Chapter 48

When the screen door slapped shut behind Tara, Marlene ducked her head to peer over the top of her sunglasses and grinned. “There you are. Been worried sick.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Tara dropped into the closest chair and perched on the edge, while Amanda leaned on the back to hang on every word. “Listen, about tonight—”

“Mandy tell you?” Settling back, Marlene took a long swill of her beer and sighed. “Paul will be here around four. I figure we can go into Cape May, maybe try the Lobster House—”

“Mom, God,” Amanda groaned. “You need reservations for that place.”

“We’ll head over early,” Marlene countered. “If the wait’s too long, I know of a few other places we can go.”

Tara shook her head. “Well, y’all have fun, because I’m not going.”

With a dismissive wave, Marlene said, “Psh, you’ll like Paul. Just wait—”

“I’m going to the boardwalk,” Tara started.

Amanda interrupted. “She already has a date.”

Great, Tara thought. So much for subtlety.

Marlene glanced over, then pulled down her sunglasses as if to get a better look. Whatever she saw must not have impressed her much, because she scoffed. “Yeah, right. Where’d you meet somebody?”

Before Tara could answer, Amanda said, “I bet it was at the bar, wasn’t it? Hey, you spent an awful lot of time chatting with that cute little bartender. It’s her, isn’t it?”

“Her?” Marlene cried. She sat up so fast, her elbow knocked her beer off the arm of her chair and sent it clattering to the ground. White suds bubbled out onto the wooden floorboards, but the bottle didn’t break.

Marlene didn’t seem to notice. Tearing off her shades, she looked from Amanda to Tara, wild-eyed, demanding. “What’s this now? Some kind of joke? Because if so, it isn’t funny. Tara, what—”

“Yes, alright?” Tara glared over her shoulder at Amanda. Ideally, she could’ve spent her entire visit without coming out to her aunt; did everyonehave to know she was a lesbian? It wasn’t anything she kept hidden, no, but it wasn’t something she felt the need to broadcast to the world, either. Her sexuality was herbusiness, and no one else’s. The only other person it could possibly matter to was the one she chose to share herself with.

But now the cat was out of the bag, as they said, and though Tara had hoped to beg off from dinner and the blind date gracefully, that was no longer an option. In fact, judging from the veins popping through her aunt’s tanned features, things were about to get ugly quick.

Hoping to diffuse the situation, Tara explained, “I didn’t intend for this to happen. I came here for a vacation, you know? I missed the boardwalk, and the beach, and you guys, of course. And then there’s the wedding…” She nodded at Amanda, as if her cousin was the real reason she’d made the trip and not simply a convenient excuse. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wasn’t interested in meeting anyone. I’m not looking for a summer romance.”

Amanda raised her eyebrows suggestively. “But…”

Tara shrugged. “But Delaney and I hit it off. She’s around my age, and really nice, and we had a great time last night after I dropped you guys off—”

“Get. Out.”

Both Tara and Amanda turned to see Marlene glaring at them, her face almost purple with barely contained rage. Each word came out separate, bitten off in anger and spat vehemently.

Tara spoke first. “I didn’t mean—”

“Get out of my house,” Marlene elaborated. “I don’t want you sleeping in the same room with my daughter.”

Rolling her eyes, Amanda sighed. “Mom, please. You’re being stupid. Just because she’s a dyke doesn’t mean she likes me. Jeez.”

But Marlene didn’t want to hear it. Pulling her dress down over her legs as if remembering how overexposed she was, she pointed a finger at the screen door. “You people make me sick. You’re not welcome here any longer.”

“You people.” Tara laughed bitterly. “You know what makes me sick? Laying around all day doing nothing but getting drunk. Before noon even. Going out bar-hopping with your daughter like you’re twenty when you’re obviously not.”

Amanda placed a hand on her shoulder in warning. “Don’t.”

But Tara wasn’t done yet. “Setting me up with some guy you want to sleep with after I told you I’m not interested in him.” Her voice rose as she stood, until she was standing over Marlene, shouting down at her. “Why? So you can pretend you’rethe one out with him? Fine then. You go out with Paul tonight. I have my owndate, thank you very much.”

With that, she stormed past Amanda and back into the house. It wouldn’t take long to grab her things and pack up the car.