There was this long pause, and I scrambled to think of something to say.
“Are you, um, coming down this weekend?” I asked.
“No, not this weekend,” he said. His voice sounded really far away. “I’ll just call back later. You have fun, Belly.”
I hung up the phone. Mr. Fisher hadn’t been down to Cousins once yet. He used to come the weekend after the Fourth, because it was easier getting away from work after the holiday. When he came, he’d fire up the barbecue all weekend long, and he’d wear his apron that saidCHEF KNOWS BEST. I wondered if Susannah would be sad he wasn’t coming, if the boys would care.
I trudged back to my lounge chair, back to the sun. I fell asleep on my lounge chair, and I woke up to Jeremiah sprinkling Kool-Aid onto my stomach. “Quit it,” I said grouchily, sitting up. I was thirsty from my extra sweet Kool-Aid (I always made it with double sugar), and I felt dehydrated and sweaty.
He laughed and sat down on my lounge chair. “Is this what you’re doing all day?”
“Yes,” I said, wiping off my stomach and then wiping my hand on his shorts.
“Don’t be boring. Come do something with me,” he ordered. “I don’t have to work until tonight.”
“I’m working on my tan,” I told him.
“You’re tan enough.”
“Will you let me drive?”
He hesitated. “Fine,” he said. “But you have to rinse off first. I don’t want you getting my seat all oily.”
I stood up, throwing my limp greasy hair into a high ponytail. “I’ll go right now. Just wait,” I said.
Jeremiah waited for me in the car, with the AC on fullblast. He sat in the passenger seat. “Where are we going?” I asked, getting into the driver’s seat. I felt like an old pro. “Tennessee? New Mexico? We have to go far so I can get good practice.”
He closed his eyes and laid his head back. “Just take a left out of the driveway,” he told me.
“Yessir,” I said, turning off the AC and opening all four windows. It was so much better driving with the windows down. It felt like you were actually going somewhere.
He continued giving me directions, and then we pulled up to Go Kart City. “Are you serious?”
“We’re gonna get you some driving practice,” he said, grinning like crazy.
We waited in line for the cars, and when it was our turn, the guy told me to get in the blue one. I said, “Can I drive the red one instead?”
He winked at me and said, “You’re so pretty, I’d let you drivemycar.”
I could feel myself blush, but I liked it. The guy was older than me, and he was actually paying me attention. It was kind of amazing. I’d seen him there the summer before, and he hadn’t looked at me once.
Getting into the car next to me, Jeremiah muttered, “What a freaking cheeseball. He needs to get a real job.”
“Like lifeguarding is a real job?” I countered.
Jeremiah scowled. “Just drive.”
Every time my car came back around the track, the guy waved at me. The third time he did it, I waved back.
We rode around the track a bunch of times, until it was time for Jeremiah to go to work.
“I think you’ve had enough driving for today,” Jeremiah said, rubbing his neck. “I’ll drive us home.”
I didn’t argue with him. He drove home fast, and dropped me off at the curb and headed to work. I stepped back into the house feeling very tired and tan. And also satisfied.
“Someone named Cam called for you,” my mother said. She was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper with her horn-rimmed reading glasses on. She didn’t look up.
“He did?” I asked, covering my smile with the back of my hand. “Well, did he leave a number?”
