“I’m a mess,” she said.
“You just need some rest and an occasional change of scenery.”
“I’ll try to take your advice.”
That will be a first, I thought. I gave her shoulders a squeeze. I looked around and saw a pay phone. “If you’re okay now, I’m going to go make a phone call.”
“Why not come in and make your call from Kenny’s room?”
From Barbara, this was an exceptionally generous offer. But she instantly read my hesitation.
“Oh, this is a
“Yes,” I said, wondering why I didn’t lie.
“That’s great!”
“Barbara, I said ‘I’m calling him,’ not ‘I’m marrying him.’”
“I know, I know,” she said, but she still had that grin. Better than tears, I guess. “Well,” she said with a girlish giggle, “I’ll see you later.”
She practically skipped into the hospital. Barbara is a charter member — nay, the founder — of that club that’s worried about my marital status. It was sad that the club was so desperate for any glimmer of hope. I could see the minutes of the next meeting: “We are happy to say Irene called an eligible male for other than business purposes.” Applause thunders in the meeting hall. For a moment, it made me think of just spending the rest of the day by myself.
But then there were those dreams from the night before. I made the call.
Frank answered with his last name again.
“Kelly,” I said back.
“Hi. Coming over?”
“Leaving St. Anne’s right now. See you in a few.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I hung up and allowed myself the same kind of grin I had just seen on Barbara.
36
I TURNED ON THE RADIO and listened to rock and roll from the modern world so that I wouldn’t sing oldies all day. It was a good day for a drive down to the beach. I pulled up in Frank’s driveway and went to the door. He opened it, and I must confess to giving him a very unladylike stare. Barbara would have been appalled. But she wasn’t looking at Frank’s legs for the first time.
He was wearing a pair of shorts and some sandals, and his legs were tanned and muscular. He had on a T-shirt that didn’t make the top half look so bad either. Yowza.
By the time I got up to his broken nose and bruised eyes, I realized that I was being pretty obvious in my assessment of him.
“Hi,” I said, feeling the color rise in my cheeks. “Been out in the sun?”
“Just out back for a few minutes. Are you up for a walk on the beach? If I don’t get out of the house for a little while, I’m going to start climbing the walls.”
“A walk sounds great.”
He closed up the house and we made our way down to the beach at an easy pace. Frank walked a little slow and still seemed a little stiff because of the ribs, but he was moving around a lot better than the day before.
We reached the boardwalk, where a double stream of humanity strolled in each direction past food vendors, street musicians, and little booths offering sunglasses, beachwear, jewelry, sandals, and every kind of T-shirt imaginable. We forded the stream without getting jostled, a real accomplishment. Of course, Frank looked as if he had just stepped out of a boxing ring, so people tended to back off from him.
“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” he asked, noticing their reactions. “Once I’ve shaved, I tend to forget that I look like this.”
“Not embarrassed in the least. Besides, I figure you earned some of those bruises on my behalf.”
“Just the way things happened.”
“No sale, but the modesty does make you more charming.”
“You are impossible.”
“No, but I’m not easy either.”
He shook his head as if to say he gave up, and we started walking again, this time winding our way between bodies tanning on towels. The soft sand was harder for him to manage. I could see he was relieved when we made it to the wet, firm sand near the waves. I stopped to tie my shoes. He watched me, and smiled.
“I can’t believe it. You still don’t know how to tie your shoes.”
“What are you talking about?” I said, though I knew exactly what he meant.
“I just remember that in Bakersfield, you always had trouble keeping your shoes tied. I remember figuring out that you tied them backward — you’re the only person I know with shoestring dyslexia.”
“Blame my father. I learned to tie shoes by tying his for him in the morning before he went to work. So I still tie them as if they were on someone else’s feet.”
“Yeah, but how long ago was that?”
