By suppertime, they’d made terrific progress on cleaning the house.
Vivi had found a new energy, too. Impressing the sweet neighbor boy with her out-of-town exoticism and quick wit had brought her out of her coolness.
After Annette and Elijah had left—and long after Jude had gone—the mother and daughter folded themselves into Quinn’s car to drive up to Bertie’s for another night.
Once on the road, Quinn could not help but pry. “So, Viv. What happened?”
“What do you mean? Upstairs? Well, I found a little charm or something—” She started to dig into her jeans pocket, but that wasn’t Quinn’s question.
“No. Not at the house. I mean at…” Her mouth turned dry over the word home. There was no way she could use it. Not if she was trying to wage a campaign to bring Vivi to Harbor Hills more permanently. At least part time. At the very least part time. “I mean back in Birch Harbor.”
“Dad told you,” Vivi snapped, giving up on finding the charm and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Actually, he didn’t.” Quinn added, “Not everything, at least.”
Vivi threw her a sidelong glance. “He told you I was in trouble.”
Raising an eyebrow, Quinn kept her focus on the road. “He said there had been some trouble. Not that you were in trouble.”
“Same difference,” the girl huffed and turned her head to the window. “Everything was fine. No—it was great. Then Dominic had to go and lose his scholarship.”
“How?”
Vivi let out a sigh. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“We’re almost to Bertie’s.” The way Vivi said it—Bertie’s, like it was a grandmother’s name, or an aunt’s. Like Harbor Hills was already ingrained in her. So soon. So easily. Quinn savored this moment. Maybe this town, though not their own, could become part of them together. They could be new there together, and a piece of this new place could be theirs—something to share. Mother and daughter.
“Well,” Quinn said, pulling into a spot outside the inn, “when you want to talk about it, I’m here.”
Vivi didn’t budge. She didn’t move to unbuckle her seat belt. She didn’t reach beneath her thigh to scroll through her phone compulsively. Instead, she turned to her mother. “He cheated.”
They were each tucked in their own beds, the room dark and small around them.
Quinn asked simply, quietly, “Cheated?” The word alone was enough to conjure back up the conversation they’d left at Bertie’s front door.
“Not on me.”
Now, she was confused. “Okay, so, you said Dominic cheated. But not on you?”
“Right,” Vivi confirmed. Her voice was clear, and it was all Quinn had to focus on in the blackness.
Quinn’s breath hitched. Was this the moment? The last time Vivi had lived with her—two years ago—they’d had the conversation. The birds and the bees. The whole thing proved to be even more awkward than Quinn could have predicted, particularly once Vivi shot her down with a quick and flat, “I already know.”
Quinn hated that her daughter already knew. Now, here they were. Potentially on the brink of the second phase of that conversation. More birds. More bees. And now a villainous boyfriend added to the mix. “Were you two”—Quinn swallowed past the lump, crafting her phrasing carefully—“serious?”
Vivi’s reply came fast. “What? Ew, Mom! No! This isn’t about that.”
Quinn’s chest deflated and she shifted on her pillow to get more comfortable. A whew silently escaped her lips, then she said, “Oh, right.”
A quiet beat spanned across the distance of the twin beds. Yes, twin. Bertie’s was old-fashioned to a fault. Quinn didn’t mind, though.
“It was the SAT,” Vivi whispered.
“What was the SAT?” Quinn whispered back, matching her daughter’s conspiratorial tone.
“That he cheated on.”
“Dominic cheated on the SAT?” Quinn felt…unimpressed. To say the least.
“Mhm. And they caught him, and he lost his scholarship. So, that’s why he’s staying in Birch Harbor instead of going to Detroit.”
“But not why you’re here in Harbor Hills,” Quinn pointed out gently.
Vivi shifted in her bed loudly, tossing sheets, tugging them, maybe. Quinn couldn’t see her to know, and the sounds seemed put on.
“Dad told you,” she huffed.
“He didn’t. I promise, Viv.” Quinn blinked in the blackness. Then again. One last time.
“They think I’m the one he cheated with.”
“What? That makes no sense.”
“He snuck his phone into the testing room, and he texted…someone.”
The tug of exhaustion coupled with the exhilaration of Vivi’s unprecedented bonding had Quinn feeling dizzy in her bed. Confusion colored her thoughts as she made some sort of meaning from Vivi’s explanation. “Okay,” she said, shifting to face Vivi in the darkness. “You’re saying Dominic took his phone into the SAT test—which isn’t allowed—then texted someone for, what? Answers? Who did he text?”
Her daughter made a sound of exasperation. “I mean—some girl.”
“I’m sorry, Viv. I’m tired, and I’m not following.”
“Mom, all that matters is that he cheated on the SAT and got caught.”
This was still weird. “But you had nothing to do with it,” she said flatly.
“I positively did not help him cheat on the SAT.”
“Okay, then. Do you think he was cheating on you? With this…accomplice?”
“Mom, no.” Vivi was losing her patience fast. Quinn had to get her act together.
“Okay, well, whatever happened—it’s not your fault. It’s Dominic’s. Right?” Sleep was pulling hard at her brain, and she could tell she was losing Vivi. But she needed the drama spelled out. Quinn was far too removed from high school high jinks to “get it.”
“Well, yeah. But his dad was going to kill him, so he needed, like, a scapegoat.”
Quinn startled beneath her covers, shocked at this. “Wait a minute. Mayor Van Holt—Dominic’s father believes you are responsible for this so-called cheating?”
“Yes,” Vivi whispered. “And you can’t tell anyone. You have to swear, Mom.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Quinn reached for the bedside lamp and flipped it on.
Vivi winced and moaned. “Ow, Mom. Turn it off.”
Flipping it back off, Quinn propped herself on her elbow. “You mean you took the fall, Vivi? That’s why you’re here? What—running from trouble that you aren’t responsible for?”
Vivi grumbled her reply. “Dad is the only other person who knows. I made him swear on my grave that he wouldn’t tell.”
“Why are you protecting that boy? This is ridiculous, Viv. You’re compromising your own future for Dominic Van Holt?”
“I care about him, Mom! And his dad is the mayor. I, like, had no choice. And when I just played along, well, it made everything easier. Anyway, I can’t get in any real trouble. It wasn’t my test. It was Dom’s. And anyway, he’s already suffered enough. Lost his scholarship. Now he’s stuck working at the marina all summer and going to a community college. Maybe.” Vivi’s voice shook with emotion, but Quinn didn’t know if it was heartache or worry or what.
“Viv,” Quinn whispered, “this is silly. Your dad can fix it for you. I’m sure the mayor would want the right thing. Right? I mean—what on earth is he thinking? That his son walks on water? Did they check the phone number? Trace it to the real culprit?” A grown man acting like a teenager and her daughter acting like a martyr. Quinn never would have seen this coming. Then again…
“Mom, the real culprit doesn’t matter. None of it matters anymore!” She was raising her voice now. “It’s over, Mom!”
“But Dominic is staying around in Birch Harbor. Working at the marina and looking into community colleges? Are you still together?”
“I mean…”
There it was.
The true motive for Vivi’s cover-up. Unadulterated puppy love. Infatuation. The thing that had brought Quinn down, too. A need to be needed above all else.
“Vivi,” Quinn said as gently as she could muster, “I’m calling the mayor tomorrow. You aren’t taking the fall for this. I won’t stand for it.”
“Mom, don’t. Please.”
“You’re—what? Going to stay with Dom? Pretend like he didn’t throw you under the bus? Go along with his lie? Are you crazy, Vivi?”
Vivi hissed back, “What? You mean crazy like you?”
There was no response. Not a thing Quinn could say back. Her left eyelid twitched, and her stomach ached with stress. She told Vivi goodnight. They’d talk again in the morning.
It took what felt like two hours, but Quinn finally fell into a hard sleep. The sort of sleep that had her dreaming and drooling and dry-mouthed when she awoke to a slit of sunshine the next morning.
She turned to Vivi’s bed, fumbling through her dreams to the memory of their conversation, nearly ready to just apologize and let her daughter be.
But she couldn’t.
Vivi was gone.