Page 72 of Summer After Summer

“And at the train station?”

“You were so … far away from me … I chickened out.”

I let go of the breath I was holding. I can’t remember the last time I felt this happy, and if there was another time, I don’t want to remember it. Because it’s probably related to Fred too, and that makes me sad. All the time we missed, all the things we didn’t get to do.

“Olivia?”

“I wasn’t even supposed to be here this summer.”

He smiles. “Aren’t I lucky, then?”

“No,” I say. “I’m the lucky one.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

July 2023

“You need to get over here,” I say to Ash two hours after my chat with Tracy in the kitchen. I’m standing at the window of one of the guest rooms on the second floor, which I’ve been cleaning out and cataloging with the app that Lucy sent me the link to. It’s always been my favorite, with pretty flowered wallpaper and windows looking out over the lawn.

The cataloging is a simple if laborious process. I have to take a photograph of every piece that will be part of the auction, then put as much as I know about its age and provenance. It’s taken me the last hour to do this one simple room. At this rate, I’ll have to be here all summer to get the other twenty-five done.

“Please don’t talk so loud,” Ash says, her voice a rasp.

“Sorry.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s almost time for cocktails.”

“Ugh, I do not need another drink, like, ever.”

“You need to come here anyway.”

“Why?”

I pull the lace curtain aside. My father is standing out on the veranda, with his drink in hand, talking to a couple.

“Fred’s here.”

“Ah.”

“And Lucy.”

“Oh.”

I let the curtain drop. “You knew about this?”

“I’d heard they were dating.”

“Bad enough that Fred is buying my house and is around all the time, but now I have to watch him with another woman? One I actually like?”

“So don’t go.”

“That’s not an option.”

“Why not?”

I peek out the window again. Fred’s wearing a dark blazer and no tie, the collar on his white dress shirt open. He’s got his hand on the small of Lucy’s back, like he’s holding her in place. “I already skipped cocktails once because he was here, and I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.”

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