didn’t yet have its full complement of college kids on skates. This morning, about an hour before the lunch rush hit its peak, it was just Zoe and one other runner working the lot.

  “I heard ya,” she shouted back.

  Vinny was a New Jersey transplant and he liked to exaggerate both his accent and his attitude – it played well with the tourists, as did a little bickering and bantering between him and the help. But Zoe knew better than to let him shout a third time. She cut quickly across the hot pavement as a few more cars pulled into the lot and turned their lights on for service.

  “Car seven,” Vinny said when she reached the grill. “And step on it.”

  “You got it, boss,” Zoe said, taking a tray of burgers and a cardboard drink holder heavy with milkshakes. A summer spent living with her aunt – a year-round Cape Cod resident – and busting her ass on roller skates would pay off come September, when she was sitting in the hallowed lecture halls of Harvard University, taking her first college courses.

  Three more months, she reminded herself. Only about a thousand more Order ups.

  She spun around and scanned her eyes across the lot, looking for the car with the number seven placard under its windshield wipers. It was a cherry-red Charger parked at the very end of the row – most of the cars Zoe saw here were nice, luxury vehicles their owners had brought on vacation, or rentals with very few miles on them. Zoe didn’t even have a car, but all she needed this summer were her skates.

  “Order up!” Vinny called again behind her, setting another tray of burgers on the counter above the grill.

  “Crap,” Zoe muttered under her breath. The lunch rush was starting early and none of the other runners were here yet.

  She set off toward the Charger – as fast as she could with a tray in one hand and milkshakes in the other – but before she was even halfway there, a couple young kids darted out from behind a minivan, right in front of her.

  “Ah!” Zoe yelped, raising the milkshakes and trying to keep her balance as she made an evasive maneuver. She spun, expertly balancing the tray as it glided over the head of one of the kids – laughing obliviously as they made their way to the restaurant’s bathroom.

  Zoe let out a relieved breath – crisis averted – and spun back around toward the Charger… only to catch a rock beneath her left skate and pitch forward abruptly. For one brief, hopeful moment, time stopped and she watched the tray go flying out of her hand. The beverage holder with the milkshakes followed after it and she watched them both arc through the air.

  What a mess, she had time to think, imagining strawberry milkshake splattered all over the pavement.

  Then she caught herself against the powder-blue door of a convertible Audi, her bare knees painfully scraping the pavement. But that didn’t hurt half as bad as locking eyes with the convertible’s driver milliseconds before the whole mess came hurtling back to earth. She was Zoe’s age, with a band of light brown freckles across the bridge of her nose and a look of innocent concern in her green eyes. She wore a sundress that clung to her in the New England heat, and she smelled expensive, like the kind of perfume that comes in intricate bottles that are more expensive than the scent itself.

  At least, she did. Until…

  Zoe watched as the girl’s expression turned from concern to shock as a large strawberry milkshake landed abruptly in her lap and exploded all over the interior of the car.

  If there was anything to be thankful for, it was that the other milkshake and most of the food landed on the pavement, but Zoe wasn’t feeling particularly grateful at the moment.

  “Oh my God,” she said, getting her skates under her and standing. One knee was bleeding, but she didn’t even notice as she reached into her apron for a fistful of napkins. “I am so sorry!”

  The girl in the Audi had her mouth open, a little bit of strawberry milkshake dripping in between her full, rosy lips. She was in shock, and from the grill, Zoe heard Vinny yelling.

  “What the hell did you do, new girl?” he shouted.

  “It’s okay,” Zoe said, even though no part of her believed it. She was sure she was about to get canned – shortest waitressing stint ever – and she was frantically trying to fix things. She handed a couple of napkins to the girl, then leaned over the passenger door to make an effort at cleaning milkshake out of the upholstery.

  Dab, don’t rub, she remembered her mom once telling her. But Zoe had a feeling she hadn’t been talking about twenty ounces of thick, strawberry-flavored dairy on a hot day… spilled all over a car that cost more than Zoe’s first year at Harvard.

  “I’ll clean it up,” she mumbled, hardly even hearing herself. “I’m so sorry.”

  This wasn’t her first serving job. She’d waited tables at a diner back home in Ohio ever since she turned sixteen and, granted, there weren’t roller skates involved there, but she’d never spilled a single plate. Of course, she had to get greedy and come out to Cape Cod this summer to try to make more money… and of course, of all the expensive cars that came through Cape Burger, Zoe had to dump a whole milkshake into the convertible of one of the hottest girls she’d ever set eyes on.

  Vinny was probably coming over to fire her right this very second–

  “Hey,” the girl said, taking Zoe’s wrist.

  It was so unexpected, she completely stopped her frantic cleaning efforts and looked up. Her eyes were the color of jade, precious gems, and she was stunning even with part of her reddish-brown hair matted to the side of her head. Zoe’s heart skipped a beat, and the girl let go of her wrist.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “Take a breath.”

  “Your car–” Zoe started to object, but the girl shrugged.

  “Not mine – my dad’s,” she explained just as Vinny reached them.

  “Zoe, what did you do?” he asked, gesturing wildly to the car and the girl. “My God!”

  “It’s okay,” the girl repeated. “I’ll have it cleaned.”

  “No, no,” Vinny said. “We’ll have it cleaned – you send the bill to Cape Burger, okay? And you,” he said, turning to Zoe.

  She instinctively held her breath, like she was tensing for a blow. There would be other jobs – even other jobs on Cape Cod – if she lost this one, but it would be a terrible way to start the summer.

  But Vinny just pointed to the grill. “You finish your shift in the kitchen. I’ll deal with you later, after I straighten things out with Miss…”

  He held out his hand and Zoe lingered just long enough to hear her say, “McKenna,” as she took Vinny’s hand. She shot Zoe a sympathetic look, then smiled and licked a streak of milkshake from the corner of her mouth. The sight of her tongue sent a spark through Zoe, and McKenna told Vinny – with her eyes still locked on Zoe, “But it really isn’t a big deal. I’m not mad.” Then she turned back to Vinny, releasing his hand as she smiled. “But I wouldn’t turn down a free milkshake that comes in a cup, either.”

  “You got it, missy,” Vinny said. “Your whole order – and the cleaning bill – on the house. Zoe!”

  “Got it,” she called over her shoulder, skating for the grill and not daring to take another look back toward the convertible. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she knew she’d probably never see McKenna again – that was probably for the best. Zoe wasn’t sure she could face her if she ever did.

  At least she still had her job… for now.

  Chapter 2

  McKenna

  The milkshake-thrower skated away from the convertible and once McKenna was sure Zoe wouldn’t look back, she let her eyes travel over her. The uniform this guy had his staff in was ridiculous – booty shorts, suspenders and tight blue T-shirts with the drive-in’s logo printed over the chest and Juiciest Burger on the Coast written across the back.

  Zoe filled out her uniform with plump curves that managed t
o actually be more distracting than the milkshake currently dripping down the side of McKenna’s face. Top it all off with a pair of old-fashioned roller skates and a dark, swishing ponytail, and the view was something McKenna was sure she’d be revisiting when she closed her eyes that night.

  “Do you need a minute?”

  “Huh?” She tore her eyes off Zoe and came back to the present, where a slightly sweaty Italian was standing beside her car with a notepad in his hands.

  “To look over the menu,” he said. “For your order?”

  “Oh, right,” McKenna said. Her family was spending the day at the beach and her dad had sent her to pick up lunch. “I have it here somewhere…” She fished around in the beach bag sitting on the passenger seat, which somehow managed to avoid the worst of the milkshake backsplash. She found her phone and read from the Notes app. “Six Cape Burgers, an order of chicken tenders, one veggie burger…”

  Ordering for eight was not for the faint of heart, although McKenna would have taken any excuse to drive the A5 – her father’s baby, which most definitely needed to be detailed to within an inch of its life before she let him see it. If he so much as got wind of the car’s milkshake bath, he’d never let McKenna drive it again.

  And that was the last thing she wanted this summer – she couldn’t afford to lose her only escape from three whole months of family togetherness. It was supposed to be a last hurrah – an extravagant vacation that everyone could look fondly back on after McKenna went off to Harvard and her twin brother, Miles, left for Yale.

  Except it turned out that Miles was the only one destined for the Ivy League. All McKenna got was wait-listed.

  “…and a partridge in a pear tree,” she said with a sigh when she got to the bottom of the note – what felt like five minutes later.

  The owner just smiled and said, “No problem, sweetheart. I’ll have it out to you in a jiff – and don’t worry. I’ll send you a new server.”

  And then he was gone – no roller skates for him – and McKenna looked again toward the grill. She was hoping to get another glimpse at the girl. The car wasn’t the only thing that was worse for the wear – she’d looked like she skinned her knees and McKenna thought she’d spotted blood as Zoe skated away.

  Not that there was anything she could do about it. She was going to be a pre-med student in the fall, but that was still a far cry from being McKenna Wilson, MD. Right now, all she could claim was McKenna Wilson, human ice cream cone.

  It only took about ten minutes for the owner and a different girl on skates to come back, their arms loaded down with carry-out bags and a fresh set of milkshakes. They helped McKenna arrange it all in the passenger seat, and while she drove the short distance back to the beach, she devised a plan to deliver the food without her dad finding out the condition of his precious car.

  When she got to the packed parking lot, she called Miles. As soon as he picked up, she said, “Hey, come help me carry the food.”

  “Okay–”

  “Just you, okay?” she said. “Come alone.”

  “Kenna,” he said, in that tone that told her he was using his twin ESP and if she gave him long enough, he’d know exactly what she’d done without her ever having to say a word. “What did you–”

  “Shh!” she hissed. “Just come, okay?”

  “Fine, fine,” he said, but she could hear the smirk in those words. Twin ESP worked both ways, and she knew even before she saw her younger brother, Mitchell, coming up the sandy path that Miles was going to screw her over.

  Mitchell was twelve and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the state of their dad’s car – not to mention McKenna’s hair. As he raced up to it, he raised his voice into a startlingly accurate imitation of what their mother sounded like when she was angry. “McKenna Rose Wilson, what did you do?”

  “Keep your voice down, you little turd,” McKenna hissed. She held one of the carry-out bags over the side of the car for him. “Just take lunch back to everyone and don’t say a word, okay? I didn’t do anything.”

  “That’s not what it looks like,” Mitch said, crossing his arms over his chest – he was in negotiating stance and McKenna rolled her eyes.

  “I’m taking the car to be cleaned,” she explained. “There’s ten bucks in it for you if you keep your lips zipped.”

  Mitchell didn’t budge.

  McKenna rolled her eyes again. “Fine. Twenty.”

  “Fifty.”

  “You’re out of your tiny mind,” she said. “Twenty-five – final offer, or I tell mom what kind of magazines you keep in your bottom desk drawer.”

  Her little brother snatched the proffered carry-out bag, then she loaded him up with another and helped him balance the two beverage holders full of shakes and sodas.

  “Got it all?”

  He nodded and she watched him just long enough to know he wasn’t going to trip and spill the whole load on the way back to the beach. Then she high-tailed it back into town to find a car wash that would treat the A5 with the same minute care that her dad gave it.

  She couldn’t afford a single drop of telltale milkshake remaining on the upholstery or she’d be stuck all summer with two brothers, a chatterbox cousin, her parents, and her aunt and uncle… and all of them just looking for excuses to reassure her that everything would be fine in the fall.

  Being wait-listed isn’t so bad. You’ll go to community college in the fall and get your general education classes out of the way. It’s a blessing in disguise.

  And even worse, her mother’s well-meaning but painful nagging, salting the wound and reminding McKenna of her own cockiness.

  Maybe it’s not too late to apply to a safety school. We could pull a few strings at U Mass…

  But as she drove the Audi away from the beach, there was one thing distracting her from the mess she had to deal with – or rather, one person. Would she still be at the drive-in when McKenna went back to deliver the bill?

  Chapter 3

  Zoe

  The drive-in was hopping and runners were flying all over the lot to satisfy a surprise afternoon rush when Zoe sat down on the curb outside the restaurant to lace up her skates.

  She wasn’t going back into the lot – Vinny had made it quite clear that she was on grill duty for the rest of the week after that morning’s mishap. Instead, she was getting ready to skate her way back to her aunt’s house, thinking of taking the long way home so she could enjoy the midday sun on her face, the heat settling into her dark hair.

  Zoe’s family was never the high-end New England vacationing types – her dad owned a grocery store in Toledo and her mom taught the third grade. The only reason Zoe was even here right now was because her aunt, Renata, just happened to be a stock market genius who got in on the ground floor of some high profile tech companies in the nineties and now lived year-round on the Cape.

  Zoe was here to work her butt off, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t also enjoy herself a little bit while she was here.

  She was just getting ready to push off the curb when she spotted a familiar blue convertible pulling into the lot. It was a heck of a lot cleaner than the last time Zoe saw it, and its driver looked freshly groomed too. Zoe’s breath caught in her throat as McKenna pulled into the spot nearest her, then cut the engine and waved her over.

  “Hey there,” she said, flashing Zoe a grin.

  At least she seemed to have taken the whole milkshake bath thing in stride. Zoe skated over, using her toe stops to keep from drifting across the pavement. “Hi. All cleaned up?”

  The car looked spotless, and from her new vantage point, Zoe could see that McKenna had changed and gotten cleaned up, too. In place of the sundress, she was now wearing a pair of shorts that rode high up on her thighs and a halter top that showed off the incredible muscles of her shoulders.

  Zoe had to force herself not to stare. She just hoped Vinny was bogged down on the grill because she wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at in front of this gorgeous girl ag
ain.

  “Yep, good as new,” McKenna said. She took a folded piece of paper from the passenger seat and held it out to Zoe, pulling it teasingly back just before she could take it. “This cleaning bill isn’t going to come out of your paycheck, is it?”

  “I don’t think so,” Zoe said. Vinny hadn’t said anything to that effect.

  “Because if it is, I’d rather eat the cost,” McKenna said. “It was an honest mistake… right?”

  There was something challenging in her eyes just then, and Zoe’s heart skipped a beat. Was she… no, couldn’t be. But the way she’d snatched the bill playfully away… was McKenna flirting with her?

  Zoe nibbled her lower lip, contemplating. But she was only here for three months, and chances were good that McKenna would be here even less time. What did she have to lose? She gave her a crooked grin and asked, “What if it wasn’t?”

  McKenna shrugged. “Then I’d say that’s a pretty creative way of introducing yourself.”

  She held her hand out and they made formal introductions. They were completely superfluous – Zoe already knew McKenna’s name and she knew McKenna had heard Vinny bellowing her own – but the excuse to touch McKenna’s warm, soft hand was one she wasn’t going to reject.

  Once they’d let go, McKenna glanced down at Zoe’s skates and asked, “Your boss trusted you to deliver orders again?”

  Zoe snorted. “Hardly. I’m just heading home.”

  “On skates?” McKenna asked. “Let me give you a ride.”

  Again, it was unnecessary – Renata’s place was only about five blocks away and Zoe enjoyed the exercise – but how could she pass up the opportunity? She looked through her lashes and asked, “Really? You don’t mind?”

  “Not at all,” McKenna said. “I just have to get this bill to your boss–”

  “I’ll deliver it,” Zoe said, swiping it out of McKenna’s hand before she had another chance to object. Zoe skated the few yards back to the restaurant and she could swear that she felt the heat of McKenna’s gaze on her backside.