Page 19 of Paging Dr. Summers

I was trying not to think about our paddleboard lesson a few days earlier. There ended up being more touching than I’d expected and, well ... come to think of it ... maybe he wasn’t helpful after all. Eversince then, I’d hadthoughts. Thoughts I was not thinking about, especially while I was on a date.

I gave Jake a toothy grin, trying to forget Logan. “Um, everything.” This was one of my bucket list items, and I felt like I needed to do it all for Mom, even though I was sure things had changed since she’d been here over thirty years ago. She’d stopped going on the road and playing gigs once she found out she was pregnant.

One time, I’d asked her if she ever regretted getting pregnant and giving up her dream. She hugged me fiercely and whispered in my ear thatIwas the dream. A dream she would have considered earlier if she’d known how wonderful it would be. I thought about that all the time. It made me want my own little dreams. Maybe someday I’d find someone to help me make those dreams come true.

“That narrows it down.” Jake chuckled.

I liked his laugh—it was manly but lyrical, if that made sense. I also liked his curly dark hair and soulful brown eyes. And it hadn’t hurt that he’d brought me a bouquet of sunflowers when he picked me up.

“Sorry, I’m just excited to be here. Should we do some of the games? Like the strawberry toss?”

“Let’s do it,” he said with bravado while clapping his hands together, reminding me of a motivational coach.

As we strolled through rows of colorful booths in the bright sun, I breathed in the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked bread and ripe strawberries. It was enough to make my mouth water.

“Favorite classic rock band?” I asked.

We’d already done all the normal get-to-know-you questions on the way over. I knew he’d grown up in Aspen Lake and knew Eden and Logan. He’d divorced three years ago and had no kids. He was apparently on good terms with his ex-wife and had even attended her nuptials the month before.

When I asked why they divorced, he’d just shrugged and said,“Sometimes things just don’t work out.”Even though it was a vague response, I hadn’t pressed. I wasn’t feeling any major sparks with Jake yet, so who knew if we would even see each other again or if he was fling worthy?

The wordflingsounded so crass. I don’t know why it botheredme. Maybe it was the hopeless romantic in me who looked at every new love interest as having the potential to become a forever thing. But I knew that wasn’t the assignment Mom had given me this summer. She was urging me toward an easy, fun, temporary relationship—something I could look back on and smile about.

It wasn’t about finding a lifetime of love and laughter. I was, admittedly, hoping to find that in the near future, but I would give Mom the benefit of the doubt for now. She’d never steered me wrong before.

Jake flashed me a crooked smile like he’d been waiting for me to ask and was ready to dazzle me with his answer. “Boston.”

Huh. That was a more than acceptable answer. It didn’t exactly dazzle me, but ... “I like that. Very much. Did you know that their first album was the best-selling debut album ever when it came out?”

“I didn’t know that. But I know that their guitarist Scholz graduated from MIT.”

“He did, and he invented the—”

“Rockman compact amplifier,” Jake finished for me.

Okay, that earned Jake a little tummy flutter. “How do you know all this?”

“My parents are originally from Boston and were superfans of the band.”

“Sounds like my kind of people.”

“They live in town still. Maybe someday you can meet them,” he said boldly. Too boldly for my taste.

“Maybe,” I said noncommittally, not wanting to be rude. Perhaps he didn’t look at meeting parents the way I did. To me, that was a big step in a relationship. It was also a thought that stopped me in my tracks, causing my head and heart to hurt so much that I felt a little dizzy. Suddenly, I was reminded that I would never get to introduce another man to my mom.

Who was going to encourage me to dump him if I didn’t like the way his last name sounded with my first name? Or tell me that I needed to hear him chew all the different food groups before I committed to anything? And Mom swore by the following advice: Always figure out if they’re the type of guy who will offer you the last french fry. Mombelieved it told you all you needed to know about a man. So far, she’d been right. My best relationships were with the guys who gave me the last fry.

In my head I thought,Brooke Waddle. It was Jake’s last name. Brooke Waddle sounded so terrible that I actually shuddered.

“You okay. Are you chilly?” Jake asked. “I have a hoodie in my truck if you want to borrow it.”

That was sweet. Well, unless he was one of those smooth operators who let you borrow his hoodie so he could say, “How about you just keep that until I see you again?” If that was the case, there definitely wouldn’t be a second date. His last name was already causing me some angst, even though I was only in search of a fling. Yikes, that still didn’t sound right. Regardless, there was no way I was covering up my T-shirt.

I had to bring a little of Mom with me, so I wore one of her old band tees. The heart with an arrow through it and “The Roxannes” written in bold letters across it were fading, and the cotton fabric was thinning, but it was my favorite shirt. It was proof that Roxanne Crawford had lived and breathed and made the world a better place.

At least my world.

“Thank you. I’m okay.” No need to tell him that his last name was a little tragic.

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