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She harrumphs and goes to change. But she stops and looks back at me from the doorway. “You look really pretty,” she says.
I take a deep breath. “Is this dress too much?”
“It’s perfect.” She makes an okay sign with her finger and thumb. In a sing-song voice, she says, “I think Jake’s going to kiss you tonight.”
A grin tugs at my lips and happiness floods my heart. “Well, I certainly hope so,” I mutter.
She comes back into the room and closes the door. “You and Jake, you could totally be a thing.”
“Our thing was a long time ago,” I remind her. “Four kids later, I’m not the same person I was back then.”
She sinks down on the edge of my bed. “You’re a beautiful woman and Jake knows it. Haven’t you seen the way he looks at you? Just watching him watch you makes my insides get all mushy.”
I point my finger at her. “You are too young to even know what mushy means, young lady.”
But she’s the same age I was when I met Jake, and he made my insides all mushy way back then.
“A boy asked me to the summer dance,” she says quietly.
I jerk my head up. “What boy?”
“He’s staying in cabin 24. His mom makes cookies. They’re really good.”
“And he asked you to the dance?”
“Yes.” She grins.
“And you said…” I arch a brow at her.
“I said he would have to ask you and Jake.”
My heart skips a beat. “Why would he have to ask Jake?”
“Because,” her gaze skitters across the room, refusing to settle, “Dad’s not here.”
She doesn’t talk about her dad very often, and when she does, her eyes get misty. I offer her my lip gloss. “I’m sure Jake would be happy to talk to him.”
“Do you really think so?” she asks. Does she miss having a father figure? Perhaps Jeff’s death has had more of an effect on her than she lets on. She puts on my lip gloss and stops to admire herself in the mirror.
“Yes, I’m sure he’d be happy to give any boy who might want to take you out a hard time.” I point to the door. “Go change. I’ll see you tonight after dinner.”
She leaves and I hear her as she goes to her room to change clothes. She comes back out wearing the one-piece suit that Dad got for her. I follow her down the hallway. Dad is sitting at the kitchen table with Mr. Jacobson. He looks up and down Gabby’s body. “Much better,” he says. His eyes narrow. “Are you wearing lip gloss?”
“Pick your battles, Dad,” I say to him.
Then he looks beyond her to me. “You look really pretty.”
“Were you waiting for Gabby?” I ask.
“I don’t like for any of them to be alone,” he says. Neither do I. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and give him a hard squeeze.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For everything.”
Jake walks around the corner and Dad freezes. “What’s going on here?” he asks, looking from Jake to me and back.
“We are going on a date,” Jake says. His eyes drag slowly down my body. “You look really beautiful, Katie.”
Jake is wearing a pair of khaki pants, and he has on a button-down shirt in the same shade of jade as his eyes. His light brown hair is damp and his face is scruffy because he didn’t shave. He’s wearing a pair of leather deck shoes with no socks. But more startling than what he’s wearing is the simple fact that he takes my breath away.
