AllFreeNovel
Share Us
SUMMER
It’s late, the party is over, and I haven’t moved for what feels like an eternity, relishing in the peace of the garden at sunset, bathed in the balmy heat by the willow tree. It might also have something to do with me polishing off the last of the crab, and every side dish I could get my hands on, once the parents and kids had all left. Lyndsey insisted, and it felt rude not to indulge.
“Do you want another piece of cake?” Grace is lying flat on her belly on the plaid picnic blanket that she brought out with her, so she could join me in watching the sun go down. “I saved you a piece with a strawberry on it.”
I pat my stomach. “If I eat another bite, I’ll literally explode.”
“Can a person actually explode?” Grace rolls over onto her back, staring up at the sky. Fluffy vanilla clouds drift by, tinged with pinks and purples, while streaks of fiery bronze ripple beneath like molten streams. I close my eyes, imagining myself sitting on the cool sand of my little inlet, watching the sunset reflect off the water, building up the courage to take a dip.
I smile. “Give me that strawberry and we’ll find out.”
“How come Summer gets all the strawberries?” It’s that voice again: deep and rumbly, and seemingly always a tiny bit pissed off.
My eyes fly open. He’s standing there in a change of clothes, after leading the charge in an end-of-party water balloon fight. From my vantage point, he’d enjoyed himself even more than the kids. It had been sweet to watch, actually, though I didn’t observe for long. It made me feel too… uneasy, admiring him from afar, like I was doing something wrong and about to be caught in the act.
I still feel like that, especially now that he’s sitting down in the opposite chair, making himself at home.
“She likes them best,” Grace explains, though I’ve forgotten the question.
Rowan nods slowly, bopping his head to music I can’t hear. “I guess she never got her prize for winning ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey.’ Incredible accuracy, by the way.” He glances over at me, and I squirm in my seat under the casual intensity of his gaze. “I’ve been playing that game for thirty-two years, and never seen anyone get so close to hitting the mark. My favorite was the one sticking out of the donkey’s head, though the moms seemed to enjoy when Rebecca put the tail between the donkey’s—”
“Anyone need another drink?” I interrupt, shooting him a warning look.
Grace jumps up. “I’ll get it!” She pauses. “Are you staying tonight, Summer?”
“If you don’t mind sharing some floor,” I reply.
Lyndsey already hid my car keys, not that I’d ever consider driving after so many glasses of wine, but then she dropped the bombshell that, with Rowan in the spare room, I’d have to make do with a blow-up mattress in Grace’s bedroom. I can’t think of a better way to end her birthday than being a part of her very first sleepover, even though my back won’t thank me in the morning. My blow-up mattress days are way,waybehind me.
“I’ll have to clean up!” A panicked expression washes over Grace’s face, before she rushes inside.
I chuckle as she goes, forever grateful that losing her dad didn’t dampen her vibrant spirit. There’ll be harder days as she gets older, and I know it won’t always be so easy for her or Lyndsey to manage, but, for now, she’s happy and unburdened. To witness it is better than any therapy money can buy.
As the sun dips lower in the sky, drawing the curtain slowly down on its heavenly light show to give way to the encore of twilight, I settle back in the chair and notice a bird chanting in the near distance. The sleepy chirp of cicadas fills the air, offering me an excuse to avoid filling the tense silence that stretches between Rowan and I.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Rowan speaks first, balancing his right sneaker on his left knee. ‘Live’ glares at me in red embroidery, like a threat and a reminder, rolled into one.
“Vaguely,” I admit. “It was a… weird time.”
How much does he know? Being Lyndsey’s brother, I assume he knows everything. He definitely knew what the night was in honor of, when he came to the gallery to pick up Grace, a million years ago.
Rowan jiggles his foot, making ‘Live’ bounce up and down. “Took me forever to place you,” he says, reaching for the bottle of beer he brought out. “Kept thinking, ‘hey, I swear I know that girl’, but Grace hid my glasses just before the party, so you could’ve been anyone. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve run up to someone, thinking I know them, only for them to turn out to be a complete stranger. Surprised I haven’t been beaten up yet.”
Glasses?I think back to the way he scowled at me from the terrace. What if I’d gotten it wrong. What if he was just… trying to figure out if I was someone he knew?
“Have you found them yet?”
He sips his drink and frowns. “Found what? The strangers?”
“Your glasses.”
“My glasses, right!” He smacks his forehead. “No, I haven’t. Grace and I have this thing where we hide stuff around the house, and we can’t tell where we hid it unless the other person is really desperate. If we ask for a hint, it costs ten dollars, and I’m not losing another ten to her. She’s sneakier than you’d think. Hell of an imagination when it comes to hiding stuff. Since I’ve been back, I swear she’s taken over a hundred dollars from me.”
I lean forward in my chair. “You’ve been away?”
“Headed up the opening of the Malaysian office. Naturally, everything caught fire over here while I was away, so I’ve been sent back to put out said fires,” he explains, then seems to catch himself. “Sorry, don’t mean to talk about work at a party.”
“No, it’s fine. That sounds interesting.” My sole takeaway is that he’s kind of chatty. I figured we’d sit in silence until Grace came back, not strike up a fairly comfortable conversation.
