Page 80 of The Book of Summer

“What’s shaking?” he asked, and took a seat beside her.

“Nothing much. Just enjoying the last moments of this.”

Ruby gestured toward the lawn, to where Miss Mayhew was trying to unstring lights from the trees. The woman cursed as she made it into a worse jumble.

“The ending is always bittersweet,” Topper said. “But we had a helluva summer.”

Did they? It was hard to tell, and so Ruby nodded as she gazed out toward the ocean. By October the grounds at Cliff House would turn gray and cold. Mother’s flowers would shrivel as bayberries overtook the dunes below.

“We’re lucky,” Topper said, his eyes following hers. “To have this place to come back to.”

“I don’t want to hear nostalgia from you, Robert Appleton Young. It’s going to set me in a foul mood. You’re supposed to be merrier than that.”

“Sorry, old gal,” he said. “I’ll slip back into my Topper duds by the end of the day. Just for you.”

Ruby bobbed her head. They were quiet for several minutes, the wind whisking around them. As she stretched a shawl tighter around her shoulders, Ruby turned back toward her brother.

“Do you think you’ll keep up with Hattie?” she asked. “After we all leave?”

“Aw, Red, not this old song. I know you envision yourself a merry matchmaker but things don’t always line up as you’d please.”

“I understand, okay? That’s not what I’m asking.”

Ruby paused.

What, exactly,wasshe asking? What was it Ruby wanted to know? That there was something between Hattie and Topper? That what she witnessed was more than two animals clawing at each other in sweaty, needful desperation? You didn’t do that sort of thing for the heck of it. Or maybe you did. What did Ruby know about it, really? Perhaps European cupboards were positively packed with people doing exactly that. If so, Hitler was in for it should his aspirations pan out. An entire continent of people blind from the clap.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Ruby said at last. “Will you keep in touch?”

“‘Keep in touch’?”

“Surely you’re going to maintain some sort of… correspondence.”

“Golly, dunno. Haven’t really noodled on it,” he said with his telltale Topper squint. “It’s hard to say. Hattie’s a swell gal, no matter what, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know her.”

“I’ll bet,” Ruby mumbled.

“Of course you’re the main thing we have in common.” Topper gave his sister a nudge. “So without you around, who knows?”

“Without me around, who knows indeed.”

“You know, we were sniggering the other day,” he said. “About how much you want us to be married to each other, when we don’t want that at all.”

“I don’t find that notably hilarious. You two make a fine couple and it’s not like you haven’t had plenty of time together… alone… without me. Don’t tell me it hasn’t been fun because I’m not buying it.”

“Hattie’s a blast, you know that,” he said.

“I don’t get it, then. She’s the perfect woman!”

“Aw, hell, Red. Hattie’s fab, but…”

“Is it…” Ruby stuttered. She gave him a hard stare. “Is it because she’s… fast?”

Topper gave an uneasy laugh.

“I don’t know if ‘fast’ is the word,” he said.

“Did she give it up too easily? Is that the problem?”

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