Beach Blondes: June Dreams, July's Promise, August Magic (Summer) (3 page)

“I’m so sorry we’re late,” Aunt Mallory said, holding Summer out at arm’s length, inspecting her. “I hope you weren’t bored or worried.”

Bored? No, definitely not bored. It had been one of the more intense fifteen-minute periods in Summer’s life. She felt like a person who’d survived a small earthquake and was still shaky. “No, I wasn’t worried. I knew you’d be here.”

“Good girl. And how was the flight?”

“It was fine, I guess. I mean, it’s not like I’ve been on lots of planes.”

Mallory rolled her eyes very dramatically. “Unfortunately, I
have
been on lots of flights. I feel like I scarcely touch the ground anymore. In fact, I’m just on my way to another one now.”

Summer took a moment to digest this. “Did you say you’re on your way
now?
”

Mallory made a point of looking at her watch. “Yes, and look at the time. They’ll be announcing my flight any minute now. I’m on a book tour. Albany, Syracuse, Cincinnati, and…and one of those other places in the Midwest I can never keep straight.”

“You’re leaving?” Summer asked, still not quite sure she’d understood.

“In ten minutes,” her aunt confirmed. “But don’t worry; Diana will take care of you and I’ll be back in a week. You and Diana are going to be good friends.”

Summer glanced hopefully at Diana. Diana didn’t look like she was planning on being anyone’s friend.

Summer was alone with Diana. Diana was politely carrying the smallest of Summer’s several pieces, the video camera she’d brought along, while Summer was loaded down with the rest.

“That’s the car,” Diana said, pointing at the cream-colored Mercedes convertible.

“
Your
car?”

“While Mallory’s away, it is,” Diana said.

Summer piled her bags into the backseat. “I hope I didn’t bring too much stuff.”

“Hey, wait up!” someone yelled.

Seth!

Summer smiled, then decided she’d better not be too obvious and stopped smiling, then changed her mind again.

It didn’t matter. Seth had pushed past her as if he’d never met her before. He dropped his bags in front of Diana.

“Well, if it isn’t Seth Warner. Back for another summer?”

Seth put on a tight smile. “Diana. Hi. Yeah, I’m back, and look, I, uh, caught an earlier flight, so my grandfather can’t come pick me up…”

“You need a ride?”

“A cab would cost me ten bucks,” Seth explained.

“Pile in,” Diana said. “You’ll have to squeeze up front with us. This is my cousin, Summer.”

“We sort of met,” he said stiffly. Then he laughed, a nice, gentle laugh, still tinged with embarrassment. “Did you say ‘cousin’? Summer, you can’t be related to Diana—you seem so nice.”

Nice.
Summer gritted her teeth a little at that word.
Nice.
She’d heard that word too many times in her life. It was the kiss of death when it came to romance. Had she done something wrong when he’d kissed her? Was that why he’d run off?

Diana lowered the top of the convertible. “So,” she said to Seth, “is Lianne down yet?”

Seth’s gaze met Summer’s and then fell away, refocusing on his shoes. “No, I guess she’s coming down next week.”

Diana pulled the car into traffic. “What’s it been, four years with the same girlfriend, Seth? What’s the deal? You going for the faithfulness award or something?”

Seth glanced at Summer from under ridiculously long lashes. “Actually, um, Diana, I kind of…Lianne and I broke up.”

“Oh, really?” Diana drew the word out skeptically. “You and Lianne broke up, huh? Who’s next to go? Ken and Barbie?”

“It kind of just happened,” Seth said. Again he looked meaningfully at Summer, as if he was trying to send her a message.

Summer looked away.

“When did it happen?” Diana asked.

“It’s just been a week,” Seth said. Looking again at Summer he added, “It’s kind of taking me a while to get over it totally. I guess it’s strange to think of being with another girl. Do you know what I mean?”

Summer swallowed hard. Was he making an excuse for walking away after he’d kissed her?

Diana laughed. “It must be even stranger for Lianne to get used to,” she said, adjusting her rearview mirror.

“Why do you say that?” Seth asked.

“You said you broke up a week ago?” Diana asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s just that Lianne called me this morning, asked me if I’d seen you down here yet.”

Summer could feel tension in Seth’s arm as it rested lightly on her shoulders. He seemed to be holding his breath. “She called you?” he said.

“Lianne is under the impression that we are friends,” Diana said with a sneer. “Anyway, you know how she is. She wanted to be sure I gave you a message.”

“A message?”

“Yeah.” Diana cut across two lanes of traffic. “She said to remind you that she’ll be down on Tuesday. And, of course, the other thing.”

“What other thing?” Seth asked.

Diana sent him a condescending look. “To tell you that she loves you.” Diana laughed and shook her head. “Seth, Seth, Seth. It’s not like you to tell lies about breaking up with people. What were you planning to do? Have a little fling with some sweet, unsuspecting tourist girl before Lianne showed up?”

“Which pincher is your house on?” Summer asked Diana. She was trying to make conversation. Mostly because she was trying not to think about Seth’s arm around her shoulders, resting on the seat back, or his leg pressed against hers. The front seat was cramped with the three of them.

Lianne!
No wonder Seth had acted so strange when they kissed.
Lianne.
Boy, it was amazing how such warm, gentle brown eyes could lie. No wonder he’d run off like that. Guilty conscience. And then, Diana had caught him in his lie!

Diana stopped adjusting the rearview mirror and looked at Summer with genuine puzzlement. “Pincher? What are you talking about, Summer?”

“Crab Claw Key,” Summer explained, shouting slightly as they passed beneath the highway. “You know, the two pinchers.”

“You mean old side and new side,” Seth said quietly.

You mean old side and new side,
Summer repeated with silent sarcasm. Anything like the old girlfriend and the new girl? Toad. Faithless toad. Kissing Summer like that and making her feel…and then:
Lianne.

“The smaller pincher, the one to the west, is the old side because that’s where the town is and there didn’t used to be much over on the new side,” Diana explained, sounding weary. “Now the new side is all built up. My house is on the old side.”

“Oh,” Summer said. They were passing a small shopping center on their left. Straight ahead the water was coming into view, marked by a small forest of boat masts. “I saw this monster house over on the big pin—I mean, over on new side, right on the tip. I think they had a helicopter there.”

Diana’s condescending smile evaporated. “Yeah, that’s the Merrick estate.”

“Merrick?” Summer repeated. The name sounded vaguely familiar.

“As in
Senator
Merrick,” Seth interjected. “As in billionaires.”

“No way!”

“All the money in the world and still jerks,” Diana said.

Summer could hear the anger in Diana’s voice.

“You and Adam Merrick still broken up?” Seth asked Diana. “I was sure you’d be back together by now. How many eighteen-year-old billionaires are you going to run into? I thought you guys were even looking to go to the same college this fall.”

“No,” Diana said shortly. She bit her lip, and Summer saw her shake her head, just slightly, as if trying to clear an image out of her mind. “I don’t think that plan is going to work out.”

Diana turned her opaque shades toward Seth. “Although I do miss the parties we used to have over on the Merrick estate, Mr. Moon.”

Now it was Seth’s turn to look even more uncomfortable. Conversation in the car stopped.

They slowed as they entered the tiny town, just a few streets of white clapboard buildings decorated with sun-faded awnings and quaint hand-lettered signs. The main street was lined at irregular intervals with palm trees, looking wonderfully alien to Summer’s eyes.

So what if Diana wasn’t very friendly and the first guy she’d met turned out to be a jerk? There were still palm trees! Two tall, stunning, deeply tanned young women dressed in nothing but extremely small bikinis were Rollerblading right down the middle of the street. An old man wearing nothing but shorts and far too much white body hair grinned toothlessly at the car as they glided by. Summer waved and the old man waved back. A perfectly normal-looking family, two parents and two kids, all with blazingly white skin and an assortment of bright shorts and Key West T-shirts, walked along aimlessly.

Diana turned down a side street and stopped the car in front of a small, neat house surrounded by a huge blaze of red flowers.

Seth got out, more or less climbing over Summer in the process. He lifted his bags out of the back.

“See you around,” Seth said to both girls. Then, to Summer, “I hope…I mean…” He sighed resignedly. “Anyway, welcome to Florida.”

He still had a very nice smile, even if he was a toad.

“Later,” Diana said, and took off.

Summer turned to look back. Seth was carrying his bags toward the door of the house. “Why did you call him Mr. Moon?”

Diana grinned, the first real smile Summer had seen from her. “We were all at a big party at the Merrick estate. Seth was down on their pier, looking off at the sunset. Some guys decided he was being antisocial or whatever and decided to pants him.”

“What’s that?”

“They yanked off his bathing suit and threw it into the water.”

“Oh.” Summer wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the rest of the story, but it was too late now.

“I used to be into photography back then, and I was already getting ready to shoot the sunset—and Seth standing there looking at it—because I thought it would make a cool shot. Anyway, they pants poor Seth, he dives off to get his bathing suit back, and I click at just the perfect moment.” Diana caught Summer’s eye and gave her a devious look. “It’s a really unique shot.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Summer put a hand over her heart. She tugged open the neck of her sweatshirt. It was definitely hot here. She didn’t want to think about him. What had happened between them was just a mistake. She was going to forget about it, and Seth had better forget about it too. She was going to start this vacation over, beginning now.

“I still have the picture around somewhere,” Diana said, obviously enjoying Summer’s embarrassment. “I call it ‘The Sun…and the Moon.’”

The town was soon behind them, and they drove faster down a road that ran right along the edge of the bay. The water could be glimpsed only in flashes between the mismatched array of houses: some new pink stucco mansions, some older, gaily painted wood homes, some simple ranch-style houses that would have been at home in the older parts of Bloomington.

Diana pulled the car into a driveway and under the shade of a portico. She turned off the engine. Summer smoothed her tangled hair back into place.

“This is it,” Diana said, looking the house over critically. “All the tackiness you’d expect from a semi-rich romance writer.”

“It’s huge,” Summer said. The house was painted yellow and turquoise and white, a complex jumble of arched windows and fantastic turrets and screened balconies.

“Oh yeah, it’s definitely huge. Only…” Diana darted a quick look at Summer. And then she smiled. Her second smile, although it wasn’t exactly pleasant. “Only not as huge as you’d think. Actually, there are only five bedrooms in the whole place. Mallory and I each have one, of course. And there’s one we keep for important guests—you know, people Mallory wants to impress. So that only leaves two.”

Summer smiled. “Well, I only need one.”

“If only it were that easy,” Diana said regretfully. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Summer climbed out and began lifting her bags from the backseat. The feeling of nervousness was growing stronger. What did Diana mean,
If only it were that easy?
And wasn’t Diana even going to help her carry her bags?

“Don’t worry about carrying all your bags at once,” Diana said breezily as Summer struggled. “You can always come back for the rest later. If you decide to stay.”

If I decide to stay?
It was almost as if Diana was trying to get rid of her. In fact, it was
exactly
as if Diana was trying to get rid of her.

Diana was quite proud of herself. It had come to her in a flash of inspiration. Of course! It was so simple. If she moved Summer into one of the regular bedrooms, she’d never get rid of her cousin. Face it, it was a great house. Who wouldn’t want to stay in a designer-decorated bedroom overlooking the water, with a private bath and a private balcony and a housekeeper to make your bed?

Mallory had already picked out the perfect room for Summer. Way too perfect. No, Diana had a much better idea for where Summer should stay. And with Mallory out of town, well, why not? With any luck at all, Summer would be on the next plane out of town.

Diana conducted Summer through the house at a virtual run. Here’s the kitchen, oh, yes, it is huge. Here’s the family room. Oh, yes, it’s huge, too. Here’s the game room, no, I don’t play pool, the pool table’s only there because you need a pool table to make it a game room. Here’s my room, and here’s Mallory’s room….

“Why do you call your mother Mallory?” Summer asked.

“Because that’s her name. She calls me Diana because that’s
my
name. That’s the way it works.” Diana winced. Now she was getting
too
mean. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t Summer’s fault she wasn’t wanted here. Besides, if Diana was too cruel, Summer might get upset and start crying or something, and then what?

But Summer didn’t burst into tears.

“I call my mother Mom,” Summer said matter-of-factly. “So, where am I staying?”

“You know I told you there were two bedrooms left? Well, see, the problem is that one is being redecorated, so it’s a mess.” Technically true, Diana told herself. Her mother
was
waiting on a new dresser for that room. “And the problem with the other room is…” Diana paused. Was Summer going to buy this at all? Only one way to find out. “The problem with the other room is that Mallory…Mom…has to have it available for when she gets hysterical.”

Summer looked wary but not completely disbelieving. “Hysterical?”

Diana nodded sagely. “Hysterical. It happens sometimes when Mallory…Mom…starts remembering Dad—you know, the divorce and all, and the good times they had and so on. Then she gets hysterical, see, because, well, her bedroom used to be
their
bedroom, and then it’s like all these memories come back and she…she, uh, has to sleep in the other bedroom,” Diana finished lamely. “That’s why there’s like no room. In the house.”

Right,
Summer thought. Does she think I’m a complete idiot? Diana was definitely
not
making her feel welcome. Fine. So Diana hated her for some reason. Fine. So Diana wanted to get rid of her. That was fine too. Only it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“So where am I supposed to stay?” Summer asked. “Am I supposed to sleep on the couch?”

“No, that wouldn’t work. But there
is
a place for you.” Diana showed her brief, fake smile. “There’s a definite place for you. Follow me.”

Summer followed Diana downstairs, down one of the twin, curving staircases that looked like something out of a movie, through the gigantic living room and out onto the porch, where the heat was waiting to pounce on her again.

They walked down across a sloping, green lawn toward the water, toward the spot where a cabin cruiser was tied up to the pier. They turned left, aiming at a stand of trees. The shade of the trees was welcome. And then Summer saw it.

It was a bungalow, squat and homely, white paint chipped and faded, looking forlorn and abandoned. It would have looked like any way-below-average house in any way-below-average neighborhood except that it was raised on wooden stilts and stood directly over the water. A shaded stairway seemed to run from the interior of the house straight down to a small platform on the water. Two Jet Skis were tied up there, knocking together haphazardly on the gentle swell.

A rickety-looking wooden walkway ran a hundred feet from the grassy, shaded shore to the house. The walkway wrapped around the house, forming a narrow deck lined with a not-exactly-reassuring railing. A pelican sat on one corner of the railing, its huge beak nestled in its brown feathers. As Summer watched, the pelican added to the crusty pile of droppings.

“It has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom,” Diana announced proudly.

“And a pelican who thinks the whole thing is a bathroom,” Summer said.

“You’d have a lot of privacy here,” Diana said, trying unsuccessfully to keep from gloating. “Sure, there’s a little mildew, some pelican droppings, and you know, the furniture isn’t exactly the very best….”

“This is where Aunt Mallory wants me to stay?” Summer asked dubiously.

“Oh, she’s not much for details of who stays where,” Diana said, waving a hand breezily. “You’ll be thrilled to know that this is a historical house; that’s why Mallory doesn’t tear it down. It was used by rum smugglers back during Prohibition in the 1920s. And we were renting it out until a couple of years ago.”

“Uh-huh,” Summer said. So this was Diana’s plan to get her to leave. She was going to stick her here in mildew manor. Diana probably thought she’d just start boohooing and run home to her mother. Well, maybe she should, if no one wanted her here.

Only, Summer didn’t like to get pushed around. She was here to have an excellent summer vacation, even if it meant living with the pooping pelican.

“Do I get to use the Jet Skis?” Summer asked tersely.

Diana looked surprised. “Um, sure. I mean, if you’re staying, I guess…” Her voice drifted away.

“Of course I’m staying,” Summer said. “This place looks beautiful and perfect, and you and I are going to become best friends, just like Aunt Mallory said.”
Take that, witch,
Summer added silently.

Diana swallowed. For the first time she looked unsure of herself. “We are?”