She howls with laughter, even bending over to hold her stomach. “Oh. My. God. That’s the worst.”
“What, the fact I went at all or the fact I went with my mother?” I ask with disdain.
Still laughing, she says, “Both. They’re both terrible.”
“Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice.”
“Don’t worry. Next Monday I’ll save you.” She stretches her legs out into the sand. The girls play by the edge of the water and JT works on the foundation of a castle. We’ve started meeting here, unscheduled, for the last couple of days.
“I’m holding you to that,” I tell her.
We sun in silence for a while. I’m definitely more diligent with the sunscreen, not wanting to repeat the terrible burn from my first day out. Right now I have big, flakey, peeling skin all over my chest. I look like a leper.
“So Summer,” Anita says. “You said you broke up with your boyfriend. Are you seeing anyone else?”
I keep my eyes closed and say, “No, definitely not.”
“Really? No prospects?”
“Back home? Zero.” I’d isolated myself too much for any guy to take notice. “And here? I don’t know anyone and I’m not interested.”
She clucks her tongue and I raise my eyebrows. Finally, she says, “Good luck keeping the guys away down here. They’ll definitely take notice.”
“Notice of what?”
“You, silly. You’re fun.New. Smart. You look great in that bathing suit, although you could show a little more skin.” My jaw drops. “What?” she asks. “I can’t help it. Your boobs are right there. I noticed.”
I sigh and sit up, adjusting my chair so I can see her better. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m not sure I’m really dating material right now. The breakup was pretty horrible. I can’t even imagine getting involved with someone else.”
Anita’s face falls. “Oh, I’m sorry. That sucks. Was it serious?”
“As serious as these things get, I guess.” This is a lie of course. My heart hurts just talking about it. Because it was great. And then it wasn’t.
“What happened?”
I make a face. “Too soon?” I beg. No way can I talk about this. Not now.
“Another time,” she says, and from the tiny smile on her face I know she means it.
“Deal.”
I’m about to close my eyes when she asks, “So did you meet anyone interesting at the cocktail party? What about Mrs. Graves? She’s the one with the tiny sherry glasses.”
“Yes! Those were adorable, but no one paid me much attention. They were all enthralled by Julia and her stories.”
“I told Bobby about the book she’s writing. I had to hold him off from coming over.”
I smile. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. She loves talking to her fans and about dead people and stuff.”
“Good, he can talk to her and not me.”
I nod in agreement and then remember something. “I did meet this one other guy. Richard? He seemed nice.”
“Oh yeah, he’s Bobby’s uncle. Super-duper nice.”
“He’s from here?” I’m surprised. He seemed higher class than Anita and the other locals. His speech sounded less country. He dressed nicer, too. I hold back on those remarks.
“Yeah, he’s an attorney. He went to UNC for college and then Duke for law school. But he came back here to work and live.”
