Chapter 18 #2
Cara waggled her eyebrows. “Friends with benefits?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” But her face was burning now, and she grabbed her water bottle to quench her suddenly parched throat.
“We just want you to know that it’s totally okay,” Cara said, suddenly serious. “You haven’t dated anyone since you and dad split up.” They didn’t know about FWB Paul. “But you’re young. And you don’t have to be alone.”
It surprised her that someone who wasn’t even twenty-one would think forty-five was young.
“I thought kids always cringed when their parents started dating.”
“We’re not kids,” Fallon said. “We’re both adults. And Dad’s got a girlfriend. So now we’re worried about you.”
She hadn’t known Everett was dating. He’d been clingy the first few months after the divorce, trying to get her to come back.
But that was a no go. And honestly, she hadn’t cared enough to check what he was doing.
Maybe that sounded a little bitchy, but she’d been glad to get out, and she hadn’t looked back.
For her girls’ sakes, she said, “I’m happy for him.” Then she added, “But I haven’t been hanging around waiting for your dad to come back.”
“Well, then,” Fallon started, and Cara added for her, “We’re wondering how long this new girlfriend will last. She’s younger. Most women don’t put up with that kind of crap these days.”
Summer’s skin prickled. “What kind of crap?”
“Hello, the controlling thing,” Fallon said airily with a wave of her hand. “You know, checking up on you, telling you what to do, what to wear. Remember the time you were going to that Christmas party, and he made you change your dress because he said it was too sexy?”
Cara added, “And when he got mad because he said you were flirting with Luca’s dad at that barbecue.” Luca had been Fallon’s boyfriend in high school.
“And all the times he slept on the couch when he didn’t like something you’d done. Like he was punishing you.”
Summer was stunned. She had absolutely no idea the girls noticed any of that. She and Everett never fought in front of the girls. Her parents had fought a lot before their divorce, and she’d never wanted to do that to her kids.
“All we’re saying is that not all men are like Dad,” Fallon declared.
“So you need to tell yourself it’s time to let another man into your life.” Cara punctuated with a nod.
The funny thing was that their father had never been controlling with the girls. Summer wouldn’t have stayed if he’d tried to stifle them. But he’d saved all the stifling for her.
Still, she had to assert herself with them. “I’ve been dating,” she said defensively.
Fallon snorted. “Friends with benefits isn’t dating, Mom.”
Cara rushed on to add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with friends with benefits.”
Summer had to step in. “I don’t have any friends with benefits,” she lied. Really, she had no idea her girls were so insightful. Even though it was cringeworthy when they talked about FWBs.
“All we’re saying is that we want you to be happy.” Fallon smiled.
Cara shook her finger. “We just don’t want you to go all rigid and say you’ll never fall in love again, or that you’ll never get married again, or even that you’ll never have a boyfriend.”
“I’m not rigid,” Summer said rigidly.
“It’s just that he was so sweet, Mom. The VP.”
“He was so scared that you’d been hurt,” Fallon said with wide eyes.
“And the way he looked at you when we were getting our hot dogs and hamburgers,” Cara began.
And Fallon finished, “It was like an adoring puppy begging you to pet him.”
Summer couldn’t help laughing. Knox was anything but an adoring puppy. Although he begged when he wanted her to suck his cock. “Maybe he was a little worried.”
Cara rolled her eyes and put her hands to her cheeks. “And that kiss was totally swoonworthy.”
Softly, Summer admitted, “Yeah, it kinda was.”
Fallon clapped her hands to her cheeks. “I saw little hearts and butterflies swirling around your heads.”
Summer laughed. “Now you’re getting ridiculous.”
“Here’s the thing, Mom,” Cara said, her gaze turning darkly serious. “You stood up to the bully in a way you never stood up to Dad.”
Summer suddenly felt ashamed that her girls had seen her that way. Maybe she should have stood up for herself. But she’d wanted peace in the household. She hadn’t wanted to split up the family when they were young. The girls adored their father. But maybe she’d subjugated herself too much.
But she had to defend her actions. “I thought I was doing the right thing by creating a harmonious environment while you were growing up.”
Cara touched her arm. “We’re not saying you did anything bad.”
“Don’t get us wrong. Dad’s great,” Fallon added. “It’s just that we could see you and Dad weren’t good for each other. And it didn’t matter whether or not you fought in front of us.”
Cara finished for her sister. “We’re not stupid, you know, and we read between the lines.”
Summer sat up, cupped her hand to Cara’s cheek. “I never thought you girls were stupid.” She rested a hand on Fallon’s knee. “You two are the most wonderful, sweetest, smartest, funniest women I know.”
Fallon eyeballed her. “And that’s why you should listen to us, Mom.”
“Don’t let this hunky hot VP get away,” Cara urged.
Fallon’s look was pleading. “Please give it a chance.”
She didn’t know how to explain to her daughters that it was just sex between her and Knox. It always had been. Neither of them wanted a relationship.
Then she remembered what he’d said just before he left on Friday morning. This isn’t just sex, it’s a relationship.
But he was arrogant and autocratic. If she truly fell for the man, he could very well turn out to be like Everett.
It was too much to think about now.
She put her hands together as if she were praying. “I honestly hear everything you’re saying, but I’m not sure he’s the right guy. However, I promise you, I’ll be more open to dating.”
A frown turned down Cara’s mouth. “You’re saying that just to mollify us.”
“I’m not trying to mollify you.” Though she actually was. “It’s just that I like my freedom. I’m not in the right headspace for anything more. At least not right now.”
“Don’t let this one slip through your fingers,” Fallon warned. “He could be a keeper.”
Summer couldn’t help laughing. “Oh my God, you sound like a mother from the 1950s.”
Then Cara broke the tension, as if she knew her mother needed some space. “I’m starving. Let’s make sandwiches.”
When Summer put her hands on the chair to get up, Fallon pushed her shoulder. “We’ll do it.”
Then her two beautiful girls grabbed their swimsuit wraps and trotted off.
They were wonderful for thinking of her. And they were both amazing. She could call them girls, but they were intelligent, thoughtful women, with their own opinions and their amazing insights.
But could they be right about Knox? And she was all wrong?