22. Summer
CHAPTER 22
Summer
“ B ye, Mommy!” Emma gives me a hug around the middle, and then sprints towards Jared’s truck.
“Bye, Em!” I call as she throws her bag into the backseat.
I awkwardly turn toward Jared. Things haven’t been great the last week. He’s still angry at me and I don’t know what to do about it. He’s been civil in front of Emma, but otherwise he’s been abrasive at best and downright mean at worst. He still hasn’t apologized for what he said last Sunday, and the words still sting like a papercut doused in lemon juice. I decide to rip the bandaid off and ask, “So, are we ever going to talk about it?”
He huffs out a breath and chews his cheek. “I don’t know what to say, Summer.” He looks away from me and watches the bees flit busily from flower to flower in my window boxes.
“You can start with an apology for what you said on Sunday,” I say, crossing my arms.
“I’m not apologizing for being angry at finding out you’re with another man.” A muscle in his jaw ticks.
“You’re allowed to be angry, but you can’t talk to me like that. We’re going to be in each other’s lives forever. We have a child together. That means we have to have a baseline of respect and tolerance around each other. I am not going to force Emma to have separate birthdays and holidays just because you can’t be civil,” I lean against the open door to prevent myself from stepping in his space the way I want to. I would love nothing more than to give in to the urge to get in his face and yell at him. But I have to be the adult. Again.
He sighs, scrubbing a hand over his short hair. After a painful beat, he says, “You’re right. I lost my temper. I’m sorry. I’m not okay with Ryan though. Did you know that he tried to start a fight with Duncan last night at The Taproom?”
I shake my head side to side. “What? Why would he do that? They don’t even know each other,” I say, confused.
“According to Duncan, he said that you were still with me and Ryan didn’t like that very much. Tried to punch him right after.” Jared raises his eyebrows at me.
“Okay, well, first of all, we aren’t still together,” I say. He blows an annoyed breath out. “Anyway,” I continue, “that doesn’t sound like Ryan. He’s not the violent type at all. He definitely wouldn’t try to punch someone just because they said we were together.”
Jared scoffs, “You hardly know him! This is why he can’t be around Emma. I can’t trust that he’s not some violent asshole.” His lips tighten into a grim line.
“I know him well enough to know he wouldn’t try to punch someone just because they lied, Jared. I don’t think we’re getting the full story. You know how drunk Duncan gets when he goes out. You’ve had to go pick him up a thousand times! Ryan would never hurt Emma. I understand you want to wait a while to introduce them. I’ll respect that. I think you need to meet him first anyway, and we can go from there.” I’m trying to be reasonable, but it feels like he’s looking for any reason to roadblock me.
“I still don’t like it, but fine.” He spins on his heel and stalks back to the truck. All in all, that went better than I expected. At least he didn’t call me “sloppy seconds” again.
A few hours later, I’m stepping out of the shower when I hear my phone ding. It’s a text from Ryan, letting me know he’s heading over. I wiggle in excitement and bite my lip. We’re planning on having a date night in tonight.
I slip on a matching lilac boy shorts and bralette set, and throw some black lounge pants over top. The loose-fitting lounge pants hug me at the waist while the bralette goes down my rib cage. It leaves an inch of skin exposed at the waist and it feels scandalous even though I’m mostly covered up. My lips spread in a smile when I think about Ryan seeing me like this.
I use a towel to scrunch the extra water out of my hair and exit the bathroom. I head to the living room where I’ve stashed the necessities for our date night. Ryan is supposed to bring dinner and we’re going to eat on the floor like kids at a sleepover. I spread my comforter and pillows on the floor in front of the TV so we can watch a movie and cuddle. On the coffee table, I’ve placed an array of snacks from salty to sweet.
Ryan knocks on the front door and pops his head in, stopping in his tracks when he sees me. I smile at him self-consciously, wishing I’d thrown a cardigan or something over my shoulders. He shakes his head as if to clear it and comes inside. He toes off his shoes, closes the door, and walks towards me with purpose.
He tosses the Chinese takeout on the coffee table and yanks me toward him so quickly I yelp in surprise. His hands trace up my arms before he slides his thumbs under the straps of the bralette, making my breath catch at the possessive touch and look in his eyes.
He cups my jaw with both hands and brings my lips to his in a crushing kiss. I’m suddenly very glad I didn’t wear the cardigan. I slide my hands up his back under his navy colored t-shirt as the kiss deepens. Ryan pulls away first, keeping us close with the press of his forehead to mine. “Hi,” he says, a grin in his voice.
I laugh out a breathless, “Hi.” I lick my kiss-swollen lower lip as I pull back from him.
He takes a breath and says, “So. We should eat first or that’s going to get cold.” He gestures to the bag full of takeout containers. “If we keep going I won’t want to stop and I know you’ve been craving Chinese.” He sits on the blanket and pats the spot next to him.
“Good idea. I’m starved.” I grab the bag and spread the containers between us. I hand him his chopsticks and a cold beer that I pulled out of the fridge before he got here.
“Yeah, I’m hungry too. While we eat, why don’t you tell me what happened last Sunday?” Ryan asks, digging into the pork fried rice.
“Only if you tell me what happened last night,” I quip, raising my eyebrow.
He gives me a sheepish look and says, “I swear I was going to tell you about it today. It wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t want you worrying about it when you were with Emma.”
I take a bite of orange chicken and gesture with my chopsticks for him to go on. I’m not concerned about him being an “aggressive asshole.” More than anything, I’m convinced that Duncan over-exaggerated.
“So, I went out to The Taproom with Luke and the guys last night, like I told you. I was watching Chris and Luke play pool, and Duncan accidentally spilled his beer all down my back. He just came out of nowhere. I don’t know if he was with friends or alone, but he was sloshed,” he says before taking a swig of his beer.
“He was probably alone. Jared is pretty much his only friend that I know of. I can’t even count the number of times Jared had to grab him from the bar after he had too much to drive,” I say, rolling my eyes at the memories of Jared having to haul himself out of bed and drive to whatever bar Duncan had chosen for the night.
“That makes sense. Luke ended up having to walk him out and wait for Jared with him. Before he spilled the beer on me, I heard him saying some vile stuff. I figured out later he was talking about you. He was calling you names and saying you were cheating on Jared.” Ryan looks at me and I can see the anger darkening his eyes.
“Just so we’re clear, I am absolutely not cheating. I would never do that.” I reach out and take his hand.
He squeezes mine and says, “I know. It’s just hard for me sometimes. I trust you, Summer.” After a beat, he continues. “Anyway, Duncan realized who I was when I told him to stop talking about you like that. After he said some more bullshit, Luke walked him out. That was it.” He shrugs and takes a huge bite of chow mein.
“So you didn’t almost punch him?” I ask, sort of wishing he had punched him.
He swallows and says, “I thought about it, but I wouldn’t have unless he hit me first. I thought he was going to before Luke walked him out. He charged me when I asked why he was so twisted up over you when you were with Jared, not him.”
I chuckle at the absurdity. “Why would he be angry about that? Of all the things to punch you over.” I roll my eyes and toss some broccoli beef in my mouth.
“I dunno, Summer. Luke seems to think he had a thing for you back in high school before you started dating Jared.” I choke on the piece of broccoli in my mouth, sputtering and coughing. Ryan pushes my glass of water towards me and I chug it.
In a croaky voice, I say, “Is Luke insane? Duncan does not and has never had a thing for me. Do I have to remind you of the time I overheard him calling me a cow?”
Ryan scowls and states, “No, you do not. I really should have punched him.” He clenches his chopsticks so tight, I’m worried he’ll break them.
I pat his thick bicep and say, “Down boy,” playfully. He loosens his grip on the chopsticks and sets them on top of a container of fried rice.
He grunts and continues, “He’s obviously immature. A lot of immature guys turn rejection into hurting the person who rejected them. Was he only nasty to you after you started dating Jared? What about before?” He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me snugly into his side as if he can retroactively protect me.
“He was always on the periphery, you know what I mean? I was aware of him through school, but I feel like we hardly knew each other until we did that group project. He was nice enough then. We had to spend, like, a whole month working on that stupid poster and presentation. I don’t remember him ever being rude until afterward. He even drove me to and from Jared’s house after school a few times…” I pause as a memory hits me. “Oh my god, I’m an idiot,” I gripe.
“Thanks for driving me, Duncan. I’m trying so hard to get my license, but my mom never lets me drive,” I say, tossing my backpack between my feet in the passenger side of his little beater car.
From what I’ve gathered, he’s very proud of this car because he bought it all on his own with money he saved working on Jared’s Grandpa’s farm on the weekends. He’s made it a point to tell me that his parents didn’t help him at all. I get the sense that he doesn’t get along with his parents because every time they come up, he completely shuts down. Not that I’m one to judge. I love my mom, but my dad can fuck all the way off.
Duncan gives me a radiant, recently braces-free smile and says, “No trouble at all, Sum. I like driving you around. If you need to practice driving or whatever, we could always do that. Together, I mean.” He scratches the back of his neck and flicks his eyes toward me. We pull into the line of cars queuing up to exit the student lot.
“That would be awesome! I’m kind of terrified of freeways, so maybe we can start out in the grocery store parking lot?” I smile sheepishly.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want us dying in oncoming traffic. Grocery store parking lot it is. It’s a date.” Duncan shoots me a grin and I feel thankful to have finally made some friends outside of Steph. She’s amazing, but she’s always busy with leadership things or cheer these days.
“I’ll bring the crappy driving skills,” I say, throwing him a thumbs up and laughing.
“And I’ll bring the crappy car.” He laughs with me. It’s only a few minutes of comfortable silence later that we pull up at Jared’s house. “Do you want to do something afterward?” His hand fidgets on the gear shift while he stares straight ahead.
I turn to him now that we’re stopped in the driveway.“Like what?” I ask.
“Maybe we could grab di—” he starts, but Jared interrupts him by throwing himself dramatically on the hood of the car. We both laugh at his antics. Duncan clears his throat.
Jared opens my door for me and slings my bag over his shoulder. “What were you saying?” I ask, realizing Duncan never got a chance to finish.
Duncan looks between Jared and me. “Never mind. Let’s get this shit done.” He unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out. I follow suit, Jared tossing an arm over my shoulder as we walk to the front door.
I finish retelling the memory and say, “Duncan was trying to ask me out.” I run a stressed hand through my hair. “Ugh . I mean he was nice enough then, but knowing what I know now? Yuck.” I grimace.
“Did you ever go driving with him?” Ryan asks, cleaning up the food containers.
“No. We never made a concrete plan, and it wasn’t long after that that Jared asked me out. It felt weird being alone with his friend after I started dating him, so I passed on his offer when he brought it up.”
“I’m guessing that’s when he started treating you like shit.”
“Yup.” I shake my head and laugh humorlessly. The fact that Duncan has treated me like garbage for the better part of seven years because of a non-rejection rejection is just so Duncan. Leave it to him to twist something innocent around. At least he’s moved on from the crush, even if it doesn’t leave much room for anything but nastiness. “I don’t want to think about him anymore. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies. Let’s watch this Marvel movie before I change my mind.” I pull Ryan with me, so we’re lying down, slightly propped up on pillows.
“ Guardians of the Galaxy is a classic. If you don’t like it, I don’t know where this whole thing between us will go,” Ryan says, tugging on the ends of my hair lightly. I playfully smack his chest and we settle in as the dramatic opening music booms through the stereo system.