“I bet they’re going to get naked again,” Brittany whispered as she and Bethany walked off.
“Mama says they weren’t naked. They had their swimsuits on.”
As they stepped outside, Max slipped his arm around her shoulders. “We may have scarred them for life.” When they got up to the driveway, Dave’s SUV was parked behind the BMW. Max pulled her along to the road. “We’ll walk into town. It’s only a mile. And it’s a nice night.”
The winding road through the woods was quiet, with only the occasional rabbit or squirrel to interrupt the silence. “My family used to come up here when we were kids. We’d rent a place on the other side of the lake. It was just a small cabin. My folks would stay inside and we’d get to sleep in tents. I tried to buy the place when I was looking, but the family that owned it didn’t want to sell.”
“This place is nice,” she said.
“I remember how much fun it was up here, the freedom we had. My folks would go to bed early and we’d be out until all hours of the night, prowling around in the woods, playing in the water, walking into town.”
As they approached town, the sky grew a bit brighter from the lights. The ice cream stand was a beacon in the dark, neon outlining the facade. The parking lot was crowded with cars and kids. “We came here for ice cream almost every day. Back then a cone was just fifty cents. The place hasn’t changed at all. What do you want-cone or bowl?”
“Bowl,” Angela said.
“Chocolate, vanilla or strawberry?”
“Strawberry,” Angela said. “With just a tiny bit of chocolate on the side.”
Max nodded. “I learn something new every day.
I would have pegged you for a pure chocolate girl.”
He walked up to the window and placed their order.
A few moments later, he returned and they found a seat at a table beneath a tall maple tree.
“This is nice,” she said, licking a bit of ice cream off her spoon.
“It’s nice to be alone again. I feel like we haven’t been able to talk all evening. I’m sorry about Dave and the kids showing up,” Max said. “I had no idea they’d be here.”
“It’s not a problem. I kind of like it. It’s a real family vacation. Lauren was saying that she was happy to see you using the place. She said the family likes having you around.”
“Tell me more about your family,” he said. “Where did you grow up?”
The question seemed to come out of nowhere and Angela coughed, a blob of ice cream catching in her throat. Suddenly, a blinding headache pierced her temple. “Ow,” she said. “Brain freeze.”
Her discomfort distracted him for a moment and Max reached out and rubbed her forehead. “Just breathe real deep,” he said.
When the ache subsided, she took another bite of her ice cream, letting it melt in her mouth. “Around Chicago. The suburbs.”
He stared across the table at her, his spoon poised in midair. “Which suburb? There are so many.”
She glanced up at him, trying to read the odd expression on his face. Did she really want to spoil this wonderful weekend with a fight? “Does it make a difference?”
“Yes,” he said. “I think it does. This is my last question, Angie. The one I was saving?”
Angela took a ragged breath. He knew the answer already, she could see it in his eyes. Somewhere along the line, he recognized her, remembered her or simply figured out she was hiding something. “You know, don’t you? You know exactly where I grew up.”
Max nodded. “Yeah. I do. You’re from Evanston.
We went to high school together. And college, at least for the two years I was there. And you know that next Saturday we’re supposed to meet at a barbecue?”
Angela nodded. “At your parents’ house. Your mother and my mother are tennis partners. My mother called me the day after we’d met to invite me.”
“A little strange, isn’t it?”
A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth. “But you don’t remember me, do you. Don’t worry, I wasn’t very memorable. I blended into the walls.”
He stood up and they started their walk back to the cabin, still eating ice cream as they strolled. “Why didn’t you mention this when we met?” Max asked. “Why weren’t you just honest with me?”
She sent him a sideways glance, wondering how honest she ought to be. There was a bit more to her story than just a high school crush. “Maybe I wanted you to think I was beautiful and alluring and a little bit mysterious. Maybe I didn’t want you to remember the plain, nervous girl I used to be.”
“I wouldn’t have remembered that girl. We’d never met.”
“But we have,” Angela said. “A number of times.”
“When?”
“You bumped into me during freshman orientation for high school. You said sorry, and then walked away. And once, I handed you a book you’d dropped in the library. And you sat in front of me for a whole semester in physics class.”
“That’s it?”
She shook her head. “I once interviewed you for the college newspaper. It was right after they started scouting you for the pros. You’d just done that calendar for the athletic scholarship fund.”
“Oh, my God, that’s it,” Max said. “That’s where I knew you from.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “When I saw you at the bar that night, I felt as if we’d met before, but I couldn’t remember when. That was it.”
“There was one other time. A few years ago. I was at a sports bar in Evanston, waiting for a table and you were there. And…you looked at me. Across the bar.”
An odd expression, and then one of slow realization crossed his face. “I remember that. I remember how I felt when you looked away. There had been this connection and it shocked me. I’d never had that happen before. Not since then, either.” He paused. “That was you?”
“That was me,” she said.
“I should have introduced myself. I was tempted, but I was with-”
“Another woman,” she said. “Several, I think.”
“My sister,” he said. “I think Lauren and Dave were there, too. It was around Christmas and I was home for the holidays.”
“It’s probably better you didn’t come over. I would have babbled something stupid and you would have walked away wondering who’d let me out of the asylum for the night. I would have been that stupid, silly girl who watched your every move and went home at night dreaming about kissing you.”
“What?”
Now that she had the opening, Angela didn’t want to stop. It was time to tell him everything. Or almost everything. “You might as well know the rest of the story. I had a crush on you in high school. And in college. In fact, that’s why I went to Northwestern. I was supposed to go to Sarah Lawrence, but when I heard you were going to Northwestern instead of straight into the minors, I followed you there. I know, it sounds pathetic, and it really was.”
Max stared at her, his gaze fixing on her mouth. She wanted him to kiss her right then, to reassure her that nothing had changed between them, to put a stop to her clumsy explanations. In all the moments they’d shared over the past week, she’d never felt quite so vulnerable. “A crush?”
“I suppose this changes everything,” Angela said, her voice trembling with emotion. “I’m not the person you thought I was. I’m not exciting or interesting or even the tiniest bit mysterious. I’m just a girl from your hometown who was once hopelessly infatuated with you.”
“How long did the crush last?”
“I don’t know. Six years. Then you went into the minors and I decided to move on.”
“So, you were in love with me and I was just going about my life without ever knowing you had these feelings? You were watching me and dreaming about me and hoping I’d talk to you and-”
“You can stop now,” Angela said. “I’m going to crawl off into the woods and die.” Now that she’d completely humiliated herself, she needed the conversation to move to a new subject. “This is really good ice cream. The sign said it was custard. What’s the difference between ice cream and custard? I never could figure that out.”
