“So I should keep my mouth shut?”
“Are you capable of that? Besides, if you’re right, you’re guaranteeing two lifetimes of happiness.”
“Happiness or tedium?”
Ada shrugged. “Once they reach the altar, that part is up to them. We can only teach them to fish. We can’t also teach them to cook, chew, and swallow.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We broke for lunch, and then Ada informed me we were done for the afternoon. I raised my eyebrows, wondering if this was a result of fewer families being in town or if it was because she actually treated her time in town as somewhat of a vacation. But following her dictum of gift horses and mouths, I didn’t question my good fortune.
Instead, I raced up the stairs and changed into my new blue bikini, admiring myself in the bathroom mirror before throwing on a caftan and packing a bag with a towel and one of the books my mother had sent. Then I called to Ada that I was going to the beach.
“Don’t burn,” she said. “No one wants to give their number to a lobster.”
“I’ve got my Coppertone.”
“There’s also something to be said for umbrellas.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll take that into consideration.”
Ada’s house wasn’t directly on the beach, but it was just two lots from the dunes. She claimed it was safer from storms and she had no intention of losing her house to the ocean. But it had an unobstructed view from the second floor, where my bedroom was. And the walk to the dunes only took a couple of minutes. The dunes themselves were harder to traverse, but soon the ocean spread out before me and I breathed deeply, as Ada had when we entered town. My parents may have preferred the Catskills, but I would always choose the ocean. Even if it was New Jersey.
It was a weekday, and only a handful of women with small children dotted the coast. I selected a spot far from their sandy feet and sticky fingers and spread my towel in the sand.
After applying the tanning lotion, I sat watching the ocean. Daddy certainly wouldn’t approve of this punishment—I looked down at my pale stomach, exposed to sunlight for the first time—or of what I was wearing. But despite Mama’s conservative dress, I somehow thought she would. Whatever part of her that spent the summer with Ada all those years ago, that part would approve of me here now. Even if she had fainted when I said I wasn’t going to get pregnant in front of the rabbi.
I opened the book—it was an advance copy. One of Daddy’s friends was in publishing and often gave my mother books before they were in stores. Daddy never knew how many burned dinners Mr. Stein had caused. This was called To Kill a Mockingbird. Mama wrote inside the cover, as she always did when she passed me books, that it was due out the following week. Before I knew it, I had read a hundred pages and realized I had better flip onto my back if I didn’t want to look like a pancake Mama made while reading. She always served them burnt-side down, but they didn’t fool us anymore.
I lay on my back and pushed my sunglasses up onto my forehead, closing my eyes against the brilliant sunlight, and slowly I began to drift off into a doze.
“Well, if it isn’t the siren of the shore,” a male voice said, waking me. I squinted against the sun, but I could only see the silhouette of a man in a pair of Avalon Beach Patrol trunks. Sitting up and holding my hand above my eyes, I could just make out the young man who had pulled me from the bush my first night in Philadelphia.
“Freddy, isn’t it? I hardly recognize you when I’m not sprawled in shrubbery.”
He grinned. “I’d know you anywhere.” Looking around, he asked, “Are you on the clock? I don’t see that aunt of yours lurking around corners.”
“She’s back at the house. Apparently we get to relax in the summer.” I lowered my sunglasses so I wouldn’t be squinting, and he sat on my towel next to me. I was very aware of the heat of his leg almost touching mine—and even more aware of how unclothed I was. “Wait—I didn’t tell you she was my aunt.”
“Maybe I asked around about you.”
“Who would you ask? I just arrived!”
“There are no secrets in Oxford Circle. Or Avalon, for that matter.”
I gestured to his trunks. “Are you here for the summer, then?”
“I am. My last summer of freedom before I graduate and have to decide between law school and the family business.”
“Which is?”
He looked sideways at me. “Sizing me up as a match or asking for yourself?”
“If there are no secrets in Oxford Circle, Ada already knows all your business.”
Freddy swept some sand off the towel, brushing against my leg in the process. “She does. You know, she called me after you got my number, and I asked about you. She said you weren’t available.”
“Did she now?”
He nodded. “Is it the rabbi’s son? Or was that whole story a red herring?”
I scrunched up my nose, making a face that would surely upset Ada and her concern for future wrinkles. “True, unfortunately. But I did refuse him.”
“Then you’re not available because—？”
“Because Ada says I’m not.”
He smiled, then rose off the towel. “We wouldn’t want to go against Ada Heller, now would we?”
I felt a slight sense of disappointment as he prepared to leave. Ada had said no men, but what Ada didn’t know . . .
“I have the afternoons free,” I said. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“Maybe. How strong a swimmer are you?”
“Decently so.”
“Shame,” Freddy said, his lips spreading into a flirtatious grin. “I’m certified in mouth-to-mouth.”
“Good to know,” I said. “I’ll make sure you’re around before I start drowning.”
Suddenly he was kneeling back on the towel. “We could practice now.”
I pushed his chest away playfully and he tumbled over into the sand, clutching his heart. I couldn’t help but laugh. “Get up, you fool.”
“I can’t. I’m mortally wounded. Only true love’s kiss will break the spell.”
There was another lifeguard sitting in a chair a little ways down the beach, and I pointed toward him. “Should I go get him to help you? I bet he’s certified in mouth-to-mouth too.”
“Another dagger to the heart. Maybe I should give up and try one of Ada’s matches after all.”
That sobered my mood quickly. He should, actually. I was off limits, especially if she was working with him. Ada made that much clear.
“Hey,” he said softly, sitting up. “What just happened? You stopped smiling, and it’s like the sun went away.”
Against my better judgment, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “That’ll have to do.”
“For now,” he said, standing up again. “I’ll see you soon, Marilyn.”
And he took off jogging down the beach toward the lifeguard stand.
I reached up and touched my own cheek. I was smiling. Not smart at all. But a little flirtation couldn’t hurt anyone. As long as Ada didn’t find out.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ada sent me to the small grocery store in town two days later.