Summer's Desire

by Olivia Lynde

  Seth's hand has fallen away from my cheek. He grits out, "I swear, Andy, one of these days!..."

  Andy laughs and takes off, and Seth turns back to me. "We'll finish this later."

  Uh, I kind of hope not.

  Seth gets out of the car, comes to open my door, and helps me out of the BMW. Of course, it's not like I need his help to get out of the freaking car, but I really enjoy his sweet, courtly gestures. They make me feel valued and special.

  Gripping my hand, Seth leads me to a side entrance of the garage, and we enter a medium-sized working area. There are two cars in here: one suspended, with presumably Andy's legs sticking out from under it; the other one with its hood raised and with another guy, this one in his forties, with salt-and-pepper hair, bending over it.

  "Hi, Joe!" Seth calls out to the second guy, still holding my hand.

  Joe turns to face us and greets Seth dryly. "Glad to see you could finally join us, Lewis."

  Seth is unabashed. "I'll make up for the time."

  Andy slides out from beneath the car, again with the broad grin aimed at me.

  At Joe's inquiring look in my direction, Seth makes the introductions: "This is Summer, my girl. Summer, this is my boss and owner of this fine establishment, Joe Larson. The clown down there is Andy, a fellow mechanic."

  I melt at hearing him say "my girl" in that deep, sexy voice of his. He's always called me this, even when we were children.

  Seth looks back to me. "You can sit on that couch"—he points with his free hand at a green, dusty couch lying by the wall a few feet away—"and make yourself comfortable. I'll go and change. Be right back."

  With a squeeze of my hand and a last glance at me, he disappears quickly through a door at the back of the shop, leaving me alone with the two men. They're both gazing at me with curiosity.

  "Hello." I smile weakly. "I hope you don't mind my presence here, Mr. Larson. I won't distract Seth from his work." At least, I hope I won't.

  Joe cocks his head to the right, while Andy disappears with a guffaw back underneath his car. "That's all right, Summer. Lewis would know his way around a car even blind; I'm sure he won't mess up. But I don't think I've seen you in town before. Whose kid are you?" He wrinkles his forehead, apparently deep in thought.

  I gulp. "I'm fostered with the Andersons." At this, he raises an eyebrow. For some reason, I add, "But I used to live here in Rockford five years ago. I was fostered to Seth's Grandma then."

  His expression lights up in sudden comprehension. "You're Seth's Shadow?" Then, exploding into laughter: "Ah, now I see!"

  Andy pops out from under the car again, mouth open. "This girl is Seth's Shadow?"

  My cheeks are red. As if the situation wasn't awkward enough already, of course Joe had to go and remember that stupid nickname!

  When I entered first grade, I was so happy at finally being in school with Seth that I always stayed glued to him at recess. (Seth didn't seem to mind; in fact, if I wasn't beside him within one minute after the bell rang, he would come looking for me.) Very soon though, some of the older boys at our school started to call me "Seth's Shadow" and to make fun of me. Seth bloodied their noses, and the mockery stopped.

  The nickname, however, stuck.

  Honestly though, when it wasn't meant in a mean way, I didn't mind the name all that much; after all, it kind of reflected the truth. Throughout our childhood, Seth and I were always a package deal: if you got one of us, then you got the other as well. Just like a person and their shadow, we were inseparable.

  After I settled on this interpretation and impressed it upon Seth as well (who listened to me with easygoing amusement and didn't contradict my whimsical notions, even going so far as to say that he, for one, didn't mind at all being Sunny's Shadow), I even sort of grew fond of the nickname, fanciful dork that I was!

  At any rate, the expression "Seth's Shadow" never disappeared in the ranks of our age peers (however, Seth did ensure that it was never again used openly as a weapon against the two of us), but until now I had no clue that it was also known among adults.

  Joe hasn't finished embarrassing me. "I'm sorry for not recognizing you, Summer. Adelaide Lewis was a good friend of mine, and I saw you with her a couple of times. But it's been many years since, and you were such a tiny thing last time I saw you." Then, giving me a wry once-over: "Not that you've grown much."

  "I've grown some," I mutter sulkily. And I have, really! I'm 5'3''... almost (surely, a measly quarter of an inch is hardly worth nitpicking over!). Anyway, it's not like everyone can be a giant like Seth!

  Andy snorts and disappears again under the car. Joe just gives me another smile. "Well, I'm glad you're back in town. Lewis must've missed you a lot."

  I smile shyly, loving to hear that.

  The door at the back opens, and in comes Seth, holding something in his hand. Heavens, I can't believe this! It's so unfair how smoking hot this boy looks even in grease-stained brown coveralls.

  He comes to me, smiling, pleased to have me here, I think. He hands me a paperback. "I found this mystery among my stuff here. You can read it if you want, to pass the time easier." I accept the paperback and nod. He kisses my forehead and gets to work.

  I go sit on the couch and call Louise, telling her that I left early and am out for the day. She acquiesces distractedly to my plans, informing me that she's at a fundraiser and doesn't have time to speak. Then, predictably, I hear the disconnect signal while I still have my mouth open. I shake my head, curl on the couch, and open the paperback.

  * * *

  The mystery Seth gave me to read is pretty engrossing, so I only raise my head to sneak looks at a certain blue-eyed mechanic, oh, maybe once every thirty seconds. I feel his gaze touching on me just as often, and he's actually working and accomplishing a lot during this time.

  Truthfully, I know next to nothing about cars—I don't even have a driver's license—but I'd have to be blind to miss Seth's obvious proficiency at his job. I love his earnest expressions when he's consulting with Joe or Andy, the absorbed look on his face when he's checking things out, the competent way in which he takes apart and puts back together the car parts.

  I'm not ashamed to admit that I also love the play of his muscles when he's bending, or lifting, or flexing. Holy smoke, this boy's butt is like a masterpiece of human anatomy!

  At lunch we go to the nearby deli and buy sandwiches, and we eat them sitting on the couch back at the garage, so close to each other that I'm practically on his lap. We're leaning into each other, maintaining steady eye contact, conversing softly about our favorite music and bands and movies.

  We're constantly touching, as if we both need an unremitting connection to the other. In my case, it's slight brushes of his arm, my hand timidly drawing circles on his chest, and once when I feel exceptionally daring a playful finger-tap on his lower lip. In his case, it's his hand at my waist, sometimes lying still, sometimes caressing, and his fingers stroking with tenderness down my cheek or curling a tendril of hair back behind my ear.

  For more than five years, I've been starving for affection and human touch: Seth's affection, Seth's touch—his, because apart from my fondness for Grandma, he's the only person in the world whom I've let myself love since becoming an orphan. Now, having everything I've yearned for suddenly lavished on me again, and in such great measure... it feels almost surreal.

  I'm soaking in Seth's closeness with something akin to desperation, for in the corners of my mind lurks the dark fear that everything—that Seth—will be taken from me again very soon. God knows, I don't deserve to be this happy after what I've done in the past... yet still I can't help but cling to this feeling of joy. And pray for it to last.

  A few times, I notice Andy and Joe staring at Seth and me: Andy increasingly bewildered, and Joe as if he knows a secret he's not sharing and that he finds half-amusing, half-pleasing.

  Finally, at about 5 P.M., Seth gets off work. After making our goodbyes to Joe—Andy had already left a couple of hours
ago—Seth and I walk hand in hand back to his car. I've taken the mystery book with me; I've only a couple of chapters left to read, and I plan to finish them this weekend.

  It's a beautiful day at the end of April, the sun is still shining down on us, and the way I feel, all warm and tingly on the inside, it's as if I have another sun glowing inside me too.

  "Sunny, what do you say we go and catch a movie?" Seth's smile is made of pure mischief.

  I fake-groan. "Judging by your satisfied smirk, I guess it's safe to assume that you remember whose turn it is to pick the movie, right?" I try to act put out, but I don't think I manage to be very convincing.

  His grin grows wider. "Sunny baby, it's finally payback time!"

  Wow, he really does remember our last cinema outing and the awful romantic comedy to which I dragged him when he was thirteen and I was eleven, the week before we lost Grandma. Obviously, he also remembers that he promised me revenge at the time, in the form of his next pick being a gory, disgusting horror movie.

  Seems like he's determined to finally make good on that long-ago promise.

  Having reached the car, he opens my door, and after I sit down, he closes the door and circles the front to take his own seat. We head to the cinema.

  Oh, better we had gone straight home!

  Chapter 18

  Seth and I are in the foyer at the cinema, standing in line for tickets. We're holding hands, grinning like fools because he's been whispering naughty jokes to me. He's delighted at having made me blush, and I'm drunk on his happy, smiling face.

  Once more he leans down close to my ear, his breath falling hot on my neck and making me shiver. "What's six inches long that women love?"

  Red-faced, I shake my head, signaling that I'm not suicidal enough to attempt a guess. His nose rubs teasingly over my temple, and I shiver again.

  He tells me, "Folding money."

  I burst out laughing, and he chuckles in my ear.

  It is at that precise moment that my gaze falls on a group of people at the end of a waiting line to my far left—and oh crap, I catch sight of Jessica and two of her cheerleader friends. They're all glaring at me, the cheerleader minions with disdain and Jessica with pure, unadulterated hatred.

  Seth feels my sudden stiffness and turns to see at what I'm staring. All three cheerleaders, Jessica included, beam at him. On recognizing Jessica, his body goes rigid and his face darkens with spine-chilling fury.

  He starts to take a step toward the girls, but I grab hold of his arm and plead in a whisper: "No, Seth, don't go there! Now is not the time."

  Jessica's smile for Seth, I notice, has dissolved into shock. I guess it's the first time she's ever seen him directing such rage at her. Her two followers merely look confused.

  Seth turns back to me and circles his palms possessively round my upper arms, then regards me so intensely it's as if he's trying to fill his entire field of vision with me. He inhales deeply a couple of times and seems to calm down.

  "Sorry, baby. I wasn't expecting to meet her here and I lost it. But you're right; this isn't the time or the place to settle this."

  Then it's our turn at the ticket counter, and Seth buys the tickets to the threatened horror movie. Next we head into our movie theater, with our hands clasped together—and we don't look back.

  * * *

  We've just exited the cinema a few minutes ago after watching the grossest scary movie one could ever imagine, and we're sitting in Seth's car, talking. We're holding hands again. In fact, I don't think he's let go of me for more than two minutes total since we left Joe's Garage.

  "Eww, Seth, that film was really repugnant! I mean, after the murderer gutted that dumb tourist with the sickle, they actually showed sectioned intestines! May I just say again: eww!!"

  He's shaking his head, laughing at my disgusted pout. "That should teach you not to mess with a man's manliness by making him watch unmanly movies."

  "Ha! I can't believe you're actually carrying a grudge over a stupid film from five years ago!" Then I smile widely because—"Even so, I don't feel the least bit sorry for having made you watch that awful Rom-Com at the time; the expression on your face during and even after the movie was so totally worth it!"

  His eyes gleam with humor. "Now you're just being mean."

  "Yep. As for the future... don't imagine I'll so easily give up my favorite pastime of making you squirm!"

  "Okay, Sunny, have it your way then. If it's war you want, war you'll get." An anticipatory grin appears on his face. Then he sobers slightly. "You want to grab something to eat? There's a place nearby where they serve some awesome spicy food."

  I don't hesitate to agree. "Sounds good."

  * * *

  We choose to walk to the bistro since it's just a block away from where we parked the car. As we enter the place, it only takes me a quick glance to conclude that this must be a popular local hangout. I see a lot of familiar faces from school, and drat it!—they've all turned toward Seth and me, aiming stares of disbelief at our entwined hands. The tables immediately start buzzing.

  Seth seems impervious to it all. He's been looking around for a free table and it seems he's found one, for he's suddenly tugging me away from the entrance area.

  We've only taken a couple of steps, however, when we hear someone shout his name. We both turn in the direction of the voice, and I spot the four jocks who were with Seth the first time I ever saw him at Rockford High, as he was crossing the cafeteria. They're sitting at a nearby table together with four pretty girls.

  "Hey, Seth!" Carter calls again, in a carefully neutral tone. "What you doin' here?"

  Seth pulls on my hand, taking us closer to his friends. Oh, lordy! The girls are watching me with emotions ranging from curiosity to scorn, and the boys are all goggling at me with poorly masked disbelief. All with the exception of Jacob, that is, who seems downright cheerful.

  I gaze up at Seth to see how he feels about his friends' reactions to us showing up here together, not to mention the extreme amount of attention still directed at us from the other patrons of the bistro. But he appears relaxed, completely unruffled by the situation in which we've found ourselves.

  "Hi, guys!" His tone, too, is perfectly equable. "Summer and I are here to grab a bite. I convinced her to try a spicy dish." Then, turning to me: "Summer, I think you haven't officially met the guys yet, except maybe for Carter." He frowns at his friend, who grins back. "Next to Carter is Tracy, then Adriana and Jacob, then Alex with Susan, and Elle with Nick. Everyone, this is Summer."

  "Hi, Summer!" Jacob greets jovially. A few others mutter hellos, but they haven't stopped gaping at me as if I'm an alien. Or as if I'm a peasant intruding on royalty—which may actually be a fitting simile, considering our respective positions in Rockford High's social hierarchy.

  One of the girls, the one with the strawberry blond hair and bangs—Elle, I think—smirks cattily. "Summer, I just love your hoodie! It really suits your body shape. Where in the world did you buy it?!"

  I tense at the hit. Seth releases my hand and his arm reaches around my waist, drawing me protectively into him. I lean into his solid frame, drawing strength from the contact, and meet the challenge in Elle's eyes straight on. "Actually, Seth loaned me this hoodie."

  Her surprised gaze jumps above my head toward Seth, and an instant later she pales dramatically. "That was very nice of him," she says a bit shrilly, but with no trace left of her former sarcasm. What did she see on his face that made her change gears so abruptly?

  Alex, a strapping boy with sandy-colored hair and light brown eyes, asks hesitatingly, "So Lewis, do you, err... wanna join us at our table?" He sounds unsure about the right protocol to follow in this situation.

  "Nah, guys, that's all right. Summer and I will get our own table. Enjoy your evening."

  With that, he turns away from the group and leads me to the table he chose before and which luckily is still free. We disentangle our hands to sit down. The next moment, a young, heavily made-u
p waitress materializes with our menus.

  "Good evening and welcome." She flips her long brown hair and smiles broadly at Seth, devouring him with her eyes. "Do you want to order a drink?" she asks him huskily.

  Honest to God? Doesn't she see me sitting right here beside him?

  "Summer?" He seems oblivious to the girl's barefaced flirting, which is fortunate since I don't have the energy to contend with her brazenness right now. I'm more than a bit shaken by our meeting with Seth's friends and by the many stares and unfriendly murmurs that I continue to feel aimed at me from all around.

  "A coke," I tell him softly.

  "A coke and an ice tea," he informs the waitress without glancing at her. She leaves, miffed.

  He's watching me with absolute focus, worry and frustration emanating from him in pulsing waves. "Sorry about earlier, Sunny. I didn't think the guys would act like that."

  I feel like crying. "Oh, Seth, you don't have to apologize! It wasn't your fault. It's me who's sorry for embarrassing you."

  "You didn't embarrass me." He seems taken aback. "Why would you even think that?!" His voice is suddenly fierce, but kept at a low pitch.

  Good heavens, is this boy for real? My outfit alone is enough to make a beggar woman cry—except for his hoodie, which is beautiful of course but looks weird on me, being so big.

  "Seth, you have eyes. Surely you can see perfectly well that, when you and I stand next to each other, we don't match!" I'm upset but speaking just as quietly as he did earlier. We've already created enough of a spectacle just by showing up here together, and at least half the people in the bistro are still watching us. The last thing we need is to further feed the rumor mill by raising our voices.

  So it's probably not a good thing that Seth is looking so obviously furious right now.

  Just when he opens his mouth, most likely to blast me, the waitress returns with our drinks and sets them before us, glowering at me and then turning to smile hugely at Seth.