Dream Me(17)

“Where’s Bing?” she wanted to know. There was no “Hi, I’m Mattie Lynn, welcome to Crystal Point and, by the way, who are you?” Just, “Where’s Bing?” Okay, good guess—I knew she wasn’t perfectly nice.

“He’s on court 5 giving a lesson right now. He should be done in about ten minutes. Can I help you with something?”

Without losing the smile on her face or the honey-dipped southern accent she said, “Are you the new girl?”

Good observation. Who else would I be?

“I’m Babe,” I extended my hand across the counter.

She looked at my hand for a brief second like I was trying to pick her pocket or something, but those southern manners kicked in fast and she reached out and gave me the softest, silkiest, non-handshake I had ever experienced. In fact, I wasn’t sure when it started and when it was over so I just withdrew my hand after an appropriate length of time. It occurred to me that maybe women didn’t shake hands in this part of the world.

Note to self . . . ask Bing about that.

“Mattie Lynn,” she said. She probably wasn’t used to people not knowing her. “Did Bing talk to you about FAB—the Friends Across the Bay program?”

Bing had mentioned something about it to me. This was the same program Dee spoke of—the one where kids who lived “across the bay” got to spend a few hours a day learning how to play tennis at Crystal Point Resort. Across the bay, I quickly learned, was code for the real world inhabited by real people who didn’t live in Crystal Point.

“He did say something about it, but we didn’t have a chance to discuss it in detail.”

Mattie Lynn’s smile turned troubled, but still she maintained it.

“I just want to make sure everything’s ready,” she said. “It starts tomorrow and I want everything to go smoothly the first day.”

I wasn’t sure why she took this responsibility on her perfectly proportioned and tanned shoulders.

“I’ll stay after work and get with Bing on it.” I tried to sound reassuring. “He can get me up to speed so I’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Mattie Lynn’s smile turned beautiful again. “Thank yew soooo much,” she dripped. “It’s sooo important to me.”

I admit to being a little impressed it was so important to her. Maybe she actually had a heart. After all, it wasn’t her fault she was so beautiful.

“Has LeGrand come in today?” My antennae went up. Could LeGrand be the alpha dog?

“Umm . . . I haven’t heard of anyone named LeGrand today.”

“If he comes in, please let him know I’m out on Court 3.”

“Okay.”

“And sooo nice to meet you, Babe. Welcome to Crystal Point. I hope you’ll like it here.”

I took it. It was the first true welcome I got from a club member the entire day.

__________

LeGrand never showed up, so eventually Mattie Lynn and her entourage got tired of waiting for him and left. I heard one of them say something about how LeGrand wouldn’t be arriving until the next day and that made me even more curious—arriving from where? As she was leaving, Mattie Lynn managed a sideways glance in my direction combined with a friendly little wave and a red carpet smile. None of the other girls even looked at me.

__________

My first day on the job kept me busy enough to avoid extreme boredom, but mentally I was checked out by late afternoon, and my mind kept drifting. Every once in a while I had to give myself a virtual slap on the face to return my focus to the task (or person) in front of me. I was beginning to understand why siestas are so popular in hot countries. It’s hard to function without one, and I was dragging by the end of the day.

I could have thought about a million different things that day—my job, my life, the sad way Perry looked at me before the computer screen went blank. But I kept coming back to Dream Boy—Zat. How strange I couldn’t shake his memory. I had an overwhelming urge to touch him, but he wasn’t even real. I remembered the exact sensation I had when he held my hand and helped me up the sliding sand dune. Like being on a first date and already hoping for a second. And third. And fourth and fifth.

“So, you think you could take care of it?” my boss was asking me.

We were alone again, and he’d just locked the door. Closing time.

“Um,” I hadn’t heard a word Bing said. “Sorry, I have something in my eye. Could you repeat that?”

“Could you call the main club and get sandwiches delivered here around lunchtime tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah, sure. I’ll take care of it.” Bing was talking about the Friends Across the Bay program, which started the next day. He was anxious for everything to go as planned, so the Queen Bee, Mattie Lynn, would be happy. Or rather, so her parents would be happy, which could only happen if Mattie Lynn was happy.

“You did great today, Babe. Thanks for your help.”

“Oh, no problem. Thanks for the job!” I was getting ready to meet my parents and had my hand on the doorknob to leave, but couldn’t resist one last question. “Bing, who’s LeGrand? I heard a couple of kids talking about him today.”

“LeGrand Buell. His parents are big shots around here,” Bing chuckled. “They bring their boat to Crystal Point around this time every year and usually spend the whole summer. They’re from Memphis. You’ll meet them tomorrow because their boat pulled into the marina this afternoon.”