Page 78 of Songs of Summer
“Ergo?” said Maggie, at a loss for a comeback.
“Yuck,” said Dylan. They all turned her way for an explanation.
“The yuck was about him hitting on her. Chase Logan gets a bad rap, but he’s not a bad person. Really. He once saved my dog from drowning in the ocean.”
“So, I’m not from a family of ax murderers?”
“No!” Dylan laughed.
Maggie sat on the bottom bunk and put her head in her hands. Matt swiftly took a seat beside her and wrapped his arm around her.
“I’m sorry. I swear youcantrust me. I thought I was doing what was best for you. I’ll never withhold anything from you again.”
She leaned right into him and cried, realizing, beyond all of it, that there was no part of her that had accepted she would never see this man again.
“Now what do I do?” she asked, unsure of what she was even referring to.
Jason knelt in front of her, placing his hands on her knees.
“What do you want to do?” he asked kindly.
Maggie quickly saw that she was leaning, more like burying herself, into Matt. She sat straight up. Matt, suddenly aware of the awkwardness too, stood up as if the bed were on fire while Dylan looked straight through him, as presumably only she could.
To put it mildly, the dynamics were strange.
“What do you think I should do?” Maggie asked Jason, pulling herself together.
“You came here to meet your mother; I think you should meet your mother.”
“I did meet her.”
“But she doesn’t know that,” Dylan piped in. “Can I tell you something, Maggie?”
“Sure.”
“My mother walked out on me when I was little. She never really wanted me—never gave much thought to the fact that she had a daughter. Beatrix has been thinking about you every day for thirty years. I think you’d be lucky to have her.”
“But there’s so much to unravel,” Maggie cried.
“Not really. I never got the chance to tell anyone but Dylan that you were leaving. We can figure the rest out,” Matt assured her. “How about we get through the wedding fake dating, if that’s OK with you, Jason, and we can tell Bea on Sunday?”
“Jason?” Maggie conferred.
“It’s fine, as long as no one asks me to outwardly lie.”
“Jason is an ethics professor,” Maggie added.
They all nodded in agreement.
As they did, the bedroom door burst open, and Jakestood towering in the doorway. Dylan and Matt jumped, as if they forgot they were adults who could come and go as they pleased. It was amusing.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“Just talking, Daddy,” Dylan said, with extra sweetness.
“OK, don’t tell your mother I was here, Matt. I need some peace and quiet. I still haven’t written my vows.”
He shut the door and quickly opened it again, staring Jason down.
