Page 84 of Lease to Love

The sidewalk ahead was blocked off, probably part of the traffic plan for the fair, and she turned down another street without hesitation.

Brick sidewalks.

Colorful row houses.

Front steps decorated with pumpkins and potted plants.

The kind of neighborhood that had been lived in long enough for every house to have a story.

Summer smiled. “My aunt and uncle used to live on this street.”

I glanced at her.

“Them and my cousin.”

She kept walking.

“I'd come over every day after school. Spent the night whenever Mama worked doubles. Pretty much from kindergarten through graduation.”

I pictured it: A pint-sized Summer. Same energy. Same inability to walk anywhere without somehow turning it into an adventure.

I smiled.

“If these sidewalks could talk,” I said, “I can only imagine the shenanigans.”

She laughed.

“If by ‘shenanigans’ you mean me scraping my knees, elbows, and ass on every inch of concrete on the block while my cousin tried to keep me alive, then yes. There were shenanigans.”

She looked up at me. “I was an accident-prone child.”

“How accident-prone?”

“I broke my leg playing hopscotch when I was nine.”

I snorted. “Terrible.”

“Indeed.” She laughed again, “But that broken leg led to me falling in love with fashion…”

I raised an eyebrow.

She noticed. “Thanks to my Mama E.”

I waited.

“Mama E was the woman who lived next door to my cousin. She didn't have any kids or grandkids, so she just loved on us.”

Summer's smile changed. It got softer. "She used to sit on her porch every night and sneak us popsicles and candy. Buy us gifts we didn't need. She was basically our surrogate grandmother, since we never got to meet ours."

I listened.

“Even when I was little, I loved the way she dressed. Bright colors. Bold patterns. Colorful bangles and headscarves. Things I'd never seen on anybody, much less a woman her age.”

I looked down at her. “Sounds like you.”

She smiled.

“I was sitting on the porch right there.” She pointed toward a stoop several houses ahead, “Sulking with my leg in a cast, with my cousin keeping me company, when Mama E came outside and asked if we wanted to come in for cookies.”