One Hot Summer

by Heidi McLaughlin

  He looked at his assistant and opened his mouth to tell her about Kelly but refrained. In due time, Martha would have everything figured out and right now he wanted to keep his high school romance back where it belonged.

  In high school.

  “I’m not flustered. I have a lot on my mind and used this morning to clear my thoughts. Nothing more.”

  Martha set her hands on his desk and peered into his eyes. He tried his damnedest to hold her gaze, but he couldn’t do it. She was like his mother on steroids, trying to figure out if he’s lying. “I can see right through you, Doc. From what I hear she’s delightful, funny and beautiful. It’ll only be a matter of time before you’re kissing under the moonlight.” She left him to process her words while singing, ‘Danny and Ms. Franklin, kissing in a tree.’ He laughed and shook his head, while shaking the mouse of his computer to bring it to life. If Martha had only put the pieces together to realize who Kelly was, she’d know just how much her song held truth.

  The good doctor opened a browser and typed Kelly Franklin into Google. Not one for social media, he figured this would be the best way to find out what she’d been up to. Of course, a link to Facebook popped up. He clicked and found nothing. The profile picture was of a bridge, while the rest of the page was blank, aside from her name. He tried Kelly Taft and Kelly Taft Franklin, all with the same results.

  Nothing.

  She was a mystery. Except she didn’t have to be. He could go back to Java Hut and demand she talk to him. He could ask her to dinner or invite her out for a stroll along the boardwalk. All things he knew she’d say no to. If he wanted to find out about Kelly, he was going to have to go to his sources, the Hudson’s. However, they weren’t friends, at least not since things went array with Kelly. Calling them out of the blue was completely out of the question. His only option was to call his best friend Neil and find out in a roundabout way what he knew about Kelly’s return. He picked up his phone and dialed.

  “Neil Spencer.”

  “Danny Weatherly,” he replied in kind.

  “Sup, Doc.” Neil chuckled on the other end. The joke never got old and still made Danny smile.

  “Thought we could hit a few rounds today. The sun’s out, the temperature’s calm and the tourists aren’t clogging up the back nine. Besides, I have the need to hit something.”

  “And a small white ball with dimples is going to be enough for you get your sexual aggravation out?”

  “I’m not sexually aggravated.”

  “According to Taya, you are. She saw you this morning.”

  “I surf every morning. I’m not sure how that equates to anything sexual.”

  “Oh, Doc. You’re so fun to tease. I’m free right now.”

  Danny looked at his schedule and saw he still had a few hours before anyone was due to come in. “I’ll meet you there,” he said, hanging up. “I’m going out for a bit. You can reach me on my cell if it’s an emergency,” he yelled to Martha with Rambo hot on his heels. As soon as he stepped outside, he remembered he left his van at the beach. He looked down at Rambo and shook his head. Even the dog knew he was out of sorts.

  Gray doesn’t have Uber or taxi cabs, but what it does have are nice people. As soon as Danny started walking toward downtown, Mr. Lange pulled over, offering him and Rambo a ride. “Thank you,” he said. “Left my van at the beach this morning.”

  “I heard.” Mr. Lange was the husband of Ida Lange, everyone’s favorite schoolteacher. To this day, Danny still brought her a present on the first day of school.

  Of course, he did. “How’s retirement treating ya?”

  “Good, good. Waiting for Ida to finally call it quits so I can pester her during the day. Although with Kelly back and running Java Hut, I might start drinking coffee. She’s definitely a looker.” Mr. Lange pulled into the spot next to his van. He didn’t want to comment on Kelly, coffee or anything related to either matter.

  “Thanks for the ride.”

  “You’re welcome. Best make amends before someone swoops in on your girl.” He chuckled and didn’t wait for Danny to reply before pulling away.

  He sighed. She wasn’t his girl any longer and if he had been half as smart back then as he is now, he would’ve never let her go. He eyed the café and slowly made his way across the street.

  Inside, music played softly. Kelly had her back to the door, giving Danny a chance to fully stare at her. This was the girl he was in love with, the one he thought he’d marry and start a family with. They had plans. Each one seemed attainable with minimal effort. When they were together, they fit perfectly. Why it took them so long to get together, he’ll never understand. For years, he crushed on her and in a matter of months, embarrassed her to the point where their friends turned on her. He considered himself lucky to even stand in her presence.

  He cleared his throat, startling her. She placed her hand over her heart and gasped for air. “You scared me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said while shaking his head and stepping closer. “I think I left my wallet here earlier.”

  She reached under the counter and pulled it out. Their fingers touched when he went to grab it, neither of them letting go when the familiar jolt of excitement surged through him, and he was confident it went through her as well. Their eyes met and he knew in that moment, he was done for. Kelly Taft was back home, and single.

  Mr. Lange’s voice rang out, reminding him to make amends, and so he started. “Taffy, I will never forgive myself for what I did, the shame I caused you and for not kicking everyone’s ass afterward. I’m sorry.” He took his wallet and walked out, not giving her a chance to say anything, mostly because he didn’t want to hear her tell him to go to hell.

  7

  Kelly

  The first thought that popped into her mind as she watched Danny walk out of her store was that she wanted to move. It was an irrational thought, but the same one she had years ago when her teenage life tumbled into shambles. She had to be an adult and not run from the boy who once had her heart. That was until she met Alan Franklin and he swept her off her feet.

  Changing colleges and heading north was a rash decision. One she made heatedly, even as her parents begged her to change her mind. She never understood why though because her first choice was three thousand miles away from them. Now, she’d be closer. A day’s drive if they pushed it or a two-hour flight from boarding to disembarking. She thought her parents would be ecstatic, but they weren’t. She never asked them why, probably because she was caught up in her own head. She wanted out and she wanted away from Danny.

  Both wishes came true when she found a school that would accept her late application and had found someone needing a roommate. She packed and was gone days after graduation with little fanfare. Her father drove her to the tiny upstate New York College, stopping in Delaware, which was about halfway from home. They spent the night in a roadside hotel, not far from the mall, where they dined on Chinese food from the food court. Her father barely spoke to her and when he did, his sentences were clipped and to the point. The tension between them didn’t subside when they arrived at her new school, and she gave him an awkward hug when he dropped her off, which left her feeling lonely and wondering if she was truly making a mistake.

  She wasn’t. There, no one knew her. There wasn’t anyone to remind her of the social mishap that spiraled out of control. She had a roommate, who was shy, didn’t party and liked to study. Her roommate was the complete opposite of Melody, who she missed dearly. However, Mel understood and promised to visit because Kelly vowed to never return.

  She kept her vow and was incredibly thankful to Melody for having a destination wedding. The event gave her a chance to show off Alan, who Kelly was madly in love with. They had met at a frat party. It was the end of her sophomore year. She finally decided to live a little and went to a party off campus at one of the frat houses. She walked around, bobbed her head to the music and sipped warm beer from a red cup. She had no idea what she was doing there, other
than trying to come out of her shell.

  Kelly wandered around, laughing when she’d hear a joke, saying hi to people she’d met in class, but soon she felt out of place. This wasn’t her scene. These aren’t her people. She belonged in the library, studying or in the lounge of her dorm, watching television with the few people that actually did such a thing. This wasn’t how she imagined college to be.

  Her days were supposed to be filled with football games at Stanford, taking the train with Danny to San Francisco for a romantic getaway, basking under the California sun while she waited for her guy to drive across town to pick her up so they could just be together. They planned to live there, maybe south near San Diego where she would work for the Padres in marketing and Danny would teach.

  Her life was anything like her initial dream. She was alone. She was boring and spent her days studying business and tourism because she had nothing better to do with her time, except schoolwork. Calls home to her parents only made things worse. She could hear the ocean through the receiver. She longed for the warm spring days over the dark dreary ones in New York. Kelly hated the snow, the wind and the rain.

  And she decided she hated school. She turned to leave the party, tripping over someone’s foot. Her tepid beer sloshed from her cup, spilling onto the person next to her. Hands, strong firm hands, gripped her hips in order to keep her upright. They locked eyes, he smiled and for the first time in years, Kelly felt alive. She felt like someone had heard her pleas for mercy.

  He introduced himself without removing his hands from her hips, and when he repeated her name, she thought she had died and gone to heaven. Alan walked her back to her dorm room that night and the next morning was standing outside with a bouquet of daisies, waiting for her. Sure, she had heard the rumors that he was a player, to stay away from the frat boys, but she swore he was different. They were different together.

  They spent the summer together at his family’s house in the Hamptons. Kelly likened the Hamptons to Gray. They both had the same small town feel, but there was wealth here, snobbery. She felt it among his family until they warmed up to her. They spent their days being lazy by the pool or out boating with his friends, who had inside jokes that secretly bothered her. She didn’t let it show though because she didn’t want to upset Alan. She would wear a fake smile just to please him.

  When they weren’t with his friends, they were with his family. And when they were alone, they made love under the stars. He read Chaucer to her and recited poems by Lord Byron and E.E. Cummings. It was there, that summer, that he told her he loved her, and planned to spend the rest of his life with her.

  The next summer, he made good on his promise. His family invited hers. Their fathers played golf during the day, while the mothers shopped and gushed over a summer wedding. His mother decided when they would marry, a summer wedding one month after her college graduation, in the Hamptons. Her parents didn’t have to worry about anything, the Franklin’s would cover everything. It was their honor.

  She should’ve seen the signs, but she was blinded by love. His family controlled everything and used their money to get what they wanted. She should’ve run, but she was in love.

  A Franklin decided she would work while Alan finished graduate school. She never knew who made that decision for them, not that she had a problem working. What she had a problem with was his late nights and the number of times he had a boy’s night or bachelor party to attend.

  They live in an Upper East Side apartment, paid for by his parents, who dropped in whenever they were in town, which was more frequent than Kelly wanted. She learned to live with it, keeping their apartment tidy, the refrigerator stocked and the guest bedroom ready.

  Grad school stressed them out. They fought and she threatened to leave him. When Alan graduated for the second time, he took her to Malta, and promised everything would be normal. They’d be the boring couple they both wanted to be. They’d start a family and move to the suburbs where his mother wouldn’t dare visit. This was the life she wanted and was about to have when they announced they were pregnant.

  The move never happened because he made partner at his firm, and his nights were longer. He would’ve had to take a train to get home and it wasn’t worth it. The dream house was left as a dream and the high rise became larger when they moved from one tower to another.

  Having a baby meant Kelly could quit her job. She never thought she would be that sort of person, but secretly loved the idea of staying home to raise their child. When Kori turned two, she wanted another one. Alan was hesitant. She was desperate. He started using condoms, something they hadn’t used since their first summer together. It should’ve been a red flag, a glowing one, waving in her face, but she figured he really didn’t want another baby. Why should it have been anything more?

  Kelly wiped a tear away from her face as she watched Danny walk back to his van. For the first two years of college, she played the what if game, even going as far to write him a letter the night before she met Alan.

  What if… now, she thought?

  What if she had sent the letter to Danny, would he have come for her? Would they have met up that summer and rekindled their romance? Would her life have turned out differently? Would she want it to?

  She doesn’t even know what he does for a living, except surf and drive around in a blue van with his dog sitting in the front seat. Does he live with his parents? It’s easy enough to find out, but she won’t ask. She’s better off remembering him as the boy who stole her heart and smashed it into pieces. It was easier this way.

  The phone rang, tearing her away from the outside world. She rushed to answer it, clearing her throat as she did. “Java Hut.”

  “Mrs. Franklin.”

  “Ta-,” she started to say, but stopped herself. “Yes, this is she.”

  “Sorry to bother you dear, this is Bea from the school nurse’s office. Kori is complaining of a stomach ache and wanted us to call you right away.”

  Kelly closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She should’ve known Kori would do this as she’d done it when she started kindergarten back in New York. “First day jitters, I suppose,” she said into the phone. “I’ll be there momentarily.”

  She hung up and quickly locked the door behind her before hopping into her Wrangler. The leather seats were hot after basking in the sun all day and burned the back of her legs. She made a mental note to make sure she kept towels in the back, not only for something like this, but for the random stops she planned to make at the beach.

  As luck would have it, one of the three spots in front of the school were available. She parked and rushed in, signing her name on the intake sheet. When she saw her daughter, Kori smiled sheepishly at her mother and attempted to make a sick face. Kelly knew this was all an act but played along anyway.

  “Mrs. Franklin?” the school nurse approached with a clipboard in her hand.

  “Hi, yes. Please call me Kelly.” They shook hands, and the nurse handed her the board to sign Kori out.

  “We took her temp. It was a little high. There is a flu bug going around, you might want to take her by Dr. Weatherly’s to have her checked out, just in case. He could give her a flu shot, although it’s a bit late in the season or early, depending on how you look at it.”

  At the mention of a shot, Kori sprang to life, proclaiming she was feeling better and could go back to class. Kelly crouched in front of her and pulled her daughter’s attention to her. “Dr. Weatherly is the nicest doctor you’ll ever meet. If he does give you a shot, you’ll get a sticker and a lollipop after.” She winked at her daughter and they linked hands. “Thank you,” she said to the nurse as they left.

  Outside, she helped Kori hop into the backseat. “Are you taking me to the doctors?”

  “I am, mostly because if you do have a bug, I want to stop it before it gets worse. You could’ve picked something up in the move.” She helped Kori buckle and sped off toward where she remembered the doctor’s office used to be.
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br />   When she pulled up to the office, she was shocked to find it hasn’t changed a bit. The old sign bearing Dr. Weatherly’s name still swayed and creaked each time the wind blew. They entered, and Kori immediately dropped her bag and set off toward the bucket of toys.

  “Hi, I don’t have an appointment. We’re new in town and my daughter was sent home from school with a stomach ache. I’d like Dr. Weatherly to check her out.”

  The woman at the desk smiled brightly, almost frightening Kelly into thinking she was in the Twilight Zone. “I’ll get her in right away.”

  “Do you need her name?”

  “Kori, right? The school nurse called and said I should expect her.”

  Of course she did. Kelly nodded and took a seat in the waiting room next to a few other mothers. She picked up on bits and pieces of their conversation, which made her stomach turn when she heard them say how hot and sexy Dr. Weatherly was. Maybe he was back in his prime, but certainly not now. He was older than her father was and although she hadn’t seen him in years, she imagined he likely aged very well. However, she did remember her mother and the Women’s Guild going on and on about him, so maybe he was sporting the George Clooney look these days.

  8

  Danny

  The local golf course was empty when Danny arrived. It took him longer to get there than he thought because he’d left his clubs in his office and had to go back. By the time he finally arrived at the course, Neil was already putting on the third hole.

  “Got tired of waiting,” he told Danny.

  He couldn’t blame his friend. Neil’s time, just as his, was important and taking time off during the day wasn’t always in the cards. Danny dropped his clubs and took a few warm-up swings as he waited for Neil to finish.