Summer With My Dad’s Best Friend

“You’re not going anywhere. That’s ridiculous. I know these girls will start a mutiny if we try to separate them for the entire three weeks. There’s plenty of room in our cabin. You’re staying with us,” my dad says.

There isn’t plenty of room in the cabin and we all know it. It will be cramped quarters, but that will be part of the fun of it. I glance at Ben, dirty thoughts jumping into my head like pop-up ads at the thought of being in the same cabin with him for the next three weeks. He’s so good looking and he doesn’t really look his age at all except for a few wisps of gray hair at the temples. If anything it makes him sexier. More sophisticated, I guess.

“We couldn’t intrude—” Ben starts to say, but Annie interrupts him.

“Yes we can and we will.” She’s already grabbing her bags out of the truck and heading for the cabin.

Ben laughs. “I guess we’re staying.”

2

Jenny

My family grabs our bags and groceries out of the car. I leave a few things behind in the trunk because there’s too much to carry in one trip. Three weeks is a long time.

My mom is an over planner so there’s plenty of food for everyone. We could practically survive the apocalypse with the amount of food she brought. While I fill the pantry, my dad, Mom and Ben figure out the sleeping arrangements. There are only three bedrooms. One, of course, is for my mom and dad. Usually one is for me and the other for my brother, but that will clearly need to change. They decide to put Annie and Tulip’s little brother in my brother’s room and us girls in my room. Ben volunteers to sleep on the couch. I feel sorry for him because it’s the most uncomfortable couch I’ve ever slept on. I’ve taken a nap on it a time or two and woken up feeling eighty years old.

Once everyone is settled in, us girls go into my room to unpack. We’ll be here for the next three weeks so we might as well get comfortable.

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if Mom wasn’t such a bitch,” Tulip says.

Annie’s head snaps up from her suitcase where she’s arranging her underwear into the drawer I gave her. “It wasn’t all Mom’s fault. Maybe if Dad had paid any attention to her, she wouldn’t have had to get attention elsewhere.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing from Annie. How can she defend her mom and blame her dad for her mom’s cheating? There’s no excuse. Lorain made a commitment to Ben when they married and then she broke it. It’s no one’s fault but her own.

Tulip snaps back, “Mom never cared about anything other than money and she was always out looking for someone who could give that to her. The divorce was her fault and now she’s punishing Dad for God knows what. And clearly she doesn’t care about us either, because she knew how excited we were for this vacation and yet she rented out the cabin anyway without saying anything. She’s a stone cold bitch.”

“Dad should’ve known the cabin was rented out. It’s his property too. He just wasn’t paying attention. Just like he doesn’t pay attention to anything. He should just sell it to Mom.” Annie makes a huffing sound. “As if he’d ever let go of it. He wants the disposable income that he can have the luxury of forgetting about.”

That doesn’t sound like the Ben I know at all. He doesn’t care about money. He cares about his family.

I’m sick of listening to them bicker. If I have to deal with this for the next three weeks, I’m going to snap. They don’t normally fight, but I think the stress of the divorce has finally gotten to them.

“Guys, come on,” I say. “This is supposed to be fun. Let’s drop it before one of you says something you’ll regret.”

“Fine,” Tulip says, rolling her eyes. “What time is it?”

She grabs my phone that I’d tossed on the bed. The screen lights up and my Tinder app is open. She laughs. When Annie looks at my phone her mouth falls open and she laughs too. I guess laughing at me is better than fighting with each other.

“Girl’s trying to get laid,” Tulip says. “Look at all these hot guys who liked your picture. Why haven’t you liked any back?”

I grab my phone from her and black out the screen. “I don’t know. They’re not really my type.”

“What is your type?” Tulip asks. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about a guy you like.”

“She likes the grandpa types,” Annie teases.

“I do not,” I say, laughing too now. “I just like them a little older. A little more mature, I guess.”

“Silver daddies can be hot,” Tulip says, taking my phone from me again.