Treading Water Read Free Page A

do.”
    Collecting abandoned glasses, she worked her
way to his end of the bar. “I don’t let any grass grow. That’s why
they ask me back every year.”
    “ You’ve worked here before?
I don’t remember you.”
    “ This is my fifth summer. I
bussed tables until I was old enough to bartend. Ready for a
refill?”
    He pushed his mug forward. “Heineken,
please. Funny, I’m sure I’d remember you.”
    “ I’ll bet you say that to
all the girls.” She winked and moved on to other
customers.
    Jack continued to watch her—without
staring—while he ate dinner and drank another beer. The bar got
busier, and though he’d planned to hit some of the island’s other
hot spots, he was still there at last call.
    “ One more for the road?”
she asked as she cleaned up discarded glasses and
dishes.
    Since he wasn’t driving, he said, “Sure,
thanks.”
    When she brought him the beer, he asked what
she did the rest of the year.
    “ I teach third grade in
Mystic.”
    “ I had you pegged as a
college kid.”
    She laughed. “Everyone always thinks I’m too
young to be the teacher, but I’m going into my third year. What
about you?” While they talked, she cleared off the bar, washed
dishes, and ran credit cards.
    “ I’m an architect. Just
finished graduate school last week. I’m taking a break before I go
back to work.”
    “ I love architecture. I’ve
always been interested in how buildings are designed and put
together. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun.”
    “ It is.” He sipped the
beer, trying to make it last so she would keep talking to him.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work on some great projects, and I’ve
got a couple of others waiting for me when I get back.”
    She crooked a skeptical
eyebrow. “If you just graduated, how is it you’ve already worked on
such great stuff? Doesn’t that usually come after school?”
    “ I worked for a Boston firm
while I was in grad school.”
    “ Where’d you
go?”
    “ Berkeley and
Harvard.”
    She let out a low whistle. “Oh, well, don’t
mind me, Harvard boy. La-di-da.”
    “ It’s just a
school.”
    “ Yeah, right. Just a school
we mere mortals couldn’t begin to aspire to. So what’ve you worked
on? Anything I might’ve heard about?” Her pace slowed as the crowd
filtered out to find after-hours fun elsewhere.
    “ The new symphony hall in
Boston, for one.”
    “ Didn’t Neil Booth design
that?”
    Impressed, he looked at her with new
appreciation. “You do pay attention. I work for Neil. My friend
Jamie is his son.” He wasn’t sure why he told her that. He usually
didn’t mention it since Jamie was sensitive about the advantages
that came from being Neil’s son in their profession.
    “ Well, well. This just gets
more and more interesting, doesn’t it?”
    “ Neil is a terrific guy.
Very normal despite the fame.”
    “ I took an architecture
class in college. I read a lot about his work.” She scooped up
Jack’s empty glass.
    As he got up to leave, he tried to recall
the last time he’d enjoyed a conversation with a woman this much.
Most of the women he met were either not interested in his work or
totally self-absorbed. The tiny dynamo with the blonde hair and
startling blue eyes was different.
    “ Could I walk you home, or
do you have other plans?”
    She studied him for a long time before she
answered. “I don’t have any plans, but how do I know you aren’t a
freak? We get a lot of freaks around here in the summer,” she said
with a teasing grin. “Besides, I don’t even know your name.”
    “ It’s Jack
Harrington.”
    She made him suffer through a seemingly
endless minute before she said, “I’ll go with you, Jack Harrington,
but I still have another half hour or so here.”
    “ I’ll wait.” His heart
skipped a beat, and somehow he knew everything was about to
change.
    The sting of shampoo in his eyes interrupted
Jack’s remembrances. Rinsing off the soap, he realized he’d been in
there a long