One Hot Summer

by Melissa Cutler

  He kissed her hair. “Maybe later you’ll feel like talking?”

  She nodded, then settled her gaze on the Jeep. “I might be asking to borrow that Jeep for Cambelle and Wynd’s wedding. It looks kind of safari-like, and it wouldn’t be a favor to them; it’d be a favor to me.”

  Micah wondered if they’d still want the wedding there, given the ballroom fire and their obvious dislike of Texas, but he wasn’t about to voice that curiosity to Remedy, nor how wonderful he thought it’d be if they canceled and took themselves out of his and Remedy’s lives for good. “All right, then. You know I can’t say no to you, and you’re soon to learn that my dad’s as big a pushover as I am. Sounds like everyone’s around back. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  Micah’s dad’s backyard was crowded with people of every age, and it took a few beats for them to realize Micah and Remedy had arrived, because they were intently watching two kids dangle peanuts from fishing poles trying to lure squirrels into two clear plastic barrels that seemed to have held cheese puffs, according to the labels.

  “Watch this,” Micah whispered. “Savannah and Duncan are having a squirrel-fishing race. Whoever gets a squirrel in the barrel and gets the lid on first is the winner.”

  Joining in with Micah’s family to watch children racing to see who could trap a squirrel first was the perfect antidote to the day she’d had with Cambelle’s group and her parents. “What does the winner get?”

  “Don’t know. Probably just bragging rights, but that’s a pretty big deal for the Garrity clan.”

  Savannah seemed to be the sure bet. She had a patient touch while reeling the peanut toward her barrel, where more peanuts waited inside to entice the hungry squirrel. With each inch the squirrel chased the peanut, Remedy found herself leaning in with bated breath like the rest of the audience.

  A tall, handsome black man stepped next to Remedy and nudged her with his elbow, a knowing smile on his lips. Remedy recognized him immediately.

  “You must be Remedy,” he whispered.

  “You must be Xavier.” She stuck her hand out, but Xavier enveloped her in a jovial hug. When he released her, Micah draped a casual arm around her shoulders and nodded his hello to Xavier.

  “Where are your twins? I’ve been dying to meet them,” Remedy said.

  “Alex has them inside. They’re too young to understand the rules of squirrel fishing and aren’t very good at staying quiet on command.”

  “That’s what Micah and Alex have both told me. Are they still teething?”

  Xavier rolled his eyes, nodding.

  “I love those kids,” Micah said in a whisper, “but this teething phase is getting real old, real fast.”

  “Tell me about it,” Xavier said.

  A kid standing in front of Remedy whirled around and shushed them. Xavier and Remedy devolved into chuckles. No wonder Micah loved Xavier so much. He was fast becoming one of Remedy’s favorite people, too. She couldn’t quite visualize how he and Alex worked as a couple, because Alex was so cool and distant while Xavier was all warmth and genuine kindness, but maybe by the end of the party their connection would make more sense to her.

  The next moment, the crowd erupted in cheers. Duncan jogged a victory lap with his barrelful of squirrel, then released the poor thing near the downslope at the end of the maintained lawn.

  “I really thought Savannah had that,” Remedy said to no one in particular.

  Micah stuck his fingers in his mouth and let loose with a loud whistle of cheer. “You’ll get it next time, Savannah. You can’t let your cousin win all the time!” He smiled at Remedy. “She’s a smart cookie. Reminds me a lot of you. Bossy as all get-out.”

  “Hey!”

  “But also as sweet as sugar,” he added.

  She kissed his cheek. “Nice try.”

  “You must be Micah’s girl!” a booming male voice called out over the crowd.

  The crowd hushed again; then Micah and Remedy were rushed by at least a dozen adults, and almost as many kids, all introducing themselves and pulling Remedy in for bear hugs. There were too many names for her to remember, but she tried to do her best to memorize which people were married to each other and who their children were.

  They were all disappointed that Remedy’s parents had to cancel, but she made up an excuse about an unexpected phone interview with an Australian radio talk show that her dad’s publicist had neglected to add to his calendar. Micah would know that was a lie, though his family seemed to buy it hook, line, and sinker.

  The booming voice belonged to Micah’s dad, who was an inch or two shorter than Micah and with a stomach that was a few inches wider but otherwise was an older, perfect mirror to him. Bubba Senior, as the family was teasingly referring to him today, with an emphasis on the Senior since they were celebrating his birthday, it was explained to her.

  After a hug and a kiss on her cheek, Bubba cracked open a can of beer and stuck it in her hand. “Let’s toast to you putting up with our Micah here. God love him.”

  “Gee, thanks, Pops.” Micah tried to extricate the beer can from her grip. “She’s more of a champagne type of lady, though.”

  Remedy held fast to the can. “You don’t know that I don’t like beer. Heck, you bought me a beer on our first date.”

  “That was before I knew about…” He let his voice trail off with a flip of his hand.

  “About what?” She wanted to hear him say it out loud, how many assumptions he made about her based on her upbringing. About some things he was almost as bad as Wynd or Cambelle.

  He wrinkled his nose at her, smiling patiently. “About how much you love champagne. It’s all you keep around your house.”

  Nice save.

  Alex was the next familiar face she saw. He walked her way with a friendly smile while holding the hands of two toddling brown-haired cuties. “Fancy seeing you here,” Alex said.

  Remedy knelt down. “I’m so happy to finally meet these little sweethearts. Hi, Isaac. Hi, Ivy,” she said with an exaggerated wave.

  Isaac only had eyes for Micah. He raised his hands and gave a grunting whimper until Micah scooped him up in his arms and whisked him away for some tickles and kisses. Ivy wiggled a few fingers at Remedy before turning bashful. With a drooly smile, she hid behind her daddy’s leg.

  Remedy stood again. “I see why you’re in such a hurry to get home every night. You have a beautiful family.”

  “Thank you. I do.”

  Xavier appeared at Alex’s side, an arm loosely around his waist. “And now that you’re planning the weddings at Briscoe Ranch, Remedy, he’s starting to remember what his beautiful family looks like again.”

  “Oh, spare me,” Alex said, though his eyes glowed with affection.

  “I think they’re about to serve dinner, so how about you come sit with us? We’ll save a seat for those two,” Xavier said, nodding to Micah and Isaac.

  There wasn’t a single table large enough to accommodate such a big crowd, so after everyone filled their plates from the mouthwatering spread on the kitchen table everyone gathered in clusters of chairs around a loose, uneven circle, with Bubba holding court at the head of the circle in a wide wicker chair that resembled a throne.

  The brisket was to die for. She might have made some orgasmic sounds similar to those that had snuck out the first time Micah had taken her to Hog Heaven.

  “Hey, Remedy,” said a woman sitting across the circle, who Remedy was fairly sure was married to Micah’s brother. “Micah made us swear not to ask you about any celebrity stuff, but I can’t help it.”

  “Aw, geez, Connie. Really?” Micah said.

  “You shut your piehole. This is between me and Remedy,” Connie said. “Now, I’ve got some questions about Zannity.”

  There was a term Remedy could’ve lived her life without hearing again. She washed her bite of brisket down with a swig of beer. “What would you like to know?”

  “Was Serenity really as bitchy as she came across on TMZ?”
/>   “My lawyer advised me to never speak of those two again. So I plead no comment.” Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered, “She was worse, actually. A lot worse.”

  Xavier leaned closer. “What about Zander? Nod your head if he was really that big of a spoiled, rich twit as they made him out to be. Nod twice if he’s even worse than Justin Bieber—which he is, if you ask me.”

  Oh, he was. He definitely was. “No comment,” she said, nodding twice.

  Xavier flashed her a thumbs-up.

  “Okay, new topic,” Connie said. “Your father has made nine films with Spielberg. Did you ever go to the Spielberg house for dinner? I heard Steven mans the grill when they have guests.”

  “Sure we did. My parents and the Spielbergs are still close.”

  “Does he really grill? He doesn’t have a personal chef do that?” Alex asked.

  “He does it. Definitely. He and my dad are both pretty proud of their grilling skills.”

  Xavier pressed a hand to his chest. “Preston Lane can cook? That silver fox just gets better with age.”

  “Ew, that’s my dad,” Remedy said in her best mock-offended voice.

  Micah sent warning eyes to Xavier and cleared his throat. “Moving on.”

  The family asked her a few more questions about her parents and other celebrities, but soon enough the topic petered out in favor of a rousing discussion of Texas A&M’s chance of winning a bowl title the next season.

  After dinner, as everyone basked in their contented fullness, Micah pulled Remedy to the side of the yard under the shade of the deck cover and gave her a cuddle. “Thought I’d check in with you. Are you having fun?”

  She nipped his lower lip with kisses. “Your family is so wonderful. I love them. Xavier too. This is the best night.” To her mortification, her throat constricted and her eyes filled with unshed tears.

  He cuddled her closer. “Those tears have anything to do with whatever happened today?”

  She dropped her chin to his chest. “I wish I had a family like yours.”

  “That can be arranged.” He said it so quietly, she wasn’t sure at first that she’d heard him correctly. She was saved from articulating a reply by Micah’s sister Maisy, who appeared in the sliding glass doorway holding a huge birthday cake covered in lit candles.

  Micah held Remedy’s hand and led her to the edge of the group where they joined in with the singing of “Happy Birthday,” then found new seats and settled in to enjoy the cake and ice cream. When Micah finished his dessert, he lifted Ivy from Alex’s arms so he could eat in peace. Remedy followed his lead and did the same with Isaac and Xavier, but it wasn’t long before Micah disappeared in the house with Ivy to change her diaper, leaving Remedy, with Isaac bouncing on her knee, alone with Alex and Xavier.

  “Tell me about you and Micah when you were kids,” she asked Xavier.

  Xavier grinned. “That’s a big topic.”

  “Start at the beginning. How did you two get so close?”

  “Back in the day, I used to love provoking bullies. Bring it on and all that shit. I was so stubborn, so angry at the world. I wanted the fight, to show them I was bigger and tougher than they’d ever be. I wanted them to get beat up by a gay kid in front of all their bigot friends. But I could only ever get a few licks in before Micah came charging in the middle of every fight while it was brewing, his fists out, trying to break it up, to keep me from getting in trouble from the school or my parents. He knew they’d whup me good if I was caught fighting, because he’d seen it happen, being that we were next-door neighbors.

  “I used to get so spittin’ mad at him for breaking up my fights. He’s always been the peacemaker, the one avoiding trouble, while I was the one running headlong into it. He doesn’t get many opportunities to try and save me from myself anymore now that I’m a boring stay-at-home dad. He still tries.”

  “And now his job is to run straight into trouble,” Remedy said.

  Xavier wagged his finger at her. “Good point. I never thought about it that way.” He tipped his head to the side, studying her. “You’re a rule breaker, too, or so I’ve heard.”

  Remedy nearly choked on her cake at that assessment. “Not really. I love rules and order. It’s just that trouble has a way of following me around.”

  Alex and Xavier both let out belly laughs. “So Alex has mentioned,” Xavier said. “You’re shaking Micah up the way I always did when we were kids, challenging all those careful rules he makes for himself. I like that about you. Don’t let him fool you. He likes it, too.”

  Micah appeared behind her, a freshly changed Ivy in his arms. “Likes what? Who we talkin’ about?”

  She tipped her chin up. “You like me.”

  “That’s true.” He bent down and gave her a kiss.

  “Xavier was telling me about how you two became friends.”

  Micah groaned. “He only survived his teenage years because I was there to keep him from doing crazy shit.”

  “Doing crazy shit is what being a teenager is all about, except you because you were born with the soul of a sixty-year-old,” Xavier said.

  “That is not true.”

  She nudged his ribs. “It’s kinda true.”

  “And now it’s time for the real fun!” a different male voice bellowed. Remedy turned toward the voice, which turned out to belong to a red-faced Junior, who stood in front of a closed garage door.

  “Uh-oh,” Alex said. “Looks like Junior’s been hitting the Shiner Bock too hard again.”

  Junior’s outstretched arms lowered. He pointed at Remedy. “We’ve got a special guest with us tonight, and I bet my pansy-ass brother hasn’t even told her what our family does for fun round here.”

  “Not the family!” Micah called. “What you do for fun. Leave the rest of us out of this.”

  Still seated on his wicker throne, Micah’s dad raised his beer can in Remedy’s direction. “My Junior here is a state champion off-road racer. He’s been featured on ESPN.”

  Remedy’s eyes glittered. “Oh my goodness. That’s really something. What kind of off-road racing?”

  At least five people collectively groaned.

  Junior rubbed his hands together. “I’m glad you asked.”

  With a practiced flare, he yanked the garage door up, revealing four Power Wheel toy cars and Jeeps, complete with pink plastic bodies trimmed in purple, purple plastic seats, purple roll bars, purple wheels, and the Barbie logo splashed on the sides of the doors.

  “Power Wheels,” Junior said. “Barbie Power Wheels, to be specific. It’s a new sport, only been round for the past five years or so, but it’s no passing fad. It’s here to stay.”

  “I had a Barbie Corvette when I was a kid,” Remedy said. She used to ride along her house’s circular driveway pretending to be a race car driver at the Indy 500, but she’d barely fit in hers by the time she was eight years old, so she didn’t see how Junior could possibly wedge his husky body in one.

  “So did my sisters. People in my sport—”

  “It’s not a sport,” Micah muttered into his beer can.

  “People in my sport have started branching out from Barbie. There’s all kinds of licensed character vehicles on the market these days. Call me a traditionalist, but I’m all about the Barbie Jeep.”

  “How do you fit in them?” Remedy asked.

  “Like a hog wearin’ panty hose,” Micah’s dad said with a laugh.

  Remedy wrinkled her nose at the visual that conjured. “Don’t they only go, what, five miles per hour?”

  Junior looked at her with sympathy, as though she’d spent her life under a rock. “We trick ’em out with go-cart and lawn mower engines.”

  “I would’ve killed for one of those when I was a kid. I’ve always loved speed.” Speed just didn’t always love her back.

  Nodding toward the garage, Junior winked at Remedy. “Wanna try ’em out?”

  “No, she does not,” Micah said, at the same time Remedy answered, “Sure
.”

  Junior clapped and let out a hoot. “We’re gonna have us some fun tonight!”

  Micah whipped his face around to glare at her. “Uh, no.”

  “Uh, you’re not the boss of me.”

  “Clearly. But you should trust me on this. I’ve seen the way you handle golf carts,” Micah said.

  “I second that,” Alex chimed in.

  Remedy stood and handed Isaac to Xavier. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

  “Good for you,” Xavier said. “Don’t let him boss you around.”

  Micah followed her to the garage. “I’ve seen enough of these ridiculous Power Wheels races to see every kind of injury imaginable. If you’ve got a hankering to go off-roading, then I’ll make it happen, but not in these Frankensteined kids’ toys.”

  “We’ve got an off-road course in the field out there. It’s for beginners,” Junior said with as much seriousness as a drunk man could muster. “Only a mild downhill. She’ll be as safe as pie.”

  Remedy wasn’t sure what pie and safety had to do with each other, but she was certain that this was something she wanted to do. “I’m learning to embrace a new motto in my life: What would Granny June do?”

  “This is all kinds of bad,” Alex muttered.

  Micah tugged on her elbow. “Remedy, you can’t be serious. This isn’t you.”

  “Who am I, exactly, Micah? A California princess, like you call me? A sophisticated heiress to a Hollywood dynasty, as the media’s been calling me since I was born? Or is it like my parents keep labeling me, as their homesick, spoiled daughter who needed them to rescue her? Or is it like Cambelle and Wynd told me in so many words today, that I’m their bitch, bought and paid, their servant when I should have been their peer? Maybe I just want to be the quirky, awkward girl who’s not afraid of anything and who made a choice a long time ago to forge her own destiny—no matter who tries to stand in her way.”

  That shut them all up, Micah included. He studied her with a pensive look.

  Into the gaping silence, she stuck out her hand to Junior. “I’m going to need a helmet.”

  Junior glanced at Micah again.