Page 54 of Summer Reading

I grinned. He looked so befuddled by his reaction to me that I couldn’t help it. There was nothing morecharming than a man who was rendered speechless at the sight of the woman he was interested in.

“Would it make you feel better if I told you that my first thought upon seeing you was that you looked edible?”

“Edible?” he laughed.

“Chef.” I pointed to myself. “It’s the highest compliment I can give.”

“In that case, I’m delighted to be your main course.” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed again.

He took my hand in his and walked me to a sports car parked in front of the house.

“No motorcycle?” I asked.

“That’s for third dates,” he said.

“Ah,” I said.

The night air was warm, but a cool breeze was blowing in from the water, perfuming the air with its briny tang. As we drove along Beach Road, I glanced at the ocean and noted that the moon was reflected on its dark depths all the way to the horizon.

When I was a girl, I had been absolutely obsessed withThe Little Mermaid, and I always wondered what it would be like to live under the sea. Probably, there were no Jamaican lobster and little boy flounder sidekicks, but still, the daydream held fast. I glanced at Ben. I wondered what he had dreamed about as a boy. Had he been an athlete? A nerd? Popular?

“Were you as much of a gamer as a teen as Tyler is?” I asked.

Ben glanced from the road to me. “Oh, yeah. Why are you worried about him?”

“I feel like he spends all of his time inside, either at robotics camp or on his video games,” I said. “I’ve tried to get him to the beach, but it’s like he’s allergic to the sun. You haven’t seen him shying away from garlic and drinking blood on the sly, have you?”

Ben laughed. “No, but I suspect he’s at the age where the beach is way too risky. Too many people to see you in your bathing suit, especially as a teen where you’re skinny, acne loaded, and can’t exactly control your reaction to the sight of women in bikinis.”

“Ah, the horror!” I agreed.

“Maybe he just needs something else to do in the great outdoors,” he said. “Does he sail?

“No.”

“Tennis?”

“No.”

“Golf?”

“No,” I said. “I do not know of any hobbies he has outside of being an electronics nerd.”

“Hmm.” Ben mulled this over. “I might have an idea. Let me talk to Ryan and see about the logistics, but I think the robotics camp would benefit from a field trip with sunshine, hiking, and bugs. It’ll be great.”

His enthusiasm made me smile. “Just don’t tell himI had anything to do with it. He’d never forgive me for exposing him to fresh air.”

Ben nodded. “Understood.”

He drove through the narrow streets of Edgartown. I didn’t ask where we were going since I suspected that him taking me, a chef, out to dinner would be as stressful as me trying to buy a book for him. How would I know what he hadn’t read already or what he enjoyed? Nightmare.

“How did you decide what restaurant to take me to?” I asked.

“I did my research to make certain our first date isn’t a bust over the appetizers. Very modern librarian of me, I know.”

“Indeed,” I said. “You picked Bailey’s, didn’t you?”

“Bailey’s? Is that what you’re thinking? Oh, this is embarrassing,” he said. “I was just planning to have us go down to the dock and fish for our supper.”

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