The Summer I Saved You (The Summer #2)(57)

I blow out a breath. “I’ll check with Caleb, okay?”

“He’ll say yes,” Henry says with utter faith.

I wish I believed that as much as Henry does.

Caleb calls me on the house phone from Boston after the twins are in bed. “I’m in my hotel room without a single nude photo of you,” he says. “It’s troubling.”

“I’m not a detective, but if Jeremy is monitoring my texts, sending you nude photos might provide him a subtle clue that you are not merely my boss.”

“You could have taken a photo with my phone as a surprise. The more I think about it, the more it hurts my feelings that you didn’t.”

I wind the phone cord around my hand. “I’ll do my best to mend your hurt feelings when you get home.”

“Why,” he says, his voice guttural with longing, “does every word out of your mouth sound filthy to me now?”

I hop onto the counter. “I’m currently researching ways to spend more of your company’s money. How filthy does that sound?”

He laughs weakly. “The filthiest. Do I even want to know?”

“Nap pods. Just like Google has.”

“Are we hiring toddlers? What grown fucking adult needs a nap during work hours?”

“Grown fucking adults who work really long hours and need to recharge. You want employees who feel as if they’re there by choice, not as some form of indentured servitude.”

He groans. “I pay way too much for anyone to call it indentured servitude.”

I miss that crabbiness of his that never quite extends to me. “When are you home?” I ask softly.

“Not til Tuesday. Someone scheduled a grand opening for the break room on Wednesday that I theoretically have to get back for.”

“Maybe someone will make it up to you.”

“Yes,” he says, his tone deliciously bossy, “she absolutely fucking will.”

I want to stay in this space where we are both focused only on how I’ll make it up to him. Unfortunately, I can’t.

I take a deep breath. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Will I have phone sex with you? Absolutely. To be honest, I’m already halfway there.”

I laugh. “It’s a favor for one of my kids.”

“That’s less sexy.” He sighs. “I guess I’ll leave my pants on.”

He’s still joking, but his voice is stiffer, less friendly. If it were only about me, I’d drop the subject, but it’s not. There’s nothing I won’t do for Henry, and if it means alienating Caleb...I’ll do that too. “Henry wants to build this robotic arm with you for a show at school.” And it’s so unlike him, being willing to branch out. It could change everything if he had this one success.

“You can’t build it with him?”

I take a quick breath. It’s unreasonable to expect him to care about my kids the way I do, but I can’t help but wish he did anyway. “I looked at the directions and it’s beyond me.”

He’s very quiet. “I don’t know, Lucie,” he finally says. “It’s just...this is a busy time for me.”

Every bone in my body wants to let the conversation drop. Because he did tell me he wouldn’t have a lot of time, that he wanted to ease in. I’m the one trying to change things. But I can already picture Henry, showing off this amazing project, learning the world can love him as much as I do if he lets them in.

“I’m not asking for anything you weren’t already doing before,” I say quietly. “Why is it suddenly a problem?”

He’s quiet. I brace myself for what’s coming. If something this small would lead him to end things, it’s probably for the best that we quit while we’re ahead…but my stomach drops anyway.

“Because you’ll expect it, and they’ll expect it,” he finally says. “And I’ll fucking disappoint all of you.”

“Okay,” I reply, my stomach churning.

I understand his reluctance. I understand not wanting to promise things to a kid and at this stage in our relationship, he probably wouldn’t even have met my kids yet, under normal circumstances. The problem isn’t that he’s hesitant to be a part of our lives—it’s that he’s more hesitant than he was before.

When I was with Jeremy, there were a thousand times I asked for things on behalf of the twins—please come to their play, please come home on Halloween, please make it back in time for their birthday party—and when he ignored me, what choice did I have? Leaving him wouldn’t solve the problem. It would just create a series of new ones.

This time, I have a choice. And if Caleb continues to not be what we need, I’m going to have to make that choice—no matter how much it hurts.



ON MONDAY NIGHT, Jeremy texts me to confirm the twins’ homework has been done. I can’t imagine why he’s suddenly interested, but the demanding way he asks—as if I’m some lowly employee—irritates me. The question alone irritates me, given how little involvement he’s had. When I don’t answer immediately, he calls Sophie’s iPad and proceeds to grill her about projects and what they’re learning…and then he asks to speak to me.

“Why didn’t you read them the horse book Sophie got from the library yesterday?” he demands. “She was supposed to discuss it today.”