Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

by Abby Jimenez

“Stillwater. Want to see the invitation he sent?”

Of course there is an invitation 😂

She handed me the phone back. “I swear to God this guy is the epitome of If He Wanted To He Would.”

We watched him get out and go around the back of the car. He got a large potted plant from the trunk and started lugging it to the porch. “Is that a rosebush?” Maddy asked, squinting. He came up the walk and greeted Maddy, then he looked at me. “I brought you flowers,” he said, around the leaves. I laughed. “You brought me an entire rosebush?” He set it down. “You said the ones Amber got you were dead. I wanted to get you some that wouldn’t die.”

He is the best!

“Uh, no. I don’t need anything that ugly. I already have my dog.”

Poor Brad 😂

I was contemplating if kissing her in an antique store in front of a maimed ugly baby doll was tacky when my phone rang.

“What are we gonna do, Christine?” Leigh said. “Walk? From here? You only have one shoe! Plus you got prison tomorrow. I gotta get you back by midnight or you turn into a pumpkin.” They both peeled into giggling.

😂😂😂

“You two smell like you showered in Patrón,” I said. I dug in my center console for a water bottle. “Drink some water.” “Water?” Leigh said. “That stuff that killed everyone on the Titanic?”

“Well yes,” Leigh said, like I was being ridiculous. “All this happened tonight.”

OMFG I AM CACKLING 😂😂😂

“We washed ’em in the sink at the Circle K,” Leigh said. “A little Dawn soap, dried ’em with the hand dryer.”

😂😂😂

“This is George Cooney.”

Leigh tapped Emma on the shoulder. “Is his butt still cute, Emma?” “It’s really cute,” Emma said, smiling and waving her raccoon’s little hand at me while I shook my head.

This is amazing!

I wasn’t making plans with Justin. We’d be done once I left Minnesota.

Their total opposite views on this are driving me crazy!

Something spicy and warm mixed with the scent of mint.

Yummy 😛

Maybe that’s why I was a good nurse. I had the gift of extreme empathy paired with detachment. I could deeply understand someone and anticipate their needs, but also never get close enough to them to feel it when they passed away or suffered or I moved on. I didn’t fall in love. Not with people or places. Not with anything, really.

Emma girl you really need therapy...

I knew she liked me. She was genuinely attracted to me, I could feel it. But this was still the game for her. It wasn’t a game for me. Not anymore.

Emma please don't break his heart 😭

might never see her again after our fourth date. Unless I didn’t kiss her. Then she’d have to keep seeing me until I did, or her Minnesota side-trip thing would be for nothing.

Justin. Be for real. This is a terrible plan.

Brad answered. “You go through it. You can’t go around it, you have to go through it. And we’re here to help you do it.”

😭💜

“Brad and I talked about it,” Benny said. “The kids need to be with you right now. It doesn’t make any sense to separate you. We got you a family suite at the water park. Jane and I will take the dog.” Brad put a hand on my shoulder. “They’ll have fun. They’ll be distracted. It’s what everyone needs right now. We’ll get your new room set up, make this place feel like home. Benny knows how to put together your computer shit. I know how your room should look. We got it.”

What sweet, sweet boys💜

“What are you doing?” he asked. I leaned over the railing on the second floor of the mall watching him walk in front of a shoe store with Chelsea. “Nothing. How was it this morning?”

Awwwh 😍

He looked at me amused. “Wow. You are obsessed with me.”

I put my free hand on my cheek. It was warm. Knowing I was blushing made me blush harder. I did not blush. That was not a thing I did. I guess until now.

And if I didn’t know better, I’d say Maddy was wingmanning me.

Maddy really is the goat.

I didn’t want to be at the mall—it had lost its novelty for me about fifteen years ago. I was only here for the kids. But with Emma here, I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be.

It’s funny how when you find someone you like as much as I liked her, the destination is suddenly wherever they are.

“Let me know if you need help planting it.” “I’ve got Maddy.” “So you’re saying she’s good at digging holes…” “I’m telling her you said that.” “Please don’t, I’m scared of her.”

Emma had an aloofness to her. Like she was just along for the ride and the ride didn’t mean much. At least not as much as it meant to me.

And it's driving me CRAZY 😡

The interrogation started the second we got in the car.

Of course😂

“He is not in love with me,” I said, putting on my seat belt.

Yes he is.

“The lengths you will go to stay living in the chaos you’re accustomed to—”

“The chaos you grew up in! This whole life you’ve made—the travel nursing and the constant moving—you’re reliving your childhood,” she said. “Doing it in a safe way you can control. You slap the word ‘adventure’ on it like lipstick on a pig, but it is what it is, just another way to keep you from ever belonging to anywhere or anyone.”

I’ve known Justin for like five minutes. So I what? Give up my career and jazz hands my way into his fragile, grieving family hoping it works out between us? Me and this guy I just met? And if it doesn’t work out? How will that affect these kids, who just lost their mom on the tail end of losing their dad?”

She's not wrong 😬

She jabbed a finger at me. “Not your decision to make.” She looked me in the eye. “That is a good man. You are going to fuck up if you let that go.”

She's also not wrong...

She put a hand to her chest. “Let’s be very clear here. I am not the obstacle in the way of your happiness. That person is you.”

“Emma, go meet him at the door, or I will lose my shit. I didn’t push a clunky car stroller around the universe’s largest mall for five hours so you could shake hands with this guy on the way out. As soon as he shows up, I’m going to park around the front at the lobby to give you some privacy. Go get your damn forehead kiss.”

“Hey,” he said, coming out. “Just admit you’re obsessed with me, you don’t have to plant things in my stuff for excuses to come see me.”

The headlights of a truck, so close and fast it’s all you can see before it hits you.

HIT BY A TRUCK BABY!!! 😍

I was in an uncomfortable hotel bed at a water park. My mom went to prison today and I officially took custody of my three siblings. And I still smiled myself to sleep.

I’d liked that he’d smelled like toothpaste and Downy, like he’d just washed the hoodie he’d been wearing.

Maddy took the bag from the counter and peered into it. “Funny she brought him lunch and didn’t think to make any for you.”

Yup...

“And she couldn’t afford the time off work for my graduations. She asked for pictures—” “To show people. Because it doesn’t fit the narrative that she’s a loving and doting mother if she doesn’t even have pictures of you to show people while she’s taking credit for your accomplishments.”

I really hate Amber.

The bar is on the floor and she’ll bring a shovel, every time.

Maddy was right. I was an afterthought to my mother.

Then Maddy made a surprised little gasp from next to me. “Hey, Justin!” I whipped around. Justin was there holding Chelsea and smiling at me over the counter.

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Her pigtails were crooked. Justin saw me looking at them. “I’m still learning how to do it,” he said. “It’s cute.”

I was in a Justin deficit, and I hadn’t even realized it until just now.

I sent you a survey for our date tomorrow.”

I didn’t want out of it. It was the weirdest feeling, like I wanted to leave with him, just walk right out of my job and go. Those cartoons where the character smells something delicious and it puts them in a trance and they float after the scent in a daze.

“Come over,” he said without skipping a beat. “It’s ten o’clock at night,” I said. “I don’t care. I want to see you.”

“Do you have any pictures?” “Nah, I want you to come see it in person.” He paused. “I miss you. I want to see you,” he said again.

And the weird thing was, I didn’t want to go over there for the same reason I usually met a man late at night. I mean yes, I wanted that too. But I wanted to see him. Talk to him. Just be around him, even if all we did was sleep. I had never felt like that before.