Chapter 28
ASHER
Summer and I have just gotten off the plane when I turn my phone back on and receive a text from Elijah.
Eli:
This cat is a fucking menace.
I’m surprised you know what ‘menace’ means.
I’m fucking serious.
She refuses to stay off my lap.
You didn’t tell me she had separation anxiety.
I’m surprised you know what ‘separation anxiety’ is.
“Is that Elijah?” Summer asks. “How’s Milo?”
“Sounds like they’re having a great bonding time,” I assure her with a smile. She beams back at me before intertwining our hands and heading toward the car rental.
Once I’ve loaded our bags into the trunk, I pull out my phone and open the GPS app, using the address Juliet provided.
She’s baking a last-minute Christmas order and watching over Terra, so I told her not to worry about picking us up.
Plus, I could tell Summer was nervous about meeting my sister, and I wanted to give her a little bit of time once we’d gotten off the plane to prepare herself, though I doubt Juliet will give her the third degree.
She’s aware that I pursued Summer while she’d tried her best to keep her distance.
I can see Summer’s anxiety start to ramp up the closer we get to our destination. She wrings her hands together and bites her lower lip.
At a stoplight, I lean across the seat and smooth my thumb across her lip, forcing her to release it. “Hey,” I say, trying to soothe her. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“I want your sister to like me,” Summer mumbles. “But I know our relationship is… less than ideal.”
My stomach drops at her words, though I know how things started wasn’t how either of us would’ve preferred.
“Juliet has been hiding out here in California and has refused to let anyone see her or meet Terra. You should have heard the earful I had to take from our parents when they learned they weren’t invited to Christmas.
I think she’ll understand that sometimes things don’t go the way we originally planned. ”
Summer gives me a small, hopeful smile, but continues to worry her lip between her teeth as she looks back out the window.
“Should we have stopped at the store?” Summer asks suddenly. “We should stop at the store, right?”
“What for?”
“I don’t know!” she groans, throwing her hands up. “I should get her flowers, or a bottle of wine, or a toy for your niece! I shouldn’t show up empty-handed!”
“Summer… have you not met a lot of your previous partners’ families?”
“What gave it away?” she asks sarcastically.
She lets out a huff of air and defensively crosses her arms. “No, I haven’t been introduced to partners’ families a whole lot.
And this is especially terrifying because of how highly you speak of your sister.
” I open my mouth to respond, but she continues, her tone rising in pitch.
“And she hasn’t let anyone come visit her, and now here I am!
The student who made you break your moral code.
” She rakes a hand through her long, golden hair, pulling at the strands.
“Hey, stop,” I say seriously, taking her hand with mine. “Juliet is really nice. She hasn’t let anyone visit her for her own reasons that she hasn’t even disclosed to me. She knows that I pursued you; we talked about it before you and I were ever together. She’ll like you.”
“Do you really think so?” she asks quietly.
“How could she not?” I respond with a comforting smile.
Summer closes her eyes and takes a deep, steadying breath. Her amber eyes open and meet my gaze, crinkling at the corners with her smile. We pull up to a curb, and Summer opens her door. “All right, let’s do this.”
I grab our duffel bags from the trunk—Summer apparently still uses her high school gym bag, which is crazy. It had me seriously debating whether to buy her a new one for Christmas.
Summer stands on the sidewalk outside a quaint little house that looks more like a cottage.
The house is painted a cream color with brown trim and brown shutters.
A matching brown door is up a few cobblestone steps, with a burnished gold doorknocker.
There are a few flowers that look neglected in the small yard, and the grass obviously hasn’t been watered much, as it shows patches of yellow.
The closer we get to my sister’s house, the more obvious it is that it could use some work.
The cream-colored paint is peeling. A few of the shutters look loose. Shingles are missing from the roof, and I notice that her mailbox is barely hanging on to the post at the end of the driveway.
I push thoughts of the house away and make my way up the steps to the porch. Summer gives me a supportive thumbs up, but she looks like there’s a very real possibility she’ll be sick from the nerves.
I knock quickly, hoping the faster everyone is introduced, the more comfortable Summer will feel.
Juliet opens the door with a huge grin.
“Hey, twerp,” I say fondly.
“Long time no see, big brother,” she responds before pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. When I try to break the hug, she holds me tighter, refusing to let go. She pulls back after a few long seconds to really look me over.
Juliet has cut her hair so that she now has jet black bangs across her forehead.
She also seems to have trimmed the length a bit, though it still reaches past her collarbone.
Her chocolate brown eyes twinkle up at me, and the freckle—which our mother always referred to as a ‘beauty mark’—under the corner of her eye shifts with the movement of her eyes, crinkling with her smile.
She’s predictably covered in flour—Juliet was never an organized child, and she never adopted that trait in adulthood.
A high-pitched squeal sounds behind her, and her smile gets impossibly bigger as she steps aside so that my niece can barrel into my legs.
I hear Summer giggle, but I am too distracted to look her way as I sweep Terra into my arms and spin her around.
“It’s nice to officially meet you,” I say, giving her a light peck on the forehead. She laughs and places her hands on both of my cheeks, squeezing them together and sending herself into another round of giggles.
Terra has dark hair like her mother, though I can see more of a chocolate brown within the strands, opposed to Juliet’s pure black hair. Her eyes stand out against her dark hair and pale skin, like a beacon of light cutting through the night. They’re a deep blue, the color of the Mediterranean Sea.
“She’s beautiful,” Summer says shyly.
“Thanks,” Juliet responds, giving Summer a tentative smile.
Summer holds out her hand to Juliet, who shakes it without hesitation. “I’m Summer,” she introduces herself. “Which is probably obvious.” A red blush paints Summer’s cheeks as she ducks her head.
Juliet’s eyes soften, and a more genuine smile dances across her lips. “I’ve heard nothing but good things.” Summer stands up straighter at the compliment. “I’m Juliet, and anything Asher has said about me is a dirty, dirty lie.”
Summer chuckles. “I’ve only heard that you’re the best sister ever and make the most amazing cupcakes.”
“Oh,” Juliet says with a smirk, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “In that case, it’s all true.”
Terra wiggles in my arms, demanding to be set down. I let her go, and she quickly skips off into the house. A shriek and a crash echo through the hallway. Juliet shakes her head and laughs.
“Wild child,” I muse fondly.
“Don’t encourage it.” Juliet points a finger at me, trying to look stern but failing miserably since she can’t keep the grin off her face.
I can’t help myself—I give her another hug.
“I missed you, too,” she whispers, her arms tightening around me.
She pulls away, and I can see the shine of unshed tears in her dark brown eyes.
“Come in, come in,” she insists, swiping under her eyes and ushering us past the threshold.
“Dinner is just about ready, and I bet you want to set those bags down.”
I let Summer follow my sister while I hoist both our duffels up before trailing behind them.
The inside of the house isn’t much better than the outside: more peeling paint, creaky floorboards, and no air conditioning. The railing on the stairs could be replaced; a few spots on the hallway walls could be patched; and the kitchen looks like it hasn’t been updated since the house was built.
“I’d love to see your bakery if there’s time,” I hear Summer say while Juliet points out different rooms.
“Oh, it’s just a short walk into town!” Juliet responds excitedly. “We can go tomorrow. Then you can be the judge on just how amazing my cupcakes are.”
My shoulders relax as my worry over my sister meeting Summer dissipates.
I set our bags off to the side in the living room while Juliet fusses over Summer, asking if she can get her anything to drink.
I take in the space around me and am shocked to see that Juliet has filled the living room with pictures.
They sit on the fireplace mantel, side tables, and hang on the walls.
There are pictures of Terra, as well as of our family.
Pictures of Juliet and me when we were kids, pictures of us when we were young adults.
She has our family’s holiday photos proudly displayed out in the open, along with our parents’ wedding photo.
I feel completely baffled. Juliet hasn’t been home in years—hasn’t let anyone visit her until now—but she has photos of her family everywhere.
My gaze meets Juliet’s as she hands Summer a glass of water. Her eyes dart around me before returning to mine. Her lips purse into a stiff smile, and her shoulders lift in the slightest shrug as she just barely shakes her head. As if to say, I don’t know either.
Summer and Juliet continue to make small talk, and Terra runs on clumsy legs into the living room, holding a toy airplane and making raspberries. I stride toward my niece and scoop her into my arms, deciding to put the happy family photos out of my mind.
“Hey, Juliet,” I say, entering the kitchen where she’s whisking something dark red in a bowl. Summer is upstairs with Terra, reading her a bedtime story at the little girl’s insistence. She had held the book out to Summer and screeched when Juliet tried to drag her away.
For someone who wasn’t sure if she wanted children, Summer was really great with kids.
I toe at some hardwood that’s cracked. “What’s up with the house?” I ask, getting back to the reason I’d sought out my sister.
“What do you mean?” she asks before attempting to blow her bangs off her forehead.
I glance around at the outdated kitchen and scratched-up wooden floors.
I make my way to the sink to start cleaning some of the dishes from dinner.
Another thing I note is that the kitchen has no dishwasher, so when Juliet works late, she has to do all the dishes by hand.
“I know you said that you’re renting this place at a steal, and fixing it up, but…
it’s a little more than just ‘banged up’, don’t you think? ”
She dusts her hands off on her baby-pink apron with cartoon cupcakes printed over it.
“Moira lets me rent this place for cheap under the condition that I work on fixing this place up. Which I am doing.” Juliet has a proud smile plastered across her face, and she straightens up so that she’s standing taller.
A warm feeling spreads through my chest at how happy Juliet seems to be here.
A small chuckle escapes me. “Uh, Juliet, what exactly have you fixed up here?”
She crosses her arms and tries her best to scowl at me, but her lips keep quivering into a smile. “Terra’s room is painted,” she responds indignantly. “And cleaned up the backyard. I’m planning to build a playset for Terra out there.”
I wait for her to continue, but she stops there. “Can I help with anything while I’m here?” I offer after a few seconds of silence.
“Ah, no,” she scoffs, waving my help aside. “Moira is incredible. She hasn’t put any sort of time limit on any of the renovations or anything like that.”
“You know I don’t think I’ve ever seen you hold a hammer,” I snort.
“I had to fix that hole in the wall of my old apartment back in college, thank you very much.”
“Didn’t Elijah offer to fix that for you?”
She immediately bristles. “I don’t think so.”
I scrunch my eyebrows at her. “You don’t like him, do you?”
She shrugs noncommittally. “He’s always been a bit of an ass, don’t you think?”
I squint at her. That’s almost word-for-word what Elijah said. “He’s been through some shit,” I say, defending him, and letting the coincidence pass.
“Whatever,” she sighs, whisking faster.
We work in silence, her pouring the batter into cupcake tins and me washing dishes and setting them on her drying rack.
We can hear giggles floating down the stairs from Terra as Summer changes her voice for different characters in the book she’s reading.
Juliet looks in the direction of the noise with a fond smile on her lips.
“She’s nice,” she says quietly. “I sort of didn’t want to like her, since the relationship is risking your career, but she’s a hard girl to dislike.”
I laugh. “She’s very hard to dislike.”
Juliet puts the cupcakes in the little oven before turning to me, hands on her hips. “You are being careful, aren’t you? With her, your job, everything?”
I let the plate I was washing fall into the soapy water with a dull clunk before turning toward my sister.
I understand her concern. If I were someone else, I’d be disgusted by my actions.
It’s an abuse of power, and the idea that anyone on the outside might find out what’s happening and assume that I’m taking advantage of Summer makes me sick to my stomach.
That’s not what this is. I like her, and I know that she may know that, but outsiders won’t.
We’re both consenting adults, but one of us has more power in the relationship than the other.
It’s wrong, and I know it’s wrong. But something has never felt so right to me before. Watching her play with my niece after dinner had weird feelings swirling in my chest, and I have a feeling ‘like’ is dangerously close to turning into something else.
“We’re being careful,” I assure my sister. “I know how it looks. I know it could be something we both regret. It might be a huge mistake, but… I…”
Juliet puts her hand on my arm to comfort me.
“Making a bad choice doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person,” she says softly.
“We all make mistakes. It’s about how you handle them that shows what kind of person you really are.
” A small creak sounds outside the kitchen.
Juliet sighs before slowly removing her apron.
“I’m going to go make sure Summer was able to get Terra to sleep.
” I’m returning to the dishes as she starts to leave the room, but she pauses in the doorway, drawing my attention back to her.
“Just for the record, I don’t think she’s a mistake.
I think you might love her, and how could love ever be considered a mistake? ”