Page 8 of 28 Summers
Mallory grinned. “Jake?” she said. It was now the end of freshman year and she had acquired some moxie. “It’s Mal.”
“Malmeans ‘bad’ in French,” Jake said. “But you must be the good kind of bad.”
Mallory couldn’t believe that talking to someone she’d never met could feel soseductive. “How are you?” she said. “Are you…getting ready to graduate?”
“Yes, thank you for asking,” Jake said. “But I have zilch in the way of job offers, so I’m sitting on the end of your brother’s bed teaching myself Cat Stevens songs on the guitar so I can support myself as a subway performer.”
“I love Cat Stevens,” Mallory said.
“All the best people do,” Jake said.
“I have every album. My favorite isTea for the Tillerman.” Mallory tried to tamp down her enthusiasm. She hadn’t thought her crush on Jake McCloud could get any worse, but now that she knew he liked Cat Stevens, she was acomplete goner.“Put the phone down next to you and let me listen while you play.”
“Tell me if I’m any good,” Jake said. “And if the answer is no, please lie to spare my ego. Okay, something fromTea for the Tillerman,here we go.” He set the phone down and then she heard him strumming the first chords of “Hard Headed Woman.” He started to sing:“I’m looking for a hard headed woman, one who will take me for myself…”
His voice wasgreat. It had strength and it was on key and controlled. It was sexy. He sang to the bridge and then he picked up the phone.
“What do you think?” he said. “Should I quit and apply at Long John Silver’s?”
“Woo-hoo!” Mallory cried. “You sounded terrific! You’re going to be a very rich and successful subway performer.”
“Aw,” Jake said. “Thank you, that’s sweet.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, did you call to talk to Coop?”
“Coop?” she said.
Mallory doesn’t know if Jake remembers the content of their repartee or even that theyhada repartee—it was so long ago, over five years. As she leads the boys to the car, she thinks it might have been better if Jake had turned out to be not her type because then she could just be her normal self instead of being sick with infatuation.
The boyslovethe car! Cooper whistles and calls shotgun; Fray and Jake climb in the back, and Mallory cranks up the radio.
Fray says, “Should we swing by the package store? I have money.”
“For once,” Coop says.
“I have two cases of beer at the house,” Mallory says. “And a fresh fifth of Jim Beam. I know my audience.”
“I love you, Mal,” Fray says.
“Hey,” Jake says, smacking Frazier’s shoulder. “She’s mine.”
“She’s mine”?Mallory thinks.Is it going to be this easy?
She wants to believe that. Everything this summer has been charmed except for the fact that she hasn’t fallen in love. Could that be next? Could that benow?
When they get to the house, Mallory shows them their rooms—Cooper says he’ll stay in a room with Jake so that Fray can have a room to himself. (He gives Mallory a wink, meaningLeland.) The boys change into their board shorts and run down the slope of the beach into the ocean. Mallory watches them from the porch for a minute. Jake has strong, sculpted shoulders; he’s a powerful swimmer. He dives under a breaking wave, then surfaces and whips his wet hair out of his face. He notices Mallory checking him out, and he grins.
Complete goner,she thinks, and she heads inside to fix some snacks.
Seven hours later, Mallory and Jake will be standing alone together in the cold sand and Mallory will scream until her throat is on fire and Jake will tell her to call 911 and Mallory will flash back to the moment she stood on the porch grinning as she admired Jake’s shoulders and she will wonder how everything went so horribly wrong. She will suspect it’s her fault.
Mallory puts out Brie, water crackers, and a little dish of chutney. She’s channeling her mother, who believes that life begins with hors d’oeuvres. Mallory has been chilling the beer all day in a galvanized tub that her aunt and uncle used as a footbath. She sets up the Jim Beam, a trio of cold Cokes, a bucket of clean ice. The boys come up from the beach. When Cooper sees the cutting board loaded with cheese and crackers, he gives Mallory a look.
“Against all odds, you’ve turned into Kitty.”
Mallory shrugs as Jake and Fray dig in. No one has ever been unhappy about seeing hors d’oeuvres.
Mallory is tempted to put on some Cat Stevens but she doesn’t want to be obvious—and what if Jake doesn’t remember? She puts on R.E.M., “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”
Fray pours himself a Beam and Coke. “And I feel fine,” he says.
