Just for the Summer(26)

“Her shirt was buttoned wrong,” she said. “I used to work in memory care. She seemed off. Disoriented.”

“Was it dementia? She seems too young.”

“Dementia can happen young. Could be early-onset Alzheimer’s, head injury. Could be a lot of things.”

The waitress stopped by and filled our coffee cups. Emma grabbed some sugar packets, tore them, and spilled them into her mug.

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth? That we’re not in California,” I asked.

“It’s too confusing. The truth scares them. Sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are.”

“Literally? Or figuratively?”

She paused with the spoon in her hand. “Both.”

I watched her while she stirred her coffee. I liked that she helped. I liked that she noticed she had to.

We ordered our food, then we went to go check out the games.

“What about chess?” I asked.

“I like chess,” she said, looking the game shelf up and down. “You don’t want to do one that’s more fun though? Uno or something?”

I arched an eyebrow. “You think we’re ready for Uno? That game has torn entire families apart.”

She laughed. “Okay. Chess then.”

We brought it back to the table and set it up. I knew ten minutes in that this wasn’t going to go well for me. I was good at chess, but she was better. A lot better.

“So, why travel nursing?” I asked, watching her take my rook.

“The money is nice,” she said. “We want to see the US. We take an international trip once a year too.”

“So you fly a lot,” I said, studying the board.

“I do.”

“Do you clap when the airplane lands?” I asked.

“Absolutely not.”

“Do you run on the fasty-fast moving sidewalks at the airport?” I slid my bishop over.

“I walk fast on the fasty-fast moving sidewalks. Do you run on the fasty-fast sidewalks?”

“No. Why? Did someone say something?”

She laughed with a hand on her queen. “I bet you’re that guy that stands in the walking lane and I have to clear my throat really loudly to get you to move.”

I made eye contact with her. “Do I strike you as the kind of man to obliviously impede the flow of traffic? I am a very considerate person,” I said. “I will have you know that I do not monopolize the armrests and I help little old ladies get their bags down from the overhead.”

Her expression was an amused one. “Wow. And I suppose next you’re going to tell me that you wash your dishes before there’s mold on them?” She knocked out my knight.

“Of course I wash them,” I said.

“And when’s the last time you washed your pillowcase?”

“Wait… you have pillowcases??”

“And there it is.”

I was chuckling over the board game and she was smiling. Big time.

“What kind of men are you going out with?” I asked, managing to get one of her pawns. “I take pride in my apartment.”

“I could see that about you.”

“Why? Because you’ve cyberstalked me and you’ve already seen all the pictures of it?” I grinned at her.

She moved her queen. “I didn’t see everything online. There is stuff I don’t know about you.”

“Like?” I moved my queen.

She raised her eyes to me. “Like what happened to your dad.”

I went quiet for a beat.

“A drunk driver hit him on his way to work,” I said.

Her eyes went soft. “I’m sorry…”

I kept my gaze fixed on the game. “I never get used to explaining it—which I have to do every time I start dating somebody new. So it’ll be great once we break this curse,” I said, laughing a little.

“I get that. I don’t really like explaining my mom to people either.”

“Yeah. I understand.”

We studied the board quietly.

“You know what I think about sometimes?” she said, raising her eyes to mine.

“What?”

“You know how when something bad happens to someone you love, and you wish you could take it from them instead?”

“Yeah.”

“What if the universe listened? What if you or your mom or the kids were supposed to die in a car crash and your dad said ‘Take me instead’—and the universe did. And nobody remembers the way it was supposed to be because that’s the deal. You never get to know that he’s a hero. The fates are reversed and the tribute takes the thing he asked for to save someone he loves. If you think of it that way, instead of being sad that he’s gone, be happy that he got what he wanted. And that somebody loved you enough to take your place.”

I nodded slowly. “That is actually oddly comforting.”

Her eyes focused on the board. “I’ve had a lot of bad things happen to me, Justin. I think sometimes the key to happiness is framing those things in a different way.”

“It would mean magic exists,” I said.

“It might. Isn’t that why we’re here?” Her lips quirked up. “Checkmate.” She knocked my piece over.