by Jennie Marts
“He probably doesn’t even know those are there,” Frank said.
“Of course. I won’t mention it.” Edna reached for her towel and saw Donna watching her. The other girl wore a salmon-colored one-piece and by the looks of her pale skin, she hadn’t been outside much yet this summer. “I like your swimsuit. That’s a pretty color.”
“Thanks. It’s probably too boring. I guess I’m not much of a two-piece girl.” Donna spread out a towel and sat on the sand next to Weasel.
Not sure how to take that, Edna was saved by Frank grabbing her hand and pulling her to the water. She shrieked in joy as they splashed into the lake, the cool water wonderful against her warm skin.
A large raft, made from a layer of bridge planks floating atop fifty-gallon barrels, drifted on the water about thirty to forty yards from the shore. Johnny was already climbing up the ladder affixed to the side of the raft. He waved and called to them.
Edna was used to swimming pools, and cringed at the slimy sludge that oozed up between her toes as she followed Frank into the water. She was a strong swimmer, but that was in a pool where she wasn’t worried about a fish touching her leg.
Frank dove into the water and swam toward his friend, his strong arms effortlessly cutting through the water. Edna didn’t have a bathing cap and wasn’t sure she wanted to get her hair wet or if she wanted to dip her face in the lake water.
She looked toward the raft and saw Johnny standing there, running his hand through his too-long hair, water glistening on his tan chest. She would swim through the Red Sea to get to him. And after all, she was a two-piece girl now.
Edna dove under the surface, marveling at the varying levels of coolness in the murky blue-green water. Her head broke free of the gentle waves, and she shook out her curly hair as she heard Johnny calling to her from the raft. She swam toward him and let the boys haul her up the ladder.
Johnny sprawled out on the warm wooden planks, patting a place beside him. “This is the best way to do it. Lay out flat on your stomach and the sun will warm you right up.”
Edna lay down on the raft and Frank plopped down on her other side. The heat from the bridge planks warmed her skin, and the sun on her bare back felt delicious. She grinned at her new pals. “Thank you for bringing me. This is the best day of my summer already.”
Johnny winked. “You ain’t seen nothing yet. This is Franky’s last summer home from college and we’re determined to make it the best summer ever. Right, Franky?”
Frank smiled at this friend. “I guess.” He nudged Edna. “You ready for the best summer? Ever?”
Edna laughed and pushed up from the wooden raft. “I am more than ready. Count me in,” she said, then with a whoop she jumped back into the water.
They spent the day lounging on the raft or playing in the water. Sitting on the beach, they ate their lunch, the ice in Edna’s tea long melted and the jelly soaked through the pieces of bread. They all laughed as she listened to the three boys tell tales of their childhood, growing up together in a small town.
Edna tried to engage Donna in the conversation, but the younger woman was quiet and mostly let the boys do the talking. Edna missed having another girl around to talk to. Most of her girlfriends from high school had either left for college or gotten married, and none seemed to have time to chat anymore.
After a few more unsuccessful tries, Edna realized that Donna must see her as an invader on her territory. Obviously Donna was used to having the three males’ attention all to herself, and she didn’t seem so keen to have this petite blonde from Colorado stealing her show. Donna seemed to always have a hand possessively touching Weasel whenever he told a funny story or made Edna laugh.
Edna sat on a towel between Frank and Johnny. The heat in her cheeks meant she was probably getting sun burned, but she didn’t care. Johnny had offered to put suntan lotion on her shoulders after lunch, and she’d almost died at the feel of his hands rubbing the warm lotion into her skin.
His hands were firm and confident as they crossed her back and shoulders. She hoped no one noticed that she caught her breath when he slid his fingers along the band of her bathing-suit top and ran his hand across her skin.
She tried to act like this was no big deal. Like she had shirtless, muscular mechanics rubbing their hands on her back all the time. She’d had men place their hand on her back before, guiding her through a door or holding her while dancing.
This was different. Even though only a few inches of skin showed above the high-waisted bottoms, she felt like she was practically naked and completely exposed in the two-piece bathing suit.
In reality, no man had ever actually touched the skin of her lower back. Especially not the way Johnny had just brushed his knuckles across the bare skin above the waist of her swimsuit bottoms.
A ripple of desire ran down her spine as he gently lifted her hair and pressed his hands along her neck. He leaned forward and spoke next to her ear. “It’s getting hot out here. We don’t want you to get burned.”
He’d passed her the bottle of lotion, and she hoped no one noticed the way her hands trembled as she poured the white suntan cream into her palm. She had never been one to be very nervous around boys, but something about Johnny Collins caused her to come completely undone.
She rubbed the lotion on his upper back, careful to avoid the bruised area, not wanting to draw attention to it if he really was unaware of its presence.
She noticed several scars on his back as she smoothed the lotion into his tan skin. His back was toned and muscular. Edna thought he might have flexed as she ran her lotioned hand down the hard muscles of his arm and smiled at the thought of him trying to impress her.
Frank leaned forward, shrugging his bare shoulders at her. “I think I’m getting a little burned. Would you mind doing my back next, Edna?”
She smoothed suntan lotion onto Frank’s shoulders and noted the difference between the two men. Frank was slender and toned but didn’t have the rock-solid muscles born of hard labor that Johnny did. Frank’s back was smooth and tanned and scar-free.
She rubbed the last of the lotion into her hands and leaned back on her towel. “I think it’s neat the way you guys grew up together. I’ve never had a friend for that long.”
“Franky’s the closest thing I’ve got to a brother,” Johnny said. “Our dads grew up here too. Went to high school together.”
Frank nodded. “We’ve known each other practically our whole lives. My dad owns the only car dealership in town and Johnny’s dad is his best mechanic.”
Johnny lay on a striped towel next to Edna’s. Dark sunglasses covered his eyes so she couldn’t read his expression. “Yeah. The real truth is Franky’s dad is the only guy who would hire my drunk of a pops.”
Frank sat on a towel on the other side of Edna, his legs stretched out in front of him. He rolled his eyes at Johnny. “That’s because he can take an engine apart and put it back together in his sleep—drunk or sober. And he taught his kid everything he knows. Johnny’s a first-rate mechanic as well.”
“I used to hang out at the shop with my dad, and Frank was always around. We became friends as kids and hung out together all through school.”
“Frank and I were on the high school football team together, and Donna was a cheerleader,” Weasel said.
Edna nudged Johnny’s leg with her toe. “How about you, Johnny? Did you play football and date a cheerleader?”
“Not Johnny,” Frank said. “He was always working after school. He couldn’t ever make practice.”
Weasel laughed. “And Frank’s the one who dated all the cheerleaders. Johnny just went out with them.”
“What’s the difference?” Edna asked.
Johnny raised his dark glasses to look Edna in the eye. “That’s means Frank took them on actual dates, and I just went out with them. Went out to the barn, went out to the woods, went under the bleachers.” He stared at her, as if daring her to respond.
Edna shrugged noncommittally. “I’
ve been under the bleachers myself a time or two.” Okay, it was only once and it was to grab her purse that had fallen between the slats, but she had been under the bleachers.
Frank, Johnny, and Edna swam back out to the raft and took a nap in the hot afternoon sun.
Edna’s head was turned to Johnny. Her body felt liquid, as if it were actually melting into the warm wooden planks of the raft. Her eyelids flittered open, lazy after her cat-nap, and she was surprised to see Johnny’s eyes were open and looking at her.
A slow, easy smile crossed his face and he leaned closer to her. “You look awful pretty when you sleep.” He pushed up from the raft, his muscles flexing as he moved.
Edna swallowed as she watched him stretch. The faded swim suit hung low on his slender hips, and the muscles of his abdomen were tight and hard. His skin was bronzed from the sun, and he grinned as he caught her looking at him.
She turned her head and looked back to the beach, anywhere but at Johnny’s stomach. “Why don’t Donna and Weasel come out here with us? I haven’t seen them in the water all day.”
“And you probably won’t all summer,” Johnny said. “Donna’s dad is the chief of police, so he’s crazy over protective at her doing anything slightly dangerous, which I guess includes swimming. And Weasel won’t go near the water. He fell through some ice and almost drowned as a kid, and ever since then, he’s been terrified of the water. I don’t think he’s ever even learned to swim.”
Edna shuddered at the thought of a child falling into frozen water and the terror he must have felt. “How awful.”
Johnny nodded. “He doesn’t ever talk about it. They make a good pair and like to come out here with us. Donna likes to sunbathe, but Weasel never gets in the water. We get it, so we don’t ever give him a hard time about it.”
“That’s about the only thing we don’t give him a hard time about,” Frank said, his eyes still closed as he lay on his stomach next to Edna. “Everything else is fair game.”
Edna laughed and poked Frank in the side. “I thought you were asleep.”
He opened his eyes and rolled over. “I was, until you two jabber-mouths started talking.” He looked up at the late-afternoon sun. “We should probably head back. We were planning on going to the drive-in movie tonight. You wanna come with us?”
Edna thought about the small nest egg of money she had saved from her job at the drugstore. “How much is it to get in?”
Johnny and Frank exchanged a knowing look, and a grin crossed Johnny’s face. “Oh, don’t worry about that. It won’t cost a thing.”
##
The sound of the car engine coming down the driveway had Edna tossing a lipstick into her purse and racing for the front door. She stopped in the living room, took a deep breath, then calmly opened the front door and stepped onto the porch.
Her heart raced faster than the engine of the car as she saw Frank, Weasel, and Donna in the front seat. Johnny sat in the back alone, an empty seat beside him, waiting for her.
Johnny hopped over the side of the car and opened the door for her to climb into the backseat. “Hi, doll. You ready for some fun?”
“Of course,” she answered. He made the word “fun” sound full of opportunities, and she smiled up at him before crawling into the backseat. Thank goodness she had decided to wear shorts instead of a skirt.
Edna leaned forward and greeted the group in the front seat. “Hi, gang.”
“Hey, Edna.” Frank turned the car around and headed out the driveway. Donna gave her a little wave, and Weasel offered a quick bob of his head in greeting.
Her aunt had told her the drive-in movie theater was just on the other side of town. Considering the size of the town, Edna knew the drive wouldn’t take long, so she reveled in the time she had sitting next to Johnny as the wheat fields sped by.
She had taken the time to bathe and wash her hair after they had dropped her off that afternoon. She had pinned some curls and let her hair dry as she ate a light supper of ham sandwiches with her aunt. She found herself spilling all the details of the day to Janice as they ate and laughed over Edna’s first adventure at a Kansas lake.
It felt so good to relax and laugh as she enjoyed a simple conversation, without worrying about saying the wrong thing or doing that odd thing that would set off her mother. She missed her mother, but more the mom she used to know. The one who smiled and laughed and sang songs while she cleaned the house. The mother she knew before her dad got sick.
“You look a million miles away,” Johnny said, tugging on a lock of her hair. “Are you thinking about all the broken hearts you left back in Colorado?”
Edna laughed. The only broken heart she had was inside of her. And Johnny Collins’ grin was working magically to mend it. She shrugged, but before she could come up with a witty reply, Frank pulled the car to the side of the road. “Why are we stopping?”
Frank put the car in park and pulled the lever to release the trunk. He winked at her as he opened the door. “You said you were worried about paying to get into the drive-in. Well, tonight you get in free. You just don’t have the most glamorous entry.”
Johnny opened the trunk and climbed inside. He patted the empty spot in front of him. “Climb in. Best seat in the house.”
When Frank said she didn’t have to worry about the price of the ticket, she thought he meant it would be his treat. She hadn’t even dreamt they would sneak her in, and especially in the trunk of the car.
What if this was a trick? She didn’t really know these kids all that well. What if they were really going to get her in the trunk and kidnap her? Drag her in the woods and leave her stranded or worse.
Get ahold of yourself, girl! She’d read way too many adventure novels. Why would they kidnap her? To rob her? They would be quite disappointed when they found her purse held only two dollars, three lipsticks, and a soiled handkerchief. She had more lip care in her bag than she did money.
Johnny looked up at her, an I dare you grin on his face. “Come on. You’re not scared, are you?”
Heck yes she was scared. She was terrified. But she wanted an adventure. Climbing into the trunk of a car with a hunky mechanic certainly seemed a good way to start one.
Frank held her hand, and she climbed over the rim of the trunk and lay down, her back nestled against Johnny’s chest. She jumped and let out a little shriek as Frank slammed the lid.
Johnny’s arm came around her, pulling her tight against him. “Don’t worry, I got you. But you better hold on to me, Eddy. We’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride.”
Eddy? No one had ever given her a nickname, and she secretly loved it. She actually kind of loved being locked in this tight, dark place, nestled against Johnny, his arm wrapped around her. The trunk smelled of exhaust and engine oil, and she felt the scratchy wool blanket they lay on against her bare legs. But she wouldn’t have traded this moment for anything.
The car moved forward and she squealed, then giggled as they bumped over the road, tossing the two trunk-mates against each other in the dark.
“Frank’s hitting those bumps on purpose.” Johnny pulled her tighter to him and laughed out loud. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him back next week when we make him ride back here.”
“Next week?”
Johnny chuckled softly against her ear. “Haven’t you realized that I plan to spend the whole summer with my arms around you and my lips against your neck?” His lips brushed the skin under her ear, ever so slightly, sending delicious ripples of sensation down her spine.
Did he just say he planned to spend the whole summer with her? With his arms around her? Had she died and gone to heaven? Could heaven consist of being locked in a hot trunk crushed against an even hotter guy whose hand was holding her waist and whose mouth was temptingly close to hers?
But what if she didn’t want to spend her whole summer with him? She had only met him the day before.
Ha! Who was she kidding? Of course she wanted to spend her whole summer with him. She wanted to spen
d her whole life with him. She would be happy to spend the entire summer locked in this trunk with him.
She had longed for freedom. For something new and different. And in her secret heart of hearts, had hoped to find even an ounce of romance that summer. She wasn’t waiting. She wasn’t contemplating if this was a good decision or if she would regret this. Regrets were for homebodies, not two-piece girls. She stopped thinking at all and just did what felt right. Absolutely right.
The car slowed and turned a sharp corner before pulling to a stop. Edna realized they must have arrived at the drive-in. She turned her body toward Johnny, not an easy task in the confined space.
She could smell his aftershave and feel the taut muscles of his chest through his t-shirt. She placed a hand against him, resting her fingers above his heart, and tilted her face up to his. “Haven’t you realized that I plan to spend the whole summer in your arms and kissing you?”
In the dim light of the trunk, she saw his lips curve into a smile and he leaned close to her ear. “You’re my girl now, Eddy. I knew the minute I saw you that you were something special. And that I wanted you to be mine.”
He leaned down and kissed her, his lips lightly grazing hers. Just enough to tempt her, to send her pulse skyrocketing, to make her ache for more. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she pulled his face toward hers.
And that was the first time she knew he was a thief. He took her breath away, robbed her of every conscious thought, and stole her heart.
Chapter Five
Edna sighed and looked around the room at the Page Turners, who were all glued to her every word.
“And then what happened?” Piper asked, reaching into the bowl of popcorn for the last few kernels.
“Then an old lady got tired and decided she needed to go to bed.” Edna stood and stretched. “Turn out the lights before you go to sleep, and no funny slumber-party business. I do not want to find my brassiere in the freezer in the morning.”
She glanced over at Johnny. He was smiling at her, and she wondered how he felt about her digging up all their old memories. Did he remember falling in love with her? Did he ever really love her at all?
