The Summer Getaway: A Novel(21)

“Like an idiot savant?” she asked dryly, telling herself not to take what he was saying personally. He was in a bad place and not thinking about his words.

“What? No. Of course not. More like an earth mother. Like how mother bears know how to look after their young. It wasn’t bred out of you.”

“Or erased by too much learning.”

He set down his drink. “You’re angry. What did I say?”

She held up a hand. “Let it go, and I’ll try to do the same.” She didn’t want to fight with him. Not tonight. He had too much going on. Later she would slap him upside the head, but right now, she was going to play nice.

He looked confused. “But I was complimenting you. I think you’re a great mother.”

“Because I’m hearty, uneducated peasant stock?” she asked before she could stop herself. He was really starting to annoy her.

“Robyn, no.”

She told herself to change the subject, then blurted, “What did you mean when you said you worried we wouldn’t have anything in common?”

He leaned back, obviously uncomfortable. “That we, ah, come from different worlds. I’m a doctor surrounded by professionals. My ex-wife is a principal. Just job stuff.”

“Not just job stuff. You’re way too uncomfortable for that.”

“You have to admit our circumstances are different. I’m a doctor.”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that once or twice.”

“You work in retail. Part-time. You don’t have any ambition. At first I thought you were dating me because you wanted to marry a successful doctor. To give you security.”

Her mind went in fourteen different directions, leaving her unable to articulate a single one. His stark assessment of her life was the most painful, but his assumption that she was looking to marry a rich doctor was the most annoying, so she went with that one.

“You thought I was trying to trap you?” she asked, careful to keep her voice low. “I wasn’t.”

“I know that now.”

Did he? “Why go out with me if you thought that?”

He stared at her blankly. “You’re beautiful. I knew the sex would be great. Finding out we had something to talk about was unexpected but very welcome.”

Anger blossomed. She thought of all the times he’d gone to work events without her, saying she would find the evening boring. Had he been ashamed to be seen with her? What about dinners at his club—one that was far more exclusive than hers? The rare occasions they went, everyone watched them. She’d barely met his friends and had never been introduced to his extended family.

How, after a year together, had she only figured out just now that her boyfriend was ashamed of her?

“Let me recap,” she said softly. “You assumed I only wanted to date you to hang out with a—” she used air quotes “—rich doctor with the ultimate goal of trapping you into marriage. You felt I was beneath you, what with me being an uneducated and possibly unintelligent stay-at-home mother with no hope except to find a rich man to support me. You think I’m attractive and you’re interested in sex with me, so you figured it was a good trade-off as long as you were clear we weren’t going to end up together permanently. I mean, what would your friends at the club say? Right?”

He blanched. “Robyn, you’re taking this all wrong. Or maybe it’s me. I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m sorry. I’ve hurt your feelings. Please, can we start over?”

She picked up her bag. “We can, Jase. We can go back to the moment when we met. It was at Mindy’s store. Do you remember? Let’s go back to when you asked me to lunch. This time, I’m going to say no and then pretend we never met.”

She rose and walked out, more grateful than she could say that she’d driven herself. She handed her ticket to the valet, asked him to hurry, then waited for her car. Jase didn’t walk outside. A good thing, considering that by the time she got into her car, she was already crying.





seven



HARLOW HOSED DOWN the sailboat, washing the salt water from the deck. The familiar chore allowed her to get lost in her thoughts, which was usually okay, just not today.

She missed her mom. She’d stopped by the house a couple of times, but her mother hadn’t been home. Texting was the obvious solution, but somehow that felt like surrendering. She knew Kip would tell her that communicating with her own parent shouldn’t be measured as a win or a loss. While in theory, she agreed with him, the need to stand strong, to be the one in the right, was impossible to ignore. Which left her feeling sad and lonely.

She and Enid had planned to hang out the previous evening, but her friend had picked up another shift at the restaurant, leaving Harlow with no one to help her through the multiple crises in her life. In her head, she knew her BFF had to save money for medical school, but her heart felt unloved.

Harlow turned off the water and coiled the hose. She checked that the sailboat was ready for the next charter and the door to the cabin was locked before heading back to the office, where she would face yet another email from the lawyer helping her with the kayak company purchase. At some point she was going to have to pin down her father so they could move forward. But he was being elusive, and she wasn’t up to fighting. Not today.