Page 41 of Summer Longing
“Hey there,” he said, answering on the first ring. “Are you on the road?”
“No, I’m not. You won’t believe this, but my back totally went out. I can’t drive today.”
“I do believe it,” her father said. “You’re stressed.”
“Yeah. Stressed and trapped.”
“Don’t think of it like that. You’ll only make things worse. How’s your mother?”
“Well, as I told you, she’s fine. At an art class right now, apparently.”
“An art class?”
“Yeah. It’s the new, improved, chilled-out Ruth Cooperman. Just a few decades too late.”
Olivia was interrupted by knocking on the back door. “Dad, I have to run.” Or walk very slowly and carefully with determination. “I’ll call you when I’m back in the city tomorrow night. Love you.”
Olivia eased herself out of the chair and inched to the door. She peered out the window and saw a young brunette in a Princeton T-shirt and frayed denim shorts.
“Can I help you?” she said once she’d opened the door.
“Is Elise here?” She seemed more a girl than a woman, though realistically she might have been any age from eighteen to twenty-five. It was tough to tell. Olivia found that the older she got, the more difficult it was to determine the age of other people.
“No, she left for her tea store,” Olivia said.
“Really? My brother said she was here.”
Her brother? “Marco?”
The girl nodded and walked right past her, into the house, without hesitation. “That’s so frustrating,” the girl said. “I could have sworn he said he was just here and he saw her.”
“I mean, he was here yesterday. If that’s what you’re thinking of.”
The girl shook her head and declared, “I hate this town.”
Now she had Olivia’s full attention. “You do?”
The girl turned to her. “I’m sorry. I’m Jaci. And this isn’t your problem. Are you…what’s the deal? You live here for the summer?”
“My mother is renting this house.” She introduced herself. “I’m Olivia, Ruth’s daughter. I’m just here for the weekend. Well, and today. For what it’s worth, Provincetown seems like a nice enough place.”
“That’s because you didn’t grow up here,” Jaci said. “Everyone is in everyone’s business, and my family is trying to run my entire life.”
“Everyone has issues with family,” Olivia said.
Oh, things had gone so off the rails yesterday. Olivia didn’t think she was at all wrong with her analysis regarding Ruth’s odd willingness to take care of that baby. But the expression on her mother’s face! Like Olivia had slapped her. It would have been so much easier if she’d been able to just drive off into the proverbial sunset—or midmorning, as it happened—and have the last word, smug in the knowledge that her mother would never change and that she was justified in having no relationship with her. But then her own body betrayed her.
“I try to avoid my mother most of the time, if that’s any consolation,” Olivia said to the girl.
“It’s not,” Jaci said.
Olivia decided she liked her. “Well, I was just about to head over to the bookstore. I’d say you could stay and hang out if you’re waiting for Elise, but it’s really not my place.”
“Where do you live?” Jaci asked.
“New York City.”
“I love the city! I went for the first time last fall, a day trip with my roommate to see a movie at the Angelika. We ended up having so much fun walking around, we never even saw the film. Seriously, it’s my dream to live there after college. What do you do?”
