Nat shoved my shoulder hard, sending me off-balance, my arms flailing out wide to no avail. I toppled into the cold lake water with an awkward splash. I came up quickly and sputtered out water, wiping a hand down my face.
It took me a second to catch up to just what I’d done. “Nat. Wait—” I tried as I grabbed my floating T-shirt and swam to the ladder. I looked up to see her receding form, already halfway down the dock, muttering obscenities as she stormed away from me. Shit, she booked it fast.
I pulled myself up using the ladder. My T-shirt clung to my neck, like my bad choices. I wrung it out aggressively. I may have gone too far this time. The thought sat uneasily as guilt began to eat at me.
On top of me coming off like a jerk, there were professional ramifications to my behavior I hadn’t fully considered yet. Like how stupid I was. Nat was close to Hazel, and if she told her what I did, how I was behaving, I could lose Starlight, the best thing that had ever happened to me. What would I do then? Go back to construction without whimsy? No, thank you. I needed to get my hotheaded nature under control before I completely lost sight of what was important.
My phone started ringing, interrupting my thoughts as I saw my brother’s face appear. I bent down and grabbed it from on top of my towel, answering in my mostly normal, cheery voice. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Sorry, I know it’s late, but I wanted to let you know that Jordy’s been asking about you lately. He misses you.”
I pictured my nephew, now ten and growing up fast. It was always fun to see him running around camp as a carefree little boy. I loved it when he visited. It gave me such pride thatmy nephew wanted to spend time with me, and it was a stark reminder that I needed to get my act together and set a good example for him. Possibly even get my head out of my ass when it came to this whole rivalry.
“I’m free Thursdays,” I said, needing something positive to focus on. “He can come over and chastise me about my cabin being too messy.”
“Can he chastise you about that on a Saturday? There’s a winery in Emerald Falls I’ve been wanting to take Molly to. I know she’s going to love it.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I can make that happen.”
“Awesome.” I could hear the joy in his voice at the prospect of surprising her. It was proof that Foster was a better husband than our dad was for our mom.
A sour feeling flopped in my stomach, and I wanted off the phone. My family would be so disappointed if they knew how I was behaving. Letting anger and negativity infect me and others around me.
I felt Autumn’s presence behind me on the dock and turned to see her kind wave when she realized I was on the phone. “Listen, I gotta run. Autumn’s here.”
Autumn stopped walking and waited for me to finish the call.
My brother’s cheery tone did nothing but dampen my mood. “Don’t give Autumn too much trouble. See you next week.” Little did he know, Autumn wasn’t in my sights. Nat was.
“You’re late,” I muttered for the second time, annoyed but not with her.
“After campfireis an arbitrary time, Jack.” Did she and Nat talk or something? “And I had to find calamine lotion for a camper with poison ivy. Where’s Nat?” She looked around the dock as if she would just appear. Pop up out of the lake like a mermaid, all magical and shit.
My chest tightened as I pictured Nat storming off because of me. “She left.”
“Well, you clearly took part in your epic showdown without me. So what happened?” She watched as I continued aggressively wringing out my T-shirt, squeezing every last droplet of water out of it as though it would rid me of my shame. “You’re pouty. So I’m guessing Nat won?”
I looked back over the night water, seeing the buoy floating in the distance, and let out a long sigh. “I got what I deserved.”
NINE
Nat
Shock wasn’ta strong enough word for what I felt after what Jack had said last night. The man had no right to be so harsh. I’d wondered for a while what he had against me, but maybe my family was reason enough. Maybe it was valid.
My grandfather was politically divisive and frequently antagonistic to those who opposed his views. He’d been known for his smear campaigns back when he was attempting to win the presidency and hadn’t been well-liked as a vice president.
As his granddaughter, I was a face of hisfamily firstcampaign, and the vitriol toward my family and me was well-known. I’d only fallen away from the spotlight after my father’s tragic passing. I still resented my parents for putting me in that position.
But that wasn’t where the animosity toward my family ended. My mother was a billionaire who ran an empire that had its own host of problems, and I’d contributed to it by working for them. It was one of the reasons I’d left. I couldn’t be proud of the company I worked for.
I’d hoped getting out of the public eye would have been enough for the country to forget about me, but obviously, Jackhadn’t. Maybe he was in the same camp as the objectors and assumed I shared my family’s values.
I swiped left and right on my lock screen over and over. And because I was a glutton for punishment, I made a choice.
Was today the best time to call my mom? Definitely not. But my sister’s words had been ringing in my head, and I knew she was right. Someone needed to extend the olive branch, and if past experiences had taught me anything, it wasn’t going to be them.
I quickly unlocked my phone, pulling up my contacts and hitting send onMombefore I could back out. God, what was I doing?
