Just for the Summer(16)

My heart started to pound. I don’t know why the thought of not moving made me feel slightly panicky. Maybe it was just the change in routine? We always moved on once a contract was up.

But I wanted this. It sounded fun. And if we waited until after Hawaii, we’d get to Minnesota when it started to get cold, and no way was I doing Minnesota in the winter no matter how cool Justin made it sound.

“Fine,” I said. “We can stay someplace for six months. Wherever you want.”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out before looking reluctantly at me. “Fine,” she mumbled. “We’ll go to Minnesota.”

I started bouncing all over the living room.

She jabbed a finger at me. “But you’re not allowed to bring up the trailer. Ever again. We are even. And you’re buying me cupcakes when we get there or the deal’s off.”

I bounced back to her and hugged her.

She shook her head. “Med Surg and no Hawaii, just so you can break up with some guy.”

“We’ve done stranger things.”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, we have.”

I didn’t tell Justin about Minnesota. I wanted to surprise him. We talked and texted on and off for the next week and a half until Maddy and I packed up to make the two-day drive to our new state.

Our contact for the cottage was a woman named Maria. She worked for the owner, who had a full-time residence on the mainland of the lake. We’d be parking our car in his driveway and using his dock to come and go to our cottage.

When we pulled up to this house, five minutes early, we sat in our car and stared. It was huge. A mansion.

“What the hell does this guy do?” Maddy asked, shaking her head.

“I don’t know,” I breathed.

She looked at me. “How’d you find this place again?”

“The agency. The lady seemed like she knew someone. I think it was luck.”

I got out and shaded my eyes as I looked up at the house. I’d never seen anything like this in real life. It reminded me of a castle. Stone walls and minarets. I could see at least four chimneys.

“Maybe he’s a famous rapper?” Maddy said, “Or like, some big executive?”

“Jeff Bezos maybe?” I joked.

“He probably has a helipad on the roof.”

“He probably does…”

As we started pulling our bags from the trunk, a brown-haired middle-aged woman came out of the side of the three-car garage. “Are you Emma?” she said in a thick Mexican accent.

“Yes, hi.” I smiled.

“Hello. I’m Maria,” she said. “I’ll take you to the cottage. Is this all you have?” she asked, looking at my two bags and Maddy’s three.

“This is it,” I said. “Are we okay to park here?”

“No,” she said, taking one of Maddy’s bags. She handed us a garage door opener and pointed to the bay on the far left. “You can park in there. Mister doesn’t like to see cars in the courtyard. I’ll wait while you move it.”

We moved the car into the garage—which had a lift inside to double-stack vehicles. Maddy mouthed What the fuck? to me while Maria wasn’t watching. And then we followed Maria across an enormous backyard to the lake, dragging our luggage through the perfect grass.

The back of the mansion was even grander than the front. The backyard had a pool and an enclosed gazebo. White Adirondack chairs lined up on a huge sandy shoreline and beyond that a yacht was parked under a cover off the dock.

Farther down, an old pontoon so dilapidated it looked like it had washed up in a storm was tethered to a pole.

“This is your boat,” Maria said. “It’s old, so you beat it up all you want, Mister won’t care. Do you know how to drive a boat?”

“No,” I admitted.

She opened a door on the side of the pontoon and started loading our bags. “I’ll show you. It’s easy. Just like a car.”

We stood behind her as she gave us a quick tutorial on how to start it and raise and lower the prop. Then she untied it, pushed off the dock, cranked it into reverse, and backed out expertly into the open water. She turned us around and started for a large island toward the center of the lake.

Maria spoke over her shoulder as we drove. “The radio doesn’t work and it doesn’t go fast. There’s life jackets and a paddle under the seats. You have to put gas at the marina, I’ll show you on a map. Look at the house so you remember where to go when you come back.”

Maddy scoffed quietly. “Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to lose the house. They can probably see it from space.”

My hair whipped around in the warm late-July breeze, and I had to hold it at the nape of my neck to keep it out of my face. The sun beat down on us. The boat didn’t have a canopy over it. Like an ancient, nautical convertible with no top. It was just wide open to the elements.

Maddy must have been thinking the same thing I was. “Does it rain a lot in Minnesota?” she asked, raising her voice over the sound of the old motor.

“All the time,” Maria said. “I’m so happy he did this. This is the first time Mister’s ever rented the cottage.”

“Why did he decide to rent it?” I shouted.

She waved her hand. “He never uses it. His girlfriend left him a few years ago and he never came after that. Too sad because he always came with her, you know? This has been in the family for fifty years, and now it sits empty. You will like it, it’s very nice.” She nodded ahead of us. “You see the dock with the owl?”