Page 14 of Summer Reading

“How does this robotics camp work?” I asked. “My parents mentioned that it was an opportunity for a scholarship to the Severin Science Academy, but...” I shrugged.

He nodded. “I get it. When I took the job as interimlibrary director, I had questions, too. Ryan Fielding, who works in outreach for Severin Robotics, is the main instructor for this group on the Vineyard. There are ten different camps all over the country, and they have ten students each. They are all competing for the top prize, which is scholarship money and automatic entry into the academy for their entire team.”

“Which is why Tyler didn’t want Amber kicked off?”

“I suspect so,” he said. He rose from his seat. “I’d better go speak with her before it gets late. Thanks for the cocktail.”

“Anytime.” Oh no, did that sound too desperate or too friendly? I’d been working nights at the Comstock for so long I had no idea how normal people interacted.

Ben turned and headed toward the stairs. I put down my drink and followed him, as it felt weird to stay on the porch and wave goodbye from a distance.

We walked down the short path to the street. He paused beside his motorcycle. It was a big old beast of machine.

“So is this the house that used to be your grandmother’s?” he asked.

I glanced back at the cedar shake shingled cottage that had been my happy place every summer. “It is.”

“How did your family come to live on the Vineyard?”

“They were Portuguese fishermen,” I said. “Recruited from the Azores to work whaling ships, they eventually settled on the Vineyard. My family has ownedthis house and a couple of others since the before times, when the area was called Cottage City.”

Ben’s eyes took in the modest house, which was well over one hundred years old. He nodded slowly as if he could see the ghosts of my ancestors walking the grounds. Sometimes I could, too.

“That’s an amazing thing to have so much family history,” he said. His voice was wistful, and I watched him swing his leg over the seat and pick up his helmet. I had a feeling Bennett Reynolds was looking for more than just some relatives, and my curiosity demanded to know what.

“I’ll see you tomorrow when I drop Tyler off,” I said. There I was sounding desperate again. I downshifted to casual. “You know, if you’re around.”

“Oh, I’ll be around.” His gaze met mine, and there it was. That spark of awareness that made my pulse pound and my hearing get fuzzy. How the heck had I managed to get a scorching case of “yes, please” for the hot librarian guy? No idea.

Ben Reynolds was way more than I’d bargained for this summer. Good thing I was flexible. I watched him put on his helmet and fire up his bike. With a wave, he shot down the street, and I discovered I was actually looking forward to going to the library the next day. Who’d have thought?

Chapter Five

I went back into the house to find Tyler foraging through the pantry like a bear in a dumpster. He was pulling random things out, smelling them, and then shoving them back as if he feared they carried a contagious strain of disease.

I folded my arms and leaned against the counter. “Can I help you find something?”

“Food,” he grumbled. “I don’t even know what most of this stuff is.”

“What mystifies you?” I asked. “The almond butter? The loaf of bread that’s not presliced? Or is it the plethora of fruits and vegetables?”

He turned to me with a glower. “I can’t eat this stuff.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“I only eat pasta with butter, plain rice, or peanut butter and jelly, and occasionally chicken nuggets, but they have to be fresh from McDonald’s.”

“What are you, five?” I asked. I was appalled. Whatfourteen-year-old ate the diet of a constipated old man? “Come on, we’re going out.”

“I don’t want to eat out,” he said. “They never serve anything I like.”

“I am positive we can find something plain enough to suit even you,” I said. “Besides, I’m in charge of meals, and if you want food, you’re coming with me.”

He slammed the door to the pantry, and his scowl deepened. “Why do you even want to go out to eat with me since you hate teenagers so much?”

I sucked in a breath. So he had heard me talking to Dad that first night. Great. I stood next to him, thinking of what I could say that might make him stop using what I had said about teens as a club to bludgeon me with every time I opened my mouth, otherwise it was going to be an excruciatingly long summer.

It occurred to me as I was considering and discarding snappy comebacks that I was looking up at him. Up. At my little brother.When the hell did that happen?

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