Page 45 of The Summer We Mended
“Sounds good.See you there at six?”
“Perfect.See you then.”
Anna hung up the phone and walked back into the house.“Good news, Cody is coming with.He’s meeting us at Offshore Ale Co.in an hour.”
Margot nodded with approval.“Solid choice.He can complain all he wants, but he loves the fried pickles there.”
Nora suddenly perked up.“Are we playing games like Candy Land?I’m really good at that one.”
“You cheated last time,” Blaze said, crossing his arms with mock seriousness.
“I didnot!”Nora gasped, scandalized.“That was mytwin.”
Both Margot and Lily burst out laughing, and Blaze sighed but couldn’t hide the little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“I am your twin,” Blaze said as he grabbed his head in disbelief.“I didn’t cheat.”
“Says you,” Nora answered with a shrug before she walked off.
Watching them, Anna felt a flicker of a memory and couldn’t help but smile.
She could still see herself sprawled on the floor of her aunt’s house at thirteen, arguing with Jess over whether the clue card said “colonel” or “kernel.”
James, shirtless and sunburnt from a day of clamming with their uncles, had tried to convince everyone that Monopoly should be outlawed because it destroyed families.Justin built a hotel empire every game night and gloated so much he almost got grounded.Cody would start every night pretending not to care and end it by storming into the kitchen because someone played a Wild Draw Four.
Now they were grown.James was in New Hampshire with his wife and two kids.Justin never married and worked as a lawyer in New York.Cody had tucked himself into a quiet house in Aquinnah and avoided crowds like they were contagious.
And Jess… Jess had flown out to California with nothing but a duffel bag and a dream—and came home with a six-year-old, a broken marriage, and her heart in pieces.
Anna wanted this to feel like something close to healing.Even if it wasn’t perfect.Maybe she needed to concentrate on this night, of getting her brother and cousin out of the house, of helping her Mom get back to a normal life, so that she didn’t focus on how much she missed her husband and worried about him.
ChapterSeventeen
Jess
Jess pulled into the parking lot of Ale Co.with a sigh, the dull thrum of nerves pressing against her ribcage.Her palms were clammy against the steering wheel as she shut off the ignition.She wasn’t even sure why she was anxious; it was just dinner with her cousin, a casual get-together.But there was a tight knot in her stomach that had nothing to do with the food she hadn’t eaten all day.
She slid out of her car, smoothed the front of her sundress, and forced her shoulders back.She could do this.Even if she still felt like she was walking around in someone else’s life some days, juggling being a divorced woman, a single mom, and the owner of a failed business that was still getting hit financially.She was holding herself together in the quiet moments, pretending she wasn’t lonely as heck.
The rustic charm of Ale Co., with its string lights and patio music, made her smile.It hadn’t changed much.She stepped inside, scanning the cozy wooden tables, the familiar bar with its chalkboard beer list, and the soft buzz of conversation and laughter.
Anna was perched at the edge of a booth.Jess waved the moment their eyes met, but it was the figure across from her that made her falter mid-step.
Cody.She hadn’t seen her cousin in over a decade, probably, but he still reminded her of that awkward teenage boy who had just graduated from Marine Corps bootcamp.
He looked up, as if sensing her pause, and stood with a half-smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Jess,” he said warmly.
Her heart twisted.He looked the same, and yet not.His dark hair was a little longer, his frame leaner, his eyes shadowed by something she recognized intimately: grief.It had been a year since his father passed.And not long after, his relationship with Nessa had quietly imploded.
Jess smiled, though it felt stiff.“Hey, Cody.Wasn’t expecting you.”
He gestured toward the booth.“Anna ambushed me.Said it was this or game night with the grownups.”
“You know we’re the grownups now, right?”Anna laughed.
“She’s not wrong.”
