1961

Jonathan was a little miffed the whole drive up to Cape Cod. Mick was waiting on the last part for the engine rebuild for the Ford Convertible, so the car wasn't ready for Jonathan to surprise Jennifer with just yet. And failing that, he had hoped that Jennifer would want to take her car, so the two of them could go drive up together. But in the end, Richard offered to drive the boys—Ray, Jonathan, and Richard himself, since their friend Morris was going home to St. Louis to see his family for Spring Break—and Midge insisted on her car for herself, Jennifer, and Eva. So the whole drive, Jonathan had a great time with his friends but found himself less than ecstatic that he couldn't be with his girlfriend.

But, he reasoned, they'd have all week to spend together. There wouldn't be any chaperones at the Hodges' beachside place. Or rather, Mr. and Mrs. Hodges wouldn't be there. Apparently the family was close with the neighbors, who lived there fulltime, so there would be adults looking out for them. At least during daylight hours.

Ray went on and on about this place. Jonathan had heard about it over the past few years, the Cape Cod scene. There were a lot of families who sent their kids to Gresham Hall and Brookfield who had places in the neighborhood. All the houses, according to Ray, had back gates leading right onto the beach but the front patios all connected and had a shared swimming pool, which everyone used when it was too cold to go in the ocean.

Spring was still a bit early for beach weather, but Jonathan hoped he and Jennifer might take walks on the beach together to escape their friends here and there. And it did not escape him that with the pool, there was a pretty good chance that he'd get to see Jennifer in her bathing suit. On New Year's Eve, she'd stripped down to just her silk slip. But there was a whole lot more of her body that would be on display. All that skin. All those freckles. His had twitched just thinking about it.

"Here we are!" Ray announced at last. He pulled up to one of the houses—they all looked the same to Jonathan—and parked the car. A minute later, Midge pulled up right behind him. Everyone got out and started unloading the luggage from the trunk. And just when they'd emptied those trunks, the third car pulled up.

Midge squealed as Buckets Fenstermacher got out of his car and opened his arms for her to run into. Ollie Jackson got out, looking a little disgruntled, and opened the back door for Lillian Shipley, another of Jennifer's friends, and Maureen Hendricks, Lillian's cousin and a senior at Gresham Hall. Maureen and Ray had gone out a few times last year, but it didn't stick. Lillian's parents wouldn't let her come to the Cape without her older cousin. So here they all were.

"Okay. Rules," Ray announced, cutting off the excited giggling conversations.

Jennifer came to stand beside Jonathan and put her arm around his waist. He put his around her shoulders to pull her a little closer.

"There's four bedrooms and each has a full bed. So two bedrooms for girls and two bedrooms for boys, and we'll double up. And since there's ten of us, we can bring in sleeping bags to the rooms or else the couch in the living room can fit someone," Ray said. "Any takers?"

"I'll take the couch," Buckets volunteered. "I don't fit so good sharing a bed." That wasn't much of a surprise. He was a football star and built like a tank. Jonathan wouldn't have relished sharing a bed with him.

"I'm fine on a sleeping bag," Lillian offered.

But Maureen insisted, "I'll take the sleeping bag in whatever room Lillian has. Her parents and mine will kill me if she's sneaking around at night."

Lillian opened her mouth to protest but Ray cut her off. "Fine. Work it out. Everyone else, take your bags and follow me and Midge."

Jonathan helped hand everyone their things and was about to take Jennifer's to go inside when a distant voice called, "Hi, Jennifer!"

She turned to see two of the boys from her class waving at her. They looked vaguely familiar to Jonathan. But Jennifer knew them. "Hi Ford, hi Freddy!" she greeted, waving enthusiastically.

Ford Beebe. Of course he'd be here. Jonathan didn't want to be jealous or think badly of the boy—after all, his only crime was having a crush on Jennifer, and how could Jonathan fault him for that?—but he had hoped that this week would just be fun and relaxing. Having to see people outside of their friend group during their time away for Spring Break would just leave Jonathan even more on edge.

"We'll see you guys around," Jennifer said warmly. She picked up her duffle while Jonathan took both their suitcases. "Come on, let's go inside. I think I'll be rooming with Midge, but I don't want to be stuck with Lillian and Maureen," she said quietly to him.

Jonathan chuckled lightly. "Why not?"

"Because I like Lillian just fine but she's a little bit of a bore sometimes. And Maureen I don't now at all. I mean, I'd much rather stay with you, but I don't think we'll get the chance," she explained.

He wouldn't tell Jennifer just now, but both Ray and Richard knew that Jonathan wanted some alone time with Jennifer during Spring Break. He had a feeling that the guys would help run interference if there were a chance that Jonathan could get some real alone time with Jennifer. If she wanted to.

Sure enough, just like at school, Jonathan roomed with Richard while Jennifer roomed with Midge. Ray and Ollie would be sharing, which might be a little awkward, but Ollie was a nice guy and despite being a sophomore, Jonathan and his friends had taken Ollie under their wing. It was Eva, however, who was stuck sharing with Lillian and Maureen, and everyone else felt bad for her.

"Alright, let's go see who's here," Midge said. She then started chattering excitedly about who she knew in the neighborhood and who was expected to be here and all that. Jennifer said that Ford and Freddy were already here.

"Ford? You mean The Clicker?" Eva exclaimed in disgust.

"Yeah, that kid's a weirdo," Richard agreed.

Jonathan didn't say anything. He agreed, but it wasn't his place to speak down to anyone, especially behind their back.

"Oh I think he's nice," Jennifer defended. "I mean, he's always very nice to me. I guess that thing with the gum is sort of annoying, but that's hardly a character flaw."

That made Jonathan smile. Jennifer really was so very kind to everyone.

He was made even happier, however, as the whole group began the parade down the street and Jennifer came to hold hands with Jonathan. They half-listened as Ray and Midge greeted the neighbors who were outside and introduced all their friends.

They were over by the pool, where people were already enjoying the heated water and the sunny day, when Jonathan heard a familiar voice and a very familiar blonde head of hair. "Oh no," he muttered.

"What is it?" Jennifer asked with immediate concern.

Jonathan sighed. He didn't want to admit it, but he wasn't going to hide it from her. He told her, "That blonde over there is Cynthia Derefinko. She and I went out for a while when I was a junior. It didn't really work out."

"Oh. I see." Jennifer's voice was cold.

"She told me that baseball cards were childish. And I was trying to impress her, so I got rid of all of mine."

"Got rid of them?"

Jonathan nodded. "Sold them. I had hoped to use the money to buy her a Christmas present and ask her to go steady. She broke up with me before I had the chance." One of a few girls who had decided they'd wasted enough time on the broke scholarship student and went off to find greener pastures.

Jennifer looked at him with such hurt in her eyes on his behalf. She rubbed his arm affectionately and said, "I hated her already because she went out with you, but now I hate her because she treated you so badly."

"It's alright. I miss the cards sometimes, but I ended up using the money to get Max a nice pocket watch that Christmas. And he loved it. Calls it his lucky timepiece. Never goes to the races without it," Jonathan added with a smile.

And Jennifer smiled, too. "Well, all's well that ends well. Max has his luck, and I've got you."

Jonathan gave her a swift kiss. "And I've got you. So I certainly came out ahead."

Jennifer snuck in another kiss. "So we'll just avoid Cynthia Derefinko while we're here. And Muffy Kenilworth."

"Muffy's here?" Jonathan knew that Muffy—who had the silliest nickname imaginable—was in Jennifer's hall and the two of them didn't get along.

"I saw her on the far end of the pool deck. I hope she didn't see us. But I suppose if she see's Midge and Eva, she'll know I'm here. But at least she and her boyfriend just broke up so we don't have to see them suck face all the time," Jennifer grumbled.

Jonathan laughed, "Funny how that goes, isn't it?"

"How what goes?"

"Something that can be so much fun when you do it yourself is absolutely a nightmare to watch others do."

She grinned. "That's very true. I mean, we have a lot of fun sucking face, don't we?"

"Well, I was sort of thinking about golf."

Jennifer furrowed her brow at him. "Golf?"

"That's something that's pretty fun to do yourself but it's usually very boring to watch. I'd rather watch almost anything other than golf." He pressed his lips together to keep from busting up laughing as she just gaped at him in confusion.

"I'm talking about kissing you, and you're talking about golf?" she asked incredulously.

That did it. Jonathan burst out laughing, earning a light elbow in the ribs from Jennifer.

"Oh you're insufferable."

"But you love me anyway," he laughed.

"I love you because you're insufferable and because of everything else," she assured him, joining in his laughter.

He stole another kiss. "Good. I love you, too. We'll suck face later as soon as we can sneak away."