“Okay,” I grunt. “I like him.”
“Nothing wrong with showing him that.”
“Except we’re casual.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t like a person.”
I grind my teeth, frustration rising up again as my thoughts take me in the same circle they’ve been trapped in all week. “Yes, it does. He’s not looking for a relationship.”
“So what?” Sully swigs from the water bottle and swishes it around his mouth, then spits the water out. “Casual doesn’t mean you have to act like strangers. If you want to bring him a gift, bring him a damn gift, same as you would anyone else in town.”
I frown. “Easy as that?”
Sully clasps my shoulder and gives it a rub. “Buddy, you’re not making anything easy on yourself.”
I laugh. “Shit.”
“Shit,” he agrees.
We stand there another second, bugs flitting through the air, then turn back to work.
I feel a sort of way about Cubby that I haven’t felt about another person. Maybe it’s just how we’re able to be together. He’s fun and not ashamed to give himself what he wants. Something about how he is in the world gives me permission to explore myself too. It’s not that I lack confidence, but Cubby cuts his own path through life. It’s inspiring, and even more when I think about him standing up to his family.
I wonder how his video launch is going. My heart says to just text him and ask, but again, I let my doubts get in the way and don’t do it.
By noon, I’m rushing to get to the lake house for a family meeting. Aunt Terri has something she wants to talk to the rest of us about, and with the house almost ready to rent out for vacation weekends, I’m eager to get everyone on board and start pulling in extra money.
When I arrive, I find the family in the kitchen. Uncle Ray looks like he’s just getting started for the day, slumped over the table and drinking coffee. Aunt Terri and Mom are fresher. Mom is wearing a T-shirt from the bar and tidying up, while Aunt Terri sits at the counter and plays with her phone, her gray hair pulled back in a ponytail.
“Chase!” Aunt Terri says, throwing her phone aside. “You made it!”
“’Course I made it,” I say, then take her in a hug before greeting the rest of them.
Her enthusiasm throws me off, though. It’s not like she’s a grump, but my aunt and I are definitely cut from the same cloth, laidback by default. When Mom gives me a funny smile too and immediately tries to push fresh-baked blueberry muffins on me, I realize something’s up.
Fuck. Aunt Terri’s health again? Could her cancer have returned? But they both seem so happy.
I look over to Uncle Ray, who’s busy trying to fold his muffin wrapper into a bird, clearly oblivious to what’s going on around him.
That’s when I notice the printed papers stacked on the table. I pull up a seat and glance at the information. It’s all about the lake house—acreage, mortgage history, assessed value, and so on.
“Oh,” I say, pleased. “Everyone’s ready to start renting the house? I wanted to get the upstairs bathroom remodel done, but I can rush it.”
Aunt Terri and Mom join us at the table, exchanging a look that only the two of them know how to read. “Well, not exactly,” Mom says.
Uncle Ray slaps the table, finally looking up. “We’ll get more once the renovations are complete,” he points out. “And our boy here is a hell of a carpenter.”
“Thanks, Uncle Ray.”
He offers me a kind smile. “Sorry to catch you off guard like this. We just didn’t want to broach the subject until your aunt was certain.”
“Raymond,” Aunt Terri scolds. “We haven’t broached the subject yet.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he answers, then holds up the crumpled bird, poorly folded from the muffin wrapper. “I was distracted.”
I look at all three of them, and they’re all looking right back at me.
“What?”
