Just for the Summer(27)

I stared at my fallen king. “I’m already out?”

She shrugged playfully.

I sat back. “You are really good at chess.”

“Are you surprised?” she asked.

“I’m not actually.”

“One of my foster homes had a chessboard and a broken TV.”

“So I got hustled,” I deadpanned.

“Am I the asshole?” She batted her eyes at me.

“No. It was a privilege to see you work.”

She laughed and I folded the board in half just in time for our food.

After breakfast we went to the falls. An hour later I drove her home. I didn’t want to drop her off. It didn’t feel like we’d gotten enough time, but to be fair the whole day wouldn’t have been enough time.

When we got to the mansion, I walked her to the dock, where Maddy was waiting in the pontoon.

Emma and I stopped on the lawn just short of the beach. “So you work the rest of the week?” I asked.

“Yeah. I work the next four days straight. Orientation tomorrow, then right into it the day after.”

“So I won’t be able to see you at all? Can I have lunch with you maybe?”

“I never know when I’m getting my lunches. But that’s sweet that you want to.” She smiled up at me. “It was a very nice date. Can I make a request for the next one though?”

“Of course.”

“Can I meet your dog?”

I smiled. “Absolutely.”

She reached up and gave me a hug. When she broke away, she paused for a moment like maybe I’d kiss her. I was supposed to kiss her, but it didn’t feel right just yet, especially with Maddy standing there watching. But when Emma’s eyes flickered to my lips for a split second, I started to consider it anyway. Then she glanced over my shoulder and sucked in a breath. I turned to see what she was looking at.

A yacht was pulling up to a slip in the dock, a woman waving from the bow.

“Oh my God…” Emma whispered.

“What?” I asked, looking back and forth. “Who is that?”

A long, disbelieving pause. “That’s my mom.”

CHAPTER 9

EMMA

I watched in disbelief as the yacht docked.

Maddy was already off the pontoon and running toward me across the beach. She skidded to a halt in front of me, still catching her breath from the sprint. “This bitch,” she managed.

Justin stood next to me. “You didn’t invite her?”

“No the fuck we did not,” Maddy said, glaring over her shoulder at Mom getting off the boat.

Amber was in a flowing white-and-peach chiffon summer dress with a slit up the thigh. Her long brown hair was down, she had on a floppy wide-brimmed hat and huge sunglasses. She was carrying a bottle of champagne in one hand and her sandals in the other, dangling off the tips of her fingers. She was beaming, running toward us across the beach, kicking up sand. “Emma!” She laughed.

Despite my shock and the lasers I could feel coming out of Maddy’s eyes, I smiled. Mom…

That old thrill ran through me. The one I always got when she showed up again unexpectedly, to rescue me, or surprise me, or finally take me home. I ran toward her. And when I met her in the middle of the lawn and she hugged me, I was so overwhelmed with relief, I started to cry.

I was a little girl again. Catapulted back to eight years old, in the arms of my mother. She smelled the way she always did during good times. Like roses. The smell was strong and fresh and I felt myself reset back to zero.

That scent was a barometer. When she stopped putting it on, it meant she was getting closer to disappearing again. When she started losing interest in self-care, she’d start losing interest in everything. Her job, her responsibilities.

Me.

It was strange how I realized I knew this, without ever consciously knowing it. The fading scent of roses would make me brace. Make me hyperaware of her comings and goings. Make me try harder to be less of a burden so maybe she wouldn’t feel the need to put me down again and go.

Do well in school. Do my own laundry. Make my own food. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t need anything. Clean up after myself. Then after her. Be helpful. Be invisible. Be small.

She broke away from me and smiled.

I wiped under my eyes and her hat blew off and she laughed with a hand to her hair as it tumbled toward the water. The man who’d been driving the yacht was coming up the beach. He leaned over and grabbed it on his way.

He was good looking. Maybe early fifties. Strong jaw, a full head of gray hair, chin dimple, tall. He wore a pink polo and white shorts. Mom gave him one of her dazzling grins as he came up next to her.

“Emma, you won’t believe my day,” she said, looking back at me. “So I wanted to surprise you. I flew all the way over here on a red-eye, got an Uber, and came out to the address you gave me, but when I knocked on the door this handsome man answered instead.”

The handsome man put a hand out. “Neil.”

I shook it, realizing I was meeting our landlord. Maddy must have realized it too, because she came over with Justin following right behind her.

“This is Maddy,” I said. “And that’s Justin.”

Mom smiled at Maddy, who gave her a stiff “hey.” My date extended a hand to Neil. “Nice to meet you.” They shook and Justin tipped his head at Mom, who was putting her hat back on.