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His eyes narrowed with discontent, but he listened.
“This sucks for her,” I noted. “And parading around in front of her has to hurt her worse than just about anything.”
“You’re the mother of my child. I should be able to kiss you when I want.”
“That’s part of the problem, though, isn’t it?”
He shook his head, still trying to defend his discontent. “She had to know we’d be here, Pres.”
“Half the town is here. It’s not fair for her to have to stay home. We wouldn’t do the same for her, would we?”
And then it hit him hard enough to soften his anger. The guilt on his face hurt on so many levels. “No. You’re right. God, we used to do this to her in high school too.”
“Don’t beat yourself up—your frontal lobe was underdeveloped at sixteen.”
“And what’s my excuse now?”
“Probably something to do with my boobs.”
“That was definitely an issue when we were sixteen.”
I chuckled. “Go rope swing some more so you’re not tempted.”
“Only if you promise to stay the night tonight.”
“All right. Now go.”
“If I do a double flip, do I get a prize?”
“No, but if you do a belly flop,” I leaned in and whispered, “I’ll grant you one sex wish.”
His brows rose. “No pain, no gain?”
I shrugged. “Them’s the breaks, kid.”
“Challenge accepted.” With a wink, he pushed off in the direction of the rope swing, and I watched him go with my smile fading.
“God, they’re right. We are assholes,” I said to nobody.
“Well,” Daisy started, “you kind of are, and you kind of aren’t. He’s not totally wrong—they’re broken up.”
“But not divorced,” Poppy noted.
“Yet,” Jo added.
“And she did know you’d be here,” Poppy said.
“It’s not fair, though.” I sighed. “I should send her anonymous cupcakes. And a case of wine.”
“Probably.” Daisy sighed and flicked water at me with her foot just as Jeremy Winthrop hollered Hey, Daisy! from the arching rope swing, flying off it once he had her attention to do a flip that ended up in a jackknife. He waved the whole way down.
Everybody laughed, even Daisy, though her cheeks were red as autumn apples as she sank a little deeper into her tube.
“They’re relentless,” I noted. “I seriously don’t get how y’all don’t at least have a fling or two happening.”
“Because flings are never just flings, Presley. You know that,” Daisy said with a pointed look in my direction.
“Plus,” Jo said cheerily, “dating us is basically a ticket out of here. Or worse. Look at our track record. Your daddy left, mine died. Priscilla’s daddy left for Africa when she was still a zygote. Poppy and Brent Banks were destined for each other, swore he’d come back, but never left New York after college. And Daisy … well, you know what happened.”
“And what’s your claim to the curse?” I sassed.
Jo shrugged. “I was smart enough never to get involved with anybody. But every guy I ever dated either ended up with a broken bone, a wrecked car, or a one-way ticket out of Lindenbach. It’s just what it is. I’ve decided not to fight it—I’m embracing it. I’ll keep it casual and grow old with Mama. We can get cats. I keep telling her we need some rat hunters, but she’s convinced it’ll nail her coffin shut on the whole Old Widow Blum situation.”
“So you’re not on board with the whole ‘set your mom up’ thing?” I asked.
The other two Blum sisters glared at her in warning.
“Far as I’m concerned, Mama and I can be crazy hippy bee ladies. But yes,” she conceded. “I’m on board with it. I want Mama to be happy, and I’d love to ship my sisters off. Imagine the silence.”
Poppy grabbed a handful of ice out of the half-open soft cooler and dumped it in Jo’s lap. She flipped out of her tube so fast, we barely heard her squeal.
When Jo was cursing her way back into her tube looking like a wet feline, my gaze wandered back over to Marnie and her friends. Guilt washed over me.
“It’s not your fault,” Poppy said on seeing me. “How she feels.”
“You sure about that?”
“I am. Doesn’t make it suck any less, but it’s not your fault. It’s not Sebastian’s fault. It’s not hers either. It’s just shitty, and this town isn’t big enough to hide from anybody.”
“Well, her discomfort will be short lived,” I said. “He’s leaving soon, and then she’ll just have to deal with me, I guess. Even though I’m probably the worse of the two for her.”
“He’s still leaving?” Poppy asked. “I swear I thought he was staying now that … well, being a dad and everything.”
“Don’t you want him to stay?” Jo asked.
“Of course I do. I just don’t want him to stay for me.”
“Right, but like … what better reason could he have?” she added.
“But that’s the whole thing, isn’t it? He stayed when his mom got sick. Other than the Peace Corps, he’s always been close by for his family. There’s always a noble reason to stay. But what about the noble reasons to go? Staying is for his own sense of duty to his family. Going is for something so much bigger than that. I don’t want to be another reason he didn’t get to live his dreams.”
