Page 75 of The Summer Club

“Trying to escape without me?”

Charley looked so handsome in his sports jacket and striped tie as he swept up alongside her. Cora pressed her hands against his chest and looked up at him.

“I never could shake you,” she said.

He winked at her. “You’re getting too old to outrun me.”

Cora slipped her hand in his and pulled him down the path with her.

Andi

Good Lord, it was a relief to have Molly back. All week Andi had worried and fretted. And missed her. But she’d done other things too. Things she would not have done had Molly been there. Things she was glad she’d realized she needed to do. This was all still new to her and it was going to take some getting used to. And balance. Balance was important, she was learning. Just as important as parenting.

As soon as she picked Molly up at the ferry, the questions spilled from her lips. “Did you have fun? What did you do? Where did you go?”

Despite how happy she was to see her mom, Molly was having none of it. “Mom. Please chill. It was fun and I’m home.” Then, “What’s for lunch?”

Andi did not ask the things she wanted to: did you miss me? And worse, how was she? All week, Camilla had loomed large in her thoughts when they turned to Molly.

“Of course she missed you,” Hugh reassured her when they got home and Molly had gone straight up to her room. “She just can’t show you. She’s a teenager.”

He was probably right. But she also wondered about Camilla. If she’d been kind to Molly, if she’d been fun to be around. And worse—what if she had been?

“That woman will never replace you,” Hugh had added. “You’re Molly’s only mother. Even if you do suck, she’s stuck with you.”

Andi kicked him. But he was right. Camilla had made it clear she was not going anywhere. Of course Andi wanted Molly to feel comfortable around this new person in her life. And of course she wanted Molly to have fun. Just not too much.

But now that Molly was home there was another matter of new people. The matter of Nate.

The past week had been the stuff of a summer rom-com. It was a total cliché and it was wonderful. For the first time in years, Andi had let her guard down. And the results spoke for themselves.

“Did you go to a spa?” Molly asked. They were getting ready together, standing in front of the mirror in Andi’s bedroom. Molly swiped some of Andi’s lip gloss.

“Go easy on that,” Andi warned. “And no, why?”

“I dunno.” Molly regarded her curiously. “You look pretty. And kind of… happy.”

It almost broke her heart as much as it buoyed her. “Do I look unhappy to you, most of the time?”

She could tell Molly didn’t want to answer. “Not really. Maybe a little.”

Maybe a little. Which in teen speak meant “yes.”

Andi sat down on her bed. “C’mere,” she said, patting the blankets.

Molly groaned. “Not another talk. Please.”

“Oh, please yourself. We haven’t had one in ages.”

The whole week, as Andi let herself take a little vacation from worrying, there had been one new worry she could not escape: what to do about Nate.

“What do we tell her?” Andi had asked him the day before Molly returned. She couldn’t wait to throw her arms around her daughter, but she also knew it spelled the end of their alone time together, whatever that had meant.

“Why do we have to tell her anything?” Nate had replied.

It had led to their first fight.

“You don’t get it,” Andi had argued. “Kids smell things. They see things. She will know as soon as she sees us together.”