“That your head will deflate so you can fit through normal-sized doorways?” Rae said dryly. “Damn, you’re good.”
Stu’s eyes flared with laughter. “Shit, you’re still trouble for my heart, aren’t you?”
Rae didn’t feel like she could do much damage to anyone’s heart even if she wanted to, but she tried not to bring down the mood with those thoughts.
Stu cracked open two beers and handed one to her. It felt like breaking the rules, like her parents might come out and ground her. The thought was oddly comforting.
“So what’re you up to these days?” she asked Stu, swatting a mosquito from his arm. “Working at your dad’s dynasty?” Stu’s dad owned a chain of Indianapolis-area auto dealerships.
Stu nodded. “The plan is for me to take it over soon so he can live his best retired life and come out here more often. The job suits me, not that it’s fancy or anything like Wall Street.”
Rae grimaced. “I wouldn’t say investment banking is exactly my calling.”
“What is?”
Writingwent down the wrong pipe. Clearing her throat, she said, “Something else.”
“I’ve been told I’m something else. Though—full disclosure—not sure it’s always been meant as a compliment.”
A laugh spilled out of Rae, and then another, as if the sound had been uncorked like the bottle of wine they’d sneaked from Stu’s parents’ house that one Fourth of July.
“Cheers to something else, then,” Rae said, and they clinked beer cans. She closed the toast with a wink, mostly to make sure she could still close one eye without the other.
“Come on,” Stu said, standing up before things got too sentimental. “I’m taking you on a sunset cruise.”
Rae started walking toward the kayaks, but Stu scooped her up and hoisted her onto his shoulder. “On arealboat,” he clarified, lightly depositing her on a pontoon, a big upgrade from the small motorboat they had whizzed around on as kids.
Ellen and Aaron joined them, cozying up at the front of the boat. Rae sat adjacent to Stu as he revved the engine and backed up from the dock. Country music played over the radio, heavy on banjos and static. They were her old favorite songs that she hadn’t heard in ages—the tunes she’d told herself she didn’t like anymore but now had to admit she still loved.
“What a dream,” Ellen said. “But any chance we could change the station?” Rae could feel her cringing at the twangy melodies that stuck in your head whether you wanted them to or not and all the sexist story lines layered into the lyrics.
Stu grinned. “Sorry, no can do. You’re in Indiana now, you’ve gotta get the full experience.”
“Fair enough,” Ellen conceded, sitting back and pressing her head into Aaron’s chest to mute the sound.
Rae was glad he didn’t change the music. Something about it felt like an old lullaby sewing up her unstrung heart. Leaning over the side of the boat, she felt the water spritz her face like it was ready to play, like it had been waiting for her the whole time she was away.
And as they zigzagged across the calm lake, watching the golden sun slip over the horizon, free of jagged skyscrapers or light pollution, Rae felt her love life begin to bounce back.
“Aren’t sand angels more fun than snow angels?” Ellen asked a couple weekends later as they flapped their silhouettes into the strip of beach bordering the lake behind Our Little Yellow House.
“I don’t know,” Rae said, looking up at the bright-blue sky as her vitamin-D-deficient skin sponged up the sun. “You can’t snack on sand the same way you can snow.”
“That’s true,” Ellen said, then switched to the topic she’d clearly been bursting to address. “So, I adore Stu. He’s so outgoing and easy to talk to.” Rae heard the unspoken comparison to Dustin. “And he brings out your fun side.”
“Are you implying I have an unfun side?”
“You canoccasionallyhave a little too much artistic angst for your own good.”
“Watch it,” Rae said, flicking sand Ellen’s way. “Or I’ll draw devil horns on your sand angel.”
“I’m just saying it’s nice to see you glowing again.”
“I think that’s just my sunburn.” Despite her best SPF 70 efforts, she was more pink than tan. Ellen, meanwhile, was a shimmery bronze.
“How areyoufeeling about Stu?” Ellen asked.
With the guys always hanging around, there hadn’t been much alone time to discuss confidential matters like the rekindled romance between Rae and Stu. Their connection was as easy in adulthood as it had been in adolescence.
