Page 76 of The Summer Club

“I do get it. But it doesn’t mean you have to share your personal life with your child. Don’t you think you’re entitled to some privacy?”

“So I should lie to her?”

“What?” Nate sputtered. “Who said anything about lying?”

“First of all, you need to realize that is exactly what her dad did to her when he jumped into dating Camilla. Molly had a feeling and, when she asked him, he lied. It hurt her. Don’t ask me to do that.”

“I didn’t!”

“And another thing, my personal life is personal. I don’t plan to share the details with her, unless they have an impact on her. Only then would I tell Molly about someone.”

“Andi, slow down. I respect that. I agree with everything you’re saying.”

But Andi was already too worked up. The mama bear in her had been poked and there was no going back.

“You don’t have kids, Nate.”

“I know that.”

“This is exactly what worried me. I need someone who understands the responsibilities I have as a parent.”

Nate threw up his hands. “I’m trying to understand. If you’d let me get a word in edgewise.”

Andi had turned on her heels and stormed through the screen door into the house. And just as quickly she came back out. “You need to know this: my kid will always come first. No matter who I date.”

“Wait.” Nate had looked more delighted than he should have for being in the midst of a fight. “So we’re dating?”

She could feel herself grow flustered. This was not what she wanted to focus on. “No, what I meant was—”

“Yes.” He crossed his arms. “You said we were dating.”

Andi bit her lip. God, he could be so infuriating. And also so charming. “We are not dating.”

Nate’s face fell. “No?”

“Well, unless you want to. I hadn’t really thought about it.” A big, fat lie. “But I guess we should think about it, now that I’ll be going back to Connecticut and you’ll be going back to New York.” It was what they’d tiptoed around all week. And what had kept her awake some nights. She liked Nate. A whole lot. But Nate was a bachelor. She a single mother. Connecticut and New York City were not exactly close by, though she supposed it was better than him being in LA. Still. “We live almost an hour and a half apart.”

Nate looked at her a long time, letting things simmer, and Andi could feel herself growing impatient. “That’s just geography.”

“Geography isn’t a small thing.”

Her whole life Andi had known what she wanted. To go to a good college. Fall in love. Be a teacher. Live in New England. Raise a family. All things that seemed so simple, yet proved to be so hard.

She’d fallen in love, married, and lost it. She’d started a family and now it was split. And here was Nate, looking at her in earnest. Asking a simple question: were they dating?

Andi stared at her feet. Was it possible to let her guard down, go back to her life in Connecticut, and give this a chance? She considered her pedicure, already faded from the sun. That’s what happened: things faded.

Andi swallowed. “Do you want to keep seeing each other, after this summer?”

When she got up the nerve to look back at Nate, his eyes were still on hers. “Yes, I do. But I also know you’ve got a full life at home with Molly. And long distance isn’t easy.”

Her heart beat a little faster. So, Nate had given this some thought. “I like this. I like you,” she told him, feeling her cheeks flush. “A lot.”

Nate grabbed her hands. Unlike hers, his palms were not sweaty. Unlike her voice, his was steady. “Andi, you and I have a history.” He nodded toward the house. “We grew up together, each summer here on the Cape. Those summers shaped me. Didn’t they shape you?”

“Of course they did,” she said. “I loved every one of them.”

“And here we are. This summer.” He paused. “You. Me. Back on the Cape again. With years between us, yes. But also years behind us.”