“Is what official?”
Betty skipped down the steps. “You and Eleanor.”
Marv shrugged. He removed his jacket, hung it over one shoulder with a crooked finger, then loosened his tie.
“Truce?” he asked.
“You didn’t answer my question about Eleanor.”
“Why do you care?”
“Hey, I’m just trying to be friendly. Answer or don’t.” Betty could wrangle any staff gossip out of Mabel or the girls, no matter what Marv did or didn’t tell her.
There was no point in being his enemy—her grandparents wouldn’t permit it because he was a guest. Betty nodded to Marv and walked next to him with an arm’s length between them. It was only a block and a half until she was home.
They crossed the street and walked on the sidewalk instead of the beach. Betty’s shoes and hose were made for glamour, not sand.
Marv stepped around Betty and walked by the curb. Gallant even by Betty’s standards.
“I’m not half-bad when you get to know me,” he said.
Betty smiled. It was a half smile, but at this moment he was trying to be nice. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Oh, Princess Betty is giving me a chance to prove myself?”
Betty stopped and stomped her foot. “I am not a princess!” Then she laughed and lightened the mood.
“You kind of are,” Marv said. “Barsky’d better treat you like one.”
Betty wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult. They walked the last hundred yards in silence and stopped at the bottom of the porch steps.
“We could sit and talk,” Marv said.
Betty wanted to talk to Abe. She shook her head, almost apologizing, but she wasn’t sorry.
“Can’t fault a guy for holding out hope.”
She could not. Betty smiled. Marv didn’t stir her or interest her the way other boys had, the way Abe did, but he seemed sincere. When he could have been cold or flippant or handsy, he wasn’t. Maybe they could be friends. She could use another friend. The warm porch light soothed her soul and softened her outlook.
“So, where do you think they are?”
Marv furrowed his brow. “Who?”
“Abe and Eleanor.” It just occurred to her. “Neither of them were where they said they’d be.” She didn’t mean to insinuate that they were together, just that they might be at the same place. Lots of kids hung out way past midnight. Betty gulped. She knew what happened when kids were “hanging out.”
Marv pulled a leather key pouch from his pocket and swung it like a hypnotist’s pocket watch. “I have a car. We could go find them.”
“Isn’t that like spying?” She was strangely intrigued.
Marv shrugged.
She did want to know where Abe had gone, and she could justify the outing by helping Marv find Eleanor. And no one had to know; it could be their secret. A secret between friends. Betty held out one side of her skirt in a faux curtsy.
“You mean right now?”
“Do you have a better offer for tonight?”
She did not.
Chapter 10
BETTY
Betty handed Marv a flashlight. He pointed it low and straight ahead. They crouched beneath the still-open windows of the main house, and duckwalked close to the building, as the band played the lively “Aba Daba Honeymoon.” Betty loved that song, but not enough to be distracted. The music faded as she turned to the back of the house and passed the kitchen. She and Marv stayed small, quiet, and imperceptible longer than necessary. Betty felt like Nancy Drew. The Mystery of the Missing Boyfriend.
Good thing she’d changed her clothes. The Skylark dress would have dragged, and the pedal pushers allowed her to strike these unladylike poses and maintain her dignity. The peep-toe pumps would have slowed her pace. She’d rolled her hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. A ponytail would have been too bouncy.
With every step, Betty repeated to herself that she trusted Abe. But did she? Not enough to repress her curiosity. Plus, she was bored. She’d waited all night for the exhilaration of seeing him only to be disappointed.
Last year, the Saturday nightclub would have been enough to keep Betty buzzing with delight and fantasies. But her enchantment with glitz and glamour had been lost to that of summer romance. How could it not be? The sparkle in Abe’s eyes outshined the crystal chandeliers, and the melody of his words whispering in her ear was more hypnotic than music. His lips against her skin were smoother than the fabric of any cocktail dress. Betty swallowed, and her skin prickled as if it were dusted with sand, though she didn’t want to brush it away. She’d happily linger in that sensation for the rest of her life.
It had only been two weeks. Not even. It had been ten days since she’d seen Abe for the first time on the lawn. Three days since she’d let him walk her home, and twenty-four hours since the dunes. Time seemed an irrelevant inconvenience. She could have sworn it had been years.
Another few feet of crawling and she and Marv would be in the clear, far enough from the windows of the main house and the cabins.
It wasn’t easy for her to go unnoticed in South Haven, let alone on the property, but the guests and her grandparents were still drinking and dancing. More important, no one was looking for her.
Betty and Marv stood upright at last.
“You did good bopping along there.” Marv chuckled. “Betty Bop. Almost Betty Boop.”
“Very funny.”
“I think it suits you.” Marv pointed. “We’ll see if his car is here in the lot. If it’s not, we’ll take my mother’s car and hit some spots around town. I have ideas where they could be.”
Betty took a giant step forward. “I changed my mind.”
Marv stopped, and Betty stood next to him. “Why?”
“I just don’t think we should spy. It’s wrong.” What if she found Abe with someone else? She would have to bear not only the heartache, but the humiliation of Marv knowing her business.
“We’re not spying, we’re looking. Just trying to find
