Summer of the Geek (19 page)

“Do you think that will really work?” Charlie asked doubtfully.

Hannah nodded. “Guys are so predictable.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Wouldn’t she be leading on the other guy? The one she was using to make Finn jealous, I mean. That doesn’t seem very nice.”

“Nice?” Hannah looked at me incredulously. “They’re guys. You’re not supposed to be
nice
to them.”

“You’re nice to Emmett,” I countered.

“That’s different. We’re in love,” Hannah said contentedly.

“When you’re officially with someone, then you can be nice to him.”

“Hmm,” I said, not quite buying this. After all, I’d been nice to Dex, and I’d still gotten his attention. Then I remembered all of the mix-ups Dex and I’d had before we got together—including his thinking I was dating another guy—and wondered if Hannah had a point.

“Come on,” Hannah said, standing. “Stay for dinner, and I’ll give you some pointers.”

“Great, thanks,” Charlie said, looking happier.

A
few days later, Amelia and I met Dex at the pool for her swimming lesson. Dex looked especially cute in his red lifeguard trunks. All of the hours he’d spent out in the sun that summer had tanned his chest a golden brown and bleached the hair on his arms a pale blond. I was wearing a turquoise tankini that Hannah had helped me pick out. Actually, she’d tried to talk me into a tiny string bikini version, but I’d taken one look in the dressing room mirror and turned the color of a ripe tomato. The tankini was as bare as I was willing to go.

“Dex, will you teach me how to surf?” Amelia asked.

Dex thought about it for a minute, but then shook his head. “I don’t think you’re a strong enough swimmer yet,” he said.

“Yes, I am!” Amelia said. “I can swim a full length of the pool! Watch me!”

She dove forward, and began swimming down the length of the pool, arms churning and legs kicking. Dex looked at me. He knew that Amelia’s new enthusiasm for the water was a big step for her, and I could tell he didn’t want to discourage her.

“She’s doing great. She’s really come a long way,” I said.

“Yeah, but swimming in the pool is a lot different from swimming in the ocean,” Dex said. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Maybe you could teach her some basics, like how you stand on a board and keep your balance. Not on the actual ocean, but here, standing on the deck of the pool,” I suggested.

Dex nodded. “I could do that. And I could take her to the beach and get her started on a boogie board. You don’t go out as far, and you ride in on your stomach. It’s a good way to get used to the rhythm of the waves.”

“I’m sure she’d love that,” I said. I smiled at Dex and, with a sweep of one hand, splashed some water at him.

“Hey,” he said, reaching out and grabbing hold of my wrist so I couldn’t splash him again. “What did you do that for?”

“I was just thinking how nice you are to spend so much time teaching Amelia,” I said.

“I’m nice, so I get splashed?” Dex said, grinning at me. He was wearing sunglasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew they were crinkled with humor.

“That’s right,” I said.

Dex squeezed my wrist, and then let it go as Amelia returned from her swim.

“Did you see me?” she panted.

“You were great,” I said.

Dex nodded. “You need to reach a bit more,” he said, demonstrating the crawl stroke in the air. “Like this. Reach and pull. You’ll go a lot faster.”

“Okay,” Amelia said. She was still out of breath, and her face was pink with exertion. “So can I start surfing?”

“I’ll tell you what. You keep working on your swimming, and I’ll start teaching you the basics of surfing on solid ground,” Dex said. “Then by the time you’re a stronger surfer, you’ll be ready to start riding the waves.”

Amelia pouted. “But I want to surf now!” She stamped her foot, although since we were in the pool, it didn’t have much of an effect.

“Amelia, Dex is trying to help you,” I said.

“No, he’s not! I know I’m ready to surf, and he’s telling me I can’t!”

“No, he’s not,” I said, irritation swelling. “He said he’ll teach you the basics now. You should thank him.”

“Thanks for nothing!” Amelia said, and she turned and stomped off toward the stairs.

Dex and I watched her climb out, huff over to the chaise where we’d left our bags, and wrap herself in a pink-and-green-striped beach towel, her back pointedly turned to us.

“Well,” Dex said mildly. “I guess she told me.”

“I can’t believe she’s being such a brat!” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I can believe it—she’s not exactly the most gracious kid I’ve ever met—but that doesn’t make it any better. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. And I get where she’s coming from. When I was a kid, I always hated it when people told me I couldn’t do something because I was too small or too young. It’s frustrating.”

“Yeah, but she shouldn’t take it out on you. And after everything you’ve done for her. She and I are going to be having a conversation about this when we get home,” I said grimly.

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Dex said. He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “Are you busy later on? You want to do something?”

“I can’t. My dad said he’d take me out driving. My test is in two days, and I need all the practice I can get.”

“I’ll take you driving,” Dex offered. But then he hesitated. “As long as you promise not to kill my car.”

I shook my head again. “Thanks, but no. You make me too nervous.”

“
I
make
you
nervous?” Dex pointed to himself.

“Yes, you,” I said. “Don’t look so surprised. I don’t want you to witness the epic fail that is me driving.”

“You’re not an epic fail. You just need more self- confidence,” Dex suggested.

I snorted in disbelief. “Yeah, that’s the problem. My lack of self-confidence. Not the fact that I run over mailboxes and garbage cans and sidewalks.”

“You ran over a garbage can?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, and decided to change the subject. “How about tomorrow? It’s penny pin night at the bowling alley, and Charlie’s getting a group together to bowl. My friend Finn and the girl he’s dating will be there, too.”

“I was supposed to do something with Luke and Brian, but maybe we can meet up with you.”

“Which ones are Luke and Brian?” I asked.

“They’re both on the lacrosse team with me. I don’t know if you’ve met Luke, but Brian was at that barbecue at the beach a few weeks ago,” Dex said.

The guys at that party had all blurred together. They were all athletic, all wore plaid shorts and graphic T-shirts, and all called each another
dude
. Oh well. Their presence would make Charlie happy. I knew she was eager to try Hannah’s strategy of making Finn jealous.

“Sure, bring them along. Hannah and Emmett are coming, too.”

“Hannah bowling? Somehow I can’t see that,” Dex said.

I decided not to explain about Charlie’s crush on Finn, and how Hannah had decided to make getting the two of them together her personal pet project for the summer. Charlie had asked me not to tell anyone, and besides, the whole situation weirded me out.

“Yeah, well, maybe she’s looking for a new hobby,” I said. I glanced at the big clock hanging behind the lifeguard stand. “I suppose I should get Amelia home.”

I glanced over at my young charge. She was sitting on the recliner, hiding behind a pair of round sunglasses, her arms crossed in front of her. Even from a distance, I could tell she was glowering. I sighed.

“This should be a fun afternoon,” I said.

“That’s why they pay you the big bucks,” Dex teased me. “Hey! Stop splashing me!”

“You’re not hungry?” I asked.

Amelia and I were sitting at the kitchen table at her house. I’d made us grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up tomato soup for lunch.

“My sandwich is burnt,” Amelia said, staring at her plate with disgust.

“It’s not burnt,” I said. “It’s just a little brown.”

“It’s burned,” Amelia said again, and pushed her plate away from her.

“Well, then, just eat your soup,” I said.

“I don’t like soup,” Amelia complained.

“Then I guess you can just starve,” I said, taking a bite of my grilled cheese sandwich.

The words sounded familiar to me, and I realized that I’d probably heard my mother say something similar, when I was acting like a brat at mealtime. Did this mean I was turning into my mother? What a horrible thought.

I expected Amelia to push her chair back and stalk off to her piano. But instead, she just sat there, her shoulders slumped and her mouth a tense line. My irritation dissipated a bit. She was so talented and so driven, sometimes it was hard to remember that she was just a little girl.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, forcing myself to use a kinder, gentler tone.

Amelia shrugged.

“Did you ever talk to your mom about not wanting to change piano teachers?”

“She didn’t want to hear it,” Amelia said. “She said I’ve outgrown Miss Kendall, and Ian Gregory will help me to maximize my potential. End of discussion.”

“Did you show her the list we made?”

Amelia shook her head. “There was no point. She’d already made up her mind.”

“And what do you think?”

“I don’t even want to play anymore,” Amelia said.

We both went silent under the weight of this admission.

“I didn’t mean that,” Amelia finally said. “I don’t know why I said it.”

“It’s okay if you feel that way,” I said.

Amelia snorted her disbelief. “No, it’s not. My mom would freak. Besides, I don’t really want to stop. I love playing. I just . . . well, sometimes I wonder what it would be like not to feel so . . .” She stopped, grappling for the right word.

“Pressured?” I suggested.

Amelia nodded. “But then I feel guilty for thinking that. It’s like, because I have this gift, all of the decisions about my whole life have already been made. What I’m going to do, what I’m going to be.”

“But they haven’t, really,” I said. “You still get to make choices for yourself.”

“It doesn’t feel that way,” Amelia said softly. Tears glittered in her eyes.

“I really think you should talk to your mom about how you’re feeling,” I said.

“I tried that. Remember? She wouldn’t listen to me.”

“You talked to her about changing piano teachers. This is a little different. I think she’ll have to listen to you talk about your feelings on this,” I said. “It’s your life, Amelia. You get to decide what you’re going to do with it. If you don’t want to be a concert pianist, you don’t have to be.”

“I can’t tell my mom that. She’d be so disappointed,” Amelia said. She wiped at her eyes, looked up at me under a damp fringe of lashes.

“I know, it’s hard,” I said. “But I think you still have to talk to her.”

Amelia nodded. And, strangely enough, this decision to confront her future—or, at least, to confront the possibility of a different future than the one she’d had for as long as she could remember—seemed to steady her. Her shoulders relaxed, and she reached for her grilled cheese sandwich.

“I thought it was burned,” I teased her as she took a big bite.

Her cheeks were bulging, chipmunk-style, but even so, she managed a weak grin. “I guess it’s not as bad as I thought,” she admitted.

“W
ho’s coming tonight?” Charlie asked as she tied the laces on her red bowling shoes.

“Dex said he’s bringing some friends,” I said. We had arrived early to claim two side- by-side lanes. The bowling alley tended to get crowded on penny pin nights.

“Are they cute?” Charlie asked.

I rolled my eyes. It was such an un-Charlie-like thing to say. “I have no idea,” I said.

“You haven’t met them?” she persisted.

“I think I have, but I don’t really remember them. Dex said they’re both on his lacrosse team, though, so they’re probably not your type.”

“Why wouldn’t they be my type?”

“Aren’t you the one who said that all jocks have IQs roughly equal to their jersey numbers?” I asked.

Charlie considered this. “I may have said that,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to date them for their minds. I just want to use them to make Finn jealous.”

“Make me jealous of what?” Finn asked, appearing behind Charlie.

Charlie jumped, and let out a small scream. She stared at me, wide-eyed, silently begging me to fix it.

“Yeesh, what’s up with you?” Finn asked. “And what would I be jealous of?”

“Charlie made it to level five on Arachnozombies,” I lied quickly.

I wasn’t that into gaming, but close proximity to Finn over the years kept me more up to date on the gaming world than I ever wanted to be. Arachnozombies was Finn’s current obsession. He’d bragged endlessly when he made it to level four. I had no idea if there even was a level five, but it was all I had.