Page 88 of Summer Longing
Olivia fought her impatience while Mira sucked down the bottle and then proceeded to take forever to give up a solid burp. Finally, Mira was content enough to be strapped into the stroller and wheeled out the back door.
Marco was just starting on a fresh line. “Oh, hey,” he said. “I didn’t know anyone was home. Wait, let me help you.” He lifted the front of the stroller and together they eased it down the porch stairs and set it in the grass.
“Yeah, it’s just me. Well, just us,” she said, adjusting the hood of the stroller against the sunlight.
“Elise has gotyoubabysitting now?”
“Well, in all fairness, I volunteered. I mean, everyone else is working around here. I need something to do.”
He glanced at her while he adjusted a bunch of particularly long fronds, drawing them back over the line so they didn’t touch the ground. “Anytime you want to help out with the oysters, just let me know.”
“Really?” she said.
“Yeah. I get literally twice as much done with help. And like I said, you seem interested. That’s really half of it right there.”
She swallowed hard. “I loved it.”
He glanced inside the stroller. “It seems you wore her out.”
Olivia looked and saw that Mira’s eyes were closed. “Oh, thank God. You can’t imagine how nonstop it’s been all morning. I mean, she’s adorable—but it’s work. It makes picking those oysters seem like a rest.” She leaned closer to make sure the straps weren’t too tight. “Let me just move her to the shade.” She looked around. “If I can find any.”
“Maybe back on the porch?” Marco said.
“Okay, yeah. Sorry, can you help with the—”
He was already lifting the undercarriage. “I’ve got it,” he said when she tried to help. She followed him up the stairs. The transport didn’t seem to affect Mira. She shifted her head to one side, her eyes still shut tight.
“Well, now I’m not only not helping you, I’m officially slowing you down,” Olivia said.
He walked around from behind the carriage so he was standing beside her. She looked up at him, her insides jumping like popping corn.
“So you’re not helping me work today.”
“Well, no,” she said. “Unless…”
He leaned forward and kissed her. It lasted only thirty seconds, but there, in the bright light of the afternoon, she saw stars. She took a step back, feeling off balance. He reached forward to steady her.
“Okay,” she said, breathless.
“I wanted to do that the other day on the water,” he said.
“You did?”
“Yeah. But I was afraid it might count as workplace harassment.”
Olivia hesitated only a second. “Well,” she said. “I’m officially off the clock.”
He kissed her again.
Determined to find a festive place for dinner, Ruth called the one person she could think of who might have an idea.
“Ciro and Sal’s,” Clifford Henry said immediately. “You can smell the history. It’s in the air.”
That was the easy phone call to make. The next one, to cancel her plans with Tito, not so much.
“My daughter is leaving tomorrow, so I want to spend time with her,” Ruth said. She conveniently left out the part about her ex-husband, but really, what did it matter? People had friendly meals with their exes all the time (didn’t they?). Yes, she’d been having some…feelings. But they weren’t anything that couldn’t be handled with an emergency phone call to Dr. Bellow.
Tito sounded understanding when he said, “Another time.” But they didn’t pick a night and she wondered if he had lost interest, or if she’d imagined his interest, or if he felt like she was blowing him off (which she was, but truly, for her daughter). This type of stress was exactly why she didn’t want to date in the first place.
