Samantha smiled a little. She remembered that suithed bought it at a thrift shop to wear to graduation. She recognized his pose, tooit was so typically Brad. The first time shed seen him, when he moved in with his grandmother down the street from her parents house, hed been standing exactly the same way. Hed been seventeen, a senior in high school, quiet and serious. Only fourteen herself, she hadnt seen much of him until one day at school when she came upon some of the jocksincluding her boyfriend, Petepicking on him. Indignantly, shed told them to knock it off.
Pete had been annoyedhed broken up with her a week laterbut she hadnt really cared. She hadnt liked having a boyfriend, it was too restricting. But after that, shed run into Brad a lot more often, and one day she impulsively invited him and his grandmother to Thanksgiving dinner. Her mother, whose rather abrasive personality was offset by her deep-seated maternal instincts, had taken him under her wing once she heard the story of how his parents and sister had been killed in a car crash. Bradand his grandmother, before her deathhad become part of the family.
Samantha put down the tabloid and sewed two more silk roses into place on the Blogden wedding dress. Even after Brad graduated and went to college, their friendship had continued and deepened. Hed helped her with some of her classes, and shed made him laugh with her tales of trying to correct the fashion faux pas of her friends. Hed been one of the few people she could really talk to. Shed poured out her troubles and hed always listened, ever sympathetic, ever patient. He wasnt like the boys in high school, the ones who got possessive after she dated them a few times. Shed always been able to count on Brad. Shed thought that they would be friends forever.
His behavior this last Christmas had come as a rude shock. Although shed tried to pretend nothing was amiss, shed been uneasy all evening. Shed drunk a little too much wine and chattered too much, acutely aware of his quietness, his stiffness, his stillness. Shed gotten the impression he wanted nothing to do with her, an impression reinforced by his reaction to her phone calls.
Frowning, Sam knotted and snipped the thread. So why did he want to talk to her now?
Brad was in love with you.
Jeanettes words echoed in Sams brain. Automatically, she shook her head. Brad in love with her? The idea was laughable. Theyd never even gone out on a date, let alone discussed marriage.
Well, okay, that wasnt strictly true. They had discussed it, the summer shed graduated from high school. But only in the general sense. Hed asked her if she ever wanted to get married.
Not until Im really old, shed said. Thirty, at least. Theyd ridden their bikes along Santa Monica Boulevard to the beachher mother didnt like her to go aloneand shed been sitting in the warm sand, under a strategically placed umbrella. Wearing a new polka-dot bikini, shed been anxiously surveying her pale skin for signs of any new freckles.
Giving up on the inspection, shed glanced up to find him staring at her. Hed looked away quickly, picking up a bottle of sunscreen.
How about you? She watched furtively as he rubbed the lotion onto his chest, the liquid mixing with the sprinkling of hair that had sprouted there in the last year or so. She wondered why he bothered. His skin browned easily, in spite of his light brown hair and gray-blue eyes.
Yes. Someday. His elbows stuck up in the air as he applied lotion to his back. The muscles in his chest and armsmore defined than she remembered from the previous summerrippled as he did so. I want children. And a wife to come home to every night.
Sam wrinkled her nose. Sounds boring. I want to travel. I want excitement. I want She looked up at the bright, cloudless blue sky, groping for words.
A seagull glided in the air, circling the beach, searching, waiting for an opportunity to swoop down and snatch some delicious morsel.
You want what? Brad asked.
The seagull dived. Descending with speed and grace, it focused completely on its target. Sam could imagine the wind rushing through its feathers, almost feel the birds excitement as it swooped down, the rush of anticipation as it approached
its goal.
The bird landed by a trash can. It pecked at the sandy remnants of a greasy, half-eaten hamburger. The prize secure in its beak, the seagull took off again.
Sam lay down on her towel and closed her eyes. I dont know what I want yet, she told Brad. But I will.
But now six years had passed, she was twenty-four, and she still didnt have a clue.
Shaking her head, Sam put her needle and thread back in the sewing box and closed the lid. Maybe it was time she got a real job. Shed taken a couple of accounting classes before she quit college and had plenty of accounts receivable-payable experience both in the U.S. and in Europe. She should be able to find work fairly easily.
Or she could go back to college. Shed been considering that for the last year or so. She could finish her business degree while living off her share of the small trust fund her father had left. It would support her comfortably, if not luxuriously, while she studied.