“Only if they feel threatened,” said Nico from where he was tying the canoe. “Try not to grab them.”
Good to know.Obviously she was never going into the water again.
“How was your talk with Penny?” asked Roger, voice low as he watched Alice head back to the house.
Valerie told him, and Roger winced. “A lot of that is Penny repeating Dad,” he said. “She doesn’t think like that.”
Valerie didn’t argue—he knew his sister best, although she had some doubts. She hoped he was right. “She said she never knew you were dating.”
Roger grinned, and it was strangely mischievous under his black ball cap. “It was fun to sneak around, to be honest. We wanted to avoid our parents knowing, since neither would approve, but it also felt like our secret.”
“Are you sure she didn’t know?” asked Valerie.
“Positive,” he said.
Jenn came out, swathed in UV-protective clothing, and theconversation turned general as Valerie dried off in the sun, thinking of Penny’s attitude toward Yvette. How much did Penny know?
Something to consider. When she wasn’t thinking of Nico coming out of the lake, of course. Or what they could do on that swing.
Or water snakes.
Twelve
Nico slammed closed the laptop and swung his chair away from the stunning vista of land and water. He’d been dealing with an irritating work issue that would have been simple enough to solve had people answered his goddamned calls, but a straightforward hour’s work turned into four frustrating ones.
A text about his parents’ anniversary came from Kimmy, the third that day.I’m working, he finally wrote.Stop texting me.
Naturally she called. He picked up, knowing that to ignore it meant she would blow up his phone out of spite and also be pissed at him.
“I hate that you and Steffy have put me in the middle of your fight,” she said immediately. “You two need to grow the hell up. You’re thirty-two, Nico.”
“Stefanie is thirty-six.”
“It’s not a competition.”
“No one’s asking you to mediate,” Nico pointed out.
“If I don’t, Mom and Dad have a shitty anniversary.”
“I can get them a separate present and you two can do what youwant.” That seemed like the most reasonable solution, and he was mature enough to not add,as usual.
“That’s not the point.” She sounded livid. “It’s not about the anniversary and you know that.”
“I don’t know what you want from me. All I did was point out that maybe we should consider something that would make both Mom and Dad happy, instead of Mom happy and Dad happy Mom is happy.”
“She didn’t mean to sound so dismissive.”
“Are we talking about the same Stefanie?”
“She’s under a lot of stress right now.”
“And I’m not?”
“Not like hers. It would be good if you cut her some slack.”
He paused. “What’s going on?”
“You should call and ask.”
