Page 39 of Our Secret Summer

Oh, Jesus.“I—I don’t really want to see anyone right now. I’ll just go to your house and I’ll meet you there later, okay?”

“Sure. I’ll tell her you said hi. Love you and, Raff, don’t let Mia get into your head.”

With Mia’s apology and Dylan’s memory warring in her head, Raffo packed up her things—ignoring that wretched bottle of champagne—and made her way to Connor’s house.

CHAPTER 28

“I just spoke to Raffo,” Connor said, barely through the door, his keys still dangling from his fingers. “She’s in a state. Mia turned up at her studio unannounced.”

Dylan’s heart nearly exploded out of her chest. “Is she okay?”

Connor shook his head dramatically. “No, I really don’t think so.” He kissed Dylan on the cheek and gave her a brief hug. “Apparently Mia broke up with her new girlfriend and, from what I gather, she’s already planting seeds to get back into Raffo’s good books.”

“What do you mean?” This was none of Dylan’s business—and yet.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Connor sighed. “All this lesbian drama. Us gays are supposed to be the dramatic ones, you know?” He sagged into his favorite chair by the kitchen window. “I asked if she wanted to have dinner with us, but she declined.”

Dylan grabbed onto the kitchen countertop.

“There’s something I just don’t get, Mom.” Connor toyed with his keys before putting them in his pocket. “You claim she helped you, and Raffo says you helped her with the whole Mia business while you were in Big Bear. You spent weeks together, just the two of you, up there by that lake, building campfires and singing ‘Kumbaya’ and whatnot, and then you come back, and what? You’re not friends? Did something happen? Did you have a fight near the end or something? Is that why you came back early?”

“No, darling, just—”I fell in love with her.“It was a bit much, I guess. Quite intense.” Dylan tried to sound casual but she had no idea if she was succeeding. “We both have so much to sort out now that we’re back.”

“So you didn’t fall out?” Connor looked her in the eye.

“No.” Dylan tried to hold his gaze, but it was impossible. She grabbed her iPad and thrust it into his hands. “My email won’t sync again. Can you work your magic, please?”

“Sure, Mom.” Connor just put the iPad in his lap. He rubbed his chin and sighed. “I worry about Raffo so much. I know she’ll be all right, but I would hate for Mia to get her claws back into her.”

Me too, Dylan thought.

“I was over the moon when Raffo told me she was painting again. Because it means she’s ready to transform the pain. Because that’s what she does. It’s what makes her work so special and what makes people respond to it in the way that they do. What attracts them to her paintings so irresistibly. On the canvas, she turns her pain into this incredibly colorful expression of joy that makes it impossible to look away. That’s her real talent. She’s so fucking special and I don’t want Mia to fuck her up all over again.”

Dylan couldn’t agree more. Connor was pretty fucking special too for saying that, and for seeing that in Raffo when he signed her to his gallery.

“Do you think I should talk to Mia or stay out of it?” Connor asked.

“Oh, darling, I don’t know.” Dylan could do so much better than that. “Raffo’s strong. Don’t underestimate her,” she tried again, and it was easy—a relief, even—to say these things about Raffo. “Of course, she’s going to be in shock when Mia shows up out of the blue like that, but she’ll regroup. She’ll find her genius again. It’s in her. I’ve seen it in action.”

“You watched her paint?” Connor’s eyebrows arched all the way up.

Dylan nodded while a lump grew in her throat. The evidence was on display in her bedroom, on the floor above right where Connor was sitting.

“Do you want a glass of wine?” Dylan asked, eager to change the subject.

“Nah. I’m driving. Just water, please.” Connor lit up Dylan’s iPad and went to work.

“Mom!” Dylan was in the pantry when she heard Connor cry out. “Mom?!”

“Where’s the fire?” Dylan joked as she exited the pantry.

Connor sat staring at her iPad with his mouth wide open.

“What’s wrong?” Dylan asked. Maybe she needed a new iPad—she’d probably asked Connor too many times to fix a silly issue for her.

“Why is there a picture of Raffo totally naked on your iPad?”

“What?” Dylan’s heart dropped all the way to the floor. “What are you talking about?”

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