by Natasha Boyd
Lizzie hugged me too. “Here ya go,” she said and handed me an oversized It’s-My-Birthday button. “To pin on your swimsuit,” she explained.
I chuckled and pinned it on. “Thanks. Great speech yesterday,” I told her.
“Thank you. I couldn’t believe all the good-byes. I wanted to cry. Didn’t you just want to cry?”
“I’m sure you did, Miss Valedictorian, you’re off to some fancy college on scholarship and we’re both staying here.” I grinned, keeping one eye on the water and the swimmers. “Keri Ann and I will probably see those losers from high school everywhere we go.”
“You’re going to college too,” she said to me.
“Right down the road. And I’ll be living here.”
“We need to work on this one.” She pointed at Keri Ann.
“I agree.”
“Stop it, guys. When Joey’s done I’ll go.”
“So, you and Chase, huh?” I said to Lizzie, changing the subject. Keri Ann hated it when I bugged her about college.
She punched my shoulder softly. “Nah. Not really. He sure is cute though. So you and Joey?” she returned. Then she glanced at Keri Ann. “Is it weird? It’s gotta be weird, right?”
We started to walk to where Joey was setting up.
Keri Ann shrugged. “It’s taking some getting used to.”
“What is?” asked Joey, clearly having supersonic hearing.
“You and Jazz dating,” said Lizzie.
Oh shit. An awkward moment that felt like an eternity ensued. In reality it was about one millisecond.
Joey stilled.
“Not dating,” I said hurriedly and saw his body relax infinitesimally. He busied himself with the umbrella.
“Yeah,” covered Keri Ann. “Like Jazz would date this oaf? She’s smarter than that. But,” she looked at Lizzie and made an Ew! face with a mock shudder. “But I think they’re doing a lot of kissing.”
“It’s about all he’s good for.” I shrugged and looked over to catch his eye. I winked at him, trying to let him know I was fine. We were keeping it casual. Honestly, the way he was fidgeting, he looked like he was about to remember he had somewhere to be.
“So how’s Nana today?” I asked, changing the subject when he avoided eye contact. I did a quick look around that beachgoers were safe.
“Nana’s going to need surgery,” Keri Ann responded. “An angioplasty.”
I sucked in a quick breath. “Oh wow. I’m so sorry.”
“That’s major surgery, right?” asked Lizzie.
“I think so, I don’t know,” Keri Ann said and looked toward Joey.
He nodded. “Not as major as it could be. She has a narrowed artery. If it were to get blocked she’d have a heart attack. So apparently Dr. Barrett recommends we do this surgery as soon as possible. If he can, he’ll put in a permanent stent so it won’t happen again. But he won’t know ‘til he gets in there.”
“Anyway,” said Keri Ann. “Nana pretty much kicked us out of the house for fussing over her. Mrs. Weaton’s there. They’re playing Spite and Malice.”
“What the hell is that?” I asked, intrigued.
“A card game apparently,” said Joey with an amused smirk.
I glanced back to my vacant post. “I need to get back to my chair. One more hour then I’ll be done.” I said good-bye and walked back to my deck chair parked under the shade of a red umbrella.
I kept my eyes away from Joey and scanned the water. Time crawled until I only had a half hour left. Normally my beach time was about catching up on all my celebrity gossip. This was like torture.
I unwrapped a stick of cinnamon gum and slid it between my lips.
A shadow fell across my feet where I was tanning my legs outside the circle of umbrella shade. I looked up to see Joey and hated that my belly flip flopped.
“Hey, Jay Bird,” I greeted him. “You need some mermaid water?”
He laughed. “What?”
“For jellyfish stings.”
“Oh. No. But could you rub sunblock on my back?” he held out a tube.
“Can’t you get your sister to do that?”
“I could, but then I’d miss out on having your hands on me.”
I took the cream and stood up. “Turn around.”
He smiled and turned.
“It’s your funeral,” I said, fighting a smile. “I guess you didn’t think through what having my hands on you would do to your body. There are kids around, Joseph. Someone could call the police.”
“Shut up,” he said jokingly. “I can handle it.”
“Are you sure about that?” I squeezed the cream onto my hand and handed the tube over his shoulder. Then I began a long slow swipe from between his shoulder blades down his spine. I took my time. “Ooooh,” I moaned softly. “Your back is so strong.” I brought my other hand in on the act and smoothed upward and over his shoulder blades and back down. “Wow,” I breathed. “So muscle-y.”
“Jazz,” he warned.
“Mmmm,” I emitted the sound as I worked the cream in, massaging and caressing. My moan was hardly faked. He really did have a magnificent back, and I was getting one-on-one time with each and every muscle, ridge, and curve. “Massaging you makes me think about those happy endings you mentioned,” I said.
“Jazz,” he choked and turned around leaving my hands up in mid air.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“Thank you,” he said tightly and stalked back to his towel. He flung down the tube of sunscreen.
Keri Ann saw him. “Hey, Joey, I was thinking—”
He ignored his sister and stalked straight down to the water and dove into the surf.
I laughed out loud.
JOEY WAS STILL in the water when my shift was over. He’d been doing laps out to the buoy and back. I dropped my stuff near Keri Ann’s towel and jogged down to the water. He saw me coming and waited. The top half of his torso was out of the water.
I waded in, then dove into a breaking wave, swimming until I came up right in front of him.
Joey’s lips landed on mine, and he pulled me flush against his body.
“You’re still hard.” I giggled.
“You’re a minx. And no, I wasn’t, but seeing you come down here in that ridiculously tight red swim suit …” He shook his head.
The waves lapped and pulled at us. I kept losing my balance, so I wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Christ,” he said. “You’re killing me.”
“Mmmm,” I moaned as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. He smelled of sunscreen and tasted of salt and Joey. I grabbed his hair to hold him still so I could taste him over and over and over.
“Kissing you is, like,” I gasped in a moment between kisses, “the thing that matters.”
His hands roamed over my body, up and down my back and into my wet hair. “Happy birthday,” he whispered into my ear, then ran his tongue over my lobe.
I quaked.
“This is getting x-rated,” I said as the tip of his erection kept bumping against me. “We need to stop.”
He breathed heavily against my cheek and nodded. “Yeah. We do.”
“I have to work at the boutique. I have to go.”
He walked us to shallower water, then set me down where I could find firm footing. The sole of my foot skated over something hard in the sand. I grasped at it with my toes.
“What?” he asked, looking at my face.
“Shhh. I’m concentrating.”
“Do you always concentrate with your tongue out the side of your mouth.”
I snorted a giggle. “Oops. Ah, got it,” I exclaimed as I got the slim smooth object gripped firmly with my toes and raised my knee. I reached into the water.
With a flourish, I pulled my find out the water. “Ta da!”
“A sand dollar.”
It was covered in slick green fur. “It’s still alive,” I said. “We can’t keep it.”
Joey took it from me. “Make a wish,” he said and fli
cked his wrist, sending it sailing out over deeper water. It plopped into the sea and disappeared.
I closed my eyes. What should I wish?
Please let my dad still be alive. I kept my eyes closed and squeezed them shut as hard as I could, wishing with everything I had.
When I opened my eyes, Joey was staring at me. He brought a finger up to my cheek. “What was that?”
I blinked rapidly, my eyes had filled with tears. “I’m worried about my dad.”
He nodded. “I’m worried about Nana.”
“Do you think we both get a wish from one sand dollar?” I asked.
“I hope so,” he replied. Then he gave me a swift kiss on the lips. “Go,” he said. “You’ll be late.”
I started back for the beach.
“Hey,” he called. “Can I see you tonight?”
“Text me,” I tossed over my shoulder.
I WAS WORKING at the boutique five until closing at eight. But at seven fifteen Faith flicked the sign over to closed. She turned to me, her hands on her generous hips. Her almost white blonde hair, tied with a purple scarf, contrasted with her ruby lips. On her ears hung large colorful plastic baubles like Christmas tree ornaments.
“Why are you closing early?” I asked. “It’s been busy.”
“Take a seat,” she gestured to the upholstered wingback chair that held a three thousand dollar price tag.
I looked at the chair and back at her to make sure she wasn’t kidding.
“You been rolling in the mud?” she asked.
“No.” I frowned. “But—”
“Then sit.”
I sat. Perched really.
Faith pulled the stool from behind the cash resister and sat in front of me. “Now talk.”
“What about?”
“I can practically smell the smoke from the gears turning in your head. You are completely distracted. Sometimes you look giddy and other times like you want to throw yourself into oncoming traffic or burst out crying. I’d say you’ve fallen in love, but I think there’s more going on than that.”
My mouth had apparently dropped open, so I closed it.
“Come on. It’s not hard. Unburden yourself to Auntie Faith.”
I laughed in spite of myself and thought about everything that was on my mind. “Honestly, there’s too much. I’d bore you to tears.”
“Give me the Cliff notes then.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, then. So today is my birthday—”
“Happy birthday!”
“Thanks. So my dad was supposed to be here for it. For my birthday. That was the vague plan, anyway. Except instead he’s missing, perhaps dead.”
Faith gasped, a hand coming to her mouth.
But I went on. “In the meantime, I’ve been making out with Joey Butler, who’s already made it very clear that he does not want a girlfriend. I say I’m fine with that. But he keeps kissing me, and his kisses are just so, so good. God, they’re so good. I like him so much. And finally, my mom is having an affair with a married man. A man who just happens to be her boss. Just when she finally has something stable for us, she goes and does this. And to make matters worse, it’s the heart doctor who is looking after Nana Butler, who’s just been told she needs heart surgery. And—”
“There’s more?”
“And Joey’s working for him too. My mom got him the job. And everything is about to blow up in my face.”
I got done and let out a long breath of relief. “Wow, it really does help to share.” Then I burst into tears.
Faith said nothing. She got up and walked to the store room. She returned with a box of tissues, a bottle of white wine, and two plastic cups and plonked them down on the counter. She poured two generous servings. Then grabbed one of the over priced candles she sold to tourists and lit it with a long match. “I’d stick you in a hot bubble bath right now, if we had one. But this will have to do. Here.” She handed me one of the cups, a tissue, and set the candle down on the one-of-a-kind coffee table made from an old barn door.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully and took a sip of wine. My crying jag was thankfully brief. I blew my nose.
“So let’s break this down,” she started, and we proceeded to get a handle on my problems one by one. The ones I could control and the ones I couldn’t.
“So you need to call the law office. You’re putting it off. I understand why but just call and leave a message with your number. At least then you’ll know you’ve done something there.”
I nodded.
“Next, what your mother does is, unfortunately, out of your control. I know it’s hard. But you talk about it like you feel responsible and you’re not. I understand your fear that she’ll get fired. But you’ve lived with less household income before, you can both do it again. And you will always have a job here.”
“Thank you.” I sniffed.
“Now.” She refilled my wine and leveled me with a look. “This thing with Joey Butler has disaster written all over it.”
IT REALLY WAS a disaster. This thing with Joey. But I was helpless to stop it. After leaving Faith and cycling home, I dumped my stuff in my room, noting my mom was out again, and headed for Woody’s. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Mom about the letter yet.
As I walked around the corner, a long table filled with people suddenly erupted into the birthday song. I jumped in surprise, then saw Keri Ann amongst them and all my friends. And Joey of course. Joey, who winked. I bugged my eyes at Keri Ann. “Surprise,” she mouthed and grinned. I was filled with warmth over the thoughtfulness of my friends. They had no idea I’d had plans to be at this very place tonight, but with my father. Then I noticed Woody and Dirty Harry, who was actually off his barstool, standing on his two bandy legs off to the side. They were singing their hearts out too. I teared up. Damn, I was emotional today.
“Thank you,” I managed as everyone finished. The whole restaurant had joined in and whistled cheers when it was over. I went over and hugged Harry and Woody.
“You have a package,” said Woody. “I’ll bring it over in a bit, okay? And dinner’s on me. Happy birthday.”
I gave him another hug, too choked up to say much. Joining my friends, I sat on a chair pulled out for me between Keri Ann and Joey, who’s hot hand immediately landed on my thigh under the table. I was starving, having only had time for quick snacks all day. So I ordered a burger with fries and proceeded to devour the whole thing and all the fries before getting started on Joey’s plate.
He watched me, amused.
“What?” I asked. “Used to dating girls that pick at their food?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to bite my tongue clean off.
“I don’t date,” Joey said before I could backtrack and brought his beer bottle to his lips.
“That’s right. Thank the baby Jesus.” I gave a theatrical shudder. “I’m just speculating. But at least now you know how much I can fit in my mouth.”
Joey choked, spewing beer all over his plate.
“Ugh,” I complained. “Now you’ve ruined your fries. I was going to eat those.”
Grinning, I handed him a wad of napkins.
“Hey, Joseph,” Colt called from the other end of the table. “Come down here, dude.”
“Excuse me,” said Joey, still shaking his head and got up.
Lizzie took his place. “Okay, watching you guys is as addicting as crack. Seriously.”
“He’s addicting,” I admitted to her. “I’m in so much fucking trouble.”
“Relax,” she said. “It’s just a chemical reaction in your brain. Don’t you remember studying dopamine in chemistry?”
I stared at her blankly.
“You know,” she said.
I really didn’t. I remembered enough to pass the final.
“Remember dopamine is the pleasure chemical in the brain. It responds to unpredictability, small pieces of information, and reward cues.”
When I still had no response, she went on. “It’s why we g
et addicted to things that are not good for us. To things that are unpredictable or hard to pin down. And when we pin them down for a moment, we get a reward, and so we seek more and more and more. Yes, you’re addicted. But it’s just because of dopamine. If you know that, then you can keep it in perspective.” She shrugged.
“You are such a nerd,” I said finally.
“Yep, but you love me.”
“Yes, I do.” I laughed.
But as I looked down the table at Joey, I wasn’t sure it was just a chemical reaction.
Keri Ann clapped her hands. “Guys,” she called. “I think it’s time for her present.”
“What did you do?” I asked her warningly.
“Just wait.” Her eyes sparkled with excitement and she bit her lip.
Cooper walked around the table and handed me an envelope. It looked like it was a birthday card, but there was something inside it. I took it and looked nervously around at everyone because they were all grinning like lunatics.
Even Woody and Harry had walked over.
I opened the envelope and pulled out the card. Opening it, a key fell out. A car key. I held it up. “What on earth?”
“The VW Bug,” said Cooper. “It’s yours.”
I gasped. “What?”
“Yep, so remember I told you the guy didn’t want to pay for the new transmission? Well, he ended up signing the car over to the shop. Well, we all clubbed together and paid for the cost of the transmission as payment to buy it back from the shop. And so, we bought you a car.” He shrugged. “It’s parked in the front lot.”
“She’s speechless,” said Woody and guffawed. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Are you serious?” I whispered.
“Yeah. We all signed the card. Anyway, it could be a lemon. But I promise I’ll work on it if it ever needs fixing.”
I grabbed Cooper and squeezed him hard. “Thank you,” I said. I was tearing up again. Jeez. I spent the next little while moving around the table to each person, hugging and thanking them, including Woody and Harry who had both contributed. Reading the card, I learned I’d also be thanking my mom, Nana, Mrs. Weaton her neighbor, and even Paulie from The Snapper Grill.
