Freddy heaved himself out of the bed, and pulled on his pants and then his undershirt as I stepped into a pair of underwear and put my beach caftan on over them.
He looked at me, silhouetted in the light from the hall. “What are you waiting for?”
“Just memorizing how you look right now.”
“You mean a mess?” I pushed my curls back.
“Perfectly you,” he said, coming and kissing my forehead. “Let’s go.”
I grabbed the beach towel that had been hanging on the porch railing to dry, and we ran down the steps together, then climbed the path over the dune in the gray darkness.
The beach was empty and the air chilly. I should have been self-conscious in just the sheer fabric of my coverup, but after the previous night, I couldn’t imagine ever feeling shy around Freddy again.
He spread the towel just above the line where the wet sand indicated that the tide was going out, then sat and held a hand out to me to sit next to him.
Freddy wrapped his arm around me, and we watched the horizon for a pinprick of light. But his lips soon found my neck, and my breathing hitched as they slipped lower, his fingers reaching up to unbutton the caftan. Before I knew it, he had shifted us and was laying me down on the towel, while I reached for the button on his trousers.
I turned my head as our bodies found their rhythm, catching sight of the first beam of sun peeking over the water, and I called Freddy’s name. “Look,” I said.
“I’m looking at something much more beautiful.”
But after, as Freddy buttoned his pants and reached down to fasten my caftan, he shook his head. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
I looked at him suspiciously. Here it was. “No?”
“No, no, no, don’t look at me like that. I meant without . . .” He trailed off.
I could feel my face flushing, and I bit my lip as his meaning became clear. “Oh.”
“It was just the one time,” he said. “I’m sure it will be fine. And if it’s not, well, we’ll just move our timeline up.”
I made a wry face. “You do know that you haven’t asked me, and I haven’t said yes.”
“And I don’t intend to—yet. I’m just saying you don’t have to worry about me.”
Leaning into him as the sun separated from the ocean, I turned my face toward his. “I’m not.”
He kissed my hair, and we sat together contentedly for a long time.
Eventually, Freddy went home for a shower, fresh clothes, and a nap. He would return in the afternoon, after Frannie had finished checking on me, promising another fun outing. “I don’t care what we do,” I protested. “I’m happy to just lie on the beach with you.”
He grinned lasciviously.
“I don’t mean like that!”
“I’m crushed. But I still want to take you out.”
I walked Sally, then went upstairs, intending to shower. But I wasn’t quite ready to wash off the feel of Freddy’s skin on mine, and I was too invigorated to sleep. Instead, I sat at my typewriter and pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the ream.
I understood so much more about my characters now. About how the circumstances of their families and births would pale in comparison to their feelings.
By the time I heard the front door open and Frannie greet Sally, I had filled six pages.
I called down a hello and went to take a shower, thinking about how it might be smart to have dinner with Freddy’s family again. I could use more material. Though I was now certain there would be plenty of opportunities for that later.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Ada called later that morning to check in, concerned far more with Sally than with me. “Is she eating? She’s never been without me before.”
I leaned way back, trying to see if her bowl was empty. I probably would have noticed if there was still food in it when I fed her that morning. “She’s perfectly fine. I promise. She’s even warming up to me.” I smiled at the memory of her growling at Freddy, as if she were a wolf instead of a tiny little creature who would have difficulty battling a large squirrel.
“Are you sure she feels all right?”
“Ada! She’s fine. How’s Lillian holding up?”
Ada sighed. “Not so well. It’s good that I came.”
“When will you be back?”
“What’s today? Wednesday?” I confirmed. “Sunday, then. The funeral is set for Friday.”
I did the math in my head. Four more glorious days of freedom before my now-colorful world went back to black and white.
But Ada was still talking. “Make sure you water my hydrangeas.”
“What are hydrangeas?”
“What are they sending you to that college for?”
“Not agriculture.”
“Agriculture is food crops, you ignoramus. You mean botany. And the hydrangeas are the purple and blue flowering shrubs in the front. They’re in peak season and they need water. Unless it rains, then you’ll flood them.”
“Got it. Water purple and blue flowers.”
“Some are violet—water them all.”
“I will think of nothing else but the health of your hydrangeas,” I said.
“I’m not in the mood for your sass,” Ada said. “Put Frannie on the phone, please.”
I called for Frannie and scooped Sally up with only minor protests on her end. “Your mommy is a nut,” I crooned to her, hoping it was loud enough for Ada to hear. Then, quieter in her ear, “But I’m very glad you can’t talk.”
“Don’t your parents wonder where you are?” I asked on our third night as we lounged in bed. “Or haven’t they noticed that you’re gone?”
Freddy shrugged. “They don’t keep such close tabs on me. I’m a good boy after all.”
“That’s not what your sister says.”
He leaned up on an elbow to look at me. “It’s fun to tease her. But they practically keep her under lock and key. It’s different for boys. As long as I don’t bring home someone they wouldn’t approve of, they don’t really mind if I go out.”
“And they approve of me?”
“You, my dear, are the gold standard.”
I flinched, knowing what that meant. “And does all that matter to you? Is that why you’re here?”
“If it did, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be doing the proper courtship that they think I am. I don’t care who your family is—actually, that’s not true. I wish you weren’t part of your family because then Ada wouldn’t disapprove, and we could be together in the open.” I looked away, but he put a hand under my chin and turned my face back to his. “I didn’t fall for you because of some status symbol. I fell for you. And the rest just gets in the way.”
He lay back down on the bed, pillowing his head on his crossed arms. “What about you? Does my position as the son of a man who owns a clothing factory put you off? Are you secretly happy we’re sneaking around?”
A tiny trickle of guilt ran down the inside of my chest, like a drop of rain along a window. It wasn’t that I wanted to sneak around, and I couldn’t have cared less what Freddy’s family did for a living. But I knew Ada now. If I pushed her hard enough, she would tell me to date Freddy and learn for myself. But if I did that, I would also lose the respect that I had fought and clawed to earn from her. And I didn’t know why that was more important than a true courtship, but it was.