Maine Squeeze (29 page)

All I could say in my defense? Sticking to the rules wasn't nearly as easy as it looked. I went down the list.

Well, okay, I'd had a beer or two, but nothing that harmful. And it had only been because Blair had brought it into the house.

Ahem.

Also ahem, but we were doing a lot better since Blair moved out.

We'd broken this one once.

No problem.

Which meant I needed to get started really soon.

Maybe my parents thought that writing things down would make me stick to them. They were expecting a lot. And how could I let them down this way? I didn't think any of the rules were as important, to them, as number 2. As far as they knew, when they left, Ben and I were dating. Maybe they trusted me so much because they knew Ben and I weren't going to have “sleepovers.” Ben and I cuddled, we snuggled—but we never got carried away by our feelings, we never fought, we never had to make up, we never felt like doing anything outrageous.

It was all really sweet and romantic with Ben, but it was also really safe.

That's
who my parents thought they were leaving me with. Not Evan. Would they have gone away if they'd known we'd be together again? Because I'd told my mom, anyway, that I'd had sex with Evan, so I'm sure she told my dad. We'd talked about it and I'd told her that I'd learned I wasn't ready for that, that I'd gotten too close to Evan too fast. So I'd held off with Ben. I'd waited.

And now?

I unclipped their printed itinerary from the fridge. They were in London for a week now. That was five hours ahead, timewise, and it was three-thirty here, which meant they should be eating breakfast there, or in their hotel room getting dressed.

I took a deep breath and dialed. “Mom?” I said when she answered the phone.

“Colleen?” Her voice sounded bright and cheerful. “Hi!”

“Hey, how's it going?” Now that I had her on the phone, I didn't know what exactly I planned to say.

There was a bright flash of lightning—and a second later a loud crack of thunder. A branch fell somewhere close by, and suddenly the overhead light went out. The fridge switched off, the microwave clock went dark. Starsky let out a long, plaintive yowl.

“Mom? We're having a huge storm here,” I said into the telephone as I went to pick up Starsky, but I couldn't find him in the dark. “Mom? Hello?”

The line was dead. She was gone.

We'd lost both our power and our phone line. I stood at the window looking out at the rain that was building in intensity, hammering against the house.

I saw a flicker of light reflected in the window and turned around. It was Haley, carrying a candle. I was so glad to see her, so glad to know she'd come back to stay. Sam was right behind her. “I'm freaking out!” Sam said.

“Don't worry,” I said. “We're going to be fine.”

I watched as Hutch strolled sleepily into the kitchen and went right up to Starsky, who was huddled against a cabinet, trying to get inside to hide. They touched noses, then Hutch gave Starsky a lick on the head.

Hold on. If Hutch was downstairs, that meant …

Evan walked into the kitchen wearing a T-shirt and shorts, his hair sticking up on the back of his head. “What's going on?” he asked.

Haley and Samantha both turned to me. Even in the semi-darkness, I could see their shocked expressions. “Yes. What is going on?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The storm—it knocked out the phone lines and electricity. I'm glad you knew where a candle was,” I told Haley.

“I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I'm really glad you're here,” Haley told Evan.

The four of us all gathered by the living room window, watching lightning flash across the sky.

“I wonder how high the water's going to get,” Haley said. “I hope my parents are ready.”

When the heavy rain paused for a few minutes, Evan stepped out onto the porch. “Come on!” he called back to us. “It's wild!”

We watched as he grabbed one of the heavy Adirondack chairs to get his balance. The wind had nearly knocked him down. The little white folding table had already blown off the porch and was lying on its side on the driveway. Plastic cups we'd left outside were flying around like kites. The trees were bowing and swaying in the wind. The barbecue kettle was rolling around and spinning on the ground like a top.

“I'm staying inside,” Sam said. “Funny, I didn't hear anything about a hurricane coming.”

“This isn't one,” Haley said.

“You're kidding.”

“No. This is just a storm. A severe one, but no hurricane.”

I stood and watched Evan step out from under the porch into the falling rain. He turned around and waved at us, laughing and making a motion as if he were about to dive into the water on the lawn.

“Coll?” Sam said.

“Yeah?”

“You have weird taste,” she said.

“Agreed,” Haley said as we watched Evan skip through a puddle.

I couldn't believe they weren't going to give me more of a hard time about Evan's being here than that. But they didn't.

“Agreed,” I said.

I woke up on the living room couch, alone, to sun streaming through the window. Sam was crouched beside me, holding a mug of coffee under my nose. “Come on, sleepyhead.”

I rubbed my eyes and struggled to sit up. “How long have you been up?” I asked.

“Since last night. Maybe you can sleep through a tornado, but down in Richmond we don't have those kinds of storms.”

“Is the electricity back on?” I asked, taking the coffee from her.

“Nope. But since your stove runs on propane, I heated the water and made you a modified French press coffee.”

I took a sip. “Does French press mean bitterly strong?”

“Hey, as long as it gets you up, what are you complaining about?”

I took another sip and rubbed my eyes. I must have slept about two hours total. “You know what? I don't think we're even going to have to work today. It's like a snow day.”

“How come?” Samantha asked.

“No electricity? No Bobb's,” I declared. “So, ah, where's everyone else? Still asleep?”

“Heck no. Evan went home after you fell asleep. Haley went to check on her parents and the pier and stuff. I think we should go find her, see if we can help. I already did some cleaning up around the yard, but I'm sure there's more we can do.”

“Okay—I want to check in on Betty, too, make sure she's okay.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said. “And on the way? Maybe you can tell me when you started sleeping with Evan.”

We both started laughing. “Yeah, okay,” I said. “I'll tell you all about it.”

“Then let's get going,” Sam said. “I'm dying for a good story.”

The road was littered with branches that we cleared as we walked. It seemed as if every resident was outside, clearing their property, repairing docks, collecting debris, and talking about the storm—where they'd been and what they'd seen.

The sun was out, and there was a stark blue sky. There was almost no wind, which was very strange. It felt eerie, almost, looking around at all the damage on such a gorgeous sunny morning.

Only the ocean still looked angry and violent. All of the storm remained in the water, which was riled up—the waves were high, and water pounded against the dock pilings and splashed onto the rocky coast. I remembered something my grandfather used to say: “The sea has a longer memory than an elephant.”

Down at the Landing, Haley wasn't behind the window, working. There was a sign on the window that said
CLOSED FOR REPAIRS
.

Over at the commercial dock, the ferry was still tied up, rocking in the rough waves. “Hasn't made its first trip of the day yet. Too rough,” someone commented behind us.

I pictured Ben trying to work with such massive waves and getting seasick. And then I saw them. They were tying up beside the dock, in an old aluminum boat that belonged to Haley's family. Ben had his arms on Haley's waist. He was helping her out of the boat, and when he helped her up to the dock, they held on to each other a second too long for friends.

Ben and Haley. Haley and Ben. It sounded right. I didn't think they'd been having an affair or anything, I knew neither one of them would ever do that. It just seemed like there was more to them than friendship. And that was a good thing.

That night, Evan and I were sitting on the porch, playing cribbage by the light of a lantern. It reminded me of when I was little, and I would come here to visit and my grandfather taught me by candlelight one night when a storm knocked out the power.

At the table beside us, Sam and Erica were playing backgammon. After each game, we'd switch and play a different game and/or opponent.

I nearly jumped when the telephone rang inside the house. “Well, sounds like the phone's back,” I said as I reluctantly got up from the table.

Evan gave my arm a squeeze as I went past. “Whoever it is, get rid of them,” he said.

I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Colleen! Oh, thank goodness. I'm so glad to hear your voice. Is everything okay? I was so worried when the phone went dead,” Mom said. “We've been trying to call all day!”

“Everything's fine—just a storm.” I glanced over at Evan.
And a few other stormy things
. “We didn't have phone service until just now. We still don't have electricity, so we're all sitting outside, playing games by lantern.”

“But everything's okay?” she asked.

“Sure. Everything's great.” Through the screen door, I could hear Evan giving Sam a hard time about the way she was playing. “How's London?” I asked.

“Well, it's lovely, but we've made a decision. We had to tell you right away.”

“A decision?” I asked.

“Yes. We miss you too much, so we're cutting our trip short. We'll be home the day after tomorrow.”

“You'll be home the—the day after tomorrow?” I repeated loudly, through the screen door. “Really?”

Evan, Sam, and Erica all stared at me, then looked at each other with widened eyes.

The day after tomorrow?

Chapter 25

“Don't worry, we'll get it all done.”

That was the first thing Erica said the next morning. It was good to have such a positive person around; otherwise, I'd probably give up and throw in the towel. Especially the dirty ones.

The four of us were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee at six
A.M
. (Fortunately, the electric power was back, and the coffee was a lot better.) I didn't get up at six
A.M
., unless school was involved. But this was almost more important than school.

Haley had to be at work at seven; the rest of us had to be at work from eleven to two. Then we'd have two free hours to get the house completely ready before the dinner shift.

How could we possibly get it all done?

Erica had called her grandparents last night and they'd come over with supplies so we could prepare my parents' bedroom for painting. We'd stayed up late taping around the windows and the doors—I noticed Blair hadn't done such a neat job—and putting down the drop cloths. I would paint; Erica would clean and scrub other parts of the house; Sam would do laundry and help me paint.