“Let’s just see what happens.”
“Marilyn, we’re going to be a two-hour train ride apart in another month and a half if we don’t make some decisions.”
I looked up at him in the moonlight. “Is a two-hour train ride the end of the world?”
“I don’t want a two-minute walk separating us.”
The lights of another car startled us. It parked behind us, high beams on.
“What—？”
“Cop,” Freddy said. My eyes widened. “Let me do the talking.”
The police officer came around to the car. “Evening,” he said. “What are we doing out here in the backseat like this?”
“Trying to figure out which boardwalk we want to go to tonight.”
“Shouldn’t you be doing that from the front seat?” I kept my face down, not wanting to be recognized. “Everything all right, miss?”
I nodded and he peered down to get a look at me. Freddy laughed. “I promise she’s fine. I’m trying to convince her to let me talk to her father and she’s putting me off.”
The officer laughed as well. “Might as well let him make an honest woman of you.”
I felt my cheeks coloring, but I said nothing. If I opened my mouth, I was going to tell that police officer exactly what he could do with his opinion of my virtue. And that didn’t end well for anyone.
“Let’s move along. The Wildwood boardwalk is nice and close and then I don’t have to cite you for necking in the car.”
“An excellent idea,” Freddy said, climbing out and coming around to open the door for me. I ignored him and climbed through into the front seat. He got into the driver’s seat and began to pull away. “Wildwood, then?”
“Take me home,” I said, arms crossed.
Freddy looked over at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you tell him that? About talking to my father?”
He moved his mouth in confusion before he answered. “Because it’s true?”
“You haven’t asked me Freddy. And I’m not ready to say yes. You can ask my father until you’re blue in the face, but even if he says yes, I matter. What I want matters.”
“And you don’t want to marry me?”
“I don’t want to marry anyone yet. That’s why they sent me here.”
For a moment, Freddy said nothing. “So it’s not a no, it’s a not yet?”
“Yes.”
He put an arm around me and pulled me in close on the seat. “That’s all you need to say, then. I won’t keep pushing it.”
I finally nestled into him. “Thank you.”
“Now how about that boardwalk?”
Once I no longer felt like my future was spinning like a carnival ride, I was willing to agree to that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The following afternoon, Shirley and I had plans to meet up and go to the library in the basement of the elementary school, followed by a trip to Hoy’s and the new little boutique in town that had bikinis in the window.
Shirley was late though. Very late. Eventually, I walked down the street and got myself a milkshake from Avalon Freeze. If she wanted one, she could get one when we were done. I sat on a bench with it, waiting and people watching. The story I was writing would be set in New York, but I could still pick up mannerisms from the pedestrians here.
A woman a few years older than me walked by, holding the hand of a young girl, her husband on the other side of the daughter, an even younger daughter on the husband’s shoulders.
“You have to admit it’s lovely here,” the man said to his wife.
“It is, darling,” she said. “Of course, it’s no Hereford.”
The man rolled his eyes with a small laugh. “You don’t think anything is as good as Hereford, Evelyn.”
“That’s because nothing is. But if it means we get an extra two weeks of beach time with you, I can make an exception once in a while.”
The husband smiled at her.
“Who wants ice cream?” she asked the girls. “Joanie? I know you do.”
The little girl on her father’s shoulders squealed and clapped her hands. “It does make everything better, doesn’t it?” the husband said.
“I thought that was you?”
He chuckled and leaned in to kiss her cheek.
I watched them as they walked away. They seemed so very much in love, which, with two young children, felt like an accomplishment. I tried to remember the last time I saw my parents show each other affection, and I couldn’t think of anything.
Eventually, I gave up, assuming Shirley forgot about me. I debated going to the library myself, but I had a new box of books from my mother and decided to wait. We could always go another day. It was too nice out to be in a moldy basement anyway. I could sit out on the porch and read with a glass of lemonade quite contentedly. Or maybe take my typewriter out there and work at the table. I wanted to use the easy way that husband looked at his wife so adoringly somehow.
But as I reached 23rd Street, I saw Shirley practically running toward me. I looked to see who could possibly be chasing her, but there was no one. “You don’t need to run—it’s okay that you forgot,” I called to her.
She reached me, panting heavily for breath. “Marilyn—you—won’t believe—what—just happened.”
“Catch your breath,” I told her. She took a moment to collect herself.
“Freddy is getting married,” she said, still huffing slightly.
I felt my shoulders tense. I told him I wasn’t ready for any of that. He said he understood. And now he was telling his family that he was getting married?
“Not anytime soon,” I muttered darkly. But Shirley didn’t seem to notice.
“A girl he was dating in the spring showed up with her parents—she’s pregnant. And Papa said if Freddy doesn’t step up and marry her, he’s going to cut him off!”
My blood turned to ice, and my vision narrowed to a pinprick of light. I reached out and grabbed at Shirley’s arm dizzily, close to fainting for the first time in my life. Shirley was still talking, but she sounded far away, like a buzzing insect somewhere out of sight yet trapped in the house.
I kept breathing, and finally my vision cleared. “Stop,” I said weakly. “I—you must have misunderstood.”
Shirley shook her head, then finally seemed to notice I was in distress. “Wait—I thought you weren’t keen on him.” I couldn’t answer. Shirley’s face turned suspicious, and she crossed her arms. “You said it was just a bit of fun.”
“I suppose I didn’t realize he was ‘having fun’ with so many people.”
“You’re not in a fix too, are you? That’d make this a lot more interesting.” She grinned gleefully at the idea.
I turned abruptly and started walking home. Shirley trailed after me. “He’ll likely choose you if you are. Especially because Papa will definitely cut him off if he got two girls pregnant, and you’ve got plenty of money—”
“Please just let me be,” I said, shaking off the hand she tried to put on my arm.
She stopped walking but shouted after me. “It’s not my fault, you know. I told you what he was like. If you were stupid enough to fall for him anyway, that’s on you!”