I guess a lot can happen over the course of a year. He drank it like he was used to drinking it. It's the first night of summer."Ĭonrad drank his wine in about two gulps. "You? Never," she said, pouring a little wine for each of us. Susannah laughed and uncorked the bottle. I'm being provincial, isn't that right, Beck?" "I don't know about that," my mother began, but then she stopped. "I think we're all old enough to partake now, don't you, Laur?" Susannah said as we sat down. Susannah and my mother always had red wine, and us kids had grape Fanta, but on that night there were wineglasses for everyone. Each of us would get a bowl, and we'd help ourselves to the pot all throughout dinner, dipping the ladle back into the pot. Susannah put the pot in the middle of the table, along with a few crusty loaves of French bread from the bakery nearby. Even when I was little, I would pick out the squid and save it for last.
Lots of shrimp and crab legs and squid-she knew I loved squid. I was.ĭinner the first night was always the same: a big pot of spicy bouillabaisse that Susannah cooked up while she waited for us to arrive. Every summer up to this one, I believed it'd be different. It'll be a summer you'll never forget." Susannah always spoke in absolutes like that-and when she did, it sounded like a proclamation, like it would come true because she said so. You're going to have an amazing, amazing summer. "You've always been lovely, but oh honey, look at you." She shook her head like she was in awe of me. I smiled self-consciously, glad that the boys were upstairs and not around to hear this. She shook her head and said, "When did you go and grow up? When did you turn into this phenomenal woman?" "Thanks, honey," Susannah said, finally letting me go, looking at me from arm's length. She was always on a diet, always watching what she ate. "You look thin," I told her, partly because it was true and partly because I knew she loved to hear it. Susannah swept me in for a hug, the close kind that's long enough to make you wonder how long it's going to last, who'll pull away first. My mother looked so happy to see her that she was teary, and my mother was never teary. She and my mother hugged first, fierce and long. She still looked sleepy and her hair was all feathery on one side like a kid's. Susannah came down from her nap a little while after we put on dry clothes, apologizing for missing our big homecoming. I said it again, one last time, even though I didn't mean it. Being this close to him was making me feel dizzy and nervous. For a second I wished Jeremiah and Steven were still there. He still held on to my foot, and I was trying to stay afloat. There was this weird stillness between us all of a sudden. His white T-shirt was soaked through, and I could see the pinky gold of his skin. "I thought I was too slow," he said, treading water closer to me. "Let go," I gasped, still laughing.Ĭonrad shook his head. Which made me laugh, which made me slow to swim away, and Conrad caught my foot. Jeremiah and Steven, who were headed back to the house, said, "Polo!" "Too slow!"Įvery time he came close, I swam -away. He was smiling but in a threatening kind of way. I worried he might be mad, but he wasn't, not completely. I think maybe all of Cousins Beach heard us laughing.Ĭonrad's head bobbed up quickly, and he swam over to me in about two strokes. I think I laughed harder right then than I've laughed in my whole life. He stumbled, fell forward, and landed in the pool with a splash even bigger than mine. Then I gripped tight and pulled his arm as hard as I could. He squatted and gave me his hand, which I took. "I'm pretty sure you'll live," he said, smirking. Then I said, "I think you twisted my ankle, Conrad." I pretended to have trouble swimming over to them. His smuggy face made me want to splash him and soak him and his precious Hugo Boss sunglasses that he worked for three weeks to pay for.
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