Page 41 of Five Summer Wishes

He nodded like he understood. And I believed he did.

“I went straight from being someone’s daughter to being someone’s girlfriend to being someone’s mother,” I said. “There was never any space to just… be a person.”

I didn’t usually say things like that out loud. Even to myself.

But with him, it didn’t feel like confession; it just felt like the truth.

“And now?” he asked.

“Now I’m still trying to figure out who that person is.”

I glanced over.

His expression was steady. Gentle.

Like he wasn’t afraid of the mess I was letting him see.

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

He nodded.

“Why haven’t you asked me out?”

He laughed, quiet and a little surprised. “I thought I already had.”

“You’ve brought me donuts. Fixed my swing. Sat with me in silence. But you’ve never actually said, ‘June, I’d like to take you out sometime.’”

“Maybe I figured you’d say no.”

“I might’ve,” I admitted. “But I’m not sure I would now.”

His eyes found mine, and there was nothing casual in the way he looked at me.

“I didn’t want to ask you for something when you’re still figuring out how to be asked.”

The words sat on my skin like warm sun.

And I couldn’t argue with them.

I didn’t want to.

After a while, he stood, dusted sand from his jeans, and stretched.

“I’ve got to check on something at the shop,” he said. “You good here?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll walk back when Lily wakes up.”

He nodded. Hesitated. Then he walked to where I was sitting and leaned down—not close enough to touch, but close enough that his presence wrapped around me like a quiet promise.

“When you’re ready,” he said, “I’ll still be here.”

And then he was gone.

I sat there long after the sound of his truck faded down the road. Lily slept peacefully beside me, tangled in a towel, one hand clinging to a spiral shell.

I thought about what it meant, that someone like Grant could show up and stay, and not ask for anything I couldn’t give. I thought about all the times I’d told myself I had to be strong, or perfect, or useful in order to be loved.

And I thought about how, for the first time in years, I didn’t want to be any of those things.

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