Page 79 of Songs of Summer

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jason, Maggie’s, um, brother.”

“Oh.” Jake held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jason. Feel free to come to the wedding tomorrow; there’s plenty of room.” He turned to Matt and added, “We got a bunch of Covid cancellations. Your mother is going to be redoing those tables up until we walk down the gangplank.” He winked.

Once he was out of earshot, they all pointed to the ethics professor and laughed. He laughed too.

Oh, what a tangled web they’d woven.

Track 36

Love You for a Long Time

Jake

The delay inJake Finley writing his vows was not because he didn’t know what to say; it was because he had too much to say.

He could remember the very first time he and Renee had spoken.

She was fourteen, boarding the boat with her parents. He was fifteen, and it was his first summer as an official deckhand, though he had been a fixture on the ferry since he could walk.

She was wearing a sundress, and her hair was teased high on top of her head, the way teenage girls wore it then.

“Ticket, please,” he’d asked, wondering if the sudden burning in his cheeks was visible to her piercing green eyes.

“My dad has it.” She smiled coyly, like she already knew the power that her smile held.

Now he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote.

Renee, you are as beautiful today as you were the day I met you.

Two years later, at sixteen, they were at a house party together over in Point O’ Woods. Jake didn’t go to many parties. Summer, for him, meant rising before the sun and working long hours on the ferry. While most other kids had cushy jobs scooping ice cream or working at the day camp, Jake’s job was his priority. His father was the ferry captain back then, and his father’s father was the ferry captain before that. He had a lot to live up to.

That night thirty-plus years ago, sometime after midnight, Renee was heading back to Bay Harbor, alone. Not unlike what happened this weekend, Bea, who she had come to the party with, had to leave on account of Veronica’s antics. Jake watched from the back deck as Renee walked down the beach stairs. He could see her reticence as she reached the bottom, so he took a few steps down himself. A rowdy group walking on the beach called out to her, clearly making her uncomfortable. She took a step back. Jake took ten forward.

“Want me to walk you home?” he asked.

“Thanks, Jake, that would be nice.”

She knew his name. He did his best to hide a massive grin.

It was a chilly night, and he took off his prized Fire Island Ferries Crew sweatshirt and handed it to her without even asking. It was a good move, he thought, as she silently slipped it over her head. They talked about the regular stuff, mostly what it was like living on the island all year long. It was a common question, and he did his best to impress her with tales of riding his bike across the frozen bay and ski jumping off snow-covered roofs. When they got to her street, she took off the sweatshirt and handed it back to him. He badly wanted her to keep it and toyed with telling her so when she leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips.

“Thanks for walking me,” she said softly.

He kissed her back and their tongues touched, igniting a sweet exploration of each other’s mouths. She was standing on her tippy-toes in the sand. He was bent forward, not unlike a giraffe. It was over quickly, but he thought about it forever. He still thought about it. It was his first kiss.

He continued with his vows.

You were my first kiss, and you will be my last.

Renee’s parents divorced soon afterward and sold the house at the beach. And that kiss became a core childhood memory—as much as riding his bike across the frozen bay or ski jumping off a snow-covered roof. Until many years later, when Renee and her then husband, Arthur, bought a summer home in Bay Harbor and their son, Matty, and his daughter, Dylan, became the best of friends.

Since Jake was a single father, Renee had helped with Dylan often over the years. Aside from feeding her many a meal while he worked the long summer shifts, she took it upon herself to teach her girly things—like how to shave her legs and use a tampon. For years, nearly every interaction between married Renee and Jake involved the kids.

You have been there for me and Dylan over the years in ways I could never repay.

Until about a year and a half ago, when Jake got a frantic phone call from Renee in the middle of the night. He ran over in his pajamas.

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