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will kill Trudy with my own bare hands for hiring him back.
    â€œWell, I’m not starting until tomorrow, so I guess I’ll see you then,” Evan said. “Bye for now.”
    â€œOkay. Whatever,” I mumbled under my breath.
    As he walked away, I looked over at Sam, who was studying the schedule, which was on a clipboard hanging from the back of the storeroom door. Trudy did the schedule in pencil. Sometimes it was tempting to erase an entire week … like now, for instance.
    When Sam met my gaze, I mouthed the words, “What the …”
    And she whispered back, “I know!”
    It was a good thing the lunch shift at the restaurant was beginning. I kept my mind off Evan by visiting with the kitchen staff, the cooks and busboys and dishwashers—most of them had worked at Bobb’s the summers before, like I had, so it was more of a reunion.
    Even though it was a Tuesday, the restaurant was very busy. Lots of islanders came in to celebrate the beginning of summer, to mark the fact that Bobb’s was even open for lunch. And there was a ferry full of retirees from Florida who were traveling together across New England on a bus tour. They kept making jokes about the ferry being worse even than the bus, which was saying a lot, apparently.
    One table took so long to order that my mind completely started to wander. I couldn’t get over the fact that Evan was here, that I’d just talked to him. I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask him. I was so angry and so excited at the same time. It was a really bad combination; I wanted to talk to him, but if I did, I’d only yell and scream at him.
    There it was, that intense pull I felt toward Evan. I could say I’d keep my distance from him. But this was Bobb’s, where we both worked. And we were on the island. There weren’t that many places to hide.
    For some reason I suddenly remembered how we’d sneaked into the old, abandoned lighthouse last summer, after an open-house party at our neighbors’ place. We’d sprinted up to the top, climbing up the circular stairs, laughing and pushing each other, until we were standing on the little ledge, looking out at the water. Then we started kissing and soon we were moving on to other things. “Nobody can see in, don’t worry,” Evan had whispered in my ear.
    We’d gotten into enough trouble when my parents were around to keep an eye on me. What would it be like now ?
    But wait! Colleen! I scolded myself. Evan and I weren’t together, and I didn’t want to be. He’d been fun last summer—but that was all it ever was with him. Fun. Ben and I had something deeper, more serious. Everyone thought we’d get married one day, and we probably would.
    I smiled and looked at the first retiree to finally decide on her order. “Would you like soup or coleslaw with that?”
    Behind her, I saw Evan outside through the plate glass window. He was standing on the dock, talking and laughing with Stan Mathews, one of the lobstermen who supplied the restaurant. As they talked, Evan was skipping rocks on the water.
    The older woman cleared her throat. “Excuse me, doll. But what’s the soup again?”
    â€œOh! Ah.” I had to glance at my order pad to remember, which was rather pathetic. We had the same soups every Tuesday last summer. “Clam chowder or tomato bisque,” I said.
    â€œDid you say chowdah ?” a man at the table asked. “Come on, say it. Chowdah!”
    I smiled politely, said “Chowdah” as best as I could, and finished taking everyone’s orders. Then I went into the kitchen, clipped the slip to the carousel, and came back to the table with rolls in a plastic basket shaped like a lobster trap.
    â€œLook at that! Oh, Bill, look at that. How quaint!” one of the women said.
    Before I could go over to the bar for their drinks, I caught Evan looking at me through the window. When he saw me