Jill watched her mom swipe breadcrumbs off the counter into the bowl of her hand. She dumped the crumbs in the trash can and unwrapped a bouquet of yellow roses. She started to hum as she stripped the leaves of the roses and clipped the stems. The light spilling through the window fell softly on her face, erasing tiny lines and sprinkling gold into her brown eyes.
“You look pretty, Mom,” Jill said.
Her compliment wasn’t another attempt to avoid her fate. She said it because it was true. When her mother was happy, she was beautiful.
Leaving the roses in the sink, she crossed the room andhugged Jill. “What a sweet thing to say. I know sailing isn’t your favorite, but it’ll be over before you know it.”
Resigned, Jill stepped out onto the back deck and looked at the harbor. The sky was a snarl of pewter-gray clouds. The water was flat and calm.
Jill wished she could stay in the kitchen. She wanted to be near roses that looked like tiny suns and bask in the sound of her mother’s wordless song. Instead, she slid the door shut and walked to the yacht club.
When she reached the parking lot, she joined Heather and some other friends. Then the instructors began calling out the captain and crew pairings.
Jill glanced around, hoping against hope that she’d get one of the nicer high school girls as her skipper.
J.J. had been paired with the captain of the swim team, and Heather got Marianne, one of the best junior sailors on the North Shore.
They’ll probably win, Jill thought sourly.
Her instructor flipped the sheet attached to his clipboard over and said, “And for our final boat, the skipper is Allison Burr. First mate is Jill Scott.”
Jill’s stomach dropped. Allison was painfully shy. She barely spoke in class and had absolutely no confidence out of the water. Everyone knew she was a terrible skipper.
“Have fun coming in last,” J.J. whispered in Jill’s ear as he passed by.
Fury made Jill’s arm jerk like a pinball flipper. Her fist caught J.J. right in the stomach.
“Oof,” he grunted, his grin betraying how ineffective the blow had been. He turned away to grab life jackets for himself and his captain, and as Jill followed him with her eyes, she saw Aaron detach himself from a group of boys and walk over to her. “Tough luck,” he said. “I sailed with Allison lastsummer. She’s doesn’t know how to catch the wind. You’ll have to tell her what to do.”
“I guess,” Jill said.
She’d had hundreds of pretend conversations with Aaron, and in every one of those, she was clever and entertaining. In these fantasies, he hung on her every word. But now, when she had the chance to dazzle him, her mind went totally blank. She was dying to touch one of the brown curls that fell into his eyes or do something to make him smile. He had the most beautiful smile.Everythingabout him was beautiful. The arch of his brows, his wide shoulders, his sea-green eyes, and his long, tapered fingers.
A Greek god, Jill thought, drinking in the sight of him.
“There isn’t much wind, and my dad says there’s fog near the shoreline,” he continued. “It’s gonna be wicked-slow sailing.”
“If slow and steady wins the race, then Allison’s got this in the bag.”
Aaron laughed. “We should just give her the trophy now. See you out there.”
All of a sudden, Jill didn’t care if she came in last. She didn’t care that she had to give up a Sunday afternoon doing something she hated.
She’d made Aaron laugh. After he’d deliberately come over to talk to her. Not to J.J. or one of his friends, but toher.
Heather rushed over and grabbed Jill’s arm. “Oh, my gawd! What was that about?”
“He was wishing me luck.”
Heather put a hand to her heart. “What if he, like,likesyou?”
Though this was Jill’s secret hope, she didn’t dare give voice to it. “He was just trying to make me feel better because I got stuck with Allison.”
“Because he likes you!” Heather covered her mouth as if she couldn’t contain her excitement. “Oh. My. God. You’ve had a crush on him for, like,forever.”
Jill was about to shush Heather when their instructor raised an air horn and issued two short blasts. “Before you get in the launch, make sure you have your life jackets. No life jacket, no race.”
You could get out of the race, niggled a small voice in Jill’s head.Just get on the launch without a life vest. After everyone gets dropped off, the launch would bring you back. You could go home, have the house all to yourself. You could listen to records. Read. Eat anything you want.
