Safe Harbor by Judith Arnold Read Free Book Online Page B

pang of jealousy. She
wished she were a few years older, having college guys like Mark
falling in love with her.
    “So,” Kip broke into her thoughts. “Given how
exciting this is turning out to be, would you rather go back
downstairs and play backgammon?”
    Shelley considered. Backgammon was okay, but
what they had now—the cupola, the night, the pleasantly cool
breezes and the lulling sound of Mark’s and Diana’s voices floating
up from below... She didn’t want to leave this. She wanted to stay
up here with Kip, thinking about how wonderful it would be to fall
in love.
    Not with him, of course. Even though he was
tall and well built, even though his face had grown into his
eyeglasses and his eyes had grown intensely handsome, even though
this summer he smelled less often of suntan lotion and more often
of aftershave lotion, and his voice had settled into a husky
baritone, and his arms and legs had developed muscular
contours...
    Kip was her friend, and she would never risk
destroying their friendship by falling in love with him. She wanted
to share this tranquil evening with him, though.
    “Let’s just talk,” she said. “Guess who I got a
letter from today?”
    “Who?”
    “My father.”
    “Oh, yeah?” Kip pulled a face. “What did he
have to say for himself?”
    “He said he was sorry he couldn’t come to the
island so often this year.” Sighing, she lapsed into thought for a
moment. “You know, he never talked to me about his job before. He’d
go to work, he’d come home, and when I asked him what he did he’d
say, `I made money.’ This letter—it was like the first time he
actually said anything to me about how hard he worked. He confided
in me, Kip.”
    Kip continued to gaze at her, measuring her
response. Gradually his lips curved in a smile. “It was nice of him
to write. My dad never writes to me.”
    Because he
always comes to the island and sees you ,
Shelley thought. In all the years her family had summered on Block
Island, this was the first time her father had ever sent her a
letter from home—and the first summer he hadn’t come every
weekend.
    Maybe the letter didn’t bode well. Maybe he’d
keep writing letters and never come. Maybe she and her mother ought
to go home and help him.
    No. Shelley refused to let pessimism ruin what
was left of her summer. She would interpret her father’s letter in
the most favorable light. He thought she was smart and mature, and
he loved her. He wanted her forgiveness.
    She forgave him and loved him back, and that
was that.
    Below her, Diana and Mark had stopped talking.
Mark nuzzled Diana’s neck, and she leaned closer into his
arms.
    “Do you date a lot?” Kip asked
abruptly.
    Shelley flinched. Given that he hadn’t even
noticed her string bikini, she figured he didn’t pay much attention
to that sort of stuff yet.
    She herself was on the slow side when it came
to dating—compared to some of her classmates, anyway. Rumors had
run rampant through the school last April that Kim Shearson had had
an abortion over spring vacation, and once in the gym locker room
Carrie Billington’s purse had overturned, and among the scattered
contents Shelley had noticed a plastic case of birth control pills.
She knew some girls—girls her own age—were sexually active, while
all she herself had done was a little kissing and touching and a
lot of resisting and arguing, none of which she had found
particularly satisfying.
    Still, she had
to be more advanced than Kip, who seemed to think his sister was
some sort of a freak for wanting to make out with Mark. He
read Playboy , for
heaven’s sake. What could be more immature?
    She gave herself a moment to consider possible
answers to his question. “What’s `a lot’?” she
equivocated.
    Kip narrowed his eyes on her. “Do you date at
all?”
    “Sure. Do you?”
    “Yeah.”
    It was her turn to narrow her eyes, to regard
him skeptically. If he were aware of the opposite sex enough to go
out on dates, he