Page 16 of Summer Reading

I may have sounded too eager, as he shook his head and said, “Nah, I’m good.”

My pizza slice had a nice thin crispy crust, a light coating of sauce, and a heavy hand with the cheese. In other words, perfection. I nibbled while I waited for Tyler to answer. Surely he had noticed the goatee.

“I have no idea what’s going on there,” he said. Before I could ask a follow-up question, he said, “And I don’t understand the skinny jeans or the fixer-upper sports car either.”

“How fragile are you?” I asked.

He looked at me in confusion. “What does that mean?”

“It means I want to ask about Dad and Steph’s marriage, but if it makes you feel vulnerable, I won’t go there,” I said.

He looked surprised.

I shrugged. “I know we aren’t that close and we haven’t spent that much time together over the years, but I like Dad and Steph together, and I just feel like...”

“He’s having a monster midlife crisis,” Tyler said.

“He is?” I asked. It’s what I’d been thinking, but it was weird to have it confirmed.

“That’s what Mom yelled at him when he showed up with the clown car,” Tyler said.

I snorted, and soda went up my nose. This made Tyler laugh, naturally.

“Need me to thump your back?” he offered. I laughed harder and his grin deepened.

We smiled at each other for a beat, and it hit me that I liked having a younger brother. Thankfully, I did not say this out loud and freak him out.

I was just gnawing the last of my crust when a man popped up from his boat docked across the walkway. Helooked familiar, and I must have looked the same to him because he did a double take.

“Samantha Gale, is that you?” he asked.

I swallowed. The crust went down hard, and I had to take a quick sip of soda to get it all the way gone. I forced a smile and said, “That’s me.”

“I’m sorry, you just look so much like your father, but of course I see your mother, Lisa, in you, too,” he said. He extended his hand, which I shook out of reflex more than friendliness.

“You probably don’t remember me, but your parents used to go sailing with my wife and me all the time. You came with us but you were only about this big.” He held his hands a foot apart as if I’d been a fish they’d caught.

“Oh, well, it’s good to see you again, Mr....”

“Stuart Mayhew. Call me Stuart,” he said.

“I vaguely remember you,” I said. It was a lie. I had no idea who this guy was, but he seemed to want me to recognize him, and I hated to disappoint.

“Are you being kind?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

He laughed. “You’re as diplomatic as your father.”

I grinned. “I’m not the only one. This is my younger brother, Tyler, the brains of the family.”

Tyler looked surprised that I’d introduced him, but he shook Stuart’s extended hand and said, “Nice to meet you, sir.”

Stuart glanced between us. “Yup, you two are definitely Gale siblings.”

I have no idea why this made me feel good, but it did. I glanced at Tyler to find him looking at me as if he wondered what I thought about this. I winked at him to let him know I thought it was cool, and his lips turned up in the corner just a teeny bit.

“So where are your parents? I’d love to catch up,” Stuart said.

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