The Fisher Boys in the Winter
For Belly, summer is the time of the year that she anticipates the most because of the promise of romance that it holds. In the three seasons in which she is away from Cousins Beach, she finds herself wondering about the boys—what they look like, what they're doing, and what girls they're seeing:
“I always wondered what the boys looked like in December. I tried to picture them in cranberry-colored scarves and turtleneck sweaters, rosy-cheeked and standing beside a Christmas tree, but the image always seemed false. I did not know the winter Jeremiah or the winter Conrad, and I was jealous of everyone who did. I got flip-flops and sunburned noses and swim trunks and sand. But what about those New England girls who had snowball fights with them in the woods? The ones who snuggled up to them while they waited for the car to heat up, the ones they gave their coats to when it was chilly outside.”
Belly's imagination conjures up images of the boys in winter clothing unfamiliar to the versions of themselves that she has gotten so accustomed to seeing.
Belly's Cousins Beach Bedroom
Since her childhood, Belly has slept in a bedroom at Cousins that is "stuck in time," containing objects from Susannah's own childhood. Containing the whimsical, girly, and faded decorations that Belly has inherited from Susannah, the room gives Belly a chance to get a nostalgic glimpse of a younger Susannah as a teenage girl herself:
“My room was Susannah's from when she was a child. It had faded calico wallpaper and a white bedroom set. There was a music box I loved. When you opened it, there was a twirling ballerina that danced to the theme song from Romeo and Juliet , the old-timey version. I kept my jewelry in it. Everything about my room was old and faded, but I loved that about it. It felt like there might be secrets in the walls, in the four-poster bed, especially in that music box.”
The Fishers and Their Charm
Belly isn't the only one enamored of Conrad. In fact, both Fisher brothers have their charms, and as a result, their fans. While at a party with Cam, Conrad, and Jeremiah, Belly notes Conrad and Jeremiah's interactions with others. Far from being uncomfortable (as she feels), they are perfectly confident:
“We went back to the living room, and Jeremiah was center stage, falsetto and singing some song I'd never heard of. The girls were laughing and watching him, all googly-eyed. And Conrad, he was on the couch with a beer in his hand. Red Sox girl was perched on the armrest next to him, leaning in close and letting her hair fall in his face like a curtain that encased the two of them.”
The descriptive imagery of both boys also serves to highlight the differences between the two: while Jeremiah is the popular crowd pleaser, standing "center stage" and belting his heart out, Conrad's charm is in the intimacy he builds with one person: he and Nicole are so involved in their own world that her hair is like a "curtain" that gives the two privacy in the rowdy party scene.
Movie Night
The summers at Cousins are times that evoke coziness and family for both households. In one instance Belly describes the closeness that she, Jeremiah, and their mothers feel: like one big happy family, they have cuddled up in a dark rec room with snacks and classic movies:
“My mother, Susannah, Jeremiah, and I watched Susannah's favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies in the rec room with all the lights off. My mother made kettle corn in the big cast-iron pot, and she went out and bought Milk Duds and gummy bears and saltwater taffy. Susannah loved saltwater taffy. It was classic, like old times, only without Steven and Conrad, who was working a dinner shift.”
