Page 6 of Songs of Summer

“You live back over the record store with your husband, Justin Bieber.”

They both laughed.

“…and your twins. A boy and a girl. Joplin and Jagger.”

“Hmm. Those names are in now,” she bragged.

“A trendsetter married to a pop star!”

“You run the store while your parents help care for the twins and we all still spend birthdays with Jason and his family.”

She looked up and smiled at him.

“Finally—I thought you forgot about me.”

“Never!”

Maggie’s face dropped as she looked at the next line.

“What?” Jason asked. “What? Tell me, you have me married to one of those Spice Girls, Orange Spice, and now you’re uncontrollably jealous?”

“It’s Ginger Spice,” said Maggie. “When it comes to music, you may be the most clueless millennial on the planet…with a girlfriend who owns a record store, no less.”

“Oooh. You’re my girlfriend now? Is that an official confirmation?” He reached over and tickled her around her waist.

“Please, Jason, you know I’m your girlfriend.”

Maggie began folding her letter away, but Jason wasn’t having it.

“No way, Maggie. Read the rest.”

She opened it back up.

“…and we all still spend birthdays with Jason and his family, and my birth mother, who I found when I was twenty and who is pretty great.”

“Wow,” said Jason. “You never even talk about your birth mother; do you think about her?”

Maggie took a deep cleansing breath before admitting, “Lately, every day.”

“Lately, every day?” Jason questioned, scooting closer, putting his arm around her. “Maybe you should talk about it. Or do something about it.”

“Maybe.” She took a beat, wiggling out from under his arm. “Read yours!” she said, while folding her letter back up, signaling a hard stop to the conversation. So Jason did as he was told.

“Dear Jason—”

“Yours is better already,” she interrupted with a smile.

“Congrats on being the youngest baseball player signed to the majors.”

Maggie smirked. Jason didn’t even make varsity ball in high school. He smiled, too, and proudly noted, “At least I was confident!”

His letter went on to talk about being captain of the debate team, which he had been, and going to his dad’s alma mater, Ohio State, for undergrad, which he did. And one thing that gave Maggie pause.

“There are pins covering your map!”

One wall of Jason’s childhood bedroom was covered in a map of the world. He had a constant itch to travel and discover new places, a sharp contrast to Maggie, who had little interest in venturing beyond Chagrin Falls. Aside from his travels his junior year abroad, Jason had yet to pin many spots. Her thoughts on the matter were interrupted by Jason’s seventeen-year-old postscript.

“P.S. I will be married to my best friend in the world, Maggie May Wheeler, and we will raise our family over Maggie May Records so they will grow up to be as cool as their mom.”

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