Mel fiddled with the end of her braid. She couldn’t stop doing that, but having Summer in the Shaw kitchen filled her with a fidgety, itchy kind of dread.
They were going to tell Dad.
Summer pulled something out of the oven that smelled like heaven. For all the ways Mel didn’t want her to exist, no matter how harsh that wish was, Summer had breathed a weird kind of fresh air into Shaw.
If it wasn’t her youth and the way her jewelry jangled or the way she oohed and aahed over every horse, every chore, every inch of Shaw land and every scrap of attention Mel or Caleb threw her way, it was the fact that she could cook and clean in ways Caleb and Mel had never dreamed of.
They didn’t have her in the big house very often yet, wanting to keep her out of Dad’s sight. But tonight was the night. She’d been here four days. Mel couldn’t admit to feeling sisterly toward her—that seemed fraught with a kind of emotion that was still too raw from everything with Dan—but she did cautiously, carefully, almost like Summer.
If only feelings didn’t make her think of Dan and then have to deal with the sharp, stabbing pain of being without him. Shouldn’t that be going away by now? At least turning dull instead of the sharpness that lingered, seemed to deepen every day. Wasn’t heartbreak supposed to get better with time?
“Are you sure you didn’t want to invite your boyfriend? I don’t mind. I know it’s uncomfortable family stuff, but if he’s part of your life, I’m okay with it.”
It was the third time Summer had asked, but the first time with Caleb in the room. Before, Mel had waved it away, not bothering to explain, but with Caleb there, she…well, she couldn’t. Not without a look. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Summer blinked up from the casserole she was cooking. “Oh, but…” She glanced at Caleb then smiled in the brilliant, ridiculously happy way she had that made no sense to Mel. “No worries!”
Mel didn’t know what Caleb had done behind her to get Summer not to argue, but she appreciated it. She hadn’t told Caleb exactly what happened, and he hadn’t asked, but her being here every day was a pretty clear indication.
What was there to talk about?
“Should I go get Dad?” Caleb asked with more gentleness than Mel had heard from him in a long time.
Summer clasped her hands together and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. She had no poker face, no guile, this girl Mel was somehow related to. It hurt to look at her sometimes, all that emotion just there, needing to be dealt with.
Reminding her of all the emotion inside of her she flat-out wasn’t dealing with. Because there wasn’t time for that.
That was your excuse last time. And the last.
Didn’t that make it the right excuse?
“If you guys think this is the right time,” Summer said. Even with her nerves written all over her face, she seemed…sure.
Maybe there was some Shaw in there after all.
“All right. I’ll bring him in the dining room,” Caleb said, disappearing into the hall. Whatever he felt about the whole situation was buried down deep beneath a veneer Mel couldn’t breach, and she wondered if they’d made any progress at all.
But they were here, moving forward on the Summer issue, so maybe it was something. Enough of something anyway.
Summer continued to clasp and unclasp her hands, blinking steadily and breathing in short puffs.
“It’ll be fine.” Which was such a lie. How did Mel know it was going to be fine? “Even if he reacts badly or doesn’t react at all, Caleb and I…are…here.” Which was a lame promise, but Summer’s whole face lit up like it was some kind of offer of riches. “You don’t have to be there when we tell him if you don’t want,” Mel continued.
“I want to be there,” Summer said. “I’ll never be able to believe if he knew or not if I don’t see it.”
Mel nodded, all the sick nerves falling over themselves in her stomach.
Summer spoke again. “Can I ask you a quick question though?”
“Sure.”
“That guy from the other day…was he your boyfriend and something happened, or was he really just your colleague or whatever?”
Mel turned away, hating both answers. They were both wrong and terrible and she hated this feeling. Hate, hate, hate.
“It was nothing,” Mel said, wanting this moment to be over. “Just a…thing.”
Summer’s warm, soft hand slid over hers, and Mel had to fight the urge to pull away. It was another part of the whole weird Summer package. She touched people. All the damn time. “I know we don’t know each other very well just yet…” Summer began.
Just yet. Like she had every belief they would.
“But if you want to talk about it,” she continued, “I’m a good listener.” She smiled brightly. “I know you probably have friends and stuff, but—”
“Thanks, I…appreciate the offer, but I’m fine.”