Page 20 of XOXO, Summer
I smile. “That’s a Dolly.” Coming closer to him, I whisper, “My grandmother.” I can only assume he wasn’t prepared to meet my entire family, but here we are. “It will be okay.”
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart.”
CHAPTER 6
DANIEL
“It’s Summer,” she calls through the house, letting the sound carry to the back of it. “I brought a friend.”
That shouldn’t leave me smiling, but there’s something sweet about this girl. I lower my head, and whisper, “Friends, huh?”
She rolls her pretty eyes and pokes me in the arm. “Be good.”
“Trust me. I’m always good.” I give her a wink.
“Oh my, my,” she mutters under her breath as she leaves me standing in the foyer of this old house. “I tried to warn you. They’re going to make you pay the toll for use of the bathroom.”
“What’s the fee?”
“Your time.”
Roman comes out of the bathroom, and says, “Nice throne.”
“No.” I bend down and whisper, “Manners, please.”
“You taught me that.”
“It’s a guy thing, buddy. Not for the ladies.”
Turning back, she signals behind her. “Come on.”
I take his hand, which wasn’t properly dried, adding something else we need to work on to the list, and head to Summer, who’s waiting for us. Dark wood panels line the walls with an eclectic array of rugs and knick-knacks around. We entered near a small table with a ceramic bowl that looks like something made in elementary school and walked past a dining room with a long wooden table in the front that seats ten, while paralleling a large set of stairs with a floral runner beneath our feet. Summer said it was her sisters and her grandmother here, and by the looks of it, they’ve made the place their own, as evidenced by the pink paint and blue shutters outside. Unique seems to be an understatement when it comes to her and her family.
Waiting on us, she stands there in her beauty that I’m not sure she’s fully aware of. She wavers between an innocence that peeks through like sunshine on a cloudy day, and on the flip side, she’s proficient and even eager to please to get her job done. But it’s the third wild element that’s most captivating. Her shoulders ease, and a smile comes without warning when we dance around the suggestion of anything sexual. I’m so used to women being forward and telling me exactly what they want in the bedroom. Plenty are happy to hide their motives for fame, even the adjacent ones, and access to money. Mine, specifically.
It’s uninteresting.
Summer Season is anything but boring. There’s not been an ounce of wanting anything from me other than to make sure we’re taken care of and having a good time. She treats me so normal like I’m not me, I’m not Daniel Sutton, super star right wing for the Brooklyn Breakaways, not famous or even known. It’s refreshing. I appreciate her efforts not to make a big deal out of me. That’s all I get in the city. It’s a nice change here in the Cove.
When I reach her, she enters the back room. “Dolly, this is our Cove Cottage tenant for the summer, Daniel?—”
“Sutton,” her grandmother fills in as if it’s been waiting on the tip of her tongue. Rushing past her granddaughter, she swoops right into me, wrapping her arms around my body like a vise grip.
“Yes.” That is practically gut punched out of me when her Dolly clings to me when a handshake would have sufficed. “We’re hugging. Okay. Alright.” I pat her gently as the short woman buries her head against my abs. “You got a good hold on me there, Dolly.”
Summer takes her arm with a laugh that’s bordering on awkwardness as her eyes dart from me to Dolly again. “She sure does. Let’s wrap this up and let Mr. Sutton breathe again, Grandma.”
Dolly releases me as soon as “Grandma” comes out of her mouth. “Mind your manners, ma’am,” she snaps at Summer.
Summer wraps her arms around Dolly from behind, and I can’t determine if it’s a hug or a restraint tactic. “You too,” she teases right back. “This is Daniel’s son, Roman.”
Dolly leans down and taps his nose. “Do you like cookies?”
“I like cookies a lot.”
“How do you feel about chocolate chip?”
