“Better save a can of soup for Kit,” Mr. Gates said without looking up.
It took Olivia a moment to realize that he was talking to her. “Who is that?” Her frown deepened. If it was another person for her to take care of, she might start screaming.
The kids came out of their food trance. “He’s tall,” Letty said.
“He’s strong,” Ace said.
Olivia narrowed her eyes at Uncle Freddy. “Who is this?”
“He...” Uncle Freddy swallowed. “He’s from Maine, the son of a relative on my mother’s side. His father called me and said young Kit needed a place to spend the summer, so I...” He didn’t have the courage to admit what he’d done.
Olivia put her hands on her hips and went toward him. With him in a wheelchair, she was a great deal taller than he was. “Summer? You have added a man to my workload? Without asking me?”
“Well,” Mr. Gates said, “at nineteen, he’s hardly—”
“Nineteen!” Olivia nearly shouted. “You want me to take care of a nineteen-year-old boy? Do you have any idea how much they eat? I’ll be cooking in vats. Roasting whole turkeys for lunch. I’ll have to—” She took a breath. “I’m not going to do it,” she said to the two old men. “I’m going to go to work for Abigail Harding at her dress shop.”
The children had stopped chewing and were looking from one adult to another, their eyes wide. This was the kind of grown-up drama they usually weren’t allowed to hear.
Uncle Freddy twisted around to look out the screen door. “There he is now.”
“That boy can work!” Mr. Gates said. “He didn’t get here until one a.m.” He glanced up at Olivia. “I guess you slept through his arrival, but then, Ace and I were trying to be quiet. Out of respect for you, Livie.” He looked back at Uncle Freddy. “And the boy was up before daylight. He took a hand sickle to those old briars at the back. I’ve been meaning to do that for about ten years.”
“Bill said he’d never seen a harder worker than that kid,” Uncle Freddy said.
Olivia knew the old codgers were trying to coax her into staying, but it wasn’t going to work. She glared at them. “I was told I was to cook for two people. That’s all. But half of Summer Hill plops down in this kitchen and I’m supposed to serve them. And now you’re dumping a teenage boy on me? Have you two thought about his being around the children? He’ll have girls here and...and marijuana. It’s what all the kids do now.”
With each word, the children’s eyes got wider. They expected that at any moment someone would tell them to leave, but no one did. “You have to tell him,” Uncle Freddy said to her.
“Yes, you have to tell Kit to...” Mr. Gates waved his hand. “Tell him to eat somewhere else or you’re leaving. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
Olivia knew they were up to something but she didn’t know what. Maybe they thought that she wouldn’t have the courage to stand up for herself. Or, heaven help her, maybe they thought that at twenty-two, she was the same age as the boy.
With determination in her eyes, she went to the screen door and flung it open. She was ready to confront the kid, tell him he’d have to find somewhere else to eat.
He was, as Letty said, tall, over six feet, and he was wearing next to nothing. The upper half of him was nude, while an old pair of khakis hung low on his hips. She could see the V-shape that moved d
ownward. The pant legs had been cut off so short they barely covered his backside.
He was at the old water pump, soaping his naked chest, running his long-fingered hands over his body and through his thick black hair.
She stood in the doorway, unable to move, as he raised a bucket of water over his head and poured it over his body. She watched the rivulets make their way down.
His body, Olivia thought—or rather felt. She’d had no idea the human body could look like that: lean and muscular, with curves and planes that moved when he did. His stomach!
Muscles divided on each side like rows for planting. He had arms like a sculpture, legs with heavy thighs, calves like tree branches. The tiny bit of clothing he was wearing hung very low. She could see his hip bones.
Never in her life had she seen anything as beautiful as that man’s body.
She didn’t realize it, but she took a step back. Even though she was some distance from him, it was as though she could feel the raw, sexual heat of him. He was like the inner circle of a volcano and he was drawing her to him. Pulling her.
When he bent to refill the bucket at the pump, she saw the muscles in his back. They were moving about, rippling. His glorious skin, seemingly acres of it, was beginning to brown in the summer sun. The sight of him was making her mouth and her fingertips ache; the center of her was pulsating.
Without blinking, she took another step back, then another. The door stayed open and she could see him as he poured a second bucket of water over that beautiful, divine body.
Behind her, the old men were working hard to contain their laughter.
Ace started to ask what was wrong with Livie, but the look Mr. Gates gave him shut him up. Ace looked at Letty, his eyes saying, This is getting more exciting by the minute.