Summer Boys (2 page)

“I really don’t think this is right.”

George stood blinking in the morning sun, his minigolf club dangling between the fingers of his left hand, his right hand scratching the back of his head. He was undoubtedly perplexed.

“No, I don’t think I can play this hole,” he told Beth.

Beth surveyed the long, slightly curved shape of the green again, and then scanned the sign:
HOLE
#2:
THE DOLPHIN’S FIN.
Every respectable minigolf course has a theme, and the one in Pebble Beach was “Circus, Circus!” Above where George and Beth were standing, plaster trapeze artists, decked out in purple tights, walked gingerly through the air. All over the course, shoddylooking concrete bears and elephants stood forlornly by their corresponding holes. In the far left corner, Beth could just make out the fire hoop that, she knew from years of experience, spit out a tiny flame whenever a ball rolled through it.

George was unhappy because there
were
no dolphins in an actual circus.

“Maybe they’re just getting the circus theme confused with a Sea World theme,” Beth said thoughtfully. “C’mon, George, let’s just play.”

George shook his head in defiance. “No, this is just unacceptable. They obviously didn’t do their circus research. I’m going to ask for a refund.”

Beth rolled her eyes. She knew he was actually considering it. George could take jokes too far, often enough to forget he was joking in the first place. Sometimes, Beth thought, this was an endearing quality, but most times, it was just plain annoying.

“George.”

The gauge on Beth’s tolerance meter was almost on empty.

George looked at her, resigned. “Okay, okay.” He shrugged. “It’s just not right, is all. When was the last time you saw a dolphin at the circus? Little kids play minigolf. It’s giving them misinformation.”

After he finished his diatribe, George shook his shoulders exaggeratedly and lined up the blue ball he’d chosen from the rainbow of colors the cashier had offered. Just across the street and beyond some dunes was the ocean. The wind blew off the water and tousled Beth’s blonde hair. She watched George tap his ball. It sailed forward for a moment, then it slowed on a slight rise, approached the hole, and dropped in.

“You’re lucky with those blue balls!” Beth shoved George and smiled suggestively, trying to act like she didn’t care that he was already winning—she was way over par on this one. True, it would be humiliating to be beaten when she’d been coming here her entire life and George had only visited this course once last summer.
But even though George knew how much his winning was eating Beth up inside, he was nice enough not to gloat (at least, not yet).

They waited while the couple in front of them lollygagged over Hole #3—the Elephant Trunk. The concrete elephant that stood peering down at them from the other end of the course was skinny and anemic-looking, its gray paint long since turned to a dirty white. The green AstroTurf wove in a long, curvy line, making it almost impossible to get a hole in one unless you lined up your ball perfectly to within a fraction of an inch.

The couple, however, was making it a bigger problem than it had to be. Mostly because they seemed to have no concern whatsoever with actually playing. The girl, a brunette in denim cutoffs, would hit the ball once, and it would go a couple of inches. Then she’d turn to the guy and they’d both giggle. It was obvious that the worse shot she took, the cuter they both thought it was.

“I might have to forfeit,” the girl said between giggles.

“I might have to vomit,” Beth muttered.

George tapped Beth’s shoulder with his own.

“Hey, Beth, where’s your sense of romance?” he whispered.

Beth rolled her eyes. “George, I have a sense of romance, but
romance
has no sense of
me.
”

Beth knew that he knew it was true. She had always loved boys. As a kid, she used to chase them around the playground and try to kiss them, but they always got away. And although they appreciated how good she was at sports, boys never
really
noticed her.

That is, until ninth grade, when size C alien boobs had taken over Beth’s chest. Suddenly boys were standing in line to kiss her
at parties. While she didn’t mind the ogling, she did think it was kind of funny that guys liked her for the one thing she felt had landed on her body by mistake. Even now, two years after the breasts had arrived, Beth still felt like the Puberty Fairy had played an unfunny trick on her.

But the hooking up never led to any serious relationships. No boy Beth really liked ever returned her affections. Beth decided her love life was best described in the lyric of a song she’d heard on a classic rock station: “Love don’t love you.”

“But maybe that’ll change this summer,” George offered.

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno. Maybe you’ll find a summer boy.”

“A summer boy?”

“Yeah, one of those guys your cousins hook up with.” George nudged her and raised his eyebrows.

Beth and George had become friends at a party two years ago. Instead of staring at Beth’s breasts, George had chatted with her about sports, school, whatever. Beth had known right off that she wasn’t attracted to him—he was too skinny and pale, and she didn’t go for guys with curly hair. But at the same time, she’d felt something click. She and George were platonic soul mates, like Will and Grace, only without the gay thing. They’d been inseparable ever since.

Beth eyed the couple ahead of them again. The guy had his hand on the woman’s butt.

“Like that guy? Is he a summer boy?” she asked George.

George took a quick glance at him. “Could be. They look really smitten, like they haven’t known each other long enough to
figure out that the other person is actually going to drive them crazy. Definitely an indication of a summer thing.”

“You seem to know a lot about it, George. When did you meet your summer boy?” Beth teased.

George was undeterred. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll get some action this time. I’m declaring this the summer of George!”

Beth rolled her eyes. George had been saying that since he’d seen it on a
Seinfeld
rerun, and not once had any summer turned out to be his. Of course, this summer he was staying at the beach until mid-August, which allowed for more exposure than staying at home and working at the Family Dollar in Martin, Massachusetts.

“I’m telling you, Beth. Summer’s the time to act. New places, new faces…”

His voice trailed off, and they both turned to watch the couple again.

“I’m
sooooo
bad!” The brunette was crooning, finally plunking the ball into the hole.

“You had just two strokes, right?” the guy said, grinning and writing her bogus score on his golf card. They finally moved to the next hole.

“Praise Jesus,” George said. But now Beth was absorbed.

“It’s hopeless, George. All guys want
that.
” She nodded toward the annoying woman. “They want flirty. They want girly. I’m not either.”

“What?” George asked, looking over his shoulder to follow Beth’s gaze. “That?” George said loudly, pointing his club in the woman’s direction. “Are you kidding?”

Beth grabbed George’s club and shushed him.

“No way,” he said, lowering his voice. “That annoying giggler’s got nothing on you.” He gave her his lopsided grin. George could be incredibly charming when he wanted to be.

“Well, it seems that way,”she said, touching but not hitting her ball, just trying to get the angle that would take it home. “I mean, look at the facts. She’s here hooking up and I’m here with…you.”

“Okay, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just insult me, because I must have pity for those who lose to me in minigolf,” George said with a sly grin. “But seriously, Beth, you’re pretty and you’re fun to be around. You’re gonna find your guy. It’s only a matter of time.”

Beth looked away quickly. She couldn’t explain it, but whenever George complimented her like that, it felt weird.

“Thanks,” she said nonchalantly. Finally, she took aim and hit the ball. It sailed past the curves of the trunk, one, two, three. “You know, you’re pretty, too. In fact, I don’t think the Fab Five would change a thing about you.”

“Oh, that’s really funny. Now you’re doing
Queer Eye
jokes.”

Then the sound of the ball clunking into the hole echoed throughout the course. It was her second hole in one of the game—she was mounting a comeback of megaproportions. Beth tried not to smile too big, but she couldn’t help it. Maybe her winning minigolf was a sign that she could triumph over her sucky love life as well.

George and all other boys beware.

Jamie leaned back in the hammock, taking the ball of white yarn on her lap and straightening it so that the loops smoothed themselves out. She was three-quarters of the way done with the tiny hat she was knitting for her mom’s schnauzer, Schmidty. Her mom had requested it, claiming that Schmidty couldn’t stand the New Jersey winters. Personally, Jamie thought Schmidty wasn’t bothered by the cold one way or the other. But she loved knitting, so she didn’t mind humoring her mom. Anyway, it gave her something to do with her hands until Ethan came over.

The phone rang in the cottage a few yards behind her, but it stopped almost immediately, and she could tell by the sound of her aunt Claire chattering that the call wasn’t for her. That was fine.
Knit, purl, knit, purl—
her fingers worked the needles deftly in flashes of silver.

It was her first full day at Pebble Beach. She guessed it wasn’t so bad that Ethan had made plans to go dirt biking with his friends for a few hours, but she’d been expecting him to block out
the whole day—maybe even the whole week—just for her. Between the crowds at the party last night and the walk home with Ella, Beth, and George, they’d hardly had any time alone. Still, Ethan was independent and free-spirited—and she loved that about him. She didn’t ever want to be one of those clingy, possessive, my-boyfriend-is-my-life-and-without-him-I’m-nothing girls.

Jamie held up the half-finished hat in the air and inspected the ear holes. She couldn’t wait to show it to Ethan. He loved all the stupid little things Jamie liked to make with her hands. It was almost like she couldn’t ever keep her fingers still, and he said that her creativity was sexy. Before Ethan, Jamie had never thought of herself like that.

Suddenly, Jamie heard heavy footsteps coming across the deck, and she knew it was him.

“The artist at work,” Ethan said, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. He nestled his chin into her neck and she dropped her knitting, curling up a bit because of the shivers that raced down her spine from being embraced by him. She turned her head and their lips met, which made Jamie feel like there was no one in the world but the two of them. He pulled back to look at her.

“Hi, gorgeous,” she whispered, barely able to contain her giddiness. It still shocked Jamie that such an amazing guy thought
she
was beautiful. He had a swimmer’s body—taut and toned with lean muscles. He had wavy, sand-colored hair that constantly got in his eyes—he usually brushed stray strands from his brow in an alluring way. There was just something about him that made him magnetic, and Jamie couldn’t pull herself away from him, not that she even wanted to try.

Two weeks into her trip to Maine last summer, Jamie had been sitting on a beach chair with a pen and a stack of loose-leaf paper, imagining herself as an early twentieth-century novelist. She’d been trying to write a short story about seagulls, but instead, she’d ended up watching Ethan. He and some other guys were playing football in the sand, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

Whenever he looked up at her, Jamie quickly frowned back down at her story, pretending she was deep in thought instead of checking out this guy’s extremely cute butt. Then suddenly, he’d appeared beside her chair, all sweaty and glistening, and asked her what she was writing. She was sure that any moment his girlfriend would show up in her thong and they’d run off into the waves together, so what the hell. She’d told him about the seagulls. And he’d admitted that he was an aspiring writer, too.

She almost went into cardiac arrest when he’d asked her out. And now, in the hammock, he was making her heart pound again.

“Let’s go for a ride down to the beach,” Ethan suggested, and pulled Jamie up beside him.

They went into the cottage shed and dug out the black eighteenspeed Lemonde Jamie had ridden last summer, before she’d gotten her license. Ethan’s own bike was muddy from wherever he’d been that morning. He took off in front of her, and Jamie pedaled as fast as she could to keep up, the wind blowing through her hair. Being in love and outside and moving fast made her feel like her body was too small for the surge of emotions that were swirling around inside her. They hurtled along the dirt path and then out onto the main road in town, Ethan leading the way. He finally slowed down alongside the pier, hopping off his bike and leaning
it against a lamppost. Hand in hand, they trudged to the dunes farther up the beach and collapsed in exhaustion.

“I can’t believe we have the whole summer,” Jamie said through quick inhales and exhales. The blue sky they were staring at was perfectly clear.

“Yeah. There’s so much going on—it’s gonna be crazy.” Ethan rubbed his chin excitedly. “Did I tell you I enrolled in a writing course at U. Penn this August?”

“No,”she said frowning. “How long will you be gone?” Ethan lived in Philadelphia, which now seemed so far away. He tugged the strap of her green vintage halter top, the one he’d liked so much last summer. There was some kind of live wire in her chest, and it zinged whenever he touched her.

“Two weeks, from the eighth through twenty-second. I won’t be coming back afterwards,” he answered.

“You’re going away two weeks early?” Jamie sat up and stared at him, trying to suppress the disjointed, hurt feeling that erupted deep in her gut. Ethan slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close with an amused smile.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make up for the lost time,” he said. He studied her intently. “Do you know how pretty you are? You have the coolest cat eyes.”

Jamie still wasn’t able to stop frowning. A part of her knew that it wasn’t a big deal—this class seemed like an amazing opportunity, and had
she
been given the chance to go, she might have taken it, just like Ethan had. What bothered her was that he didn’t seemed concerned at all that they were going to have two fewer weeks to be with each other. Hadn’t their year apart made any difference to him at all?

“Well, aren’t you going to miss me when you go?” After Jamie said that, she wanted to take it all back. Remarks like that were reserved for clingy girlfriends, and that was definitely something Jamie
didn’t
want to be.

Ethan sighed and his mouth settled into a straight line. He didn’t respond.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that I thought you’d want us to be…together…,” Jamie said timidly. Suddenly, she was feeling incredibly insecure.

Ethan tilted his chin away from her, staring off into nothing. He took a couple of deep breaths and then shook his head. Jamie tucked her knees up to her chin and hugged them. Then Ethan faced her again.

“Hey,” he said as he stroked her bare arm with one finger. “Looks like your sunburn healed okay.” He tugged at her halter strap again.

Jamie giggled a little bit at Ethan’s teasing comment. Last year she’d forgotten to use sunblock during her final week at the beach, and her fairer-than-fair skin had turned lobster-red, keeping her indoors for the last days of the summer. Her only consolation had been Ethan. While everyone was outdoors swimming and barbecuing, Ethan (who could sit in the sun wearing nothing but SPF 2 and never get burned) sat with his feet propped on the bed reading
Slaughterhouse Five
to her, and rubbing cold aloe from the fridge on her arms and legs whenever she asked. Jamie had loved the attention, even though she had been all raw and red. She’d had Ethan all to herself, which was what she’d wanted all summer, anyway.

On the second afternoon, he’d gently slipped her shirt off over
her head while she was lying on her stomach, and started kissing all the parts that hurt. Everyone else was down at the beach. Though it had been sweaty and sticky-hot, he’d pulled a sheet over them and traced her bare skin with his hands, which were twice as big as her own. She rolled over and touched the parts of him that fascinated her—his chest, his arms, the crease in his lower back. Then, before she knew it, he reached down and pulled off his boxers. She felt shy for a moment, but then she let him slide her own underwear down. And when they started kissing, she didn’t feel shy anymore. It was thoughtful, slow, and perhaps even a little less passionate than Jamie had expected. It all happened so naturally somehow. Still, more important, when it was over, it felt right. She’d been attracted to Ethan up to then, but that was the moment when she’d felt her life tying up with his in a knot. It was the first time she had felt—dare she say it—like she was falling in love.

“Those were some good times, huh?” Ethan said, kissing her shoulder. The kiss made her pulse quicken and her heart fill up with sheer joy. She lifted her finger up to the scar on Ethan’s chin, which he’d gotten years ago while riding his bike. Then she ran her hands over his stubble-covered cheeks.

“Yes, they were,” she replied softly.

The light had changed within the past few minutes, and the sounds of the waves became somewhat muted and distant. Dusk was Jamie’s favorite time of day. All the colors in the sky transformed from wondrous hues of blues into shades of red and violet. She slid a hand under Ethan’s T-shirt and ran her fingers over where his boxers covered his left hip bone. This subtle spot was one of her favorite parts of his body—she couldn’t get over how
perfectly sculptured he was. But her attraction to him wasn’t just physical. She had the same feeling now that she had that day they spent under the sheets. She wanted him to see her soul in her eyes and know that it was meant to be.

She wanted this to last forever. There was no reason why it shouldn’t.

But their earlier tiff had left a bit of awkwardness in the air between them, and it wasn’t so easy to send away. It lingered in the back of her mind until she let herself be swept away by the sight of the sunset. Then when Ethan turned to kiss her again, she stopped thinking about anything at all.