“Mind your own business!” Silas shouted as I closed the bedroom door behind me.
Anna hadn’t gone to her room. She was here, sitting on my bed, wide-eyed but beaming. She launched herself into my arms and whisper-squealed, “I’m so freaking happy right now. Wait until Brooklyn hears about this. We’re going to be a real family.”
I lowered myself to the edge of the bed and put my head between my knees, trying to get my breathing to slow down.
“Aunt Lemon.” Anna rubbed her hand over my back. “It’s gonna be okay. Granny will get over it. She always does.” Her voice cracked and I could tell I was scaring her.
So I sat up and nodded. “Yeah.”
She bounced on the bed, turning to face me. “Tell me everything.”
But I couldn’t. The rock in my gut was tugging, trying to exit through my back as the argument in the kitchen intensified.
“Okay. I get it. You’re shook.” She grabbed my arm, her chocolate eyes disco balls of excitement. “You don’t have to speak. Just nod or shake your head. Do you love Uncle Silas?”
A shaky laugh threatened to erupt, but I bit it back. Silas and I were…a couple. I was still reeling from it all. And, wow, the chemistry. If kissing were a hotel, I’d been living at a cockroach-infested, charge-by-the-hour, hookup motel for the last decade. And for the first time, someone had taken me to a penthouse suite at The Four Seasons.
And I was never. Ever. Going back.
But of course Silas was five stars. Why was I surprised?
“Aunt Lemon?” Anna asked again.
I touched my lips—remembering the heat of a few moments ago—and nodded.
“Yes!” she shouted. “I knew it! I knew it, I knew it!”
I put a finger to my lips. “Not right now.”
Jenny and Silas's quarrel was raging, a hailstorm of words rumbling through the drywall.
Anna and I strained to hear.
Silas: “Mom! I’m grown! She’s grown! We don’t need your approval. You don’t get a say and I’m sorry if you can’t handle that. But that’s your problem.”
“Oof.” Anna winced.
Jenny: “How long have the two of you been fooling around? Huh? Wait till Arlo hears about this. He’ll probably call off the whole thing.”
Anna shook her head, lips pursed in a line. “Oh, Granny. Pulling out the lawyer card.”
Silas: “You’d be that petty? If you call him, you can forget about beach week because we won’t be there.”
Anna did a dramatic reach for the door with one hand and laid the back of her other hand against her forehead. “Oh, beach week, how I will miss thee.” Oh my word. She was Sophie reincarnate.
“Shhh.” I snickered.
Whatever Jenny’s response was, it was too low to hear, but it must’ve been terrible because Silas exploded. “You’re acting like a jealous toddler. You’ve been doing it all summer and I’m embarrassed for you. You’re not allowed to talk about her like that ever.” I cringed. It had been about me. “Do you understand me? Get out! Now!”
Anna’s eyes bugged and all the Sophie-like commentary ceased. I held my breath, waiting for something to signal it was over.
Jenny roared—actually roared—like a deranged lunatic. I strained to hear what sounded like heavy stomping. Then a door slammed so hard a picture fell off the wall in the hallway.
Anna covered her mouth, shaking with laughter. “Ho-ly. Crap. Granny is pissed.”
I scowled, amazed she could laugh at a time like this. She really was Sophie’s kid. “Don’t use that word.”
She held up her hands, biting her lips closed. “Sorry. Irate, incensed, a raging inferno.”
