Page 77 of Seven Days in June

Shane froze momentarily, taken aback by the intimacy. Even after yesterday, he didn’t want to jump to any conclusions about where they stood.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, not touching her. “Can I hug you?”

“Please,” she breathed into his shirt.

Bending down slightly, he slid his arms around her waist and scooped her up, pulling her against him. On tippy-toes, she clung to his shirt and buried her face in his neck.

“Tighter,” she moaned, and he squeezed her. He wanted to live there. Pressing his fingers into her hair, he gently massaged her scalp.

“You’re here,” whispered Eva, feeling dizzy, “’cause I want you here.”

Shane made a small noise in the back of his throat that would embarrass him later. “Are we gonna talk about what we did?”

“There’s no time—my daughter thinks I’m a hooker. I have to fix this.”

“I’ll help.” He ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek tenderly, needing to feel her skin. She let out the faintest sigh. “Audre has a healthy imagination, which isn’t a stretch, considering who her mom is. I’m great with kids.”

“But she’smykid.” Eva lifted up her face to look at him. “And this isn’t how I wanted you to meet her. I mean…not that I even thought about you meeting her.”

“No, I get it,” he said, pressing his face into her curls. Coconut and vanilla. So heady.

“We’ll just tell her we’re reunited old friends. Which isn’t a lie,” she whispered, sliding her arms around his neck, pulling him even tighter. He groaned at this and, without breaking their embrace, walked her backward, till she was up against the wall.

“Just friends,” he repeated.

“Yeah,” she breathed.

Leaning in close, Shane pressed his lips to hers and softly sucked her tongue into his mouth, drawing her into a slow, deep kiss. Lightly, he nipped her bottom lip with his teeth—and the jolt was so intense, her legs buckled.

“Okay,” he whispered against her mouth before abruptly letting her go and stepping away. She blinked, a bit unsteady on her feet.

Pleased, he stuck his finger into her cheek dimple. “Boop! Let’s go, friend.”

Shortly thereafter, Eva, Shane, and Audre were sitting at the Mercy-Moore kitchen table. There was fresh light coming through the garden-facing window, and daisies sprouted from a ceramic vase Eva and Audre had picked up on their summer vacation to Barcelona two years ago. The table was a vintage number Eva had found in a Williamsburg shop that was going out of business. This was about five minutes before Williamsburg became a thing. It was a delicate, thin slab of raw redwood sitting upon iron legs. Over the years, it had acquired weird grooves and nicks, nail-polish smears, paint smudges, ancient Sharpie scribbles. It was a living Eva-Audre timeline. No man had ever sat there.

And judging by the way this is going, this’ll be the last time.

Shane had thought that reasoning with Audre would be a breeze. After all, he successfully managed an average of twenty-five kids most days of the week. But this one was different.

“I want to start by reminding you that I’m your mother,” said Eva. “I don’t have to defend anything I do. But because I don’t want you to ever breathe a word of this insane story to anyone at Cheshire Prep, we’re gonna clear this up. Right, Shane?”

Shane swallowed. He’d never been so intimidated. “Right. Right.”

“Mr. Hall here is an old friend from high school,” continued Eva. “He’s in town for the week, and we met for an iced coffee. I didn’t use my feminine wiles to get him to teach at your school next year. I don’t even know if Ihavefeminine wiles. Maybe I did once and misplaced them. In any event, there were no wiles.”

“I see.” Audre adjusted her wizard hat and gestured at Shane. In her most official debate-team-captain voice, she said, “You may speak, sir.”

In his most official prep-school-English-lit-teacher voice, Shane said, “I know this is our first time meeting. And you have no reason to trust me. But all I did with your mom was platonically chill. Really.”

“Really? Really,Shane Hall?” Audre spat his name like she’d recently found unsavory trivia about him on Google. Which she had.

“I can assure you, I’m too gentlemanly to…agree to…what you’re suggesting.”

“Do you or do you not have several DUIs?” Audre folded her arms across her chest.

“Audre Zora Toni Mercy-Moore! You apologize to Mr. Hall right now.”

“Shane,” said Shane.

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