Shipwrecked Summer (5 page)

   She smiled and I could see the mischevious twinkle in her eye from the bottom of the steps. “Don’t have too much fun now. Anthony seems like a lovely young man. Are you going to invite Pia and Joey to the beach with you?”

   I paused. I hadn’t seen them since sometime last night at the bonfire and inviting them to hang out with Anthony hadn’t even crossed my mind.

    “Trying to keep the boy next door all to yourself, huh?” Grandma winked at me and I frowned.

    “I’m the one who’s showing him around. He’s got to see the beach, too.”

   But my grandmother just raised her eyebrows. “If you say so, Alexa. Dinner’s at six.” She smiled and shook her head. “Try not to be too late.”

  ***

   “Patience not one of your strong points?” I asked twenty minutes later when I found Anthony sprawled out on a beach towel.

    “Punctuality not one of yours?” he shot back without opening his eyes.

   “I’m usually on time,” I replied. “Actually, I’m always early. But my grandmother went off on one of her tangents.”

I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d spent five extra minutes deciding between my purple and red bikinis (purple) and wondering whether my favorite eyeliner was too much for the beach (it was, but an extra layer of waterproof mascara made the cut).

   He dragged himself up to a sitting position, draping his arms across his bent knees. “Oh, yeah, she wanted to know what I was talking about in the kitchen this morning?”

   Actually, Grandma hadn’t brought that up when I’d come home and I crossed my fingers, hoping she’d forgotten. The last thing I needed was my grandmother thinking I’d gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.

    “Yeah, thanks for that,” I said. “I really want my grandma knowing about what happened at the bonfire.”

    Anthony just shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you remembered me. And how I saved your butt and all.”

    I narrowed my eyes. “You didn’t save my butt! I was doing perfectly fine without your help.”

    He laughed. “Really? Come on, I was there. He was killing you, Lexie.”

   “I don’t know what you were listening to because you’re wrong.”

   “Face it, you were never going to get out of that one without him getting the last word. I did you a favor.”

   “You’re crazy,” I said, but I couldn’t keep my indignation up for long. Anthony’s cocky grin and raised eyebrows threatened to crack my resolve.

    He shrugged and scrambled to his feet. “Last one to the water buys ice cream!” And he took off running.

  I dropped my bag to the sand and sprinted after him, pulling the flimsy blue sundress that doubled as my bikini cover-up over my head as I went. Anthony charged into the surf, ran a few feet, then stumbled and crashed belly-first into the waves.

   I slowed my pace before I stumbled. Anthony staggered to his feet only to be knocked over by another white-capping wave. I didn’t bother to hide my giggle.

    “Oh, you think that’s funny?” he asked, rubbing the salt from his eyes.

    “Who, me?”

    He wiggled his eyebrows and took a step towards me. “Yeah. You.”

    My eyes widened as I realized what he was about to do and I began to move backwards.

   All of a sudden, he ran full steam towards me and I shrieked and took off in the opposite direction before the water became too deep and I was forced to dive below a breaking wave.

    I came up a few seconds later and stood so I could dry my eyes. I loved the ocean, but the salt burned.

    “Gotcha!”

   Before I could open my eyes, I felt myself lifted into a pair of strong, solid arms. As I catapulted through the air, I had only a few seconds to remember to hold my nose as I came crashing into the water.

    And then I opened my mouth to scream, but was met with nothing but the taste of bitter salt water flooding down my throat.

   I sputtered, choking on the water, arms flailing, not sure which way was up, hands outstretched, begging to break free and touch air. And just as I began to think I’d never reach the surface, a pair of muscular arms encircled my waist and lifted me out of the water.

    I coughed, lungs burning.

    “My…”—cough, cough—“my leg!”

   I’d been injured before, even landing on crutches after a brief but disastrous stint with the JV volleyball team sophomore year, but nothing—nothing—could have prepared me for the dull, stabbing pain in my right thigh.

    Anthony looked down at my leg and I watched his eyes grow wide. “Oh, boy.”

  “Give her to me.” A new, familiar voice entered the conversation. I mustered the energy to turn my head and immediately fought the urge to jump out of Anthony’s arms and swim to Europe, bum leg be damned.

    “I got her.” Anthony stared at Jeff the Lifeguard as if he was issuing him a challenge.

   “It’s my job,” Jeff replied icily.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see him, but the thought of running into him on the beach hadn’t even crossed my mind. I never thought his lifeguard station would be right in front of my shore house.

    And I thought they said Fate didn’t have a sense of humor.

   “You can do your job once I get her to the beach.”

  “What were you thinking?” Jeff demanded as the three of us, the unlikeliest trio of all, made our way back to the shore. “It’s low tide! This water isn’t nearly as deep as it looks! You threw her so high there was no option other than a crash landing.”

   “What…happened?” I asked, struggling to find my voice.

    They either didn’t hear me or chose not to listen.

   “She could have been hurt!” Jeff continued to yell.

   “I…was,” I stammered.

  “She’ll be fine,” Anthony replied through gritted teeth. He glanced down at me.

I just narrowed my eyes in response. Being ignored wasn’t high on my list of favorite things.

   We reached the shoreline then and Anthony bent down and laid me on the sand, head and all. I’d be washing sand out of my hair for the next week.

   “Let me see it,” Jeff said, tossing his rubber rescue dinghy aside and glancing at the other lifeguard. “Jen, can you grab me the first-aid kit?” He grabbed my thigh and I jumped. His hands were warm and calloused like I’d imagine a guitar player’s fingers would feel.

    “Yikes,” he said.

    “Great,” I muttered. “That’s what you want to hear from your doctor.”

    He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not your doctor.”

    “What’s wrong with me?”

   “Just a sand burn,” Jeff said. “I’ll clean it out and you’ll probably wake up with a nice shiner there. But you’re fine. Lucky that Romeo here didn’t break your leg.”

    Anthony sighed. “She wouldn’t break her leg from that.”

   Jeff shrugged. “You’d be surprised what we see around here.” He looked down at me. “This might sting a little.” He rubbed some kind of cool liquid on my leg and I jerked it back.

    “Ow! Jeez! A little?” I glared at him, growing more annoyed as he struggled to suppress the smile forming on his lips.

    “You can either suck it up for a few seconds now or risk an infection later.”

    I sighed and bit down on my lip as he finished cleaning out what I figured was probably a nasty-looking gash on my thigh.

    “There,” Jeff said as he helped me sit up. “Good as new.”

   “Thanks,” I said. Anthony extended a hand to help me to my feet. I looked at Jeff who was busy returning a few items to the first-aid kit. “Didn’t even need your lifeguard stand for this.”

    He looked up at me and smirked. “You really are a smart ass.”

    I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face as I shrugged. “Just calling it how I see it.”

    “Come on, Lexie,” Anthony said, as he stood a few feet away from us, watching our exchange. “I’ll buy you that ice cream now.”

***

  Anthony and I sat at a picnic table outside my favorite ice cream shop on Fresh Water Island. I slowly ate my vanilla and banana swirled cup topped with rainbow sprinkles and caramel, while Anthony downed a chocolate cone.

   “How’s your leg?” he asked, wiping his hands on a napkin.

   “It’s okay,” I said. “Not too bad.”

Truthfully, it was one of the sorest injuries I’ve ever gotten, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. I didn’t want to make him feel any worse.

    “That was the same guy from last night? At the fire?”

    I nodded. “Jeff.”

    “Jeff.” Anthony pursed his lips. “Yeah.”

    “He’s the lifeguard,” I said as if this needed an explanation.

    Anthony looked at me as if he couldn’t quite figure out why I felt the need to say that. “I got it before.”

    “Lexie?”

    I spun around in my seat and came face-to-face with Joey and Pia, each with an ice cream cone of their own in hand.

   “Hey!” I said, suddenly feeling a wave of guilt rush over me. I’d been ignoring them all day to hang out with Anthony. “What are you doing here?”

    Joey looked me funny. “Getting ice cream. We texted you to see if you wanted to come, but….”

    “My phone’s at home,” I said. “Had kind of a whirlwind afternoon and I’m not totally put together.”

    Joey nodded and dropped into the seat beside me.

  “Guys, this is Anthony,” I said, remembering my Southern hospitality. “He moved into our duplex. Anthony, these are my two closest friends in Ship’s Wreck, Joey and Pia.”

    Anthony and Joey nodded at one another, seemingly uninterested in engaging in any kind of conversation. Pia, however, looked like a different story.

    “Hi,” she said to him, her eyes wide and doe-like. “Pia Ritto.” She held out her hand and he stood to shake it.

    “There’s a seat over here if you’d like to sit down,” he said, gesturing to the empty spot beside him on the picnic bench.

   She walked over to sit next to him, her eyes never leaving his the entire way. She sat with her body angled toward him and took a lick of her dripping strawberry ice cream cone.

    “Where are you from?” she asked.

   “Pennsylvania,” he replied, and I immediately started kicking myself. I hadn’t thought to ask him that. I hadn’t thought to ask him much about himself at all. “Our shore house used to belong to my grandparents but they moved down to Florida so now its ours for the summer. Except for Lexie, I don’t really know anyone here.” He smiled at her. “And now you.”

   Pia beamed. “And now me. Well, you should definitely hang out with us while you’re down here. We always have a good time!”

   “Were you at the bonfire with Lexie last night? I didn’t see you.”

   “Yeah, I wasn’t hanging out with her too much though.”

He glanced over at me and I tried to dazzle him with a smile.

“We didn’t realize we were neighbors until this morning,” he said.

   “I’m so glad you are! I live just down the street from you guys! This is going to be great.”

   “Lexie,” Anthony said. “How come you didn’t tell me you had such nice friends?”

   Pia beamed, her dark skin turning pink with embarrassment.

    I shrugged. “I figured you’d meet them when you met them.”

    “Nice one,” Joey muttered under his breath with a chuckle and small shake of his head.

    “What’s going on tonight?” Pia asked. “Another bonfire?”

    Joey shrugged. “Tack didn’t say much about that. Think they’re just chilling tonight.”

  “Then we’ll just have to come up with something super fun to do ourselves!” Pia said.

   Anthony smiled at her. “Sweet. Let me know what you decide. I should be getting back. My mom hates when I’m late for dinner.” He looked over at me and winked. “And you feel better.”

    “Omigod!” she said as soon as he walked out of earshot. “Lexie! Tell me you weren’t keeping him all to yourself today!”

   I shrugged. “Gram made me go over and meet the neighbors and Anthony’s mom suggested we go for a tour of the island, but he wanted to swim instead. It all happened so fast.”

   Pia raised her eyebrows. “Whatever. He seems so nice! I can’t believe he lives right by us. Joey, you have to find us something to do tonight. He can’t think we’re lame.”

    Joey raised his eyebrows. “Whadda ya want from me? I’m not your party planner, Pia.”

    “No, but you’re usually the one with things to do! Well, Tack is, but still.”

    “I already told you,” he said. “It’s quiet tonight.”

   Pia rolled her eyes, but didn’t ask me for suggestions. “Oh, well. I guess we’ll just have to wait to show Anthony how awesome it is here.”

   “I better go, too,” I said. “I think it’s almost six and if I’m not back for dinner, Grandma’s going to think something’s going on with me and Anthony. Let me know if you wind up doing something tonight.”