Good for You: A Novel (28)

She could not bear the thought that he might be right. That for all her trying, she’d never really learned to be someone other than a person who provoked anger and abhorrence in the two people who were supposed to love her most.

“I need to keep acting like someone who deserves this job. And if I see that video, I might not be able to anymore,” she said, blinking hard. But it was no use; a tear escaped, only to evaporate on the hot wood patio. Then another fell, and three and seven and ten more.

“Here,” said Wyatt, pulling a packet of tissues from his pocket. Why did he have tissues in his pocket? How long had they been there? As she whispered her thanks and took them from him, she had to admit she didn’t care.

“Why are you being nice to me?” she said with a sniffle after she’d managed to mostly turn off the faucet attached to her face.

“Do I need a reason?” he asked, looking at her curiously.

“Well, you did divide the house in half with tape,” she said, wiping her cheeks with a tissue. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“I was irritated, sure, but mostly I was just trying to prove my point.”

“Well, you did,” she said, smiling a little.

“Good.” He grinned. His teeth were orthodontic ad–straight, save for a crooked canine, and she found the whole effect oddly charming.

“At least now you know why I’m here. I wanted to wait until September. I knew I wouldn’t be ready before then, and—” She glanced around. It wasn’t as though the beach itself, or even the house, was so triggering. But even after almost a week, she kept waiting for Luke to walk through the door or come strolling across the sand. Instead, there was only Wyatt. “Turns out I was right.”

“You were waiting for the one-year mark.” They both knew he meant the anniversary of Luke’s death, which was the sixth of September.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Then you weren’t planning on selling the house this summer. That was impromptu.”

Well, when you put it like that. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

“So if it wasn’t part of your plan, that’s another vote for not selling right now.”

For once, she wasn’t exasperated; she just didn’t understand why he cared. “Seriously, Wyatt, you’re not fooling me with the whole thrift store vibe you’ve got going on,” she said, and his bottom lip popped out in protest. “I know you have an insane amount of money, and you could live anywhere. Why here?”

“I don’t know,” he said, meeting her eyes again. “I mean, I guess I sort of do, but if I tried to explain to you, it would probably come out wrong.”

“I’m used to that by now.”

“That’s fair,” he said, smiling at her. “Let’s just say you’re not the only one who’s unemployed. And before you start protesting, I know—” he said, holding up a hand. “You’re only temporarily off the job. But I’m permanently no longer a banker. Because I secretly hate banking—I always did—and after what happened last September, I didn’t want to keep doing something I hated for a single second longer than I had to. So I quit, and it turns out that almost everyone in Chicago thought that my ditching the status quo was akin to having a mental breakdown. Which is how I ended up here, away from everyone who insisted on judging me. But I still don’t get why Luke left me half a house that should be a hundred percent yours. Do you?”

“No,” said Aly. She was so stunned—not just by his confession that the house shouldn’t have been his, but by the fact that Wyatt was speaking so freely, when their conversation at the Mermaid had been stilted—that she didn’t know what else to say.

Also, she saw something in his eyes, a particular type of pain that she recognized as her own. But how could that be? He was a proton to her neutron, the tropics to her tundra, a vaulted fortune to her purse full of pennies. He couldn’t possibly know how she felt.

“I don’t plan to keep the house,” he added. “I don’t deserve it, so if you want to sell, that’s going to have to be okay with me. But I’m not ready to go back to real life yet, Aly. So I guess I’m asking you to let me have a little more time here if you can. And like I said the other day at the restaurant, I think you should give it more of a chance, too. Luke wanted that for you, even if I don’t know why.”

Aly spoke before she could think not to. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he said, like he’d misheard her.

“Yeah. I’m still planning on leaving on Friday—I have to get back to New York. But you can stay until fall. I’m going to need to cash that check, which I’m not really geeked about, but if I’m rational, whether I cash it or sell the house, the money’s coming from the same place.”

“Thank you,” said Wyatt. He sounded sincere, and he touched her again—so lightly she wondered if she’d imagined it this time—before standing. “We should head in,” he said, gesturing to the dark clouds gathering over their heads. “It’s going to storm.”

“I need a moment,” she said.

“I get it.” But then he visibly startled.

“What is it?”

“Uh—I think I just spotted your mom.”