Beach Lane

by Melissa de la Cruz

  “Sounds great. I’ll have the same,” Mara decided, snapping her menu closed.

  “Two ’jacks, what about you, hon?”

  Eliza contemplated. The bacon alone was three hundred calories. But she was really, really hungry. “Make it three.”

  They wolfed down their greasy breakfasts and filled each other in on the latest news.

  “And you haven’t even spoken to Jeremy since?” Mara asked after Eliza updated Jacqui on what happened.

  “No.”

  “You’ve got to find him and tell him how you feel,” Mara stressed. “It’s important. You guys can’t just leave things like this!”

  “I know, I know.” Eliza sighed, spearing a fat brown sausage with her fork and popping it in her mouth.

  “Jeremy—the guy who cuts the lawn?” Jacqui asked. “He’s really nice. I saw him looking for you the other day. Sorry. I forgot to tell you.”

  “He was?” Eliza asked. “Oh my God.”

  “See—I’m sure he feels the same way. But you’ve got to go to him first.” Mara had a major romantic streak.

  “Okay. But only if you break up with Jim. You deserve so much better than that bonehead,” Eliza said. “And he is a bonehead.”

  “We broke up already,” Mara said. “Yesterday, actually.”

  “And you haven’t told Ryan?”

  “No, why should I?” Mara said obstinately.

  Jacqui and Eliza exchanged a look. “Only because he is so into you,” Eliza said.

  “Is love,” Jacqui announced. “I know when men love. He is sick with passion. He can’t get enough of you. He’s so in love,” she said dramatically.

  “No, he isn’t,” Mara said. “He has a girlfriend.”

  “That Camille girl? She’s history,” Eliza said. “He told me the other day, he just wasn’t feeling it. He broke it off.”

  “So what? It’s not like he would ever be interested in someone like me,” Mara said quietly. She knew how guys like Ryan felt about her—she knew it the first time she saw him—guys like that were so out of her league.

  “What on EARTH are you talking about?” Eliza yelled, so loudly that the truckers having breakfast at the counter turned around. “You are a bombshell! Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Eliza asked, pulling Mara to look at her reflection in the glass.

  Jacqui nodded vigorously. “In São Paolo we call girls like you consideravelmente.”

  “You guys are really sweet, but you’re just blowing smoke up my butt,” Mara said as she turned. There was Eliza, the spitting image of Cameron Diaz, who even totally hung over still radiated that InStyle cover girl glow. There was Jacqui, the sultry, Latin sexpot. Then there was her. The plain one. But for once Mara took a good look at the reflection. The haircut Pierre had given her brought out the angles of her cheekbones, and the new blue shirt Eliza had helped pick her out made her eyes look bluer than they ever did. While running after the kids half the summer, she had even lost a few pounds. Were they right? Had she transformed into a hottie overnight?

  “See,” Eliza said smugly. “Told you.”

  “Now, you go get that boy,” Jacqui said. She was so happy to be just where she was at that moment. As she looked around at Mara, who was brushing her bangs away from her face with a wistful smile, and Eliza, who was motioning for a round of milk shakes (Hey, what else goes well with a lumberjack special?), Jacqui realized that after everything that had happened this summer, they really were friends.

  eliza, mara, and jacqui find the best part of the hamptons

  THE SUN WAS RISING WHEN THEY DROVE BACK UP Route 27 toward East Hampton. Roadside farm stands were opening up for business, and Eliza convinced them that they couldn’t pass up this chance to buy the freshest fruit and vegetables for the house.

  “Anna always goes to the one in Amagansett, but it’s always so picked over. This one is so much better.” Eliza sniffed as they walked around, looking at all the stalls.

  The corn was piled high in the palest emerald green stalks, and inside, they were ivory white or as yellow as daffodils. Grapefruits the size of basketballs, oranges that glowed with an almost fluorescent light. Carrots as long and thick as your arm. Radicchio, endive, arugula, and every other fancy lettuce for less than a dollar a bunch.

  Eliza showed them the bakery table, set up with loaves of gluten- and wheat-free pumpernickel, sourdough, and challah bread.

  They spotted Cindy Crawford behind a baseball cap, sniffing persimmons.

  “Hey, look, there’s a homemade peach-and-blueberry pie,” Mara said, walking over to the delicious smell. “Let’s get one for the kids.”

  “Madison will love it,” Eliza agreed.

  “Peaches! Zoë’s favorite.” Jacqui nodded.

  “William would like throwing it against the wall.” Mara laughed.

  They bought Cody a Sponge-Bob-shaped balloon and filled up the trunk with baskets of citrus, loaves of freshly baked bread, fat red-orange tomatoes on the vine, cauliflower and broccoli blossoms, and enough grapes to make their own barrel of wine.

  Eliza dropped them back off at the house.

  “Where are you going?” Mara asked.

  “Jeremy always gets up early to go running in Montauk. I’m going to try to find him.”

  “Good,” Mara said, squeezing Eliza’s arm. “I’m going to go find Ryan.”

  “Go get him, sista.” Eliza smiled.

  Jacqui impulsively put her arm around both of them, which was actually rather hard to do, considering Eliza was still in the car. “You guys are the best.”

  Eliza drove off and Jacqui and Mara walked to the back of the house to the stone pathway.

  “I’m going to go get some sleep,” Jacqui said to no one in particular as she climbed the rickety attic stairs.

  But only after a long, hot shower so she could start with a fresh, clean slate.

  mara finally makes her move

  THE MAIN HOUSE WAS EMPTY WHEN MARA SNUCK inside; not even the kitchen staff were awake yet. She walked up the back stairs to Ryan’s room and opened the door.

  “Ryan?” she whispered. “Are you up?”

  Now that she had decided she knew exactly what she wanted—him—she couldn’t wait to break the news. And if he didn’t want her, she could live with that—what she wouldn’t be able to live with was if she never told him.

  She creaked open the door and walked inside his room. On his desk rested the pack of playing cards from the other night, a few twigs they’d picked up from the beach as potential marshmallow sticks, and the book she’d lent him to read—Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He’d said he’d never read it and she had chastised him for his lack of literary education.

  His surfboards and skateboards were lined up against the wall.

  But his bed was still made. The blue comforter was turned down perfectly.

  Her heart sank. He probably never even came home last night. If it wasn’t Camille, it was someone else. There was always someone else—it wasn’t as if he was going to wait around for her the whole summer, was he? Mara remembered all the girls at the many parties they attended this summer who had made their interest clear.

  She closed the door behind her. By this time he’d probably found someone to keep him company, maybe one of those Bush nieces or Hearst heiresses who hung on his every word. Or maybe even one of the cute Irish girls who worked at every café, bar, and kayak rental shop in the Hamptons.

  “Good morning, miss,” Stevens, the butler, greeted as he passed her on his way to opening the curtains in the master den.

  She nodded to him shyly.

  The pool sparkled in the morning light and she told herself she was still really, really happy she’d spent the summer in the middle of such gorgeous beauty. The knife edge of the pool blended with the blue horizon of the ocean. It was a sight Mara would never get tired of.

  She absentmindedly picked up strewn children’s toys as she walked back to the au pairs’ cottage. Zoë’s Disco Elmo, William�
�s missing Gameboy, Cody’s blankie, Madison’s dueling Britney and Christina dolls.

  As she turned the corner, she caught her breath.

  There, in the hammock behind the au pairs’ cottage, was Ryan, asleep.

  She kissed him softly on the lips to wake him up. Her sleeping prince. His nostrils flared slightly with every breath. She felt an amazing wave of tenderness and affection.

  His eyelids fluttered, and when he saw her, he smiled. “What was that for?”

  “I just felt like it.” She smiled back.

  “I was looking for you all night. Where’d you go?” he asked.

  “Nowhere. I was looking for you, too.”

  “Fancy that.”

  She leaned down to the hammock, and he pulled her down to cuddle with him. It swung underneath their combined weight and threw them closer together.

  “What about Jim?” he asked, gently grazing her bare arm with the back of his hand.

  “We broke up,” she said.

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  “I should have done it a long, long time ago.”

  “Good,” he said sleepily, and closed his eyes.

  Mara nestled into the crook of his armpit, savoring his strong arms around her. She never wanted to let go.

  The hammock swayed in the breeze, and they fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves on the shore.

  eliza goes to montauk for the first time all summer

  PLEASE, PLEASE, LET HIM BE THERE, ELIZA PRAYED. Please, please, please.

  She parked the car in the lot and walked down to the beach. A few brave swimmers were doing laps in the early tide, but otherwise the beach was empty. Then she saw him. He was wearing a dirty anorak and his running shorts.

  “Jeremy! Jeremy!” she called.

  He turned back, saw her, and kept running. Faster.

  Eliza tossed away her high-heeled platforms and ran to keep up with him.

  “Jeremy, please!” she begged. “Please wait.”

  But he kept running.

  “I LOVE YOU!” she cried.

  Finally, halfway down the beach, he stopped and took off his earphones. “What did you say?”

  She ran down, not caring if little broken pieces of seashells were piercing the soft soles of her feet. She stopped right in front of him. His face was shiny with sweat, and his hair had kinked in the humidity. But she thought he was even more handsome than she remembered.

  “I’m so sorry about that night. I don’t know what I was doing—no, I did know, and I’m so embarrassed. I love you. I’ve never felt this way before, and you have to know that.” Eliza looked for a trace of feeling on Jeremy’s face. Nothing. “Why did you quit the Perrys’?”

  “You think I could work there—seeing you—knowing what you really think of me?” he asked.

  Eliza could see how much she’d hurt him. “Please forgive me. Can we start over again? Please?” She held her breath.

  He had to say yes, he just had to. She told him she loved him. She’d never said those words aloud to anyone—ever.

  “I don’t know,” he said, looking at the sand. “I think we’re too different.” He shook his head. “It’s not that easy.”

  “Can’t we just try?” She tried grabbing for his hand, but he pulled away.

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to kiss her right now and say everything was forgiven and forgotten. But his face was grim.

  “It’s not a faucet I can just turn on and off,” he said. “I’m . . . I’m going to have to think about it. You have to give me time.”

  He put his earphones back on and began to jog away.

  Eliza watched him, not sure how to react. It was the most vulnerable she’d ever been with another person, and she had been rejected.

  He’d asked for time. But it was almost Labor Day. She didn’t have any more time. She was going back to Buffalo in a week.

  mara finds happiness in a hammock

  “MARA AND RYAN SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-S-S-I . . .,” Madison and Zoë chorused, waking up their big brother and the au pair in his arms.

  “MARA AND RYAN ARE IN LOVE!” William snickered and made loud sloppy kissing noises.

  “Shush,” Ryan said, batting at his smaller siblings.

  “Wake up! Wake up, sleepyheads! We wanna go swimming!”

  Mara blinked and smiled. “You guys go and get changed and we’ll meet you in the pool.”

  Instead the girls climbed into the hammock with them, so that William, who never liked being left out, scrambled in, too. “Oof! You’re heavy!” Ryan said, hugging his younger brother.

  Mara laughed as the kids began wildly swinging the hammock. “We’re all going to fall off! Okay, if no one’s going to get out, I will!” she threatened, trying to grab hold of one side of the hammock so she could climb off safely.

  “No, you don’t, you’re staying right here,” Ryan said, reaching over to pull her back against him.

  The two little girls whispered to each other on the far end of the hammock, cupping their mouths with tiny hands.

  “Zoë and I decided,” Madison said, in a very serious tone, “that you are a LOT prettier than Ryan’s old girlfriend.”

  “Oh, thanks.” Mara winked at Ryan. “So I’m prettier than Camille, am I?”

  Madison and Zoë looked confused. “Camille?”

  “Um, Ryan’s old girlfriend?” Mara asked.

  “You mean Sophie?” Madison asked.

  “Or Annette?” Zoë chimed in.

  “There’s more than one?” Mara asked.

  “Maddy! Zo! Don’t answer that!” Ryan said in a half-jestful manner.

  “There are tons,” Madison assured Mara.

  “Lots.” Zoë nodded.

  Mara raised an eyebrow at Ryan. “Lots, eh? How many were there?”

  “Do we have to get into this now?” Ryan laughed. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? I mean, we’re together now.” He noticed Mara looking downcast. “My sisters don’t know what they’re talking about.”

  He cupped Mara’s chin and kissed her again. “You’re the only one I want. Okay?”

  “Okay.” As long as they were clear on that.

  The little girls sighed happily. It was just so romantic.

  * * *

  A few minutes later Jacqui appeared, wearing sunglasses and shorts and carrying a croissant and a coffee cup from the Hampton Coffee Company. She held several newspapers and magazines underneath her free arm.

  “Who are you?” William asked on his way to the pool.

  “I’m Jacqui—I’ve been taking care of you all summer!” Jacqui joked.

  He looked puzzled.

  She smiled when she saw Mara and Ryan together.

  “Look what I found,” Jacqui said, holding aloft copies of New York magazine, Hamptons magazine, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and the New York Times. There were photos of Mara everywhere, with photo credits from her friend Lucky Yap.

  “The summer’s latest IT girl—and she didn’t have to run over the back wall of a club or tape a sex video to do it!” blared the always-restrained Page Six.

  “Hey, you’re more famous than me,” Ryan said, noticing that the latest round didn’t even mention the “Perry heir.”

  Mara paged through the magazines and newspapers with a thoughtful smile on her face. She felt confident and blissfully happy—not because she’d achieved in one season what most Hamptonites crave their whole lifetimes, but because she was with the guy she loved.

  jacqui is a miracle worker

  JACQUI ROUNDED UP THE KIDS AND TOOK THEM TO the pool. She pumped up Cody’s water wings and tugged them on his chubby arms.

  “Let’s go!” She whooped, jumping into the deep end.

  Amazingly, he followed her in, splashing and kicking like a duck.

  “Good boy! Good boy!” Jacqui said, laughing.

  She didn’t even realize how miraculous this was—Mara and Eliza had been trying to get him in the wat
er all summer, but as far as ever-absent Jacqui knew, Cody was a born-swimmer. William jumped in the pool too, almost knocking out his brother.

  “Be careful!” Jacqui chided.

  The little boy stuck his tongue out. “DUNK!” He said, and pushed Cody’s head under water.

  “WILLIAM!” Really, that one was such a monster.

  Chortling, William let his brother go and swam to the other end of the pool.

  Cody kicked and splashed happily.

  “Not bad,” Kevin Perry said, kneeling down. “Hey, Jacqui, right? You want to hit the steam bath later? We just put in a new showerhead. It’s amazing.”

  Jacqui swam to the edge of the pool. She was sick of being watched, being slobbered over, and after the night at the orgy party she’d had it with older men.

  “I don’t think your wife would appreciate you talking to me that way,” she said evenly.

  He looked confused. A lot more confused than he should have. “Sure. I’ll, uh, see you around,” Kevin said.

  Jacqui nodded. She felt relieved. After years of kowtowing and bowing and scraping and flirting with men for a tip or a ride or another drink or an invitation to a party, she had finally stood up for herself.

  It felt fantastic.

  the second-best thing anna ever said

  ONCE AGAIN ANNA WAS SITTING AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE when the au pairs trooped in for the weekly progress report. Did miracles never cease?

  The three au pairs took their seats across the table.

  “Where’s Kevin?” Eliza whispered.

  Jacqui shrugged.

  Now that Jacqui had made it clear she wasn’t going to tolerate his advances, Kevin had found better things to do with his time.

  The girls were all a little tense. They were supposed to get their final payment at the meeting—that is, if they didn’t get fired first. They still had no idea why the first batch of au pairs was let go—and Super Saturday was not their best moment.

  But Anna was positively glowing at them.