Page 98 of Cul-de-sac

“That’s all?”

“He asked if we needed anything from Publix.”

“And?”

“I said we didn’t.”

“And?”

“And?”Maggie repeats.

“Did he say anything about me?”

Maggie sighs. One more battle she has no chance of winning. Might as well give up now. “He said to say hello.”

“Thank you.” Erin smiles. “Was that really so difficult?”

Maggie walks past her daughter into the kitchen. “He’s too old for you.”

“Says the woman dating a toddler.”

Maggie pours herself a mug of cold leftover coffee, then pops it in the microwave. “It was one dinner over a week ago. We’re most definitelynotdating.” While she’d certainly enjoyed her evening with the handsome accountant, the truth was that she still loved her husband, that she wasn’t ready to move on.

“Tell your husband I think he’s an idiot,”Richard Atwood had said after walking her to her car.

“Will do,”Maggie agreed, although she hasn’t. “So,” she says to Erin. “What are your plans for the day?” She removes the coffee from the microwave and takes a sip, feeling it burn the tip of her tongue.

Erin shrugs and rolls her eyes. “If you’re asking if I’m going job hunting, the answer is no. School starts again in, what, six weeks? Who’s going to hire me for six weeks? Besides, if you really wanted me to get a summer job, you should have gotten me a car. How am I supposed to get anywhere without a car?”

“Thereissuch a thing as public transportation.”

Another shrug, a bigger eye roll. “I’m going back to bed,” Erin says. “Have fun at work.”

—

“Wow,” she says, staring at the sixteen-hundred-foot wooden boardwalk that crosses the clear blue waters of Lake Worth Cove, located in the glorious John D. MacArthur Beach State Park. “This is fantastic. But where’s the ocean? I can hear it, but I can’t see it.”

“It’s on the other side of the dunes.” He points to the other side of the long wooden bridge.

“I didn’t even know this place existed. It’s so beautiful.”

“Wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Mark says.

Erin smiles. She takes a quick glance around, half-expecting to see her mother pop out from behind one of the tropical trees that blanket the giant nature preserve. She’d be so pissed if she knew where Erin was.And with who,Erin thinks, her smile widening.

“Withwhom,” she hears her mother correct.

Erin’s smile twists into a frown.

“Something wrong?” Mark asks.

“No. Why?”

“You made a face.” He laughs. “It’s the same kind of face your mother makes.”

“What?”

“I saw her this morning…. She was obviously upset about something….”

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