by Jewel E. Ann
“Clearly he won the bet. What did he do to make you laugh?”
“He said, ‘Kyle! Hurry up and grab my pussy!’” She giggles. Her hair isn’t as long now. Her earrings are usually hoops instead of diamond studs like in the picture, and her freckles aren’t as widespread, but the smile is the same, and her eyes nearly close when she can’t control her laughter.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Her hand flies to her mouth, eyes wide. “Um … sweetie? Are you two … uh … done?”
Gracelyn grabs her watch off the dresser. “Oh my god … it’s almost midnight.”
“We were thinking about turning in. Gabe is asleep.”
“Go!” she whisper yells, pointing to the door.
I silently chuckle and hold up the photo and mouth, “Dibs.”
She rolls her eyes and pushes me to the balcony door. I step out, but before she can close the door, I reach back inside, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her to me for one last kiss.
“You and your stolen kisses.”
“Night.” I turn and make it down two steps.
“Nate?”
I turn.
Her smile is gone. Time for more bad news, a heavy dose of Gracelyn reality check. “Tonight was …” Her forehead wrinkles as she fights for the words. “It’s just going to get harder …” She dances around the actual words.
I nod. “Tonight was the last time.”
She ghosts her fingertips over her lips and nods.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Gracelyn
I open the bedroom door with a deep cringe resting on my face. “I am so sorry.”
“He didn’t have to leave out the balcony door.”
I grin, turning to retrieve a nightshirt from my dresser. “Yes. He did. I feel so bad for missing the fireworks. Are his parents mad? Morgan? Mr. Hans? Gah! We just ditched the party. We just had a lot to talk about.”
“Talk huh?”
My cheeks bloom crimson. “Yes. We talked.”
Mom glances in the bathroom with towels on the floor and probably some sand too. “Is he a good talker?”
“Night, Mom. Maybe get Dad off the sofa so I can turn in too.” I slip into Gabe’s bathroom and shut the door after grinning at my dad conked out on the sofa, snoring.
After brushing my teeth, I sneak into Gabe’s room, slide his blankets up a few inches, and press my lips to his head. “Love you,” I whisper without waking him. Then I make up my temporary bed on the sofa and fall asleep with a smile on my face and an aching heart in my chest. It’s a healthy balance.
The next few days fly by with me working and my parents spoiling Gabe with attention, new games for his PS4, and all kinds of baked goods. I don’t find time alone with Nate again. Even after our parents go home, we manage to avoid each other with the exception of small talk with the kids in the same room or out on the deck sipping iced tea with Mr. Hans.
It just … hurts too much.
Days pass and I can’t slow them down.
By moving week—things start to get real. Morgan doesn’t spend as much time playing with Gabe because she’s packing and helping Nate clean the house.
“Are you going to miss Morgan?” I ask Gabe while we eat breakfast with Mr. Hans at the kitchen table.
Gabe shrugs. “I don’t know.”
No means no. I’m pretty sure “I don’t know” means yes, but he sure as hell won’t ever admit it.
“Well, I’m going to miss them. Present company excluded, they have been my favorite renters. Kind of felt like extended family,” Mr. Hans says.
After a small nod, I sip my coffee as he eyes me. He’s been eyeing me for the past week. I know he’s figuring out what to say. There’s really nothing to say.
In just over two months, a stranger and his daughter crawled into our lives and left a permanent mark on all of us. We made each other smile, laugh, and cry. We shared good food, endless days of playing on the beach, and drinking lemonade on the deck at sunset.
“Well …” I blow out a long breath; it’s insane how many times a day I have to remind myself to just breathe. I haven’t had to do that since Brandon died. “I need to get to work. Are you going to Tyler’s or are you old man sitting?”
Mr. Hans winks at Gabe.
Gabe grins. “Better keep an eye on the old man. And I might see if Morgan needs help.”
I knew it. He’s going to miss her too.
I stand and carry my plate and cup to the dishwasher. “You know what a good going away gift would be for Morgan?”
“What?” Gabe asks.
“You should follow her on TikTok.”
Gabe frowns. It’s not a no. It’s a frown. I shrug and head upstairs, letting him mull that over for a while.
It ends up being a crazy day at work after Jennifer calls in sick. No one else is available to fill in, so I just buckle down and keep working. My last client cancels, so I take a long sigh as I seat my last one for the day. I’m hungry and a little dehydrated.
As I secure the cape around her, the door chimes. Walk-ins are rare, but occasionally someone shows up desperate to be seen. The answer today will be no. My feet are screaming. I crane my neck to see the counter.
Oh my god!
No more neck craning. If I had a shell like a turtle, I’d draw the stupid thing into it. The young girl in my chair and her mom waiting a few feet away both eye me with suspicion. It could be the frightening grimace on my face.
“Give me a few seconds. I’ll be right back.” I turn, coming into full view.
“Gracelyn?” Morgan narrows her eyes and cocks her head.
Nate? He’s an expressionless statue open to uncomfortable interpretation.
Surprise?
Shock?
Anger?
Disappointment?
“Hey! I’m a little surprised to see you here.”
“The feeling’s mutual.” Nate’s mad. That’s definitely a mad tone of voice.
The phone rings, but it can only save me for a minute or so. I hold up my finger to them and answer it. “Lice Out, how can I help you? I can fit you in tomorrow at eleven. What’s the name? And the best phone number? Okay … see you then. Bye.” I hang up the phone.
“We thought you cut hair.”
I smile at Morgan. “Yeah, well … I never exactly said that, but I can see how one might have inferred that.”
I hate the look Nate’s giving me. My heart is drowning in wreckage like the Titanic because they are leaving in two days. I was going to tell him the truth … just when they were a couple thousand miles northeast of here.
“Morgan has lice,” Nate says in a stiff tone.
She scratches her head.
I cringe.
“We weren’t sure where she got it, but I think it’s pretty clear now.”
My eyes widen. “Uh … not from me.” I point to the cover on my head. “I cover my head and wear this white smock. And as you may have noticed…” I give him a tight smile “…I strip down outside and put my clothes in a bag before I go inside. And once inside, they go directly into the wash. I had lice when I was twelve. Newsflash … I don’t have them anymore. So keep looking for your culprit because it’s not me. However …” I return my attention to Morgan and smile. “I’ll get you fixed up, but you’ll have to wait an hour or more. I’m just getting started with someone else.”
“That’s fine.” She holds up a book. “I brought something to do.”
I nod, keeping my Morgan smile, but it falls from my face when I slide my gaze to Nate. If I didn’t have someone waiting for me, I’d take the time to explain … although it should be pretty self-explanatory.
“Okay. See that yellow chair …” I point to my right. “Go have a seat so I can check you. If you don’t have lice, there’s no need for you to wait around.”
“She has lice.” Nate frowns.
With a tight smile, I narrow my eyes at him. “Well, it’s protocol that I take a look first before you sign the papers and be
fore I start treating her. And this is my area of expertise, so you should just let me do my thing.” Yep, I’m a lice technician, not exactly life goals here, but I do a lot to help people. And as with any unappealing job that’s necessary—someone has to do it. Why not me?
He sighs. “Do your thing.”
The words on my tongue want to be set free, but I have work to do, so I nod and head over to check Morgan. “You definitely have them. Sorry, sweetie. Just hang out and read your book. Okay?”
She nods, opening her book.
I get the forms for Nate to read and sign. “Just set them on the counter when you’re done. I’ll have to check you too.”
“I don’t have them,” he grumbles.
“Well, I’ll let you know if that’s true.” I curl my lips into a flat line before returning to my first client.
Nate sits in a chair that gives him a straight view of me. Lovely. So for the next ninety minutes, I feel him glaring at me, and with each quick glance I make in his direction, he confirms those feelings. I never see him blink. He has laser focus on me. What must be going through his mind? I highly doubt it’s sentimental emotions over how much he’s going to miss me.
Our love story will end from a bad case of lice. I can’t wait to hear Brandon’s thoughts on that.
After I give the young girl and her mom instructions for home and the car and they exit, I thoroughly wipe everything down, wash my hands, and don new gloves. I explain the steps: the air treatment, the inch-by-inch combing through her hair with a lice comb and dimethicone oil.
While I do my thing under the watchful gaze of the guy who seemed to love me pre-lice, Morgan talks nonstop about all the things she’s excited to do when they return to Madison. At times I get tears in my eyes, but I don’t let Nate see them. I’m not just going to miss him. I’m going to miss this chatty, smart girl who’s filled with so much life and curiosity. Truth? We really have become friends.
“I kissed Gabe,” she whispers so Nate can’t hear her as I take off her cape.
My eyes fly open. It’s too hard to hide my shock. “Oh … wow.”
She glances at her dad, giving him a fake smile before turning her back to him. “I just had to know. And I wanted him to be my first kiss.”
“What did he do?” I whisper.
Morgan frowns. “He didn’t do anything. I think I’m the first girl he’s kissed. He just wrinkled his nose and said, ‘Thanks.’ I thought I’d feel butterflies, but I didn’t.”
I smile. “Well, now you know. Always hold out for butterflies.” I glance up at Nate. “Your turn. I need to check.”
He sighs, standing and making his way to the chair I’m patting with my hand.
“It could have been Hunter. It takes weeks after exposure to realize you have them.”
“I’m sure Mr. Hans will love us accusing his granddaughter of giving Morgan lice.”
“You’re good.” I stand back and smile.
He doesn’t reciprocate.
“Doesn’t matter. She’s good. You’re good. She can wash that oil out when she gets home. I’ll give you a roller for your car seats. Strip beds. Clean and vacuum bathrooms and bedrooms. That’s it.” I swallow the new round of pain. I hate how he’s looking at me. Yes, it was a lie, but no one brags about working in a lice clinic. We just get weird looks, and friends and family don’t want to get too close. Maybe I should have been honest from the start. Maybe he would have kept his distance and not wanted to steal kisses. He also might have not wanted Morgan hanging around at our house or playing with Gabe, and that would have been tragic for both of them.
“This machine is really cool.” Morgan inspects the air machine. “I bet I could do what you do when I grow up.”
I start to grin. “No!” Nate’s hard no startles me. His shoulders sag as his mouth bends into something resembling displeasure or regret while rubbing his temples. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant it’s a little early to think about what you want to do for the rest of your life.”
I press my lips together to keep from saying words that I will surely regret.
“I know … I know.” Morgan grabs his arm and gives it a tug. “Let’s go. I want to get my hair washed, and we need to clean and pack and do so much. Maybe I need to use the bathroom first.” She wrinkles her nose at me.
I point to the restroom down the hall.
Nate has the nerve to give me this look … like he’s waiting for me to make things okay. He said it. Not me.
“Take your daughter home, Professor.”
“I’m sorry.” He lobs those two words at me like they mean something. They fall flat on the floor between us. I’ll sweep them up later and throw them in the trash. I can miss him terribly or feel hurt by his words, but dealing with both of these emotions is more than I can handle.
I shrug. “I work in a lice clinic. Now you know. Does it matter? In two days … will any of this matter?”
Morgan runs out of the restroom. “Ready! Let’s go.” She tugs on his arm.
“Bye, sweetie.” I smile at Morgan, turn, and start cleaning.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The next night, I try to distract myself by reading on the sofa while Gabe and Mr. Hans play chess downstairs. Morgan officially has him hooked, and I’m thrilled because it gets him off a screen.
“Hey, come on in,” Mr. Hans says.
I lean toward the voices. It’s Nate and Morgan.
“We leave really early, so we thought we’d say our goodbyes now,” Nate says.
My entire heart catapults into my throat—pulsing, aching, suffocating. I can’t hear them past my body going into pain mode. And I can’t bring my legs to standing. I’m too weak and nauseous.
“Hey!” Morgan pokes her head around the corner at the top of the stairs.
I feel the burn before the tears. She plops down on the sofa and hands me a notecard and a gift wrapped in tissue paper. “It’s my email address and my grandma’s and grandpa’s address. I’ll send you my address as soon as we have one. And that’s my TikTok handle and my Instagram handle. We should follow each other.”
A smile pushes back my tears, for now. “Does your dad know about the phone yet?”
She pulls it out of her pocket and shows me the lock screen photo of her and Nate on the beach. “Yes. He even took a selfie with me.” A long breath comes out of her little body as she grins. “You’re right. He’s changing too. I was so scared to tell him, but it was also killing me to not tell him. So I just … said it. I said it all really fast. And you know what he said?”
I shake my head.
“He said, ‘Well, okay then. Looks like you deserve a shot at this.’ Then he said he’d take it away if I wasn’t responsible with it. Then he checked to see if there were any parental controls set. And there were, which is odd.”
Nate set them. I already know he took her phone while she was sleeping and he set them.
“So odd.” I nod.
“Want to know something else?”
“Of course.”
“Gabe requested to follow me on TikTok. He said it had nothing to do with the kiss because he thinks of me like a sister, not like a girlfriend.” She shrugs. “We’ll see. Once my boobs come in, he might change his mind.”
I laugh and the tears try to make a return. “What’s this?” I tear open the tissue paper.
Her nose wrinkles. “It’s just a hat. I wanted to knit everyone something. Hats are quick. I wanted to knit you a scarf, but since we’re leaving early, I had to make everyone a hat.”
I slip the light blue hat onto my head. “I love it. Thank you. I’m going to miss you. I’m going to be the only girl now.”
“Me too, but we might get a dog, and if we do, I want it to be a girl.”
“As you should.”
“Well …” She lifts her shoulders then drops them on a sigh. “I’d better get going. We’re getting up really early in the morning.”
I pull her in for a big hug, quickly reaching up t
o wipe a few tears right when they fall. “Promise me you’ll be you. Promise me you’ll call me anytime you need to talk girl stuff. Promise me you’ll wait for the boy who truly deserves your heart. And…” A few more tears escape “…promise me you’ll take care of your dad.”
“I promise.”
I release her. “Here. Hand me your phone. I’ll put my number into it so you have it … your dad will then too. Just in case you guys leave anything behind or … I don’t know. Need something.” I finish typing in my contact information and hand her phone back to her.
“Cool.” She smiles. “If you’re ever in Wisconsin …” She quirks her lips. “My dad says that to our friends whenever we pack up to move to our next destination. I don’t think anyone will ever pop in to say hi. I think he just says that because it makes it sound like we might see them again.” Her smile melts into a tiny frown. “I don’t think we will. Bye forever kind of sucks. So …”
I smile, letting a few more tears fall, but this time I don’t try to hide them from her because she has a few falling down her cheeks too. “If you’re ever back in San Diego …” I grab her hand and squeeze it while my other hand wipes her tears.
“You have to come downstairs and say goodbye to my dad, but don’t expect tears. He’s not a crier.”
I laugh and wipe my tears with my shirt. “Got it. No tears.”
She takes my hand and leads me down the stairs.
“Ready to get to bed, Squirt?” He looks at Morgan, not at me.
She releases my hand and hugs Nate. “I’m not going to be able to sleep. I’m too excited.”
He bends down and kisses her head.
“Okay …” She pulls away and gives Mr. Hans a hug. Then she forces one on Gabe, and that brings smiles all around.
