“Not if you toast it,” she said. “Want to try?”
I stood up. “Sure. Let’s do it.”
Our shoes scraped along the gravel as we walked together back to the boathouse. Crickets chirped. It was another beautiful night on the lake with the moon casting a glow over the property.
Heather waited on the porch while I went inside to toast the garlic bread. She seemed to know the drill; I never invited her inside, so she didn’t bother to try to follow me.
After I brought the bread out, I sliced a piece and handed it to her.
Heather moaned as she took it into her mouth. My traitorous dick twitched at the sound, and I did my best to ignore that.
She spoke with her mouth full. “Who knew day-old bread could taste so good?”
“It is pretty damn good,” I agreed, taking a big bite. “It’s mmm…bop. MMMBop.”
I cracked myself up.
Heather stopped chewing. “That song was…um…it was just playing on the…”
“On your iPhone. It was playing on your phone because you put it there, because you like cheesy nineties’ music. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Hey, it’s the decade I was born into. I have a special appreciation for it. I missed a lot of good stuff when I was too young to remember, apparently. So maybe I do enjoy the occasional unique song.”
“I have a feeling it’s more than occasional. In fact, I’d love to see what else is on that phone.”
She bit into more bread. “You’re never gonna find out.”
I hoped she knew I was teasing. I mean, her taste in music was…different. But so was she—in a good way.
She leaned her head against the side of the house and closed her eyes, almost looking ready to fall asleep, but then she opened them and stared out toward the lake.
It hit me in this moment how comfortable she made me feel. (Well, she made me feel comfortable, and that made me uncomfortable.) Heather was the type of person you could just hang out with in silence. She gave the impression that you could tell her anything and she wouldn’t judge. At the same time, it was okay to say absolutely nothing at all and just be.
Before coming to the lake, I hadn’t known what to expect from this place. I sure as hell wasn’t planning to feel so at peace here. It had crossed my mind that I could live this simple life forever. That wasn’t an option, but it was a nice thought.
As if she could read my mind, Heather asked, “So, what’s your next step?”
“Next step?”
“What will you do when August ends? Return to Pennsylvania, get back to work?”
“Yeah. I can’t leave my business for too long. Or my father.”
“Is your father ill?”
“No, but he’s the only family I have there. My mom and my brother who’s married with three children all live in Minnesota.”
She grinned. “Uncle Noah.”
“Yeah.” I smiled, thinking about my two nephews and niece. “My mother moved there to be closer to my brother and his kids.”
“Your parents are divorced, then.”
“Yeah. Ever since I was about your age.”
“Well, I’d say sorry, but sometimes divorce can be a good thing if the situation that preceded it was unbearable.”
“That’s very true. In my parents’ case, though, it was amicable.” I paused a moment. “What about your parents? You haven’t mentioned your father at all.”
“My father remarried when my sister and I were young. He has two daughters with his new wife, and I barely see him. They live in western Massachusetts. He returns to the lake once a year, stays at a hotel, and comes over for dinner. He mostly criticizes my mother and me, then leaves. I dread that visit because my mother is always a wreck the entire week before, during, and after. Well, even more of a wreck than she already is.”
Shit. That couldn’t have been easy for her—that her dad had another two daughters he spent all of his time with. Overall, he sounded like an ass.
“That must be hard for you…”
“Yes, but I can’t change it, so I try to accept it. Aside from his yearly visit, I go to visit them a couple of times a year. I was always more accepting of the situation than Opal, but she had other issues affecting her reactions to things. She saw my father leaving as pure abandonment. I’ve tried to see it differently—that sometimes people don’t get things right the first time around in life. He seems happy now. I know he regrets leaving us the way he did. He’s told me so. Even though knowing that doesn’t make it any easier, I forgive him.”
“I admire how you handle what you’ve been dealt,” I said.
“All I can do is my best. I try not to dwell on the sad stuff, and I try to find some happiness in every day, even if it’s only one thing.”
“What was your happiness today?”
She looked me straight in the eyes. “This…hanging out with you.”
I cut her another piece of bread to deflect how that made me feel, which was all sorts of fucked-up inside. If she asked me that question, my answer would be the same.
I watched her chew on the bread. It was oddly sensual, giving her food piece by piece and watching her eat it. Or maybe that was my depraved mind wishing I could give her something more. Maybe in a different time, a different world, that would have been possible. But in this reality, Heather was too good for me, too innocent and pure.
Though I’d tried to convince myself I wasn’t supposed to view her sexually, my body didn’t agree. It thought Heather was fantastically beautiful. With her long, silky blond hair and laid-back attitude, she was sort of like Barbie’s down-to-Earth cousin. She had an understated beauty and a personality to match—a great sense of humor. Her body, while athletic, had subtle curves in all the right places. As she stretched her long legs out on the porch, I had the urge to rub my hand along the blond fuzz on her thighs. She kicked her shoes off, displaying dainty feet.
My attraction to her would have to stay my dirty little secret, because I wouldn’t be laying a hand on her.
She licked her lips. “So…Eric thinks something’s going on between us.”
“Oh yeah?”
“And I sort of…let him believe it.”
“Good. Serves him right.”
“I was hoping you’d be okay with that.”
“Fuck yes, I am. If I’d known what he’d done to you when I met him that night at your house, I would have played it up, made him feel like the little shit he is.”
“I appreciate that you would do that for me.”
My feelings for Heather were complicated, but more than anything, I felt protective of her. I would do anything to make the prick who’d cheated on her jealous.
We stayed on the porch talking for a couple more hours.
After she left, I lay in my bed, staring out at the moon as my mind raced.
It felt like I had a mission, and I was running out of time. I needed to help her get out of this place. I could only do so much while I was in New Hampshire, but I needed a plan. I would fix as much around here as possible so she could put the property on the market. Maybe she could get her mother into some kind of retirement community where people could help look after her. Getting Alice into a different situation was gonna be the toughest part. But if that could happen somehow, then Heather could go to college and follow her dreams.
CHAPTER SEVEN
* * *
HEATHER
About a year ago, I’d decided I really needed to talk to a professional. Remote therapy seemed like a good option since there weren’t a ton of qualified therapists near me who took my insurance. I’d found a woman based out of New York who did.
In the beginning, we’d talked a lot about how Opal’s suicide and my mother’s depression were impacting me, but as of late, we were focused on my general well-being.
Dr. Vaughan popped up on the screen. “Hi, Heather. Can you hear and see me okay?”
“Yes. Crystal clear.”
“Good. How have you been?”
“Pretty good, actually.”