“So, you’re the reason he’s been smiling lately.” Tyler’s mom/Eve appears next to me as I stand by the bar, waiting for Vince to return from the restroom. Her curly hair looks adorably insane and she looks like a very happy birthday girl.

“Oh I don’t know. Why—does he not usually?”

“Hah! Mr. Seriously Sexy? I don’t think so.” She smacks my arm with her hand. “I can’t believe it’s you!”

“How’s Tyler?”

“He’s great! He’s with his sperm donor dad for the week, at Fire Island. He really loved you as a teacher,” she gushes, with her hand to her heart. “You really opened him up. Where’s Roxy? I told her you were here, she flipped out. We’re always talking about how you turned things around for Ty.”

“I appreciate you saying that, but he probably would have started to open up anyway as he got older.”

“No. It was you. Let’s hope you can work the same magic on our boy Vince. Turn his life around. Wouldn’t that be nice.”

I smile. “Actually, I think it’s safe to say that he’s the one who’s turning my life around.”

“I’m sure, but still.” She waves her hand. “Thank God that Sadie’s gone. Ech. He was always in such a bad mood when he was with her those last few months.” She shudders.

Someone comes up behind Eve and hugs her. She looks back to see who it is and screams, and thus ends our conversation. I wish we could have talked longer.

I hear Vince call my name. I see him standing with two other men and a lady. They are all staring at me, and Vince waves me over.

The older man looks like a heavyset present-day Alec Baldwin and the younger man looks like a bigger more angular version of Vince. The middle-aged woman standing in between them looks unequivocally happy to be near them and I can see why. The Devlins all have the cool-sexy-handsome gene. God help us.

The woman waves at me, holds out her hand. “I’m Sharon! It’s nice to meet you!”

“This is my Dad’s girlfriend,” Vince says, and Sharon starts beaming like he just said she’s the queen of the universe.

I shake her hand. “Hi I’m Nina, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“This is my Dad, Neil Devlin.”

Neil Devlin has a poker face and mischievous dark eyes. He looks down at me as he shakes my hand, saying nothing.

“How do you do.”

He bows his head and slow-blinks his eyes, watching me. I can’t tell if he hates me or not.

The bigger, bolder version of Vince, who has been studying me while standing very still and holding a tumbler, takes my hand and doesn’t really shake it, doesn’t let go of it either. “You really dating this idiot?”

“My brother, Gabe.” Vince is shaking his head, amused.

“Hi, Gabe. Yes, I really am.”

“Well, you ever want to hang with a real man, you come see me.”

“And then he’ll send you to the real man in the family—me—and I’ll send you back to Vince.”

“And I will keep you the hell away from these assholes from now on.”

Sharon giggles as Neil puts his arm around her.

“The new nanny watching Charlie tonight?” Vince asks his father.

“Yeah. Karen.” He looks at me. “We hire a sixty year-old nanny this time and this one can’t even remember her name.”

Good to know.

“I remember her name. Karen. Karen Walters.”

“Karen Williams,” says Gabe.

“It’s Karen Winters,” Sharon says.

“See why I keep her around,” Neil Devlin says, giving Sharon a squeeze, and I get a wink. “We’re very happy to meet you, Nina. Vince has been slightly more tolerable since he met you, which is saying a lot.”

“Actually, he’s even less tolerable because he just spaces out and smiles like a moron in meetings.” Gabe punches Vince’s arm.

These guys are so cute, it’s too much.

“Okay, let’s go get you that drink now.” Vince pulls me back towards the bar and I wave to the Devlins and Sharon. “That was terrible,” he says, looking down.

“Awww, come on,” I say, rubbing his back. “Haven’t you ever run into your family when you were out in public before? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”

“Okay, smartass. You ready for your French Kiss?”

“Am I ever.”

He goes behind the bar, salutes the bartender with two fingers, and starts inspecting the stock.

In no time, a clean-cut man in a polo shirt is standing right up next to me as I lean against the counter. He looks over and nods at me. I smile, politely.

“I’m Mark,” he says, holding out his hand to me.

“Hi Mark, I’m Nina.” He may be a co-worker or client of Vince’s, so I don’t make a point of moving away from him.

“You having a good night, Nina?”

“So far so good. You?”

“Getting better. Can I get you a drink?”

“I got her covered, man.” Vince’s voice is deeper than usual.

Mark raises his eyebrow at him. “Hey, can I get a gin and tonic?”

I guess they don’t know each other.

“Yeah, you should definitely walk your loafers on over there and ask the bartender for one of those.”

“Excuse me?”

“I think you heard me.” Vince’s jaw is so rigid as he leans against the counter, flexing his muscles.

I force a laugh. “Um, he’s not the bartender, he’s just making me a drink.”

“I think you’d be better off getting a drink with me, somewhere else,” Mark says.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Vince slams down the bottle he was holding and starts out around the bar.

I hurry around to block this guy from Vince, and pull him, with all my might, away and out of the room.

“I wasn’t gonna hit him,” he says.

“I’d just like to talk to you outside please.”

I lead him through the lounge and to the front doors, without looking back at him.

I can control a room full of six year-olds, I should be able to get one twenty-eight year-old man to behave himself. Here’s how it is, here are the rules. Rules bind our anxiety so we don’t have to worry about what we should be doing. I learned that while I was getting my degree. And while I was dating Russell.

I let go of his hand when we’re on the sidewalk. No one else is around. I put my hands on my hips. Vince looks defiant, but also a tiny bit ashamed.

“You can’t talk to people like that. Isn’t everyone a potential client for you?”

“We have a strict no douchebag client policy.”

“Well it makes me uncomfortable when you talk to someone like that just because he was talking to me.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were so into him.”

“Vince. I was not into him. I’m here with you. I’m not going to ignore men who talk to me, especially when I have no idea if they know you or not, but I have no interest in getting to know them. You can trust me.”

“I do trust you, it’s that guy that I don’t trust.”

“Well, I can’t make you trust someone, but please try not to let your feathers get ruffled. This is our first time out on a real date and I’d prefer it if there were no bloodshed.”

He looks at me like I’ve been speaking a foreign language, and then a smile spreads across his face and he lowers his head, laughing. “’Try not to let your feathers get ruffled?’ What are you—ninety?”

“Well now you’re just trying to ruffle my feathers,” I say, putting up my dukes.

He grabs my hands and pulls my arms around his waist. “Baby, I want to ruffle your feathers until you’re too exhausted to fly away.”

“Yeah?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Is there anyone else whose feathers you want to ruffle any time soon?”

“Hell no.”

“Well, we’re on the same page, then. You asked me to give you the summer. How about we officially agree that we will only be with each other this summer? To eliminate anxiety.”

His face gets so serious, and I almost regret my approach. “What if I still want you when the summer’s over?”

It’s difficult to get your facial muscles to form a smile when you’re completely melting on the sidewalk, but somehow I manage. “We can revisit this issue in September.”

“Plan on it. Deal.” He puts his hands on my face and kisses my mouth. “I’m all yours this summer.”

“I’m all yours this summer.”

Even under the dim streetlight, I can see that his eyes are sparkling. “You are something else.”

“Thanks?”

“Thank you. I hope you don’t have plans for tomorrow morning, cuz I’m gonna take you to brunch.”

“Really?! I love brunch!”

“I had a feeling.”

“Shall we go back to the party now?”

He cranes his neck, looks around over my shoulder. “There’s an alley over there. I could ruffle your feathers a little more first.”

I spank his perfect butt. “Back to the party, sir. That will have to wait until we’re back at your place.”

He groans and takes my hand as we head back to the front door of the bar. “You’re mean, Miss Parks.”

“It’s for your own good,” I say, and then lean in to whisper in his ear: “Trust me, you’re going to want to see me in the bonkers lingerie I have in my purse.” Words I have certainly never uttered before in my life.

I hold up my tiny purse and he stops in his tracks, pulls out his phone and opens up his Uber app. I take his phone away from him. “No we have to say goodbye to everyone first.”

“You are slowly killing me, Miss Parks.”

As we make our way through the front of the bar, I notice a young woman who’s watching us. Vince doesn’t see her. In one second her facial expression reveals so many things when she watches Vince—lust, hope, anger, bitterness, wistfulness. I know in the pit of my stomach that she has probably slept with him, and because she doesn’t approach him, he probably hasn’t seen her since.

Finally, after he has passed by her, she calls out: “Vince.”

He looks back at her, still holding my hand, and I see no hint in his face that seeing her causes him to feel any emotions at all. “Oh hey, good to see you. Have a good night.” Polite, pleasant, and not at all personal. He puts his arm around me and we retreat into the private room. I don’t look back to see the woman’s reaction, but I know how I would feel if I were in her shoes. I try not to think about whether or not I will be in her shoes, or when. For now, I believe him when he tells me he’s mine. All I have to do is get through the summer without losing my mind.