Just for the Summer(19)

Stuffie. I couldn’t even breathe.

There were very few things that I cherished. I wasn’t a sentimental person, at all. But I loved Stuffie. I’d thought he was gone.

“Give me your address and I’ll send him to you,” she said.

“Do you need me to Venmo you for the shipping?” I asked, a little too quickly. But I didn’t want her to put it off because she couldn’t afford to send it. She’d lose him, or damage him, or get distracted and forget.

“No, I got it. Got a job as a cart girl on a golf course, tips are good. So how have you been? Where are you? Tell me everything!”

“I’m in Minnesota. We just got here today, actually.”

“Minnesota…” she said, her voice going a little flat.

For some reason it wasn’t until just this moment that I remembered that this was where Mom had grown up. She didn’t talk about it, hardly ever. She’d left when she was eighteen.

“Where?” she asked.

“Lake Minnetonka.”

“Oh, it’s such a party lake!” she said, bursting back to life. “You’re going to have so much fun! Make someone grill you a walleye. Hold on.” Then she started talking to someone muffled in the background. She came back on and sighed dramatically. “I gotta go. Text me that address. Love you!”

And then she was gone.

I slumped back against my seat and Maddy raised her eyes from her phone and we shared a silent exchange. She was letting me know that Amber exasperated her, and I was letting her know that I was aware.

I sent the address of the mansion to Mom and saved her new number in my phone and set it down on the seat next to me.

Maddy set her phone down too. “So I got you something,” she said.

“You did?”

“Yeah. And I really want you to be open to it. Can you promise me you will?”

I eyed her. “What.”

“Just keep an open mind. Promise me.”

She waited.

“Fine,” I said. “I will keep an open mind. What is it?”

She pulled a box out from under the wicker chair she was in. The second I saw it I shook my head.

“No. I’m not doing a DNA test.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to mess up someone’s life. My dad doesn’t even know I exist—”

“And don’t you think he has a right to know? Anyone who runs their DNA through these things knows they might get surprises. So someone might find out they have a kid. They do have a kid. You exist and it’s not your fault and anyone who finds out they’re related to you would be lucky.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, but Amber cannot be the only family you ever have. I literally forbid it.”

“She’s not the only family I have. I have you.”

Maddy studied me for a moment. “And our moms. Right? They’re your family too.”

I licked my lips. “Yeah. Of course.” But even the way I said it came out disingenuous.

She looked away from me. “Emma…” Her eyes came back to mine. “Please. Please do it. Do it now before you lose the chance to meet them altogether. People don’t live forever.”

I knew who she was talking about. My grandparents died before I was born. Not getting to know them had always made me deeply sad. My mom had no siblings, no cousins, nobody else. There would only be my dad.

Mom said my conception had been a passionate one-night stand with a handsome, charming married stranger on a beach in Miami. She didn’t know his name—or she didn’t want to tell me.

I’d talked to Mom once about taking a DNA test. She got extremely upset. She said the only family I might find would be his, and she’d made it very clear that me popping up would ruin a marriage. She also said he’d told her he didn’t have kids and didn’t want any. I would not be a welcome surprise.

So if I wasn’t likely to find any siblings and my dad was someone who’d rather not know I exist, what was the point?

Only what if things were different?

What if he did have other kids now? People change their minds. What if I had a sister? Or a brother? What if I was an aunt, or somebody’s cousin—and they wanted to know me? What if he had a medical condition I should know about? Something genetic? Something I should be screened for?

I chewed on my lip.

“How about this,” Maddy said. “Run your DNA and make your account private. We’ll change your privacy settings for a few minutes, poke around. If you have any relatives out there, we’ll screenshot it and go back to private. Then I’ll go and find them online and tell you if they seem like people worth knowing.”

“I don’t know…”

“Aren’t you curious?”

I blew a breath through my nose. I was. I always had been.

“Okay,” I said. “Fine.”

She squealed and tore the box open.

We did the test. I set up my profile on the website and Maddy said she’d mail it in the morning.

She went back to scrolling on her phone and I sat looking out over the water as the sun set. When my cell pinged next to me, I half expected Mom again, but this time it was Justin.

It was a link to SurveyMonkey.

“Huh,” I said.