Just for the Summer(61)

Maddy would gladly give me her thoughts on this, but I didn’t want them because it would sound too much like I Told You So. And she had. She had told me. I just didn’t want to listen.

I felt myself start to get small, my edges drawing inward.

I could handle disappointment. My life had made me very good at it. But the kind that came from Mom hit me differently. It always had.

My chin started to quiver, and I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. I could feel the sob welling up inside of me and I desperately, desperately wanted it to stop. I didn’t want Maddy to see me upset. If she did, she’d get protective, and Maddy in protect mode was more than I wanted to deal with.

I turned and pretended to be searching for something in a drawer so she wouldn’t see me fighting to keep it together. Then Maddy made a surprised little gasp from next to me. “Hey, Justin!”

I whipped around. Justin was there holding Chelsea and smiling at me over the counter.

“Hey,” I said, blinking at him. “What are you doing here?”

He lifted a bag onto the counter with his free hand. “I made you lunch. Wanted to surprise you,” he said, shifting his sister on his hip. “I know you said you never know when you’re getting your breaks, so I figured I’d just drop it off. I made one for you too, Maddy. Vegetarian. You don’t eat meat, right?”

I felt my face go soft, and the lump in my throat instantly vanished. “Thank you…” I breathed.

Chelsea started to wiggle to get down. “Emma! Maddy!”

I smiled and came around the counter and picked her up. She hugged my neck and I grinned. Her pigtails were crooked.

Justin saw me looking at them. “I’m still learning how to do it,” he said.

“It’s cute.”

Justin and I stood there, smiling at each other. It was so good to see him. I don’t think I realized how much I wanted to until he was in front of me.

On days that I worked, we didn’t get to talk much. We mostly texted and sent each other memes and songs we wanted each other to listen to. I was in a Justin deficit, and I hadn’t even realized it until just now.

“What are you doing today?” I asked.

“Just errands,” he said. “About to drop her off at preschool. I sent you a survey for our date tomorrow.”

“I haven’t had a chance to check my email.”

“Date number three,” he said, his dimples popping.

“Date number three.”

We held each other’s eyes for a long moment.

He nodded over his shoulder. “I should probably let you get back to work. I have to go pick up Alex and take him to a doctor’s appointment.” He paused. “Am I allowed to hug you goodbye, or…？”

“Yes! Absolutely.” I handed Chelsea to Maddy, who was waiting her turn to hold her, and I closed the space between us and hugged him.

The way he folded around me made me think maybe he was in a deficit too. The hug was a warm factory reset. I didn’t want out of it. It was the weirdest feeling, like I wanted to leave with him, just walk right out of my job and go. Those cartoons where the character smells something delicious and it puts them in a trance and they float after the scent in a daze.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said in my ear. He kissed my cheek and let me go.

I was still floating.

He smiled at me another few seconds. Then he took his sister from Maddy and left the way he came.

“Dios mío, he’s cute,” Hector said, coming up to lean on the counter, watching Justin walk out.

“Yeah,” I said absently, watching the double doors close behind him. “He is.”

Maddy grabbed the bag Justin had left and started unpacking it. “Let’s see what we got here. Some mixed fruit, strawberries and cantaloupe, green grapes, egg salad sandwiches on sourdough. Look, he put dried cranberries and red onions in the sandwich, you’re going to love that. Granola bars, Wheat Thins, we’ve got some celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, and a side of ranch, there’s a mandarin orange for each of us, Capri Suns—brownies. He baked brownies.” She looked up at me. “You’re right. You should bone him.”

I snorted and Hector looked at me like I had two heads. “You’re not boning him yet? You better get on it.”

Yeah. I should.

When I got home from work that night, all I wanted to do was talk to Justin. I got into my pajamas and texted him. He told me to give him thirty minutes to get Chelsea in bed. I’d just gotten under the covers when he called.

“Hey,” I said, picking up.

“Hey.”

I smiled into the darkness of my room. I’d missed the tenor of his voice. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Lying in bed. Finally.”

“Long day?”

He blew a breath into the phone. “It’s been a long week in a very long couple of months.”

I shifted down into my blankets. “Tell me.”

“Eh, you don’t want to hear it.”

“I do. Tell me,” I said again.

He sighed. “The kids start school in three weeks. I’m just a little overwhelmed.”

My face fell. “Oh. Do you want to cancel our date? If you need the time—”

“Nooooo. No, no, no. I definitely do not want to cancel our date.”