born. That would have been September, which was possible, but unlikely. Besides, Shelly doesn’t look a thing like anyone in our family.”
Grace had pulled her car to the side of the cul-de-sac in front of Poll-Rory. Rory walked with Jill down the front steps to greet her.
“So what is Brian up to these days?” he asked.
Jill laughed.
“He’s a juvenile-court judge,” she said.
“Is that ironic, or what? He’s got three teenage girls, and he’s the strictest parent I know.”
Grace got out of her car, and Rory introduced the two women, then he and Grace went back to his porch, where he had the newspaper with the movie listings. They were about to sit down to peruse them, when Grace pointed toward the beach.
“There’s Shelly,” she said.
Rory turned to see Shelly walking through the sea oats a little east of his cottage, coming up from the beach toward the cul-de-sac. He’d seen her set out for the beach many hours ago, just after lunch. Was this a different walk, or had she actually been out on the beach, walking, all afternoon?
Shelly smiled when she saw them.
“Hi, Rory,” she said.
“Hi, Grace.”
She was wearing a pale blue, one-piece bathing suit, cut high on her legs, the ever-present sack of shells strung loosely around her waist.
“Did you have a good walk?” Grace asked her.
“It’s always good,” Shelly said. She stopped near them.
“I talked to Zack, Rory,” she said.
“I think it’s so cool that you took him hang gliding.”
“It was great,” Rory said.
“We’re going to a movie,” Grace said.
“Would you like to go with us?”
Rory was surprised by the invitation. He wouldn’t mind having Shelly accompany them, but he never would have thought to invite her himself.
This was supposed to be a date. At least, it was a date in his mind.
Perhaps it was not in Grace’s. The thing that irked him the most, though, was that if it had been Zack standing there, talking to them, Grace almost certainly wouldn’t have invited him.
“Oh, no thanks,” Shelly said.
“I’m working on a necklace for Jackie.
Only it’s a surprise from Linda, so don’t say anything. “
“Oh, we won’t,” Grace reassured her. He did not think Grace even knew who Jackie was.
Rory looked at his watch.
“We’d better get going, Grace,” he said.
They said goodbye to Shelly, quickly scanned the movie listings and got into his car. Grace looked across the street at the Sea Shanty, where Shelly was sitting on the front steps, dusting the sand from her feet before going inside.
“She’s so beautiful,” Grace said.
“She could be a model.”
Rory backed the car into the cul-de-sac, then headed toward the beach road.
“I’ve thought the same thing about you,” he said, knowing it would be the first truly personal thing he had said to her.
“What do you mean?” Grace asked.
“That you could be a model. The way you… carry yourself. The way you walk. Not to mention that you’re beautiful.”
He thought he detected some color in Grace’s cheeks.
“No one’s told me that in quite a while,” Grace said.
“Well, it’s the truth.” He was glad he had said it. It seemed like something she needed to hear. Maybe she’d been so reticent in this relationship because she was taking her cue from him. Maybe she was wondering when he was ever going to make a move.
In the theater, he was keenly aware of her presence in the seat next to him. She seemed to contain herself carefully in her chair, however, so that their arms did not touch, and she allowed him to have the armrest between their seats. Halfway through the movie, he dared to take her hand, and she allowed it. Her fingers were cold, and he tried to warm them with his own. The movie was a comedy, light head-candy, but Grace only laughed a couple of times during the entire hour and a half, and Rory thought their taste in comedy was not quite in sync.
