“I was busy supervising a ladder for Dad while he inspected the gutters and pretended he knew what he was looking at.”
“Hey, watch it,” Matthew warned, shaking a finger jokingly at his son.
Noah rolled his eyes, casting a quick smile our way. “You put them in a room full of toys, Mom. What did you expect? When have you ever known these two to turn down a pogo stick?”
Matthew laughed. “Boy’s got a point, honey.”
“Kids, look,” said June. “I know this is difficult, and I know you’re going to find all these nice childhood memories and toys, but I really need you to pull together and come through for me on this, okay? We really need to get this place sorted.”
I exchanged a look with Lee, both of us feeling just a little bit guilty under this wave of parental disappointment. Especially when June looked so tired. I had to wonder if it was the weight of selling the beach house or if it was being busy all day.
“How long does it usually take to sell a house out here?” Rachel asked, clearly making an effort to defuse the tension.
It didn’t really work.
“We’ve still got to put it on the market,” Matthew said, “but we’ve already had a few inquiries. By the time we pack up and get it on the market…”
June added, “Surveys, paperwork…”
“Probably two or three months.” He nodded, sharing a small smile with his wife. “It’s gonna be a real pain coming back out here all the time, though.”
“Wait, what?” Lee asked, a frown tugging at his face.
“Well, we’ve gotta meet with the appraisers, surveyors, and contractors, obviously,” his dad explained. “Plus we were gonna get a few things fixed around here, just in case.”
Lee began to huff at the mere idea of it, but my brain had already kicked into gear.
A couple of months to sell the place…and we definitely weren’t gonna get packed up in just one or two afternoons, judging by how today had gone.
And neither me, Lee, nor Noah were anywhere near ready to say goodbye to this place just yet.
I elbowed Lee to get him to look at me. After a second, he cottoned on. I saw his eyes brighten and we shared a moment of being absolutely in sync with each other—like when we’d decided to run the kissing booth at the school’s Spring Carnival last year, where I’d first kissed Noah.
Because what better way to spend our last summer before college?
What better way to spend our last summer with the beach house?
“Wow,” I said loudly, turning back to Lee’s parents. “That sure does sound like a real pain.”
“Especially with all the roadwork going on this summer,” Lee added.
“And all that cleaning is gonna be rough.”
“Gonna have to get at all those weeds…”
I saw Noah looking at us like we’d gone mad (which was a look he gave us relatively frequently, in fairness) before it dawned on him, too.
“Gonna have to patch up the driveway, too,” Noah pitched in, giving his parents a probably-too-serious look and nodding when they turned to him.
“Constantly having to drive out here all the time, to check up on all that work.” Lee sighed, brow furrowing. “Right, Rach?”
“Right,” she said quickly. “Right. Totally. It’s gonna take up a whole lot of time over the next two or three months. That’s a lot of work.”
“So much work,” I added.
June and Matthew looked at each other for a long moment, half confused and half amused. She pursed her lips, obviously trying to hold back a smile; he gave a helpless shrug.
“All right,” June said, clapping her hands and twisting to face us again, looking at each of us in turn for a long moment with a piercing mom stare. “Spill it. What are you kids getting at?”
Lee took the lead, declaring with a grand voice, “So glad you asked, Mother Dearest! Since this is going to be our final summer in the beach house, what with your hearts shrinking ten sizes and shriveling in your greed and old age, and since you’ve decided to destroy my delicate childhood memories, it seems to me you guys could use someone—or someones—here to help coordinate stuff….”
“And we’d be happy to stay here for the summer and take care of things for you guys,” Noah said, taking over. “We can do a bunch of the work, too. Except the gutters, obviously, since Dad’s already done such a stellar job of those.”
I could’ve smacked my hands over both their mouths. Lee calling his parents greedy and old, Noah making fun of his dad’s DIY abilities…Yeah, I thought. Way to sell it, boys.
“WOW, Noah!” I interrupted as Lee drew breath, putting on my best infomercial voice. “That sounds like a win-win for everybody! This summer, ladies and gents, for one summer only, a one-time exclusive offer! Get your beloved family beach house cleaned up for sale and have live-in supervisors to help manage the sale! Just call one-eight-hundred-US-GUYS to make sure you don’t miss out!”
Matthew cracked a little smile, but June’s face only turned stonier. “And I suppose it’ll take all four of you here to supervise.”
“A package deal, I’m afraid,” Lee said. “No refunds, no exchanges.”
“We’ll take real good care of this place,” I told them earnestly. “You know we will. I mean, who else could you trust to look after this place better than us?”
Lee added, “And we can all still be here for Fourth of July! Mom, you always say how important it is to keep traditions.”
“It would be a great way to say goodbye to the place,” Rachel said tentatively.
“And Lee will even take out the trash every Sunday,” Noah promised, winking at his little brother and clapping him around the shoulders. Lee pulled a face back at him, but it was brief, before he turned a beaming face on his parents.
“So…Mom? Dad? What do you say?”
They exchanged another look, and I could hear the dramatic music playing out in my head, like we were on The Voice and waiting to hear who’d won the final vote. The seconds dragged on into eternity and I could’ve sworn not a single one of us was breathing. Even Noah looked tense, excited.
Matthew drew a long, deep breath, taking an age to let it out again.
June looked back at us once more.
“All right. You kids can stay here for the summer.”
I shrieked, jumping into the air, my arms flailing, hands flapping. Lee crouched down before punching the air, jumping, too. Rachel let out an excited squeal.