Girls of Summer(61)

   “You talk a lot,” Theo said.

Beth blinked. “Well, that was blunt.”

“Yes, and you’re so mistaken. Any guy would be happy to help you just so he could look at you.”

Beth was speechless.

“But you don’t have to ask a salesman. I know where the tack is. Come on.”

She followed him through the aisles until he stopped in front of a shelf of glues and tacks.

“Here,” he said, handing her a blister pack of wall putty sticks. “I think this will work.”

“My hero,” she joked as she took it.

“I’d like that,” Theo told her.

Beth was speechless again.

Theo grinned. He’d had this effect on girls many times in his life, but this time he wasn’t messing around. “Need anything else? Let’s go to the registers.”

Beth went first, wondering whether she should leave or wait for him, wondering if she could suggest meeting him for lunch or something. But they’d only met by accident, he was only being kind.

“Do you need a bag?” the cashier asked, looking at Beth’s one small item.

“No, thanks.” Beth took the tack and hurried away, not wanting to hold up the line of looming serious workmen. She knew some of them because of her father, but many of them came over from the Cape to work and others were summer workers.

“Hey, Beth,” Theo called. “Want me to come over and help you put up the posters?”

   “Oh! Yes, that would be great.” Beth paused, watching Theo at the checkout counter.

“See you there,” Theo told her. He focused his charm at the cashier as she rang up his items. “Busy day, right?”

“Every day’s a busy day,” the woman in the green shirt told him. When she asked him if he wanted a bag, she gave him a smile.

Theo, Beth thought, with her own smile.



* * *



—

She had to drive around the block three times before she found a parking place close to the Ocean Matters office. As she walked along the brick sidewalk, she scanned Easy Street. Theo would have a hard time finding a parking place. She shouldn’t expect him to show up right away.

Inside the space, she unrolled the posters and decided where each should hang. She’d taken her photo of the men removing the plastic collar from the seal out to Poets Corner, where she had it blown up to poster size to go in the window. That would catch people’s attention.

She’d left the door open to the street, hoping people might come in and look around and ask about the organization. Theo arrived sooner than she’d expected.

“Did you find a parking space?” she asked.

“No. Just parked at home, gave Mack his stuff, and walked here. With all the traffic jams, walking’s faster than driving. Now. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

Theo held the posters up against the wall while Beth stood back to look.

“I like this arrangement,” she decided.

“Great. Do you have a bubble level?”

“A bubble level?”

Theo laughed. “How can you be your father’s daughter if you don’t know what a bubble level is?” Without waiting for a response, he said, “We can just eye it in.”

   “I have a ruler,” Beth said meekly.

“That’s good. That will help.”

For the next hour, they moved around the room hanging the posters. Beth had ordered some generic but bright posters printed with whales or dolphins or fish and the words SAVE THE OCEANS. Once they were up, they hung the seal poster in the window and one of the bumper stickers she’d had made up saying OCEAN MATTERS. It was blue with brighter blue block print and a fish icon at the right end.

She had to stand almost in Theo’s arms to help hold and tack the posters. She could hear his breathing and smell his male aroma and often they brushed arms. Once his arm brushed her breast, but she could tell it was accidental. The air conditioner kept the room cool enough, but she felt dizzy, as if she was climbing at a high altitude. She’d done that once when her summer camp hiked to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. This was a different kind of dizzy. She flashed on a vision of Theo pressing her gently against the wall. She wished he would.

When they’d finished, Theo said, “Looks good.”

“Do you think it’s hot in here?” Beth asked.

“Yeah, probably because you’re leaving the door open.”

“Oh, right. Well, I want it to look…hospitable.”

“But you don’t want to look like a place that has money to burn.”

“Good point.” Beth walked across the room and pulled the door shut.

“So,” Theo said, cocking his head. “Just think. Right now, your father is in my mother’s house. Does that make us related?”

“Oh, I hope not!” Beth spoke before she thought.

Theo’s smile vanished. “Right. See you later.”

“Theo, that’s not what I meant!” Beth ran to the door.

   Theo was on the sidewalk. He looked back at her. “No problem,” he said.

Beth felt sick. They’d been getting along so well, she’d felt the chemistry between them whirlpooling through her body. And she’d ruined it in one careless moment. Should she call him and explain?