One Summer

by Teegan Loy

  “That would be great,” Stef said as she scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper for Josie.

  “Why are you interested in him?” Josie asked.

  “A friend knew him a long time ago, and we’re just curious,” Stef said.

  Josie nodded, accepting Stef’s vague explanation. The idea we actually found him left us a little shell-shocked and unsure what to do next. Stef cleared her throat, thanked Josie, and pushed me out the door.

  “We found him,” I said. “I guess Josie really found him. I didn’t expect it would be so simple.”

  “If he accepts the invite, we have to tell Carrie,” Stef said. “It wouldn’t be fair to ambush her with something this big.”

  “I agree, but we say nothing until we know for sure he’s coming.”

  She hugged me. “What should we do now?”

  “Let’s go swimming,” I said. “And no more alcohol.”

  We spent the remainder of the afternoon, enjoying the sun and water. When it was getting close to dinnertime, we ambled over to Carrie’s hoping to beg for some food.

  “I used to have the best tits,” Carrie said.

  “Oh my god, really? This is going to be our conversation,” I grumbled.

  “Mine sit on my knees now,” Barbie said. “But they used to attract a lot of attention.”

  “I think you need a better bra,” Stef said.

  “Honey, I have no desire to be trussed up so I can’t breathe. I’ve had my sexual revolution. Now I just read about it in books,” Barbie said.

  “Can we talk about something else?” I begged.

  The ladies laughed and changed the subject to my nonexistent love life. The boob conversation was probably better.

  “Any progress with Jamie?” Barbie asked.

  Stef burst out laughing.

  I shook my head and tried to swing the conversation back toward boobs, but they offered all sorts of ideas that I should try to make up with my guy. In the middle of all the giggling, Agnes barked so I excused myself and took her for a short walk.

  I spotted Jamie on the dock, sitting with his feet in the water. I stood at the top of the hill for a few minutes admiring the cut of his muscles, his broad shoulders, and his dirty blond hair. He turned and Agnes pulled on her leash, so I let her go and she dashed down the hill, running to meet him where she licked his face and wagged her tail. Jealousy raged through me and I had to chuckle. Agnes was getting more action than me.

  “Where’s Stef?” he asked.

  “The ladies were discussing remedies for sagging boobs. Thankfully, Agnes needed some air.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I’m sorry about last night.”

  “Not a big deal.”

  He looked down at the water, lost in thought, making small waves as he kicked his feet.

  “Are you joining us for dinner tonight? Mrs. Jorgenson is whipping up her famous barbecue chicken and roasted potatoes.”

  “Thanks for the invite, but I already have plans,” he said.

  I waited for him to tell me what he’d be doing, but when no explanation came, I decided to take Agnes and head back to the discussion of tits and god knows what else. It was better than thinking about Jamie and his plans that didn’t include me.

  “I’ll see you later then,” I said.

  By the time I returned to the kitchen, the conversation had turned to babies.

  “Did you get lost?” Barbie asked.

  “Agnes saw Jamie and had to say hello,” I said.

  Barbie said something else, but Stef rudely shoved me out the door, saying something about washing the car. “We’ll be back for dinner.”

  “I’m not washing your car,” I said.

  Stef punched me in the shoulder. “Josie called.”

  “Josie from the library?”

  Her squeal was so high pitched it made my ears ache.

  “He’s coming.”

  My heart pounded and my mouth fell open.

  “He’s coming,” she repeated.

  “I heard you. I’m not going to dinner tonight.”

  “Yes, you are.” She put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “We don’t have to tell her tonight.”

  “I can’t keep secrets from her. She always knows.” I widened my eyes and shuddered.

  “Josie’s texted me his address.” She flashed her phone in my face.

  “What do we need that for?” I asked.

  “Maybe we should warn him too.”

  “Maybe it’s not the right guy.”

  “Oh right. There just happened to be two guys named Julian who worked at the Maple Lake Pavilion during the time period we were looking at, and Carrie already said it was him.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Let’s do a little more research on him now that we know he’s alive and where he’s been living.”

  “Okay.”

  She dragged me to her cabin where she pulled out her laptop and began to do some searches on Julian Leonard from Chicago.

  “He never married,” Stef said. “Jeesh, he has no idea he has a grown daughter.”

  “I wonder why Julia never searched out her birth father?” I asked.

  “Some people are happy with how things are.”

  I pinched her arm. “I was happy with how things were until you butted into my love life.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She frowned and kept reading stuff on the screen she found about Julian Leonard.

  “Maybe we should contact him.”

  “And say what? Hello, we know you slept with a woman named Carrie — I have no idea what her maiden name was — but anyway, by the way, you’re also a dad. It’s not our place to tell Mrs. Jorgenson’s story.”

  “Oh my god, maybe we shouldn’t have stuck our noses into this.” Stef chewed on the end of her hair and grimaced.

  “A little late for that, and now we have to go have dinner with Carrie and Barbie and pretend we don’t have life-changing, earth-shattering information.”

  She closed her laptop. “I’m almost excited to go back to school.”

  “That’s not for a while,” I said.

  “Kellen, check your calendar. Summer is almost over. I start school in two weeks.”

  My blood drained into my shoes. I pulled out my phone and stared at the date. Where had the summer gone? “That means I start school in seventeen days. I need a drink.”

  “You’re going back to school?”

  “No, I took a teaching position in Apple Valley.”

  She gasped. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “I haven’t told anyone. Well, except Dylan.”

  She pouted for a few seconds before punching me in the thigh.

  “That’s what we can focus on at dinner. Tell Carrie and Barbie about your new job. They’ll love to hear how you’re going to shape the minds of today’s teenagers.”

  We walked into my cabin and Stef dumped her purse on the kitchen table.

  “Do you want something to drink?” she asked.

  I wandered down the hall to check if Jamie was around. His door was closed, and for some reason, I had an uneasy feeling. I tapped on the door before pushing it open. His bed was made and there was a piece of paper sitting on one of the pillows. I didn’t need to read it to know he was gone. I sat on the bed and sighed before reaching for the note.

  “Stef,” I called out. “Make my drink a double shot.”

  She appeared in the doorway, holding two cans of pop. “What’s wrong?”

  “Jamie’s gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “I don’t know? His note says he needed to go because he has a line on a job he can’t pass up.” I crumpled the paper. “Jesus, this is the first time in four years that I have no clue what’s going on with him.”

  “He probably feels the same way. You haven’t told him anything either.”

  Her comment made my arms and legs go numb. I handed her the note, and for some odd reason, Mrs. Jorgenson popped into my mind. Even though o
ur situations were very different, I’d bet anything the feelings were almost identical. My heart ached, and all I could think about was the stupid choices I’d made. If I’d used my words, maybe things wouldn’t be so fucked up, or at least I’d know what he felt. I’d let my fear of what could happen stop me from telling him the truth.

  Stef rested her head on my shoulder. “What do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know?”

  “Whatever we decide, we’ll do it together. I’m with you, even when you’re being stupid.”

  I wrapped her in a hug. “You are a good friend.”

  We were startled when someone rapped on the back door.

  Mrs. Jorgenson and Mrs. Benson were standing on the porch laughing. I schooled my face and put on my best smile.

  “Hello, ladies,” I said.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Mrs. Jorgenson narrowed her eyes.

  “Er, nothing,” I answered.

  She stared at me, then switched to Stef, who quickly pasted a goofy grin on her face.

  “You’re both up to something,” Mrs. Jorgenson said. “I know Jamie has disappeared again. I can’t believe you two can’t get it together. So many secrets.”

  “Did you stop over to shout at me?” I asked.

  “No, dinner is almost ready.”

  “We were just about to head over,” Stef said.

  “First run into town and get a bottle of wine. Better make that two bottles,” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  We bolted before we spilled all our secrets.

  “That was terrible,” Stef said. “We have to work on our game faces. I don’t want to just blurt it out. We need to think this through before we tell her about Julian.”

  I nodded because this knowledge could blow up in our faces and hurt several people.

  “You need to play the depressed, wanna-be boyfriend. Maybe they’ll think you’re nuts because Jamie left. Or play the I’m-so-happy-I’ve-got-a-new-job guy,” Stef said.

  “Fine, I can do that.”

  On our way into town, we practiced pretending we didn’t know anything that could potentially change Mrs. Jorgenson’s life.

  Stef tried to laugh at our pathetic tries, but it wasn’t really funny. She left me in the car and went inside the liquor store to pick out several bottles of wine. I was going to have to sip my drink tonight. Wine had a habit of making me spill my guts.

  With the booze safely tucked into the trunk, we practiced again, talking about mundane things like the weather, Agnes, and my job. It all sounded so rehearsed that I knew Carrie was going to bust us the second I opened my mouth.

  Of course, our plans were shot to hell when Carrie brought up the pavilion party right as she was passing me a plate full of food. It almost ended up in my lap.

  “Sherman asked Barbie to the party, and she didn’t know how to say no.” Carrie chuckled.

  “I couldn’t say no, because you said yes for me.” Barbie scowled at Carrie.

  “I’m the only one who doesn’t have a date. Maybe I’ll ask Jamie,” Stef said.

  “Maybe you should be my date and he should ask Jamie.” Carrie pointed at me.

  “He’s too chicken. And did you know, Kellen’s accepted a job,” Stef said.

  “Really?” Carrie grinned. “What is it?”

  “Math teacher at Apple Valley High,” I said.

  “Congratulations,” Barbie said. She grabbed the wine bottle and filled our glasses. We spent the next ten minutes toasting my great fortune.

  Dinner was excellent and we made it through the main course without spilling any damning information.

  “Okay, enough of this weird conversation,” Carrie said. “What’s going on with you and Jamie?”

  “Nothing’s going on,” I said for the ninth time.

  Carrie frowned at me. “You’re running out of time. Maybe you already did.”

  “I know,” I mumbled.

  “You should chase him down. It’s easy to find people now,” Carrie said.

  “Yes, it is,” I said. “Have you done any searches?”

  She pursed her lips. “No.” Her voice wobbled and Barbie glared at me.

  “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I apologize,” I said.

  “It’s okay. A lot of ghosts have been disturbed the last few days,” Carrie said.

  When we left the ladies, they were opening the last bottle of wine. I felt terrible, and Stef lit into me for being an asshole and making a sweet old lady feel bad.

  Jamie still wasn’t back the next morning. I stood in the doorway of his bedroom, staring at his undisturbed bed. In all the years I’d lived with him, he only made his bed if we were having my parents over. Once he made it when his uncle called and he had to leave to attend a funeral for his aunt. He wouldn’t say the word home; he always said that was where we lived.

  Stef found me holding my phone, sitting on his bed, and wondering if I should call him. She grabbed it and called him, but it went straight to voicemail.

  “I wonder where he is?” I asked.

  “I could leave a message and threaten him. He’d call me back.”

  “He must have his reasons. I don’t want to bother him.”

  She squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s go for a swim. It’s super nice outside.”

  Floating in the lake calmed my nerves until Barbie and Carrie shouted at us to get out of the water and get dressed.

  “What the hell? Are we in trouble?” I asked as Stef tipped me off the raft.

  “I have no idea, but we better not keep them waiting.”

  Stef raced home and was back within thirty minutes. I could hear Agnes barking and it made me nervous. When I came out of my room, Jamie and Carrie were standing in the kitchen.

  “Er, hello,” I said.

  Carrie narrowed her eyes and I flinched. “I don’t have time to mess around with you two. You’ve been friends for four years, so make nice now. Seriously, I don’t know why you’re even fighting.”

  I nodded and took a step toward Jamie, who held out his hand for me to shake.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  I wanted to ask why he was sorry, but Carrie glared at me.

  “Me too,” I quickly agreed. “Was your trip okay?”

  “Yeah, it was good,” he said.

  “Good.”

  This was worse than the first day I met him. I wanted to ask a million questions, to laugh with him, and figure out what comes next for us. I wanted to tell him I loved him, but right now I couldn’t even form a compound sentence.

  Carrie sighed and cracked her knuckles. Stef raced into the kitchen, skidding to a stop when she spotted Jamie.

  “Hey,” she said to Jamie.

  “Hi,” he answered.

  That was the shortest conversation between the two of them I’d ever witnessed. I waited for more, but then Carrie clapped her hands and shooed us out the door, ordering us to get moving.

  “They’re friends again,” she said to a confused Stef.

  “Okay,” Stef said.

  “Barbie and I need everyone’s help setting up for the pavilion party,” Carrie said.

  “Excuse me?” I immediately looked at Stef as she held open the door to Carrie’s kitchen.

  “Josie called in a tizzy. It seems more people are coming than she expected, and she needs our help, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Carrie said. Barbie nodded in agreement.

  “You talked to Josie?” I asked Carrie.

  “I always talk to Josie.”

  My mind whirled, and I couldn’t help wondering if she knew that her past was going to crash into her present in a few days.

  Stef nudged me, but I quickly shook my head. This didn’t seem like the right time to bring up Julian. Although, there probably wasn’t a right time for that conversation.

  “What do you need us to do?” Jamie asked.

  In a matter of seconds, we all had lists in our hands. Carrie had tasked Jamie and me with a shopping list long
er than I was tall. We were going to be at the store for a few hours.

  “We have three days to get all this baking done,” Barbie said. “We’re going to get started while you boys are at the store. Most of the stuff will be done in Carrie’s kitchen, but we’ll need to use Kellen’s and Stef’s oven too.

  “Get moving,” Carrie said and snapped me with a towel.

  “I think she means business,” Jamie whispered. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.

  “We’ll be back as soon as possible. You’re welcome to use anything in my kitchen. Stef knows where everything is,” I said. “Call us if you guys need anything else.”

  The list was so long that we needed to go to a few different stores. We were able to formulate a plan by the time we got to town.

  Well, Jamie had a plan. He was much better at grocery shopping than I was. He actually knew where a lot of this stuff was located. Left alone, I’d probably wander up and down the aisles until someone had to come search for me.

  We laughed and smiled and I forgot about the last few miserable weeks. It was just Jamie and Kellen again.

  “I don’t think we’re going to get much sleep over the next few days,” Jamie said as he studied the list. “We’re buying enough stuff to feed everyone in the county and all their relatives.”

  “I hope she doesn’t expect me to bake anything.”

  Jamie laughed as he pulled out a grocery cart for me to push around. “She’s not a stupid woman. I’m sure she’ll just order you around.”

  “Hey.” I bumped him with my cart. “I can read a recipe.”

  “You want to bake?”

  “Well, no. But I could if I tried.”

  He patted my cheek. “I’m sure you could.”

  “Damn right. Now let’s get this shopping done before Carrie calls again and adds more shit for us to do.”

  We tried to divide the list, but things went faster when we worked together. The lady at the checkout asked if we were opening a bakery or catering a large event. Jamie laughed and told her about the party at the pavilion, which made me think about the end of the season and leaving the lake. I knew where I was going, but I had no idea where Jamie would be. The other thing I knew was if I didn’t open my mouth and at least try, he wouldn’t be with me.