Suddenly Last Summer

“Does she always wear so little clothing?”

Niklas looked up from the newspaper he’d been reading. His sister Ylva was standing by the sliding glass door, clutching her bathrobe around her slim frame. “Does who always wear so little clothing?” But he knew she meant Laney. Ylva had been complaining since Laney’s arrival.

“Your new one.”

“She has a name you know.”

“I’m aware of that. I simply don’t remember it.”

“Her name is Laney.”

“What kind of name is that anyway?”

“I expect it’s the kind her parents gave her.” He said and winked at his sister. He set aside the paper and pushed his chair away from the table. Outside, he could see Laney standing at the foot of the path to the beach. The pink and green bikini she was wearing had seemed so perfect when they were on the beaches of Long Island. But here in Yngsjö…well, perhaps it wasn’t quite ideal. It showed off her assets in a way that made Niklas’s mouth water. He was glad they were staying in the small guest cottage this visit. When she was done bathing, maybe he could convince her to strip for him as she had on Fire Island and rinse the sand off her naked skin in the secluded outdoor shower.

“That bikini looks like something from a porn film.”

“Now you’re exaggerating, Ylva,” Niklas laughed. “And what do you know about porn films? Have you ever even seen one?”

“You know exactly what I mean, Nicky. Everything is on display.”

“That’s generally the point of a bikini.”

“What about the children?”

“What children? My kids are back in Stockholm. Your son isn’t even here. He’s still in Malmö.”

“No, but Hugo is coming tomorrow. I don’t really think it’s appropriate for her to dress like that if there’s going to be a teenager around.”

Niklas shook his head. He was fairly certain his twenty-year-old nephew had seen far worse things in life than a beautiful woman whose skin glowed bronze in the afternoon sunlight, jumping around in the waves of Hanö Bay. And at twenty, he was hardly a teenager.

“You worry too much, Ylva,” Niklas said with a laugh. “Hugo probably won’t even notice Laney. Hasn't he got a girlfriend these days?”

"Of course he has a girlfriend." Ylva's feathers were definitely ruffled. "But that's beside the point. That bikini is inappropriate if children are here."

"But there are no children here, Ylva. We're all adults." Niklas pushed open the sliding door that led out to the verandah and faced the bay.

He sauntered down the path, following the footprints Laney had left behind. His feet sunk into the warm sand, reminding him of so many childhood summers spent at this very beach. Not far from here, he’d lost his virginity at the age of sixteen under a rowboat as the Perseids meteor showers streamed through the sky. This weekend the same meteor showers were projected to be at their peak. He’d brought Laney so she could witness it. He’d thought they would have the house to themselves. It had been part of his plan to convince her he was a good catch. Her distant smiles drove him crazy. And then there was the fact that she exuded sexiness without seeming to notice or care.

Now though he watched as she swam out into the shimmering water, her body sleekly disappearing beneath the undulating waves before reappearing just a little farther out. He called out to her and she waved briefly before disappearing beneath the water’s surface.

Out here, he could clear his mind of his sister’s complaints. He wished she’d stop comparing the women he dated to his ex-wife. That was what all of this was about. Ylva didn’t really care about the bikini so much as that Laney was not Carolina. She and Niklas’s ex had been fast friends from the very beginning. Ylva and Carolina were still close, which was probably why she never accepted any of the women who’d been part of Niklas’s life since the divorce.

Laney was only seven years younger than him but even that sometimes seems like a generation between them. Laney said it was she was American and still learning her way around the unwritten rules of Swedish society. Maybe she is right. Sometimes he agreed with her. Other times he thought she would always be a mystery to him. She didn’t talk about her past but the therapist in him bristled at her unwillingness to talk about it in more than fits and spurts meant he sometimes felt as though he would only ever know the surface of her.

She was more beautiful than he sometimes thought he deserved – all firm curves from the yoga and running she does but says she hates. Her full breasts were topped with nipples the color of dark chocolate. Her skin was deep golden brown. She hated when he described her like food, but seeing her naked left him insatiable.

He walked closer to the water’s edge, the waves lapping at his bare feet. A fishing boat further out in the bay sliced through the water and seemed to glint in the haze clouding the horizon. Laney resurfaced now, rising out of the water, her body sleek and wet, her bikini, almost transparent now and leaving nothing to the imagination.

He swallowed hard.

No wonder Ylva was complaining.