She's Up to No Good(22)

“How do you know all of these?”

“You learn them when you go out on the ships. It’s how they used to steer.”

“But how do you do that?”

He laughed softly. “If it were two hundred years ago, I could tell you. I’m not exactly crossing oceans on my uncle’s fishing boats.”

“I want to do that,” she said, sitting up.

“A fishing boat wouldn’t make it.”

She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean on one of your uncle’s boats. I mean I want to see the world. All of it.”

“That’s a pretty tall order.”

“Don’t you? I want to go to Rome and Paris and Greece and London and Egypt and”—she looked at him slyly, the flames of the fire reflecting on her face, making her eyes glow in the darkness—“Portugal.”

Tony laughed again and pulled her back down next to him. “Name one city in Portugal.”

“Lisbon.”

“You do know I’ve never been there, right?”

“So?”

“So, do you want to go to Russia?”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not the top of my list. But someday. Maybe.”

“You’re not as far removed as I am. My family has been here for a hundred years. I’m more American than you are.”

“Okay, Antonio.”

“What’s in a name?”

“Ha. Would be funnier if we weren’t so star crossed.”

“Are we though?”

“Papa said I can go out with you, not marry you.”

Tony held her tighter. “And do you always do what your papa tells you?”

A slow, sultry smile spread across Evelyn’s lips, and Tony fought to keep from kissing her. Yes, their evening would wind up there, but to do it lying down on the beach like this was more dangerous. It was easier to stop in the car. “You know I don’t.” She leaned in, and he sat up abruptly.

“I was thinking—I might leave the business.”

Evelyn sat up too. “What would you do?”

“Well, I had two ideas. There’s the Army. I could do four years and then go to college.”

She shivered again, involuntarily this time, but kept her face studiedly neutral. “Is that what you want?”

“No,” he admitted. They both knew young men who hadn’t come home from the war. And many who came home missing body parts. Or who came home but were really still on the beach in Normandy. “But I know your father cares so much about college.”

“But you’d be gone four years.”

“So would you.”

“I may not go far,” Evelyn hedged. “If I was in Boston, we’d still see each other. If you were here.”

“That’s true.”

“Look, if you want to go to college—”

Tony turned to look at her. “Do you want me to?”

“Only if it’s what you want. You can’t do something that big because it might make my father happy. Are you going to magically become Jewish too?”

“No.”

They didn’t speak for a minute. “You said you had two ideas?”

“They’re looking for new police officers. I picked up an application this week.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

He nodded slightly. “I think it is. It’s not like we have gangs here. And I like helping people.” He looked at her again. “And it’s more respectable than cod fishing.”

“Tony, I don’t care if you work on the docks forever. You know that doesn’t matter to me one bit.”

“It matters to me. I want to be something you can be proud of.”

“What will your family think?”

“My father won’t be happy, but he has three other sons to leave the business to.”

Evelyn leaned her head on his shoulder. “Officer Delgado,” she mused. “It sounds good.” She thought about the first time she saw him, when he forced his brother to do the right thing. “I think you’d be a wonderful police officer.”

He leaned his head on top of hers and they sat next to each other, looking into the fire as if they could see their future together in it.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN





I looked at my grandmother with distrust as the man who exited the cottage wrapped her in a warm hug.

When he released her, she held his hand with her right, then took mine with her left. “Joe, I want you to meet my granddaughter, Jenna. Jenna, this is Joe Fonseca.”

He held out his hand, and I awkwardly had to disentangle mine from my grandmother’s to shake it. “Hi,” he said, grinning, and a wave of annoyance flared as I looked at him. Most Airbnbs had keypad entrances, so you didn’t need to interact with a human being. And while, yes, she would pick human contact over avoiding people at all costs the way my generation did, I realized instantly that this was intentional. And not just because she was watching us with the same level of interest with which she devoured episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Under other circumstances, those rich brown eyes that crinkled at the corners when his full lips parted to flash perfect, even white teeth at me from a suntanned face would have absolutely been a welcome sight. But I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to think about dating again, let alone meeting someone on vacation. And a Grandma Evelyn setup was the kiss of death, as I learned in college.