Page 50 of Next to You

Five minutes later, the knocking started.

I should have gone straight to the shower, damn it. Now, I would have to entertain.

“Come in,” I bellowed. I was not getting up to open the door. I was in the mood to mope, ruminate, and pout. Making plans and healthy changes would happen tomorrow. I knew myself; I had to wallow first.

I slid into the corner of my couch and snuggled beneath my knitted throw blanket. I was tempted to pull it over my head and hide, but they’d for sure spot the Lucy-shaped lump beneath it. There was no avoiding the million questions I was not ready to answer. But the silver lining was I’d get it over with at once, even if I didn’t know the answers to all of them.

My mother entered the heavy oak door, followed by my half-sisters. Piper and Paige were first. They were from my father’s first wife, who he’d cheated on with my mom. Cara was next—she was my age. We were in the same grade throughout school, sometimes even in the same class. We were born a couple of months apart; fun, right? My dad had cheated on my mom with hers when they were both pregnant, but she forgave him and kept him around until he cheated again with Eliza’s mom. She was the youngest. Dad left my mom for hers, and they were still married. They moved down to Portland to escape the scandal of having the five of us girls all living in the same small town.

The best and weirdest part of my bizarre family history was that, aside from Eliza’s mother, the other moms werenow the best of friends, and the five of us girls were all as close as possible. However, it hadn’t started that way. It took years of working through bitterness and bad feelings before my grandparents' desire to have us all part of their fold, mothers included, successfully smoothed the rough edges of my father’s betrayal and brought us all together as one big, weird-ass family.

Dad’s parents owned the Honeybrook Inn, where we spent a lot of time and grew up close. I would never know how my father ended up such a philanderer. None of my aunts or uncles were like him. My grandparents were wonderful, but my father was a constant source of disappointment for them. They loved him but did not approve of his choices at all.

“Are you okay? I was worried sick.” Mom rushed to join me on the couch and pulled me into her arms before pushing me back to study my face. “You seem okay.” She placed the back of her hand on my forehead, tilting her head side to side as she watched me. “I stopped by and fed your fish.”

“We brought food.” With arms full of bags and covered dishes, Piper and Paige headed straight to the kitchen.

“Thank you!” I shouted to their retreating backs. “Mom, I have the auto-feeder.” I glanced at the tank. The little weirdos were swimming laps around their Sponge Bob pineapple house as happy as could be. “They’re okay.”

“Well, I couldn’t leave my grandfish all by their lonesome and not check to see how they were doing, right?”

“Right, you’re too much. They probably like you more than me.” I laughed. “Thank you. You’re being awfully chill about this whole thing. It isn’t like you.”

“I’ve been getting regular updates from Spencer’s dad. He assured me the cabin was perfectly safe and fully stocked with firewood and food. Plus, I’ve known Spencer since he was a little boy. I knew you’d be okay with him.”

“That makes sense.” I tilted my head, thinking about Spencer, prom, and her strict rules that prevented her potential early debut as a grandmother of human children instead of my fish babies, but I decided against raising that subject. It was moot, and I was not in the mood to open that can of worms.

Piper sat across from me on the oversized recliner that I liked to read in. “She’s fine. The fish are fine. Let’s talk about how she’s been alone with Spencer Cassidy for the last few days. How about that?”

“How about not,” I shot back. “I’m totally fine, Mom. You were right.” My attempt at dodging the Spencer topic was weak. Everyone laughed as they found seats around the room.

“Yeah, I bet you’re fine,” Eliza muttered. “I’d be fine too if I’d been stuck alone up there with a Cassidy man.”

“I’d even take their dad,” Piper added. “He’s like a hot, ripped Santa Claus.”

“You’d be his ho, ho, ho, am I right?” Paige nudged her shoulder.

“Damn straight. I don’t care how much older than me he is. That man is fine.”

“You girls. Stop.” My mother scoffed at their objectivation of Spencer’s extremely good-looking father. I mean, he got his looks from his dad. There was no doubt about it.

“On second thought, maybeyoushould go for it,” Paige told my mother, then watched to gauge my reaction.

“No!” I did not disappoint her with my immediate rejection of the idea.

“And there it is,” she boasted. “You don’t want your future father-in-law to become your stepfather. Boom!” She raised her hand for a high five.

Piper smacked it, shaking her head and mouthing “Sorry” to me. Paige liked to know everything and was not shy about gathering information in any way she could.

“Yeah, so I might have a little bit of a thing for him.” I shrugged, wishing they’d drop it.

Cara, perched on the arm of the couch next to me, put a hand on my shoulder as a silent show of support. She was the only one who knew how deep my crush on Spencer had gone back in high school. She was probably dying to know what happened. But knew me well enough to know I’d tell her everything once we were alone.

“So, did he take good care of you, honey?” Mom asked, pointedly ignoring the teasing.

Paige let out a snort, and I glared at her. “Hey.” I stuck my tongue out. “He was a perfect gentleman. I got a migraine the second day, and yes, he took great care of me.”

My mother was pleased. “I knew it. I bet you didn’t have your medicine, did you?”

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