Page 29 of Summer Ever After
“A sail is a sail and a keel is a keel.” Ramona also winked. “And what about you?” I asked Jessica.
“Harvard rowing alumna.” She held her hands up in front of her as if she’d been caught with her hands in the cookie jar.
Laird surveyed the crowd. Only one canoe was left on the course and the crowd was shifting to the start line for the next race. “Where’s your brother?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. He was supposed to meet me at the main cottage, but he didn’t show.”
Laird’s lips narrowed, but his look of annoyance was brief. “If it doesn’t have an engine in it, he’s not interested. Well, your substitute paddled a hell of a lot better than he would’ve. It was nice to meet you, Rosie. I hope to see more of you this summer.”
The only way that Laird Starling was going to see more of me was with a mop in my hand, not a canoe paddle. “It was nice to meet you too, sir.”
Laird shot me an amused look and then disappeared into the crowd. I pulled Jessica aside. “I should get back to work.”
“We still have to get our medals.” Her eyes were trained on a good-looking guy easing into a kayak. He had taken off his shirt and looked like a bronzed god. His shoulder muscles rippled as he eased into the kayak.
“Do you know Mrs. Graham?” I put my hands on my hips.
Jessica laughed. “I sure do. She looked after me and my brother. She’s like my second mom. If my second mom were a drill sergeant battle axe. Just kidding,” she sighed. “Faye has a good heart and cares as much about this family as she does her own.” Her eyes drifted over my shoulder to the kayak god who was stretching his arms above his head, the paddle in his hands. “I’ll take you back after this race…”
* * *
Back at Starling Island,Jessica eased the wakeboard boat to the dock. I tossed my shoes onto the wooden planks. “Thanks for inviting me to the regatta. That was a fun afternoon.”
“No, thank you.” Jessica reached into the compartment in the boat and handed me a roll of cash. “I really did have money on that race. You saved my bacon.”
“I can’t.” I held up my hand. “I can’t take that money.”
“Why the hell not? You earned it.” Jessica grabbed my hand, uncurled my fingers, and closed them around the band of cash. “I’ll bring you your medal later. They’re not really medals, they’re pieces of wood, but they’re cute.”
“It’s ok. I really should get back to work. I promised Mrs. Graham that I’d have the boathouse done by the end of the day.”
Jessica smoothed the flyaway from her ponytail flat. “You should come to the Stone Oven tonight. It’s karaoke.”
I laughed and then realized that she was serious. “I’ll think about it.”
Jessica narrowed her eyes. “That means you’re not coming. Give me your number then, I think we should hang out. Or at least plan to go to the Chance Rapids regatta and win some more cash.”
Squeezing the money, I realized that I could go out to the bar and drink something other than tap water. “I’ll come tonight.” I did not want to go to the Stone Oven for karaoke night, but admitting to Jessica Starling that I didn’t own a cell phone seemed mortifying. She wasn’t looking at me like the help, she was treating me like an actual friend. Maybe it was immature, but it had been so long since I’d made a friend, that I didn’t want to break the spell.
“See you there.” She gunned the engine and waved as she headed back to the regatta. Probably to watch that kayaker, whose name was Jasper, win another race. He had easily taken first place and had jogged over to plant a kiss on Jessica as soon as he was done.
I felt a pang of jealousy at Jessica and her life, but I couldn’t hate her. She was easily the kindest person I’d met in years and didn’t look down on me. Was it because we’d won? I opened my hand and counted the money. She’d handed me one thousand dollars. But, something told me that even if we’d tipped the canoe and come in last place, she still would’ve invited me to go out with her friends. As a girl who hadn’t had a new friend, other than co-workers – since she was thirteen, an unfamiliar feeling beat in my belly. Nerves.
I had made a friend. And an extra thousand dollars that Christina didn’t know about. Slipping the cash into my pocket, my heart sank. In the excitement of it all, I had forgotten about my last shift at the factory. I couldn’t meet Jessica at the Stone Oven. I had to go home, nap for as long as I could before putting on the polyester button-up shirt and go to my second job.
While I finished scrubbing the boathouse until it was spotless, the excitement of the afternoon dissipated. I stared at the waves lapping at the side of the pontoon boat as Trey drove me and Tara to the mainland. I felt lower than I’d felt in a long time. I’d had a glimpse of a life that was out of my grasp.
“Bye, Trey.” Tara hopped off the boat. She’d been avoiding Trey since her failed attempt at flirting with him, and her warning from Mrs. G. “Good night Miss Tara and Miss Rosie.” He winked as he said my name. Mrs. Graham must have told him to call me my real name.
“Good night, Trey.” I tried to smile at him, but couldn’t muster the energy to do much more than turn up the sides of my closed mouth.
“What’s up with you?” Tara asked as we walked away from the pontoon boat. But Tara’s voice had turned into muffled white noise. There, parked in the marina parking lot, sat a motorcycle that I knew well.
He was here. Somewhere. I gulped. How could I face Max again, after the way that we’d left things? The way that I’d left things…
“Earth to Daisy.” Tara waved her hand in front of my face. “Whatcha thinking about?”
I shrugged. “Nothing.” I was thinking about the way Max’s thumbs dug into my hip bones. The way that my stomach flipped when he smiled at me. “I’m just tired.”
