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Jace took a step toward his car, then decided he had to set his family straight about Marlowe. This wasn’t going to be easy, but now that he was the problem child, perhaps this sort of behavior was expected from him. “Look, I need to come clean about something. When I first started dating Marlowe, I said things about her that weren’t true. And I’m sorry about that now. She never belonged to the communist party, read auras, or anything like that. She’s just an all-around American girl. A wonderful, incredible person. Oh, and she likes country music, not hard rock.”

Lucas and Riley exchanged a glance. Perhaps they had already suspected as much.

His mother’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack. “Why would you purposely mislead us about the sort of person Marlowe is?”

This explanation wasn’t getting any easier. “I was being an idiot. I figured if I dated the one woman you disliked more than Jennifer, you wouldn’t give me a bad time if I ended up back in that relationship again. But it turns out I don’t want Jennifer. I want Marlowe.” He lifted his hands and let them fall to his side again. “It was stupid and wrong.”

His mother sniffed and folded her arms. “I never disliked Marlowe more than Jennifer.”

Lucas nodded in agreement. “You underestimated our dislike of Jenniferous.”

“I’ve always thought Marlowe had many fine qualities,” his mother said, rewriting her opinion of her on the spot. “People make mistakes when they’re teenagers. And it’s like you said, she meant well when she spray-painted the Safeway.”

“She did,” Jace agreed. “She looks out for other people.”

“Right. She’s very nice and considerate. A much better choice than Jennifer. I’m glad you see that.” His mother’s arms remained folded. “I can’t believe you lied to us.”

“I’m sorry.” Jace edged toward the lawn. “And I’ll apologize more later, but right now, I need to see Marlowe. We’ve got things to talk about.”

His mother fluttered a hand at him. “Yes, go. I’m sure she’s not happy to know that your ex stopped by.” Another flutter. “Reassure her that you sent Jennifer packing.”

Lucas nodded in agreement. “And tell her we all welcome her wholeheartedly into our petty family.”

Jace headed to his car and left.

CHAPTER 25

Marlowe stared at her phone and felt numb. Jennifer had shown up. Jennifer, the one Jace had been in love with for so long.

And okay, Riley had also texted that Jennifer had called Marlowe white trash and stormed off to her car, so Jace clearly hadn’t taken her back, but he’d return to school in less than three weeks, and Jennifer would be there. Jennifer, who wanted to rekindle things.

Marlowe would be far away … and entirely underwhelming when he compared her to all of the women in med school. Even if he didn’t reconcile with his ex, there would be somebody else willing and available to take her place.

Jace texted, Hey, I want to have that define-the-relationship talk today instead of the night before I leave. I’m on my way over.

Well, that couldn’t be good news. She started having flashbacks to the Safeway. The bright lights, the music playing, the sharp feeling of rejection.

She slumped on the living room couch, phone still in hand, and wasn’t sure how to reply. “Now he wants to talk about what happens when he leaves,” she announced.

Grandma sat nearby with her knitting. She gave the yarn a vicious pull and made a humph sound. “I want to see a picture of Jennifer. Riley should’ve taken one. I bet she isn’t half as pretty as you.”

“She doesn’t have to be pretty,” Marlowe said. “Rich and sophisticated trump pretty.”

Grandma scoffed. “Jace will be rich enough on his own, and who cares about sophistication? All being sophisticated means is that you have to wear overpriced, uncomfortable clothes and pretend that eating snails and fish eggs is a delicacy instead of something frat boys would dare each other to swallow. Jace doesn’t need someone else’s money. He’ll go for pretty. Wait and see.”

There would be plenty of pretty girls surrounding Jace when he went back to California. “Is that all I am?” Marlowe asked. “Pretty?”

“Of course not. You’re lots of things. Pretty just happens to be the thing men notice most, so don’t knock it. Lean into pretty. Use it to your advantage.” Her needles clacked together in a quick rhythm. “He can find out about your sassiness later when he’s too committed to back out of the relationship. That’s how I got your grandfather.”

“Jace already knows about my sassiness.”

Grandma looked up from her knitting and shook her head. “Well, that’s just poor planning on your part.”

Probably.

Marlowe wrote and erased several texts. Nothing sounded right.

She knew Jace cared about her. She knew he wanted their relationship to be real. All of the kind things he’d done for her, none of that had been fake. But what sort of future could they have?