Shipwrecked Summer (11 page)

    The ball left the pitcher’s hand, sailing through the air towards Blanco. He planted his left foot in front of him and swung through, making contact with the ball.

It flew through the air, back...back...the right fielder ran after it, still hoping to catch it in the air. Both benches emptied as guys clung to the chain-link fence, watching, one side hoping for a miracle, the other believing it was nothing more than a routine fly ball.

    My eyes weren’t on the ball. I watched Blanco, who ran the bases without looking to see what he’d done. He ran hard, fast, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him, mesermized by the way his legs looked as he moved.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

I was startled out of my trance by the delighted cries of one of the teams. I tore my eyes off of the baserunner and saw him teammates running from their bench onto the field in celebration.

I looked for the right fielder and he stood, shoulders slumped, eyes down, the little white baseball resting comfortably against the outfield fence.

Blanco had gotten the hit he needed. I smiled, happy for him without really knowing why.

As his teammates reached him on the third base path, he took off his batting helmet and flung it into the air.

I gasped, all the air in my body feeling as if it’d been knocked out of me with one swift kick to the belly.

But standing there, sweaty hair falling into his dancing eyes, smile wide as the Mississippi, surrounded by his grinning teammates all wanting to congratulate him, stood a man whose heroic behavior I had become somewhat familiar with when he saved me from a bloodied beach wound.

Jeff the Lifeguard lifted his arms in delight as he celebrated his game-winning hit. Why this pick-up game on an elementary school baseball diamond meant so much to him--and all of these guys--I had no idea.

But what I couldn’t deny--what I almost didn’t want to deny--was the rumblings of the connection I’d felt watching him battle with the pitcher.

For whatever reason, Jeff the Lifeguard...Jeff Blanco...he could do something nobody else could. He’d gotten to me in ways nobody else ever had.

And I needed to know why.

As he and his teammates made their way off the diamond and to their bench to gather their strewn bats, gloves, and helmets, Jeff looked up into the stands.

He looked right at me, and his delighted expression turned to one of confusion, then recognition, and finally curiosity. He said something to one of the guys, picked up his bag and bat, and walked around the chain-link fence.

I sucked in my breath, my stomach suddenly in knots.

He was walking right toward me, looking at me the whole way. I wanted to break the gaze, but couldn’t. I was as mesmerized by him now as I was when he was just Blanco, harmlessly rounding the bases.

Jeff climbed the few rows and sat next to me on the bleachers.

   “What are you doing here?” he asked, though I didn’t hear any malice in his voice, not like the first day we’d met.

    I shrugged. “I was taking a walk and wound up here. Just needed to get away from everything.” I paused. “So what is this, anyway?”

    “A baseball game. Not your sport?”

    I looked at him, his brown eyes sparkling with amusement. “Very funny. I tend to prefer competitive Scrabble.”

    He grinned. “We play in a pre-college league. There are a bunch of teams around Jersey, probably around the country, and we’re fighting for a playoff spot. We had to beat these guys to get a step closer. And we did!”

    “Congratulations.”

    “Thanks,” he said without looking at me. “It’s kinda important to us, you know?”

    I nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I didn’t realize that was you at bat.”

  “Wouldn’t of cheered for me so hard if you had, huh?”

    I was surprised he’d seen me in the stands before I’d realized it was him. “I wasn’t...I’m not-”

    “Relax, Lexie. I’m just teasing.” I didn’t say anything. “That was my first hit in the last month,” he blurted out to fill the silence. “Maybe you’re my good luck charm or something.”

I smiled despite myself. “Maybe I am.”

“Well,” he said slowly. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“Guess you’re just going to have to come to our next game.”

“Now why would I do that? There’s got to be some kind of law about me trespassing where I don’t belong.”

He looked at me, eyes narrowed slightly but still amused. “You still haven’t let that go?”

“Why would I? You were so rude to me for no reason!”

I didn’t know where this assertiveness was coming from, but it seemed like Jeff always brought out the part of me most willing to stick up for myself. I liked that.

    “I know,” he said. “And I felt bad about that, but I was just having a really bad day.”

    “Doesn’t mean you take it out on someone you don’t even know.”

    “Yeah, you’re right, but I did. I just really like to sit up on the stand in the late afternoon after all the kids are gone from the beach if I’ve got a lot on my mind. And then you were up there and I wasn’t expecting to have to talk to anyone and I just snapped at you. I’m sorry.”

    I nodded. “I like that about the stand, too.”

    “It’s great, isn’t it?”

    “Best time of day.”

    “Yeah.” He looked down at the black plastic watch on his left wrist. “Hey, you hungry? That new burger place just opened up a few blocks away and I really want to try it.”

    “Sure,” I said, keeping my voice light and airy.

Inside, I was screaming. Just a few hours ago, Jeff the Lifeguard had been the farthest thing from my mind. It’d been all Pia and Anthony, Anthony and Pia.

I hadn’t expected anything with Jeff and I wasn’t sure I did now. But it was nice to know that we could at least get along.

We stood and climbed down the bleachers without saying anything.

  “Let me just tell the guys I’m going,” he said, picking up the bag he’d left at the bottom of the stairs.

I nodded and watched him walk back towards his teammates. The group had thinned out since we began talking and he said something to a few of the guys, who immediately turned to glance at me. I blushed and looked away.

  It only took us a few minutes to walk down to Betsy’s Burgers and we settled in at a window table in the corner to watch the traffic hustle by on Central Avenue.

“So,” he said as soon as I took a huge bite of my greasy burger piled high with lettuce, tomato, onions, and bacon. “Do you spend the whole summer here?”

    I nodded and pointed to my mouth and he laughed as he waited for me to finish chewing and swallow. I reached for a sip of my lemon water before I could talk.

   “Yeah,” I finally said, putting the burger down on my plate and wiping my hands with a napkin. “My grandparents have a house here so I come up for the summer.”

    “I’ve never seen you before,” he said. “And I’ve been working the Gull Boulevard stand for three years.”

   I shrugged. “You probably have and just didn’t know it.”

    Jeff shook his head. “No. I’d know it.”

    We let that hang in the air between us for a few seconds. He suddenly became very interested in his fries while I tried to figure out what he meant by that.

   “Um,” he said, clearing his throat. “Where are you from, anyway? I know it can’t be around here with that Southern belle thing you’ve got going on.”

  “Alabama,” I said. “But nowhere you’ve heard of.”

   “Try me. I’ve got family there.”

    “Spring Dells. It isn’t that far from--”

   “Birmingham,” he interrupted. “It’s probably an hour from there, right?”

    I looked at him with raised eyebrows. “How’d you know?”

    He just smiled. “Told you. Family.”

“Do you go there a lot?”

“No,” he said, and I was surprised to see that he looked as if he regretted it. “But I really liked it there. It’s different. Nice.”

He looked at me as if there was some sort of meaning I was supposed to derive from that statement, but it was lost on me.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked before I could say anything else.

“Oh,” I said. “Um, I don’t know. No plans yet, I guess.”

“Good. Then you should come out with me.”

“Where?”

“There’s a party not that far from the Treasure Chest. Cute work uniform, by the way,” he added, a teasing glimmer in his eye.

I blushed, remembering that I’d seen him at the amusement park a few days ago with Brittany. “I won’t know anybody.”

“You’ll know me.”

“And you’ll probably know everybody else!”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t bring you with me and ditch you. Come on, Lexie, just because I was a jerk the first time we met doesn’t mean I’m always like that.”

“The first and second,” I reminded him.

But Jeff just frowned, wrinkling his brow. “What?”

“The bonfire. Later that night. Did you forget about that?”

The horrified expression that came over his face said it all. “I...yeah,” he finally said. “I did. Wow, yeah, that was you.”

I nodded. “That was me.”

He shook his head. “Jeez, I don’t know why you’re talking to me right now. I thought it was bad enough that I was a jerk on the beach, but I didn’t even remember the bonfire.”

“You were nicer to me after that,” I said. “When I got hurt on the beach and then when I was at work.”

“Oh, yeah. So you saw that, huh?” he said, and I knew he was referring to his blowup with Brittany at the Treasure Chest.

“It was kind of hard to miss.”

Jeff sighed. “I hated that. I hate making things that should be private public like that,” he said, and I thought back to the way he was dancing with Brittany at the bonfire and raised my eyebrows. “But she wouldn’t listen. And I guess neither would I. We weren’t that good together.”

I frowned, surprised by this. “You’re not together?”

He shook his head. “We ended things later that night for real. It’s a good thing, but it just sucks when something you’re used to suddenly isn’t there anymore, you know? Like it’s a comfort thing.”

“Yeah, I think I know how you feel.”

“I didn’t even see it coming,” he went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “She just blindsided me out of nowhere.”

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. Jeff was talking as if he needed to rationalize his feelings out loud and I was simply convenient, simply there.

He fell silent for a few seconds, before sighing. “Sorry. Anyway, what do you think? About the party tonight?”

I figured I should say no. Did I really want to spend an entire night listening to him whimper about losing Brittany?

My other option was to spend the night moping around the shore house and having Grandma tell me that I should run on over to that nice boy Anthony’s house to say hello.

“I’ll be there,” I said.

Jeff smiled. “Great. I’ll pick you up around eight.”

Jeff showed up right on time and I liked that. He even came to the front door and rang the bell.

Grandma thought I was spending the evening hanging around with my “new little friend from work.” I hadn’t wanted to explain who Jeff was, especially since I had no idea what was going to come out of tonight.

“That’s a great shirt,” I said, not able to hide my smile when I saw him.

“This?” he replied, glancing down at his polo. “Thanks.”

I nodded. “I love it when guys wear pink.”

He smiled at me. “I’m going to have to keep that in mind.”

We rode the rest of the way to the party in a comfortable silence. I didn’t feel like I had to fill it with nonsense like I had with Anthony.

“This is my buddy Ron’s place,” Jeff said as he steered his pickup truck into a parking spot along the street. “We went to high school together. Most of the guys from the baseball team will be here tonight.”

He came around and opened the car door for me and I couldn’t help but smile at him. We walked up the path to the house and, once again, he held the front door, allowing me to go in before him.

“Come with me to the kitchen. I’ll find you something to drink.”

“Don’t you want anything?” I asked him.

He shook his head as I followed him through the crowd. “I’m driving you home tonight, remember?”

Jeff didn’t strike me as the type who’d be irresponsible enough to drink and drive, but it was still good to hear him say it out loud.

“What do you want?”

“Oh,” I said, looking around the kitchen, spotting a crowd gathered near a keg. “I guess water’s fine.”

“No beer?”

I shook my head, remembering its awful taste from the night at the bonfire. And if Jeff wasn’t drinking, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself if I developed a buzz.