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I shot her a smirk. “Are you pumping me for ammunition to emotionally manipulate your mother?”
“Of course I am. Is he telling the truth about not ever bringing women around you?”
I nodded. “But remember, I barely saw him anyway. He … he loved my mother more than he’d ever admit to me, I think. Their photos are still all over the house … sometimes it’s like living in a memorial of reminders of what he lost. And reminders that I was the one who took her from him.”
“Surely he doesn’t actually blame you.”
“He does.”
“How do you know that? He never talks to you.”
“Because he likes to throw it at me when I disappoint him.”
She fell silent.
“I don’t know if he was always like this or if he used to be happy. With my mother,” I said, my gaze wandering to his happy face on the other side of the pool. “Maybe that’s the real version of him, and I only know the shadow. All I do know is that in this situation, he isn’t worthy of anyone’s trust.”
“Well, without some sort of proof, Mama will not be swayed. It’s not every day that a handsome, rich, charming bachelor comes to town.”
I made a show of stretching and said, “I know, lucky you.”
“It really is lucky. Not gonna lie—I kinda wish your dad wasn’t a supreme asshole. Mama deserves somebody to love who loves her like Daddy did.”
“What about the curse?”
“Doesn’t hurt to pay attention to it. You know, you’re taking a grave risk fucking around with that kind of magic.” Pleased when I laughed, she continued. “I do think there’s something to it for Mama, but here’s the real problem—she’s known every man in this town for more than thirty years or since they were born. Every corner of this town carries a story of her and my father. Every person in this town knew him just as well as they know the rest of us. So not only is there zero fresh meat, but the meat that is here is somehow associated with my father. Doesn’t exactly help with the whole starting over thing.”
“What about dating apps? Hitting the bigger cities?”
She chuckled. “Dottie on dating apps? That should be its own reality show. No, we’ve tried. Made an account for her, convinced her to go on a couple of disastrous dates. I don’t know if you know this, but men on dating apps only want to bone.”
“You don’t say.”
“It shocked me too.” Another sigh. “Mama might just be forever alone. If she is, that’s all right. I’ll be right there with her. Poppy and Daisy can go on and find someone—I’ll hang back. We’ll do puzzles. Get more chickens. Learn to knit. You know, spinster stuff.”
“You’d rather make sure your mom was happy than go looking for love?”
“It’s easier that way, isn’t it? I mean, aside from the fact that Mama has devoted her adult life to raising us, mostly alone. We’re her whole world. Plus, if I stay unattached, that means I’m available for trysts with rich playboys who blow in and out of town with the wind.”
“Playboy, huh?”
“Aren’t you? You’re famously unattached too, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Okay, maybe I am a little bit. But it’s not as glamorous as the name implies.”
“No?”
With my eyes on Sebastian and his family, there was nothing to be but honest. “It’s empty. Lonely. No one really knows you—people decide who you are because of what you are.”
“But you have friends, right?” she asked quietly.
“Friends.” I tested the word on my tongue, finding it didn’t feel the same as it used to. “I know a lot of people. I hang out with a lot of people. But friends? If shit went to hell for me, if I lost all my money and moved away, I’d never hear from them again. Even now, the only people I’ve heard from are part of group texts or about fantasy football. I don’t call them when I need something. I don’t tell them … well, much of anything that’s real.”
“Who do you call?”
“No one.”
She was quiet for a second. “You can call me.”
I lolled my head so I could see her but didn’t speak.
“When you leave, when you go home, if you need something—a friend, a shoulder, a date to a gala, a phone sex session—you can call me.”
I couldn’t even be clever with a response—I just laughed, reaching across the space between us to touch her smiling face.
“Thanks, Jo.”
“I don’t want you to be alone any more than I want Mama to. Difference is, Mama has us. And I hate—and I mean hate—that you don’t have anybody. So I’ll be your somebody.”
“Never would have thought you’d make that offer when I was wiping warm egg off my face in front of television crews.”
“The internet even made a gif out of you.”
