Girls of Summer

by Nancy Thayer

  “The new rich guy who’s come to save our island.”

  “And that’s a bad thing? Because, you sound bitter.” Theo poured three teaspoons of sugar into his mug and stirred.

  “I thought we were…starting a thing,” Juliet admitted.

  “Well, just because Beth was in his car…” Theo asked casually, “How did Beth look?”

  “Right,” Juliet said. “I’d forgotten. You like Beth.”

  “Everyone likes Beth,” Theo said miserably.

  Juliet gazed at her handsome, softhearted brother, and she wanted to put her arms around him and cuddle him as she had when he was very small and had hurt himself on his bike. Now he looked like a Greek god, but a very downhearted Greek god.

  “We’re not going to know what’s going on sitting here like a pair of burst balloons,” she said. “I’ll go take a shower and get some Kazaam work done on my laptop. You should shower and get dressed, and maybe go through the stuff in your chest of drawers, find out if you’ve got anything here that will fit you.”

  “Mom put a ton of her stuff in my room.”

  “Oh, poor baby. I’m sure you had much better accommodations in California. So put it out in the hall if it bothers you. And start a load of laundry. Cheer up. When I’ve got some work done, we’ll go into town and I’ll buy you lunch.”

  Theo lifted his head and smiled. “Thanks, sis.”

  Juliet headed up the stairs to shower. She was in a better mood after talking with Theo. He was such a good guy and he seldom got upset when she bossed him around. Plus, he still had a crush on Beth, and Juliet could remember the high school years when she’d caught Beth staring at Theo as if he were a hot fudge sundae on a scorching summer day. A Beth-Theo romance was not out of the question. And Beth was two years younger than Juliet, which would make Ryder seem even older to Beth.

  Juliet sang in the shower.

  sixteen

  As they strolled down the brick sidewalks of Main Street, Theo said he thought the town hadn’t changed much.

  “Are you kidding? A lot has changed,” Juliet said.

  “Huh?”

  “Congdon’s Pharmacy is gone. Arno’s is gone. Tonkin’s.”

  They turned down Federal. Theo said, “The Catholic church is still here. Hey, and the post office and library.”

  Across from the brick town buildings stood a white clapboard structure that had once been a home, then a series of offices. The Mooney Building. Now it had a patio out back and steps led down to a bright café.

  “The Corner Table Café,” Juliet told him. “It has it all. Healthy food and Wi-Fi.”

  Theo laughed. “Checking out the crowd included?”

  She ignored him. He followed her to the refrigerated cabinet stretching along one wall. Juliet was right, the food looked fresh and delicious. Theo chose a container of mac and cheese and one of lasagna.

  “Please,” Juliet said. “Could you eat a salad? Maybe some roasted broccoli?”

  Theo stacked the container of roasted broccoli on top of the others. Juliet had salmon on arugula. At the register, she took out her credit card. Theo reached out for some cookies.

  Juliet said, “You don’t want those.”

  “Give me a break,” Theo snapped.

  She looked exasperated. “Those are gluten free. The ones you want are at the left.”

  “Oh, right. Thanks,” Theo muttered.

  They settled in at a corner table. The café wasn’t crowded but it was busy. Theo’s food had been heated up in handsome black bowls. They had real utensils, not bendy plastic ones, and free carbonated water. Theo dug in.

  “Juliet!”

  Theo, still chewing, stared up at the voice. Beth was walking their way. Unlike Juliet, who looked like any Silicon Valley techie with her cropped hair and black clothes, Beth was classy, silky blond hair waving over her shoulders, white shirt, tan skirt, sandals. He swallowed his food without tasting it.

  “Beth.” He actually stood up, the way he’d been taught to do when a woman approached a table. He hadn’t done that in a long time.

  “Hi, Theo.” Leaning over, she kissed him on the cheek. “You’re back on the island again. And you’re here, too, Juliet!”

  “I am.” Juliet forced a smile. “Maybe for a while. We just got here.”

  “Want to join us?” Theo asked.

  “Sure,” Beth said. She set her laptop on the bench. “I’ll get some lunch and be right back.”

  Juliet murmured, “Theo. You’re drooling.”

  “Am not.” Still, just in case, he ran his hand over his chin. “She didn’t look like that in high school.”

  Juliet rolled her eyes. “Men are so easy.”

  Theo concentrated on eating before Beth returned. He didn’t want her to see him masticating away on the damned broccoli like a horse.

  Theo had taken the bench side and Juliet was in a chair across from him. Beth pulled out a chair next to Juliet and sat down, arranging her bowl of salad and couscous, her knife and fork, and her glass of water on the table, and her napkin in her lap.

  “Theo, it’s wonderful to see you!” Beth said. “Are you back for good?”

  “No, I kind of came home to recover. I wiped out when I was surfing. A bad fracture. I was in the hospital for a while. Then in a brace. For a while, a sling.”

  “Oh, too bad. Does it hurt?”

  “Not so much now,” Theo said bravely.

  “You were in California, right?”

  “Right. I got my degree at UCSD. Since then, I’ve been surfing and working near San Diego. I don’t know how long I’ll be here.”

  Beth looked disappointed. “Yes, the surfing here can’t compete with the Pacific.”

  “What about you, Beth? What are you doing?” Theo asked.

  She told him about her degree in museum studies. “I was going to apply at some of the museums, but after Saturday, when Ryder Hastings spoke here, I’ve agreed to work for the Nantucket chapter of Ocean Matters.”

  “What’s that?” Theo asked.

  Juliet interrupted. “You’re working for Ocean Matters? What are you doing?”

  “I’m their operations manager, and probably general gofer. We’ve set up office on Easy Street. I’ve got it furnished enough to work in, and I’m going to design a website. I need someone to build it for me. Oh, Juliet, you build websites, don’t you?”

  Warily, Juliet admitted she did. “But I don’t know how long I’ll be on-island, or how much more work I can take on.”

  “Oh, please help me build the website. I already have an amazing video to put on. Ryder and I went out to Cisco this morning to rescue a seal that was choked with plastic around its neck. It was very emotional. I’ve posted on Instagram and Facebook, but I really need to build a website for Ocean Matters.”

  “You and Ryder?” Theo asked, not daring to look at her. “That sounds very chummy.”

  Juliet held her breath.

  “Don’t be weird,” Beth said. “I work for Ryder. For Ocean Matters. It’s about our oceans, Theo, which you of all people should care about since you’re such a big surfer.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” Theo said. “Just checking to see if you were, um, going with Ryder.”

  Beth leaned across the table, close to him. “No, Theo. I’m not going with Ryder. Not with anyone.”

  Theo smiled. He couldn’t stop gazing into her eyes.

  Juliet broke in. “How did you get your job, Beth?”

  Beth sat back in her chair. “Prudence Starbuck, you know, the bossy old heiress on Main Street. Prudence has agreed to be the head of the Nantucket branch of Ocean Matters. I’m their employee.”

  “With pay?” Juliet asked.

  “Yes. And I’ve got a lot of work to do.” Beth blushed as she turned to Theo. “Could you help me unpack the
computers and printers? They’re so heavy. Oh, but your arm…”

  Quickly, Theo said, “It’s okay, mostly healed. I’ll use my other arm. We’ll work together.” He had never been more self-sacrificing.

  “Our office is near the Steamship Authority,” Beth told him.

  “Cool. I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Let’s go!” Beth said. “I’ll take my lunch with me to eat later.”

  Theo nearly knocked over the table as he rose to follow Beth to the door.

  * * *

  —

  “Men,” Juliet whispered as her brother followed Beth out of the café. Theo had been in love with Beth since high school. He’d broken many hearts. Juliet hoped Beth didn’t break his.

  “Hello, there.”

  Juliet looked up. Ryder Hastings was standing next to her table.

  “Hello,” she answered warily.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you,” he said.

  “Yes,” Juliet replied coolly. “I know. I heard about your adventure with the seal at Cisco today.”

  Ryder slid onto the bench where Theo had been sitting only moments before. He was Theo’s height, but much slimmer than muscular Theo. He had a mug of coffee in his hand, and a muffin on a plate.

  “It was a moving experience.” He laughed. “In all meanings of the word. Once we got the plastic off, that seal scooted into the water faster than I thought seals could go on land.”

  Juliet toyed with her food. The man was frustratingly handsome. Dark hair, thick and shaggy, as if he was too busy to visit the barbershop. Blue eyes full of curiosity and what looked like a whole lot of mischief. His nose and cheeks were red from the sun. Didn’t the man own sunblock, or was he too busy to apply it?

  Aware of how she looked in her black yoga pants and sleeveless black tee, aware that her brown hair was rumpled and almost the same careless length as Ryder’s, aware that she wore no mascara or lipstick but only her naked, natural face, Juliet raised her chin and said, “That’s a wonderful thing you did. Beth told me about it. She’s posting on social media, but, um, she asked me to help build a website.”

  “You’re going to help? Great!”

  The air between them danced like lights from a disco ball. Juliet couldn’t take her eyes away from his. She wanted to freeze him there across from her so she could stare at him, at his blue eyes, his black hair, the furry hair on his arms—he wore a blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She thought what she felt must be kind of like being tasered.

  “There you are!” a man said, clapping Ryder on the back. Without an invitation, Leo Johns slid onto the bench next to Ryder. “Hey Juliet, did you hear about Ryder helping me save a seal this morning?” He sensed the change in atmosphere as he sat down. “Sorry, Juliet, I don’t mean to interrupt your conversation but Ryder and I have a meeting scheduled for now. About Ocean Matters. Would you like to join us? We can use all the hands we can get.”

  Juliet couldn’t think straight. It all whirled: the abrupt jump from intimate desire to the outer reality, the cup in her hand, the one in Ryder’s hand, the hard table between them, the buzz of other people laughing and chatting, all around her in the bright room, Leo Johns with his jug ears and round belly like a short Santa Claus in tennis shorts, a nice man, a retired lawyer who gave his time and money to island causes.

  “No, thanks,” she said. “I’ve got to be somewhere. See you.”

  Ryder took her wrist in his hand. “We didn’t get to have our dinner. Can I take you out tonight?”

  Run away, an inner voice warned. Are you kidding? another inner voice said.

  “I can’t do it tonight,” she said.

  “Tomorrow night?”

  His hand was warm on her wrist. His grip was light, and electric. She knew Leo Johns was watching.

  “Okay, I guess, tomorrow night.” She picked up her wallet and left quickly, before they could make plans.

  It wasn’t until she was all the way to the Hub that she remembered she hadn’t put her cup in the tub for used china. The omission stopped her in her tracks. She went hot all over. What would Ryder think of her, of her ability to care about the ocean, if she couldn’t even remember to remove her cup from the table to the bin? Should she go back and move the cup? No, that would be insane.

  “What is going on?” Juliet muttered.

  Shaken, she walked down to the harbor, taking long strides, cutting through other walkers as if she was on roller skates. The walk helped her catch her breath. The sight of the blue water, so clear even where motorboats were docked, calmed her even more.

  She sat on a bench and watched the fishermen prepare their Boston Whalers. Real life was hard work, she decided. Her apartment and office in Cambridge suddenly seemed like a refuge to her. A hiding place.

  But with much of her heart and all of her body, she didn’t want to hide.

  So, she wouldn’t hide! She’d flirt like a male peacock, using all the colors of the rainbow. Okay, that might be too much, but she knew exactly where to find the perfect outfit to wear to dinner with Ryder.

  She walked past the post office, the Catholic church, and the Hub, where people were buying magazines, newspapers, and coffee. She crossed the cobblestone street and stopped in front of Sail, her mother’s store. A darling turquoise dress with a sexy halter-top was in the window, and Juliet’s reflection in her all-black Athleta tee and yoga pants wavered over the dress like a crow floating on a flower.

  She pushed the door open and went inside. The air was cool and dry and fragrant, and upbeat music drifted through the air from a local radio station. Lisa was bending over her jewelry counter. No one else was in the shop.

  “Hi, Mom!”

  “Darling!” Lisa came from behind the counter and hugged Juliet. “Not that I’m complaining, but what brings you here?”

  “I want to buy a dress to wear out to dinner with Ryder Hastings,” Juliet said.

  “Really? Oh, what fun!”

  Seeing her mother’s face brighten sent rockets of emotions through Juliet’s heart. Guilt, because she’d always been critical of Lisa’s store and in fact, in her teenage years, she’d been really snotty and insulting about it. Pleasure, because this simple act was making her mother so happy. How hard it must be to be a mother, whose happiness was so tightly bound up in her children.

  And finally, an emotion she hadn’t experienced often—anticipation.

  “Can I try on that turquoise dress in the window?” Juliet asked.

  Lisa laughed. “Of course. You must be a size six.” She walked over to the rack, lifted the dress down, and told her daughter, “Let’s go into a dressing room. While you’re trying this on, I’ll see if I’ve got anything else you might like.”

  Juliet stepped into the small room with its gold hooks and little flouncy stool and large mirror. She peeled off her pants and tee, unzipped the turquoise dress, and slid into it. It took a few seconds for her to understand what she saw in the mirror. She looked very, very feminine, and the dress was cut to make her breasts seem enormous. This was not who she was. Was this who she should try to be?

  Her mother’s voice floated through the curtain. “Juliet, I’m hanging some dresses on the rod. You don’t have to try them on, but I think they’d look great on you.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” Already, Juliet was discouraged. She couldn’t wear this dress.

  She lifted another dress off the curtain rod and held it up to her. It was navy blue, short sleeved, with a square, slightly low neckline trimmed with white piping. Summery, nautical, undeniably classy. It fit perfectly, showing off her trim figure, and the hem was slightly flippy, which Juliet loved.

  Stepping outside the cubicle, Juliet held up her arms. “Ta-da!”

  Before her mother could speak, two women in Lilly Pulitzer dresses and straw hats trimmed with ribbon ente
red the store. They wandered over to the Ralph Lauren rack and flipped through the hanging clothes, exchanging comments—“Oh, this is darling!” “Oh, you’d look stunning in this!”

  Juliet ducked back into her pretty stall. Lifting the dresses her mother had brought over for her to try, she concentrated on trying them on. She couldn’t help but overhear the others.

  Her mother said, “May I carry some things to a dressing room for you?”

  “Yes, please. Your clothes are darling!” one of the women said.

  “Thank you,” Lisa told them.

  The two women—Juliet figured out that their names were Zoe and Cynthia—called to each other as they tried on the dresses.

  “Oooh, sexy!”

  “Maybe too plunging?”

  “Excuse me, miss? Could I try this in a size four?” Zoe flung a dress over the curtain rod.

  “Of course,” Lisa said. “I’ll see if we have it in that size.”

  Juliet tried on an ivory tank dress that would look fabulous if she ever got a tan, but with her winter working-girl pale skin didn’t work.

  “Hey,” said Zoe, “have you seen Ryder Hastings? The Boston guy who’s heading up Save the Water? He’s gorgeous, rich, and single!”

  “Yes,” Cynthia said lazily, “he’s on-island. He called me about his environmental group. He is handsome…”

  Juliet froze, all her senses focused on that conversation.

  “I don’t think it’s called Save the Water. That’s hilarious. I think it’s Ocean Affairs.”

  Juliet almost had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from correcting the women.

  “Whatever. I think they’re going to have a big fundraising gala in August.”

  “I hope they have it somewhere inside. I hate when my heels get stuck in the grass.”

  “Want to offer your house for the gala? You might get to know him better then…”

  Juliet sat down on the stool, taking deep breaths.

  “So these are adorable!” Zoe cooed. “I’ll take them all. Wrap them in tissue, will you?”

  “I’m taking these,” Cynthia said.

  “Oh, no,” Zoe said, “you’re not getting the same dress I am, are you?”