Too Hot to Handle (1988)

Linda Davidson's novel, produced by Butterfield Press, was published by Ballantine's Ivy Books in August 1988; its cover numbers it the second Endless Summer book. Leslie Stevens has a summer job as a lifeguard on Marina Bay Beach under Jeff, the head lifeguard, while her parents are in Europe and her brother Russ, to pay for the jeep he wrecked, rents out every bedroom in the family beach house, hers included. (Open Library)

Watches

Swatch watch: Leslie's waterproof Swatch keeps time through her summer. On her tower she finds it already a quarter of two with fifteen minutes left for lunch (p. 15); woken by the front door, she reaches for it on the night table between her bed and her roommate Tracy's and reads the numbers glowing 1:30 a.m. (p. 23); and after sleeping through the night she wakes still wearing the watch and yesterday's swimsuit (p. 135). She checks it before dates and drives (pp. 45 to 47) and on the way to a competition (pp. 158, 160). The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: Leslie glanced at her waterproof Swatch. She couldn't believe it was already a quarter of two. She had exactly fifteen minutes in which to get her lunch down. (Linda Davidson, Too Hot to Handle, scan cataloged as Ballantine Books, 1988, p. 15; Internet Archive scan OCR)