“A new bull, my eye,” Mom said and everybody laughed.
Anna lifted the pup up, checking out his face, his ears, his feet—her cheeks bursting with a smile.
“OMG, he is the cutest thing ever.” Brooklyn sat next to her, stroking a single finger down his back.
Then and only then, I glanced up at Clem. “If you don’t want to keep him at the house, Mom and Dad already saidhe can stay with them and they’ll bring him over every night.”
Clem looked at me like I was nuts and also the most wonderful person in the world. “Um, no way. He’s staying here.” She knelt beside me, one hand on my thigh, the other rubbing the puppy’s head.
He opened one eye and then the other. “OMG, OMG, I love him already.” Anna glanced over at me. “It’s a boy, right?”
I nodded.
“You can tell right here.” Brooklyn pointed to his boy parts, and we all laughed. Leave it to Brooklyn to keep it real.
“What’re you going to name him?” Clem asked.
“Oh, I already know this. Huckleberry. Huck for short.” She nodded decisively.
“Huckleberry,” I repeated. “I like it.”
After Brooklyn’s parents picked her up and everyone went home, Anna and Clem sat at the kitchen table, Huckleberry in Anna’s lap, playing the new board game Holden had sent her for her birthday. Clem was still wearing her sundress, and my eyes kept roving over her. The way it hugged her waist and dipped down in the back to show off her shoulder blades. For the hundredth time that night, she glanced at me, a slight blush on her cheeks. Something felt different between us, more intense.
I shoved a hand in my hair, frustration spilling over me. Staying in the house, with her constant glances, with the way I felt, was a terrible idea. I went out onto the back porch and sat down on the top step, overlooking the yard, the fireflies dancing in the dark, the bullfrogs croaking in the river bottom, the smell of sweet honeysuckle tinging the air. My time in Seddledowne was almost up. And for the first time in ten years, I didn’t want to run back to Wyoming. I wanted to stay right here. With these two girls I loved so much.
Getting on the plane in a week and a half was going to bethe hardest thing I’d ever had to do. Like a dead man walking to his execution. How could I leave them? How could I go back to Christy? Christy, who I’d barely thought of in weeks. This reset felt more like a breakup. But my life was no longer stagnant. For the first time, I was really living.
I was no longer an imposter in my own body. I’d laughed and teased, protected, and opened up. I’d given it my all. The possibility that Clem was falling for me had even entered my mind. I couldn’t go back to Christy anymore. My heart wasn’t in it and it never had been. Not really. I knew that now.
But I couldn’t stay here for a possibility. I couldn’t leave Mrs. Serafin hanging after I’d given her my word.
Could I?
The sliding door rolled open. Clem walked out and sat down next to me, her shampoo tickling my nose.
She closed her eyes, listening to the bullfrogs. “That is my favorite sound in the whole world.”
I studied her, taking in every feature, trying to burn the way she looked at that moment into my memory. Her perfect cheeks, her barely upturned nose, her pouty bottom lip and, man, that hair.
“Si?” she said, her eyes opening. “I wanted to talk to you about…Anna.” She turned, her knees touching my thigh.
I turned too, leaning in, gazing into her eyes, hoping to work some magic spell that would make her fall in love with me. Conjure some kind of feelings in her so that we could stay together and the three of us could be a family. But thoughts like that were hazardous to my health.
I blinked. “Yeah?”
“We’ve been skirting around it all summer, but I think it’s time. We need to figure out what we’re doing.” Her finger traced a tulip on her dress. “And…” She stopped, and chewed her bottom lip, her forehead furrowing. Then she stared into my eyes with such longing. Like she wanted something from me. Yearned for something. “Actually…there’s something else I think we should talk?—”
The door slid open, and we turned. Anna walked out in her pajama shorts and one of the T-shirts she liked to wear to bed. She squirmed between us, pushing us apart—but then hooked an arm around each of our elbows, pulling us back in.
The three of us sat there watching the fireflies before Anna broke the silence. “I made a wish tonight when I blew out my candles.”
Clem sat up straight, leaning away. “Anna.” Her voice was tight with a warning.
“Don’t worry, Aunt Lemon. I can’t tell my wish or it won’t come true.”
I raised an eyebrow, giving my niece the side-eye. Then I peeked over at Clem. But for the first time tonight, she wouldn’t meet my eye.
“Then why bring it up?” I asked.
