Chapter 6. Back at the Beach House

"Does your cousin have any records here?" I will look around. Jackpot! He has a bunch of 45s and a record player. What would you like to hear? He has "In the Still of the Night," "Hungry Eyes," "Cry for Me," Where Are You Tonight?", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"—and lots of others.

"Well I know where I am tonight, and I hope you will still love me tomorrow. So I choose 'Cry for Me.' It has a special significance."

"Dance with me," requested Baby.

Uh, oh. I've heard that before. That leads to other things. You touched me like I was something precious. "You are precious to me, Johnny," breathed Baby.

I can handle that now, but I was afraid of hurting you the first time. I can never get enough of you. When we're together, it feels like we are melted into one person. I've never felt like that before. The Bungalow Bunnies only cared about themselves. There was no feeling. Let me put on the record and we'll see how long we can dance before something else happens. You drove me wild the first time we made love. No one has ever touched me so tenderly like that.

"It was special to me, too. You were my first lover. It was so overwhelming. You were gentle but you made me feel so good. Now here we are skin to skin, and I love to touch your beautiful body. But we don't know much about each other's past. Now that we have more time together and not just stolen moments, tell me more about your life," Baby asked.

Well, my Irish parents are Catholic, of course, and we live in a big Irish section on 88th street in Bay Ridge. They couldn't afford to send me to Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, but I got free tuition for being on the football team. Our high school played other Catholic high schools. I was a wide receiver, and my number was 23.

Baby said, "I went to Joel Braverman High School, also in Brooklyn. It's for Jewish kids. We didn't have a contact football team, so I don't know much about the sport. What is a wide receiver?"

I'm the player who catches passes thrown by the quarterback and hopefully runs for a touchdown.

"I think you'd be good at that because you have big, strong hands—big enough to hold me over your head!" replied Baby. "As you've seen from how my dad took care of Penny, he's a doctor but actually a cardiologist, a heart doctor, who practices at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center about two miles from our house. We live at 1440 Albemarle Road, in Prospect Park South. He was called away pretty often when I was growing up because people have heart attacks at all hours of the day and night. The reason we were vacationing at Kellerman's is that Max was one of his patients, and my dad saved his life. It's an amazing coincidence that if my father hadn't been Max's doctor, we wouldn't have been at Kellerman's, and I never would have met you."

I'm so thankful he did. Saving people is a great skill to have. I could never do that. In fact, I never had a chance. My family didn't have money to send me to college, and a big tackle hurt my knee playing football so I couldn't get a scholarship. I went to work right out of high school doing carpentry and odd jobs. Then when I was with some friends at a luncheonette, a man from Arthur Murray came in recruiting dance teachers. Well, I'd never danced except at high school proms, but I had a lot of athletic moves from playing football, so I picked it up pretty fast. I've been teaching dancing in New York for several years and working at Kellerman's and the Sheldrake during the summers. But I've never had a steady girlfriend.

"I believe you, but I'm surprised. You're so handsome and you have a perfect body. I would think you couldn't keep girls away from you," said Baby.

Thanks. They tried but they just weren't girls I could admire or want to be with.

"I'm getting sleepy. Let's snuggle up in bed. I love to sleep with your arms around me. I've missed that," said Baby.

Good morning, my precious girl. It feels so good to wake up with you and have the whole day ahead of us. After breakfast and some serious loving, let's get out of here.

We could drive out to Rockaway Beach and stroll on the Boardwalk, which is the longest boardwalk in the U.S. It's a great place to watch surfers, but unless they are wearing wetsuits, it's probably too cold to see anybody out there today. It would be good to get some fresh air and it's easy walking because they just finished building a concrete section from Beach 9th to 19th streets. We can buy food when we get to 17th Street.

"That sounds nice as long as you keep me warm," said Baby. "But let's not walk too far. You're probably tired after all your dance rehearsals."

On the way home, we pick up some seafood dinners and take them back to the beach house. "I want you all to myself for our last night together, Baby."