The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(91)

Jeremiah stared, blinking. Confusion clouded his brain. He glanced across the table at his siblings to check their reactions. Percy cleared his throat and kept his attention focused on Celeste, while Amara frowned, eyes wide. Robin gently placed her hand on Percy’s shoulder and chewed on her bottom lip. Finally, Jeremiah looked at Noelle, who kept her eyes trained on her hands in her lap.

“You turned down the offer, right?” Jeremiah asked, looking at Celeste again.

His mom inhaled deeply. “We haven’t made a decision yet. That’s what I wanted to discuss tonight.”

“But what is there to discuss?” Jeremiah asked, confused. “We have to turn it down.”

“Not exactly,” Percy said. “It’s a good offer.”

Jeremiah looked at his brother. “Of course it’s a good offer. Avid Foods is a corporate machine who wants to make a profit, but they won’t care about the integrity of the company. Pop wanted Smith’s Sweets to stay family owned. Selling isn’t what he would have wanted.”

Celeste’s throat worked as she swallowed. “Miah, it’s more complicated than that.”

“I agree with Miah, though,” Amara said, biting her lip as she looked at Celeste. “How sure are you that you want to sell?”

“Very,” Percy cut in. But he wasn’t looking at Amara; he was looking at Jeremiah with a tense frown. “Why do you deserve a say in what happens? While you’ve been off with the dog company, I’ve been taking on the brunt of Smith’s Sweets expansion as Mom has started setting herself up to retire. I’m exhausted. Robin has been dealing with this pregnancy on her own, and I feel terrible. I’ve barely been able to spend time with my family.” He gestured to the twins, who anxiously looked back and forth between their father and Jeremiah.

“Girls, why don’t you go inside and eat your dessert in the kitchen,” Robin said.

“But, Mom,” Ashley started to protest. However, at Robin’s stern look, the twins rose from the table and walked back inside.

Jeremiah waited until the girls were out of earshot before he spoke again.

“I know I don’t work for the company anymore,” he said slowly. I wanted to stay out of your way, he almost added. “But I’m still part of this family. How long have you known about this offer?”

“A week,” Celeste said.

He looked at his mom. “A week? Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

“You’re such a hypocrite,” Percy said, shaking his head. “Like you haven’t been withholding information too.”

Jeremiah narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been lying to us about your girlfriend all summer,” Percy blurted in frustration.

Jeremiah’s stomach dropped. He looked at Noelle, who stared back at him with round, wide eyes, wringing her hands together.

“What are you talking about, Percy?” Celeste asked, glancing between Jeremiah and Noelle.

Percy cleared his throat, looking guilty. Like he was aware that his anger had led him to say something he hadn’t meant to reveal. But it was too late now. Everyone was looking at Noelle with fixed curiosity.

“It’s nothing,” Percy said, sighing. “I just found out that she isn’t a librarian like she said she was, and Miah knew. But, look, that’s irrelevant to our current conversation.”

Jeremiah was relieved that Percy wasn’t aware of the full scope of his relationship with Noelle or how they’d originally lied about being together. But he was still confused about when Noelle and Percy would have talked about her not being a librarian.

“He asked me about it last night,” Noelle said quietly, as if she could read Jeremiah’s thoughts. She leaned closer to him, expression uneasy, still wringing her hands together. “I didn’t want him to think I’d been lying to you.”

Her behavior today toward Percy made so much more sense now. Jeremiah hated to see her look so stressed, but he was confused as to why she hadn’t said anything to him about it until now.

“You should have told me,” he said quietly.

She bit her lip and nodded.

Celeste rubbed her temples. “What in the world is going on?”

Jeremiah turned to his mom, ready to enact some sort of damage control because now she, Robin, and Amara were looking at Noelle with suspicion. He and Noelle had just decided last night that they wanted to keep dating long term and that they were going to tell his family that she wasn’t actually a librarian yet. But they hadn’t had a chance to formulate a plan. The conversation wasn’t supposed to happen this way. However, before Jeremiah could think of what to say, Noelle answered Celeste first.

“Percy is telling the truth,” she said. She glanced around the table. “I’m not a librarian. At least not yet. I used to work at a bookstore, but I got laid off. I’m going back to college in the fall to finish my bachelor’s degree, and then I plan to apply to grad school to get my master’s degree in order to become a librarian. I lied because I didn’t want you to think I was using Jeremiah. And because I wanted to impress you. I’m really, really sorry.”

“I see,” Celeste said quietly. Amara and Robin sported matching expressions of hurt. Percy crossed his arms and focused his gaze on the table.