“He is very much somebody,” I said, ducking to avoid the towel Nina threw at me.
“You’re driving now, right?” Nina said to Mia. “You’ll have to take my convertible for a spin. Top down, wind in your hair, there’s nothing better.”
“Oh,” Mia said. “I don’t really... driving isn’t really my thing.” She turned to Kitty. “Come play shuffleboard with me.”
“Okay, yeah,” Kitty said, leaping to her feet and following her sister up the beach.
“That was weird,” Nina said once the girls were out of earshot.
“Yeah, it was.” I kept my gaze on the girls until they disappeared through the gate. Last summer, when Mia had her permit, she’d practically been my chauffeur.
Nina sighed into her chair. “How’d the first night go?”
I told her about everything that had happened since the girls arrived, including my call with Beth, Mia and Kitty’s insistence they help with the list after discovering my blog, and Kitty’s meltdown.
“Well that’s not emotionally complicated at all. You’ll have to think outside the box to finish the list, huh?”
“Looks like it.” I buried my toes deeper in the sand. I didn’t see how any sort of thinking could magic us into visiting five countries and sleeping in a castle. “Any intel on the new chef?”
“Zero. For the next twenty-four hours, work does not exist to me.” Nina stretched out her legs, then bolted upright seconds later. “I almost forgot! I have a surprise for you.”
I tensed. Nina’s surprises weren’t always the good kind.
She pulled out her phone. “Before my... incident... at the bar the other night, I managed to get Hot Guy’s number.”
“What?”
“Hot Guy from the Bar! While you two were talking, I snuck hisphone from the bar and texted myself—not hard, seeing as his passcode was 1-2-3-4.” She shook her head. “Then I deleted the text from his phone and put it back during your kiss—which was quite lengthy, by the way.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Nina, that’s... outrageous. And maybe illegal.”
Nina shrugged. She looked down at her phone, and a second later mine buzzed. “And nowyouhave his number. You two are meant for each other. He has a shitty passcode. You have no passcode at all. You have a shared distaste for phone security.” She turned to me, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head. “I wish you’d put even a shitty passcode on your phone. I worry about your identity getting stolen.”
“I have nothing to hide. You know I don’t like to waste precious time typing in a passcode. If a stranger really wants to hack my phone, they will.”
“Who says it’s a stranger trying to hack your phone? It could be someone you know. It could be me.”
“You’re welcome to hack my phone whenever you want.”
“Josephine, I’m being serious.”
I ignored her, opening the text and staring at the number. “What am I supposed to say?Chick who kissed you at Mitch’s here. I know you didn’t give me your number, but my best friend stole it from your phone. How does dinner at eight sound?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“I’m not calling him.” I slipped my phone into my beach bag. “I told you, I don’t need anyone new in my life. All my relationship spots are filled.”
“You’re no fun, Jo.”
I sighed back into my chair. “Why do people keep saying that?”
A few minutes later, Mia and Kitty returned, bringing with them a teenage girl I didn’t recognize. Despite being a few inches taller than Kitty, she seemed to be about the same age. Her chin-length blond hair and bright blue eyes made her a stark contrast to Mia and Kitty. When the three of them reached us, the girl plopped down on a towel beside Kitty as if she’d known us all her life.
“Look, Aunt Jo, we found a friend,” Kitty said.
“I see that.”
The girl grinned at me. “I’m Greyson.” She stuck her hand out for me to shake, then turned to Nina after I told her my name. “Wow. I love your bathing suit. I saw one like that on Instagram but couldn’t get it because I once bought an industrial-sized box of glitter slime, and now my dad says I’m not allowed to buy things from Instagram anymore, not that they had my size anyway, but oh well.” She shrugged.
