Trust M.E. Kerr (Deliver Us From Evie, 1994, etc.) to put a new twist on an old story: ``I know that I'd always think of it as the summer that I loved a girl,'' Lang, the narrator, concludes ruefully. But Lang is solidly and happily gay, although, unlike his lover, Alex, he can't quite bring himself to be public about it. He moves with his mother to the caretaker's cottage on a retired rock star's Long Island estate, to ``help out, hide out, cool out, come out.'' He finds himself saddled with an unwelcome duty when his employer enlists him as a ``safe'' chaperone for Huguette, a long-dead band member's daughter who has been hastily flown over from France to break up a teenage infatuation. Hanging out with Huguette, an Audrey Hepburn look-alike with cute, accented English, Lang not only gets a taste of life in a rarefied social stratum, but begins to develop strange--for him--feelings; meanwhile, as he nerves himself to come out to his school friends, he pines for Alex, and on their infrequent dates, not only gets a taste of gay society, but experiences the gamut of public reactions. When Lang and Huguette do end up in bed together, both recognize it as an end rather than a beginning. Written in Kerr's blithe style, this is an urbane story with a bit of an edge, a likably confused protagonist, and some deftly inserted information. (Fiction. 13+)
