Hayden rolled her eyes.
"The management company double-booked the cottage with the owner's granddaughter. I'd like to offer her the spare room upstairs. I knew her a long time ago."
Hayden shrugged. "So tell her to leave."
"It was a mistake, and she doesn't have anywhere to go." The more Hayden pushed back on this, the more I wanted to let Saylor stay. "I invited her to dinner, and I expect you to be polite."
"Whatever—" Hayden moved past me, bumping into me.
My jaw tightened at her rudeness. "Can you remove your earbuds and leave your phone in your room?
She whipped her head around, her hair flying behind her in an arc. "Why?"
"Because you don't need your phone at the dinner table, and when you wear earbuds, it makes people feel like you're not listening to them."
She groaned but set her things on the dresser just inside her room, mumbling, "Because I'm not."
I let her comment go because I was learning to pick my battles, and I'd won on dinner and electronics. I didn't hold out hope that she could be polite. The best I could hope for was silence.
I turned and went outside to remove the chicken kabobs from the grill. I'd grabbed premade ones at the store and was glad now that I had. I wanted something simple and easy for our first night in the house.
As much as I was looking forward to time alone, it was kind of nice to have another adult here to talk to.
I arranged the kabobs on the serving platter and placed it in the center of the table.
Then I went into the kitchen to grab a pitcher of lemonade, something younger Hayden had loved but teen Hayden would probably hate. By the time I carried the pitcher outside, Hayden was slumped in a chair, looking like she'd rather be anywhere but here.
I set the pitcher in the middle of the table and the glasses by everyone's plates. "Hayden, this is our guest, Saylor Benedict."
"I don't understand why we have to let a stranger live with us," Hayden said without looking at Saylor.
I cringed internally at her rudeness. "I told you I knew Saylor from before."
"That's interesting," Hayden said in a tone of voice that said it wasn't interesting in the slightest.
"Hayden—" I said.
Hayden rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
I reminded myself that the book said this was normal. I gave Saylor an apologetic look, and she smiled reassuringly.
"This is my grandmother's home. She moved into a condo a few years ago and rents it out. I thought she'd reserved it for the summer for me, but there must have been a mistake, because your father was able to rent it too."
Hayden's shoulders stiffened. "Do we have to leave?"
"I'll figure something out."
Hayden was quiet, and I took the opportunity to serve everyone kabobs, then passed around the potato salad I'd purchased at the store.
"Did you grow up here?" Hayden asked Saylor.
"My grandmother lived here, and I'd visit from time to time. The longest was the summer I graduated from high school. That's when I met your father."
"What was that like?" Hayden asked, and I wondered if she'd guessed we were intimately acquainted back then.
"I was hunting for seashells, and he was jogging on the beach. We hung out a lot that summer, but then we lost touch once we went to college."
"Then I signed up for the military, and the rest is history."
