THEN
19
Wyatt
There would never be a better summer. Wyatt knew it the second he kissed Sam. He woke up every morning knowing that he was going to see her and touch her. He couldn’t imagine anything better than that. Sam got a job taking care of kids at the library five mornings a week. She’d ride her bike there, and after story time, Duck-Duck-Goose, and Goldfish, Wyatt would meet her with sandwiches and they’d drive to the north end of the beach and eat them on the jetty. Some days they’d throw their surfboards in the back of Frank’s old truck and drive around Long Island looking for waves. The only thing Wyatt loved more than kissing Sam was kissing Sam in the ocean. The feel of her wet body against his and the salty taste of her were his new favorite things.
Wyatt worked at the Auto Hop in the mornings, changing oil and occasionally taking apart engines. He loved how a car was a complete unit, built for the express purpose of running. There was only one way for the crankshaft to connect to the rubber belts and the rubber belts to connect to the camshaft. It made sense every time. When he wasn’t working or hanging out with Sam, he was writing songs. More accurately, he was writing songs the whole time he was with Sam too, just in his head. Fixing cars, writing songs, being with Sam. It was perfect.
It didn’t take long for everyone on the beach to figure out they were a couple. Everyone in town knew too. The waitresses at Chippy’s Diner smiled at each other every time they sat down at their regular booth. When they walked into Ginnie’s Bakery, Ginnie put her hand over her heart and said, “Oh, it’s that sweet young couple!” Sam’s boss at the library always called over her shoulder when she saw him outside, “Your Wyatt’s here!” He understood that this should have been embarrassing, but he loved being her Wyatt.
Most days they’d find themselves back at the beach after lunch. Sam would surf or sit and catch up with her friends. Wyatt tried to act like a normal person. He tried to hang out with his friends and talk to other people when they were in the larger group, but he always gravitated back to her. He loved when she’d catch his eye across the bonfire at night and smile at him in a way that made him know she was going to sneak out to the treehouse to see him later.
Dinner happened mostly on the Holloways’ deck. Wyatt’s family was invited several nights a week, as they always had been, just sort of wandering over with wine and something to throw on the grill. These nights with the sun setting over the ocean and his parents exhibiting their outside behavior—polite to each other and charming to everyone else—Wyatt felt the deepest sense of peace he’d ever known. Even Michael came to dinner and was his best self, laughing with Travis or talking about sports with Bill. Wyatt liked the way his family felt when it was part of the Holloways’.