Just for the Summer(28)

“What a day,” Neil said, looking at Mom. “Here I thought it was going to be just another boring Tuesday and then there’s a beautiful woman standing on my porch.”

She peered up at him with stars in her eyes, and he grinned.

She talked to me but looked at him. “After a minute or two we realized that you’re renting his cottage.” She turned back to me. “It was still early and I didn’t want to call you and wake you up, so he invited me in for a coffee and we just couldn’t stop talking. Then he got the idea to drive me out to the island and drop me off, so we got on the boat, and we just ended up cruising around instead. We spent the whole day on the water. We stopped at Lord Fletcher’s and had drinks—”

“Thanks for taking care of her,” Maddy said flatly.

“We were going to grill some lobsters,” Neil said, putting a thumb over his shoulder toward the pool. “Would you like to join us?”

Mom gasped happily. “Yes! You should all join us! I was going to make a Bloody Mary bar!”

Maddy started shaking her head. “We’re still unpacking—”

“Oh, you can do that later,” Mom said, waving her off. “What’s one more hour? Neil’s having Maine lobsters delivered!”

“It’s settled then,” Neil said, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll get some appetizers started.”

Mom smiled up at him. “If you aren’t the best host I’ve ever met.”

He beamed and nodded to the back of the house. “Let’s all head to the pool and find some shade.” Then he and Mom left us standing there while they laughed and chatted on their way to the outdoor bar.

I turned stiffly back to Maddy and Justin.

“Are you kidding me with this?” Maddy hissed as soon as they were out of earshot. “She’s here for what? Six hours? And she’s already hypnotized our landlord?”

I chewed my lip. “We don’t know that.” I watched Maddy scowl at something over my shoulder and when I turned around Neil had a palm on Mom’s lower back. She leaned into him in a way that definitely didn’t look like this was the first time he’d touched her.

Shit.

“That woman scorches the earth,” Maddy whispered. “This is so fucked.”

“She’ll probably only stay a few days,” I said, my voice low. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

She scoffed. “Come on. You know exactly why she’s here. You gave her the address, she googled it, she saw this big-ass house, and she caught the very next plane to get in on whatever you had going on. And now she’s boning that guy and it’s gonna be alllll the drama.”

“What is she going to do?” Justin asked, looking back and forth between us.

Maddy crossed her arms. “What she always does? Show up and leave a path of destruction in her wake? She’s not staying with us,” she said in her end-of-discussion voice.

But it was pretty clear Mom had her eyes on a much more comfortable house than ours.

“You need to tell her to leave,” Maddy said.

My head jerked back. “No!”

“What the hell do you mean no?”

“I haven’t seen her in almost two years, Maddy.”

“So?” She threw up a hand. “See her. But make her get a hotel room. We don’t need to burn bridges with the man we’re renting from. It’s going to be a shitshow.”

“She’s not going to listen to me,” I said, lowering my voice. “You know that.”

Maddy rolled her eyes in the way that I knew meant she was aware. “Please tell me I don’t have to stay and watch you eat crustaceans with that woman. Let’s just go back to the island and you see her tomorrow or something when she’s done with what’s-his-face.”

“I want to have dinner with my mom, Maddy.”

She put a thumb to her chest. “If you stay I have to stay. I’m not leaving you alone to third wheel it on whatever the hell that is.”

“I’ll stay,” Justin said.

We both looked at him.

“It’s no problem,” he said. “I can stay as late as you need. I can get Brad to run over and walk the dog. I don’t mind.”

I looked back the way Mom and Neil had gone. “The couples thing probably would be a better dynamic.” Considering they’re on a date.

“Excellent,” Maddy said. “Deal. Call me when you need me to pick you up. Justin, come push me off the dock.” She turned and stomped toward the lake.

I looked back at Justin tiredly as Maddy made her way down the lawn.

“She’s… intense?” he said.

I blew a breath through my nose. “She’s protective. We’ve been through a lot together. She doesn’t want to see me get hurt.”

“Are you going to get hurt?”

Yes, I thought. “No,” I said. “Are you sure you don’t mind being here?”

Justin shook his head. “I don’t mind. I like crustaceans.”

“If you need to go, you totally can. Just wait until Maddy leaves so she doesn’t think she’s leaving me here alone.”

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving you.” He gave me that cute, dimpled smile he’d been giving me all day.