Free Local Girls : An Island Summer Novel (9781416564171) by Jenny O'connell

minutes. There were four other servers who I figured had to be way more qualified. Still, I wasn’t about to plead my case. I didn’t know how to make brûléed orange French toast or which table was number five, but at least I knew my way to Stop & Shop.
    I walked over to the cookie jar, untied my apron, and left through the swinging door.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” I hadn’t expected to see anyone I knew at the grocery store this early, much less someone who didn’t even have a job to get up for.
    Henry held up a bagel with cream cheese. “Grabbing a little breakfast.”
    â€œA little early, isn’t it?” I scanned the aisles for a sign that would point me in the direction of vanilla extract.
    â€œAre you kidding me, I was up at four thirty.” Henry came over to where I was standing in front of a pyramid of green apples stacked at the end of the produce aisle. “I was over at Seth’s Pond, caught a few trout. Yesterday I didn’t catch anything for the third day in a row.”
    â€œDo you go every morning?”
    Henry took another bite of his bagel and for a minute I almost thought of asking him for a bite. I was starving.
    â€œJust about.” He licked a glob of cream cheese off his finger and then pointed the finger at me. “You’re working at the Willow?”
    For a minute I thought Mona told him, that maybe shewas reconsidering her choice and asked Henry for some advice, but then I noticed where he was pointing. And Henry wasn’t the type of guy to point at a girl’s chest for no reason at all. He’d seen the logo.
    â€œI just started this morning, that’s why I’m here. I was sent on an errand.”
    â€œSo how’s it working out?” Henry fell into step beside me as I headed to the baking aisle in search of real vanilla, not the imitation crap.
    â€œI don’t know yet, but it seems okay. There’s mainly college kids, but Shelby Dennis works there. Remember her?”
    Henry shook his head and we turned right down the frozen-food aisle.
    â€œShe’s Winnie Dennis’s older sister. Anyway, I’m sure my job isn’t going to be as much fun as sleeping until ten and then hanging out at the beach all day.”
    Henry popped the last piece of bagel into his mouth. “I guess I wouldn’t know.”
    â€œRight. The trout.” I shivered and rubbed the goose bumps on my bare arms.
    â€œCold? Here.” Henry unwrapped the gray sweatshirt from around his waist and started to hand it over to me, then took it back. “Wait, that’s probably not a good idea. You don’t want to go back to work smelling like bait.”
    â€œWhy, what do you use for bait?”
    â€œWorms.”
    â€œYou’re probably right,” I agreed. “But thanks anyway.”
    â€œSo what are we looking for?”
    â€œVanilla.”
    â€œOver there.” Henry pointed to a sign three aisles away.
    I followed Henry to the baking aisle and we walked up anddown looking for the vanilla. As we read the labels on boxes and discovered more kinds of sugar than I even knew existed, I wanted to ask about Mona, to find out her plans for the day, what she was going to do all summer now that she wouldn’t be working, whether she’d told him I’d gotten her a job at the Willow. Instead, I reached for a small red and brown box and asked Henry if the bottle of vanilla in my hand looked okay.
    â€œI’m no vanilla expert, but it looks fine to me,” he said, taking the bottle from the box and examining it.
    It wasn’t a resounding confirmation that Shelby wouldn’t call me an idiot when I got back, but it was better than nothing.
    Henry waited for me as I paid for the vanilla and took my change. I glanced over at him flipping through the free circulars on the newspaper bench along the wall, and for the first time I tried to look at him not as Mona’s