I was nervous about my first shift on beach patrol. What if I missed someone drowning? Luckily, only one little girl was stung by a jellyfish, but after I sprayed her leg with what I called mermaid water, she was fine.
Keri Ann, Joey, and Lizzie came down to the beach at around three. I’d been assigned up near one of the resort hotel markers, so I was surprised to see them.
Keri Ann jogged up to me. “Happy birthday!” she yelled and grabbed me in a big hug as soon as I stood. Over her shoulder I saw Joey stick an umbrella post in the sand and hammer it down with a mallet, opting to get their spot set up instead of saying hello to me.
Lizzie hugged me too. “Here ya go,” she said and handed me an oversized It’s-My-Birthday button. “To pin on your swimsuit,” she explained.
I chuckled and pinned it on. “Thanks. Great speech yesterday,” I told her.
“Thank you. I couldn’t believe all the good-byes. I wanted to cry. Didn’t you just want to cry?”
“I’m sure you did, Miss Valedictorian, you’re off to some fancy college on scholarship and we’re both staying here.” I grinned, keeping one eye on the water and the swimmers. “Keri Ann and I will probably see those losers from high school everywhere we go.”
“You’re going to college too,” she said to me.
“Right down the road. And I’ll be living here.”
“We need to work on this one.” She pointed at Keri Ann.
“I agree.”
“Stop it, guys. When Joey’s done I’ll go.”
“So, you and Chase, huh?” I said to Lizzie, changing the subject. Keri Ann hated it when I bugged her about college.
She punched my shoulder softly. “Nah. Not really. He sure is cute though. So you and Joey?” she returned. Then she glanced at Keri Ann. “Is it weird? It’s gotta be weird, right?”
We started to walk to where Joey was setting up.
Keri Ann shrugged. “It’s taking some getting used to.”
“What is?” asked Joey, clearly having supersonic hearing.
“You and Jazz dating,” said Lizzie.
Oh shit. An awkward moment that felt like an eternity ensued. In reality it was about one millisecond.
Joey stilled.
“Not dating,” I said hurriedly and saw his body relax infinitesimally. He busied himself with the umbrella.
“Yeah,” covered Keri Ann. “Like Jazz would date this oaf? She’s smarter than that. But,” she looked at Lizzie and made an Ew! face with a mock shudder. “But I think they’re doing a lot of kissing.”
“It’s about all he’s good for.” I shrugged and looked over to catch his eye. I winked at him, trying to let him know I was fine. We were keeping it casual. Honestly, the way he was fidgeting, he looked like he was about to remember he had somewhere to be.
“So how’s Nana today?” I asked, changing the subject when he avoided eye contact. I did a quick look around that beachgoers were safe.
“Nana’s going to need surgery,” Keri Ann responded. “An angioplasty.”
I sucked in a quick breath. “Oh wow. I’m so sorry.”
“That’s major surgery, right?” asked Lizzie.
“I think so, I don’t know,” Keri Ann said and looked toward Joey.
He nodded. “Not as major as it could be. She has a narrowed artery. If it were to get blocked she’d have a heart attack. So apparently Dr. Barrett recommends we do this surgery as soon as possible. If he can, he’ll put in a permanent stent so it won’t happen again. But he won’t know ‘til he gets in there.”
“Anyway,” said Keri Ann. “Nana pretty much kicked us out of the house for fussing over her. Mrs. Weaton’s there. They’re playing Spite and Malice.”
“What the hell is that?” I asked, intrigued.
“A card game apparently,” said Joey with an amused smirk.
I glanced back to my vacant post. “I need to get back to my chair. One more hour then I’ll be done.” I said good-bye and walked back to my deck chair parked under the shade of a red umbrella.
I kept my eyes away from Joey and scanned the water. Time crawled until I only had a half hour left. Normally my beach time was about catching up on all my celebrity gossip. This was like torture.
I unwrapped a stick of cinnamon gum and slid it between my lips.
A shadow fell across my feet where I was tanning my legs outside the circle of umbrella shade. I looked up to see Joey and hated that my belly flip flopped.
“Hey, Jay Bird,” I greeted him. “You need some mermaid water?”
He laughed. “What?”
“For jellyfish stings.”
“Oh. No. But could you rub sunblock on my back?” he held out a tube.
“Can’t you get your sister to do that?”
“I could, but then I’d miss out on having your hands on me.”
I took the cream and stood up. “Turn around.”
He smiled and turned.
“It’s your funeral,” I said, fighting a smile. “I guess you didn’t think through what having my hands on you would do to your body. There are kids around, Joseph. Someone could call the police.”