“If you think Grams is bad now, imagine her when she was fed up with her four children and Papa, and on a tear.” This makes me laugh, and I nod, looking back to him. “My family did the same thing to me,” he admits. “I think I have some idea.” I look past him, down the porch, and back to the ocean. But it’s just what family does.” Scratching his cheek thoughtfully, he adds, “You can’t imagine how much joy your mother, sister, and grandmother derive from interfering in your love life.” “The last thing you need is the four of us butting in on your relationships status. Several of his colleagues have since claimed to have come up with it, but in my family, we all know the real score. His love for literature combined with his career as a chemist earned from me the nickname Chemingway at an age when I was old enough to make the joke but not yet appreciate how great it was. It’s so unlike the rest of him-delicate and girlish-because he’s this tall, brooding dude with a pretty impressive beard.

It’s an odd thing to register that I love my dad’s laugh, but I do. “Dad,” I say, rubbing a hand down my face. your dating life.”Īnd then sometimes I think I can’t escape fast enough.

“I wanted to say a few more things to you about. Some days I feel like I would be insane to leave this town and move somewhere else. The sun is setting over the horizon and it’s a dizzying mix of oranges and reds framed by long, delicate palms. “Hang on, Luke.” Dad catches me on the porch, stopping me with a hand wrapped around my elbow. It bothers me that she’s so clear that nothing else will happen between us, but if all I can get from her is friendship, I like her enough to want to work for it.īut even though I know she was working last night, I didn’t go to Fred’s. It bothers me to see her so obviously worrying about what Mia, and Harlow, and Lola would think of us together. It bothers me that I have no clue how to undo her perception of me, because it isn’t entirely wrong. It bothers me that she felt she had to lie about working, but I get it. I like her a lot, and having it all reduced to a joke, or an amusing conversation over the dinner table, is starting to wear on me. I’ve given Margot more trouble in her lifetime than I can ever hope she’ll repay, but I do like London. I grab my sweatshirt from the back of the couch on the way out, feeling like my heart is going to punch its way out of my body.

Wicked sexy liar