She led him out into the darkness, down a rocky path lit with occasional dim footlights, and out onto a sort of beach. There was a floating wooden dock in front of them, and she showed him the gangplank and padded out ahead of him.
They stood there for a moment, staring at the stars. More stars than Cade had ever seen, he realized. Getting away from the city lights was almost as good as going to an observatory.
“I spend quite a bit of time down here during the parties,” Sarah said quietly. She sank down gracefully and pulled off her shoes, then sat with her feet dangling in the water. “They’re kind of overwhelming sometimes.”
Cade stared down at her. Had she just said that? Was she lying, trying to make him feel better?
She turned her head and squinted up at him, then laughed softly. “What? You’ve never met another introvert?”
“I don’t….” Don’t what? He had no idea. He waited a moment to see if clarity would come, then toed off his shoes and sank down on the dock beside her. “You feel the same way? Like there are way too many of them, and they all want to talk to you—”
“Talkatyou, half the time,” she said. “They don’t want a real conversation, don’t want to talk about anything important. They justwant to blab on about who they saw where and who she’s related to and whether he knows someone else who has the same hobby and… blaaargh!” She flailed her arms dramatically and then flopped back onto the dock, her feet still dangling into the water. “I used to climb up in the trees and stare down at everybody while they were socializing. I’d pretend I was Jane Goodall. I had a little notepad and everything.”
“Did you get in trouble?”
Sarah shook her head. “No. I wasn’t writing anythingbad. Simply observing. And Todd and Aiden rigged up this system—a rope over the tree branch, with a bucket on one end. They’d send food up to me, and I’d pretend I had to ration it.”
“How long would you stay up there for?”
“I don’t know. It felt like a long time, but probably just a couple hours? Long enough to get a bit of a damn break from them all!”
It sounded perfect. Then he had an unsettling thought. “You could tell I was feeling that way? I was that obvious?” Because if Sarah had seen it, Mrs. St. John probably had too. And while she might put up with a little eccentricity from her darling niece, she was likely less interested in it from her son’s unwelcome visitor.
Sarah snorted. “Not that obvious. But Aiden said you were shy, so whenIstarted feeling overwhelmed, I figured maybe you would be too. That’s all. And Iknowthem all, Cade. I’ve known them all my life and they still wear me out. So if it was a bit much for you, it’s no big surprise. You’re doing great, Cade.”
“Yeah, you are,” a new voice said, and the dock bobbed gently as Aiden stepped onto the gangplank and made his way out to them.
Cade tried to believe him, but it would have been a hell of a lot easier if Aiden hadn’t caught him mid-escape. How well could Cade be doing if he was afraid to even go up to the house?
“Another fun surprise from my mom,” Aiden said as he eased down beside Cade and rolled up the cuffs of his jeans. “I honestly didn’t know they’d all be here.” He slid his feet into the water and pressed his thigh tight against Cade’s. Then he frowned over at Sarah. “My spies let me down.”
“It happened too fast,” Sarah protested. “Not a word about it, and then this morning your mom sprang into action. It sounded like maybeyou’d asked her not to make a fuss? And she’d decided to go along with that, but then changed her mind.” Sarah glanced at Cade apologetically before adding, “There was some stuff about how her baby likes parties and people, and he shouldn’t be expected to give all that up just because someone else is—” She stopped herself and shrugged. “I can’t remember the word she used. Something about being uncomfortable with parties.”
Sarah’s lie was kind, but obvious. Cade wondered what the word had been. “Antisocial?” he guessed. “Socially deviant?”
“Stop,” Aiden said firmly. He wrapped an arm around Cade’s neck, only a few pounds of pressure away from putting him in a headlock. “Who cares? You know you’re not those things.Iknow you’re not. Sarah’s known you for five hours andsheknows you’re not. Whatever my mom’s issues are, they aren’t anything you need to worry about. Okay?”
Cade wanted to argue. If Aiden would stop insisting that Cade spend time with Mrs. St. John, then her issues wouldn’t be his problem. IfAidendidn’t care about his mother, then Cade wouldn’t have to. None of this was happening in a vacuum.
But none of it was Aiden’s fault, either. He couldn’t be expected to give up his relationship with his mother in order to spare Cade from a few cool looks. “The lake’s really nice,” Cade said, trying to find something positive to focus on. “Lots of stars.”
“Yeah,” Aiden agreed, only a little disoriented by the topic change. “We can sleep out here one night, if you want. It’s nice to lie back and look at them before you close your eyes.”
“Okay,” Cade agreed. It sounded kind of peaceful, and like something he and Aiden could do alone, without all the friends and family crowding all around them.
Then another voice called from the shore, this one much less welcome than Aiden’s had been. “Sarah? Aiden? Uncle Warren just got here, and he’s looking for you! Come on up to the house to say hello!”
Sarah groaned quietly, but Aiden squeezed Cade’s shoulders and said, “We’ll be right up, Mom!”
“I don’t wanna go,” Sarah whined quietly. “I wanna stay here.”
Cade couldn’t have agreed with her more, but Aiden was standing up now, and Cade knew he needed to join him. “Just a bit longer,” Aidensuggested. “Make sure we’ve said hello to everyone, be polite, and then we can sneak off to the fort and get caught up on everything. Okay?”
Sarah stood reluctantly. “Fine,” she grumbled. “But Cade and I might sneak out early.”
They started for the house, Aiden talking quietly as they went. “Uncle Warren’s not really an uncle,” he explained. He’d given Cade a rundown on pretty much everyone at the party, as if he thought Cade was suddenly going to become socially gifted and able to use the background information to make smooth conversation. “He lives pretty close to us in the city, but we hardly ever see him. I don’t think his wife gets along with my mom too well, and his kids are younger, so I wouldn’t be hanging out with them. He went to school with my dad and he comes up every year for a week or so, without his family, to stay in touch.”
A lot of the families in the compound were friends because they’d gone to school with each other. It was one more way to emphasize Cade’s isolation, because he knew he wouldn’t have anyone but Aiden who’d remember him fromhisuniversity days. Not well enough to want to summer together, at least.
