I should have asked Rory what else she heard, but it’s too late now to bring her back up into the conversation without it being obvious. Is Chloe in town with anyone? She was reportedly dating Charles Baldwin, a famous actor who stars as the main character in Chloe’s book-to-TV-show series.
And why is she here? To get away from the flashing cameras and prying eyes in LA? To bring home a guy to meet her father? But more importantly…why the fuck does that last question make me feel uncomfortable?
I don’t care. Not anymore. Chloe isn’t mine. She never was. I’m happy with how things are going in my life, and now that Stacey and I are officially over, I was looking forward to casual sex with a different woman every night. No strings, no obligation, no chance of getting involved and ultimately hurt.
And the best part is then I won’t hurt anyone. I’ve been upfront with anyone I take home, making sure they have no expectations. I won’t leave them broken and alone, too naive to admit I was running from myself and my own insecurities at the time.
But that was the past, and I doubt Chloe has even paid me even the smallest thought. She’s probably changed now, and running into her again would be a disappointment. I miss the old Chloe, and there’s no way years of living in LA, walking red carpets, and signing seven-figure book deals wouldn’t change a person.
“Are you guys going out on the lake again tomorrow?” Rory asks.
“In the morning,” Jacob tells her. “It’s supposed to storm later in the afternoon, though, so we’ll have to wait and see. You want to come?”
“I do!”
“Are you bringing Adam?” Mason asks with his mouth full, and Mom glares at him.
“No,” Rory rushes out and looks at Dean. “We’d love a few baby-free hours together.”
“So you can work on baby number two?” Mason teases.
“Let’s hope not in the boat,” Dad says with a grimace.
“If you’re so eager to have another baby in the family, you have a kid,” Rory says pointedly, and right on cue, Adam starts crying. Rory makes a move to get up, but Dean stops her, saying he’ll get the baby.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were half a dozen mini-Masons running around already,” I say.
“Same can be said for you, you whore,” Mason retorts, and Jacob laughs.
“Are we going to Silver Lake or all the way to Lake Michigan?” Rory asks, ignoring our bickering.
“Silver,” Jacob answers. “By the time we go to Lake Michigan, it’ll be storming, and I really don’t want to get stuck out there—again.”
“The boat is new,” Dad grumps, offended when we insult the old clunker of a boat we had before.
“The lake is hot as fuck,” Mason warns Rory, and Nana Benson swats him on the back of the head.
“Language,” she hisses. “There’s a baby present.”
“It’s not like he can—” Mason starts and then turns his head down. “Sorry, Nana.”
“It is hot out there,” I agree and take another bite of food.
“Good,” Rory says. “It’ll be fall before we know it and missing the heat of summer. And then we’ll be buried under snow. Though it’s not as bad in Eastwood as it is here. Funny how just a few hours down makes a big difference in the snow.”
“If a transfer to Miami comes up this winter, I might just take it,” Mason tells us.
“No, you won’t,” Mom says right back. “That’s too far.”
“Did you forget I spent two years in Arizona?”
“No, I didn’t at all. I only saw you three times in that time.”
“I was undercover,” he reminds us. “And it paid off. We got the bad guys.”
“What time are we going out?” Rory asks, taking the baby from Dean so she can nurse him.
“Seven?” Jacob suggests and everyone shudders.
“Why would I voluntarily get up at seven?” Mason looks at me, knowing I get up early for work a lot too. “Nine.”
“Fine,” Jacob huffs. “Nine it is.”“I think the storm is rolling in faster than we expected.” I twist in my seat, beer in hand. We’re in the busy part of the lake today, and it’s packed with people doing just the same as us. Saturdays are always busy, but with school starting next week, I think everyone is trying to get out and enjoy one last hurrah before going back to the grind.
I used to live for summer, and it seemed the older I got, the faster summers went by. Then I got into med school and summers were a thing of the past.
“It is,” Dad says, looking at the weather radar. “We have time for one more time around and then we should head back. It’ll take a while to cross the lake.”
Since it was so busy today, we had to park and dock on the other side of the lake, the “quiet part” reserved for fishing and kayaking. It’s a no-wake zone, so it takes a long-ass time to idle through the water until we get to this part of the lake.