Summer's Need by Ann Mayburn Page A

was allegedly
a gift from Jimmy Hendrix.
    The owner of all these artifacts, Ember, breezed through the
door in a flurry of some sandalwood-based perfume and flowing brightly colored
gypsy skirts. Her long silver hair was back in a thick braid as usual and she
wore a beautiful necklace of orange and white glass beads with an iridescent
sheen. After tossing her motorcycle saddle bags into the corner she gave them a
bright smile and sat in her worn brown suede chair with a happy sigh.
    “Summer, Dave, I’m so happy to see you again.” She abruptly
sat forward and folded her hands. “I got both of your assignments and I’m so
very, very proud of you for being open with your fantasies and sharing them
with me.” Her grin became teasing. “And look, you expressed your desires and no
morality police came and said you were perverts.”
    Clearing his throat, Dave tried to cover up his laughter as
Summer flushed. She had felt like a pervert when she typed up one of her
favorite sexual fantasies for Ember. It was only the fact that she knew Ember
wouldn’t judge her that allowed her to spill some secrets. Evidently Dave had
felt the same way because his grip eased on her hand.
    Ember tilted back in her chair, her silver-ring-clad fingers
drumming on the battered arms. To Summer it seemed as if the other woman had so
much energy it was physically impossible for her to stay still. Dave thought
she was on meth.
    “How are you doing? Did you manage to chill out together?”
    Summer and Dave exchanged a glance. Things had been better
between them, but it still wasn’t good. She still found it next to impossible
to not think about the work she should be doing instead of just sitting around
and being lazy. Her father had abhorred lazy people and blamed most of
society’s ills on those who chose to sit around and let someone else do the
work.
    She shrugged. “It went okay. We watched a movie together.”
    Dave snorted and Ember turned her attention to him. “Do you
have something to say, Dave? I mean other than the passive-aggressive man noise
that you know drives your wife up a wall.”
    “Ask her what the movie was about.”
    Heat filled Summer’s cheeks and she glared at Dave. “It was
about some cowboys or something.”
    Ember sighed, drawing their attention back to her. “Let me
guess, she was on her laptop.”
    “No I wasn’t.” Summer squared her shoulders and pulled her
hand away from Dave’s. God, it felt as if he’d tattled on her.
    Dave crossed his arms and leaned against the other side of
the couch, bringing that cold distance back between them. “No, she wasn’t on
her laptop, she was on her smartphone.”
    “I had to! It was nine a.m. in Seoul and my client’s server
was being attacked. You know my job requires that I be available twenty-four
hours. It’s not like I can say to them ‘Oh, sorry that hundreds of thousands of
dollars are being drained from your bank account. Wish I could help but I have
to watch a movie with my husband’.”
    “That’s just an excuse, Summer, and you know it. That kid
your boss hired as your assistant, Eric, he could have taken care of it.”
    “They need me, not Eric. Me!”
    Ember’s mellow voice interrupted them. “Summer, your family
needs you more. You are the only person in the world who can be his wife and a
mother to your children.”
    That statement pricked the balloon of her anger and she
sagged into the couch, guilt and shame rapidly replacing her anger. “I know
that.” She sounded sullen and petulant, even to herself. “I just need a few
more years and I’ll be able to take more time off.”
    Dave sounded incredibly weary as he asked, “Isn’t that what
your dad used to say? Just one more business trip, just one more year. How did
that work out, Summer?”
    “You leave my father out of this.”
    Ember sat up in her chair. “Dave, we discussed this. Apologize
to Summer.”
    Her husband and her marriage counselor exchanged a weighted
look and Summer