Page 91 of Songs of Summer

“I want you to know that I didn’t know you existed until recently, and only figured out who you were on your second visit to the bar.”

Maggie nodded, while Chase continued, “I hope your parents were good to you, and you had a happy childhood,” as if he had rehearsed it. He probably had.

“They were, they were the best, and I did, very happy,” she assured him.

“If you want to talk more, or if you ever need anything, my bike, or even a kidney, you know where to find me,” he added, choking back tears of his own.

Both Matt and Jason watched carefully, ready to intervene at any moment—though it didn’t seem to be going in a bad direction, and clearly Maggie could take care of herself.Maybe Dylan was right about Chase. Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy.

As if reading Matt’s mind, Chase reached into his pocket, placed something in Maggie’s hand, and shut her fingers tight around it. He held her closed fist in his while he continued.

“Bea was right to be upset by what happened back then. Now that I’m older, I realize that she meant something to me. More than I knew when I was an idiot kid.” He squeezed her hand again before releasing it.

“I kept this the whole time and I want you to have it. Just so you know it wasn’t all bad.”

Maggie opened her fist to reveal the surfboard necklace with Chase and Bea’s initials inscribed on it that her biomother had thrown at her bio-father on that infamous night a lifetime ago. Her lifetime ago.

Now Maggie’s eyes began to prickle with tears. Chase handed her a cocktail napkin too, along with a smile and a quick, “I gotta go,” before heading back to his station.

At this point, Dylan was the only one thinking straight. She took control.

“If that teary scene didn’t prove that we should wait to tell your sister until after the party, I don’t know what does,” Dylan said to Veronica, urgency in her voice.

Matt was glad she did. Their parents deserved this night.

Veronica nodded in agreement.

“You promise?” Maggie asked, already quite aware of her aunt’s self-serving tendencies.

“I promise,” Veronica repeated.

Maggie warmly laid her hand on her aunt’s arm and continued, “I was going to tell her tomorrow in a letter, but Iwon’t put you in the position of lying to her. I know you just got over all of that. I’ll tell her tonight, after the party.”

Matt did his best stay on top of the situation—even with how much he cared for Maggie, his mother’s big night was still top of mind.

He recapped for the group, “OK. We’ll explain everything later. Let’s go enjoy the rest of the wedding and keep the fireworks in the sky, where they belong.”

Track 46

Firework

The Party According to Beatrix

“How frizzy ismy hair?” Bea asked Paul, as she tried to tame the curls with her fingertips.

“You look beautiful.”

She hadn’t been looking for a compliment, but she took it graciously. It was so nice to be loved as a wife, to be stuck together through fat and frizz. She glanced again at the untended bar.

“So typical that this guy is MIA.”

“Here he comes,” Paul said, pointing to Chase approaching.

“Never thought I’d be happy to see you,” Bea quipped on his arrival, before immediately regretting it. She had promised herself on the short walk downstairs that she wouldn’t engage, that it was beneath her and would make it appear that she was still bothered by the past. But she had never had self-control in that way. With her, it was always: in her head, out her mouth.

He looked oddly hurt by her words, almost as if he was about to cry.

They ordered two glasses of white wine and headed back upstairs. It was time for the fireworks. As Bea turned the corner, she saw Veronica hit the bar. She paused, double-checking that her sober sister was ordering plain seltzer. What she witnessed next was possibly more concerning.

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