“You’re going to have to talk to him about that.”
“Fair enough.”
Anita watches me carefully through the screen until she says, “My mama said the Barnes girls are runners. I’m just glad it didn’t take you thirty years to come home.”
Home.
The word strikes a chord, something deep inside I never understood beyond the superficial. I reach for the door handle and wrench it open with a loud screech. Anita’s eyes widen but she allows me to pull her into a tight, clinging hug.
“So,” she says, in a slow voice, “wanna come to a Fourth of July party?”
“Yes. I really, really do.”
“Ivy’s parents will be here for the week and they always have a big cookout. Lots of crab and shrimp. We can crash at her place legally this time.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Better than France?”
“Way better.” I laugh. There’s a brief silence between us and I muster the nerve to break it. “How angry is Justin?”
“Honey, I don’t know what he’s going through right now, but I can say you hit a nerve leaving like that.”
“But he’s the one I actually told I was leaving and why.”
“That doesn’t fix the part inside of him that suspected you always would.” She notices my confusion. “Justin lives with Richard because his family took off. First his daddy. Then his mama. There are a lot of reasons those guys created that Pact. One of them was to keep from getting hurt.”
“Nick said that. He said they were all scared.”
She nods. “They may look like men but inside they’re boys—each with lingering damage. You came in here and started to repair some of that, but—”
“I left, fulfilling their biggest fear. Especially Justin.”
It all clicks.
“I can fix this,” I tell her. I step off the porch and reach for my bag. “I can make it better.”
“Summer,” she says, and I pause, “if you can that’s great, but if you can’t…you may have to let him go. For his own sake.”
* * *
I walk back to my camper and find my mother sitting on our patio with another woman her age. She’s pretty, although a bit more weathered than my mom. She’s rounder in the middle and her hair is completely silver, bringing out the blue in her eyes.
“Hi,” I say when I come into view.
“Sweetie!” My mom cries. “You’re back!”
“Yep, Nick just dropped me off.”
A million questions float between us but she remembers herself and gestures to the woman behind her. “Summer, this is my cousin, Sugar.”
“Oh! Anita’s mom?” I step forward, glancing between the two women. Everyone seems pleasant, which is a good sign. “It’s really nice to finally meet you. She and I were just talking.”
“I told her I would watch Sibley today while she got some shopping done, but I thought I’d stop by before I went over to her house.”
“Look, Summer,” my mother says, handing me a piece of paper. “Sugar brought this photo of me and her back when we were kids.”
I take the rectangular piece of paper out of her hand. The two women—girls then--were stunning. Both with long sleek hair and even in the faded color picture you can see how tan their summer skin is. “Those are some pretty scandalous bikinis you have on,” I laugh.