“Ha ha. No.” She slid her hands in the pockets of hershorts. “What I do want to say is that Anne is the exception, not the rule. Book or no book, she shouldn’t go around giving false hope.”
“So you’re saying your suitor has not always returned to commit,” I said, clarifying.
“I’m saying that dumping a person sucks. You don’t do it unless you’re sure.”
“You’ve broken up with a lot of people?” I asked.
“I’ve been on both sides,” she replied with a shrug. “I much prefer yours. First off, he’s automatically the asshole. Whereas you get sympathy.”
Of course I thought of grapes.
“Also,” she continued, “you control the better narrative.”
“I do?”
“Absolutely!” she said. “Think about it. Who would you rather be: the one who caused the sob story or the one who survived it?”
“We’re going to the same school in the fall,” I told her. “Is there an upside to that?”
She thought about this for a moment. Then she snapped her fingers. “You’ll perfect your avoidance skills. Which will come in handy long after you’ve forgotten him.”
“I had a chance to go somewhere else, too.” I sucked in a breath. “I’m sostupid.”
“Well, don’t dwell onthat.” But she did not, I noticed, dispute it. “Learn from it. From now on, promise yourself that what you do is up toyou. No one else.”
“Finley?”
I turned: It was my mom, at the end of the dock. “Hey,” I called out.
“Did you eat?”
“Not yet.”
“Jonathan brought burgers,” Lana said. “I’ll go see what’s happening with them.”
She headed toward the house. When my mom got to me, she looked at the water for a moment before speaking.
“So I just talked to your dad. You told him about my diagnosis.”
I sucked in a breath. Shit. “Mom, I’m sorry. He—”
“—is aterribleliar,” she finished for me. “It was clear he knew, the moment he spoke.”
I believed it. My dad was a lot of things, but duplicitous was not one of them. Colin, a poker whiz, had long refused to play with him, saying it was just too easy.
I knew I should probably apologize again. I had broken a promise. Instead, I said, “I was scared.”
Her face changed. Like this blurt of honesty had surprised her, too. “See, this is why I wanted to keep it quiet. I didn’t want you to be worried.”
“Of course I’m worried. You’re mymom.” I couldn’t believe I had to say this, explain it to her. “But it would be worse to be in the dark. If something’s happening with you, I want to know about it.”
“Okay.” I watched her swallow, pointedly. Then she cleared her throat. “In that case, I have to go back to Timlee tomorrow for tests. I told your dad I’d drop you off on the way.”
“Tests?” I turned to face her.
“And other preop things. My surgeon had an opening. July ninth.”
We’d graduated on June 7. “That’s soon.”
