Just for the Summer

“Sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are.”

This passage represents a shared lesson that both Emma and Justin must learn to have successful relationships with each other and their loved ones. It also encapsulates one of the book’s main themes: Always Choose Empathy. The novel emphasizes the importance of understanding why people make the choices they make rather than resorting to anger or judgment.

“That old thrill ran through me. The one I always got when she showed up again unexpectedly, to rescue me, or surprise me, or finally take me home. I ran toward her. And when I met her in the middle of the lawn and she hugged me, I was so overwhelmed with relief, I started to cry. I was a little girl again. Catapulted back to eight years old, in the arms of my mother.”

Emma is normally aloof toward everyone and everything in her life. However, Amber’s appearance is the first time Emma is overcome with excitement and joy. This reaction hints at how much influence Amber has over Emma’s emotional and mental states and heightens the tension for the eventual chaos Amber will bring.

“I felt so tired all of a sudden. Seeing Mom was great, a wonderful surprise. But at the same time, I wished she wasn’t here. But then I’d just be worried about where she was. It was like there was no peaceful place to exist, no emotional safe space. I could have chaos, or I could have worry. I could be in the tornado, or I could be in the eye. But I could never be out of the storm. It was so, so exhausting to live this way and I had always lived this way because when it came to my mother, I didn’t know how to not care. I never felt calm except for the fleeting time her perfume was strong and I knew she was okay. But I am never really okay.”

Even while telling Maddy that she’s long since healed from her childhood trauma, Emma admits to the negative feelings Amber still causes her in the present. This passage reveals her internal conflict about Amber. Her love for her mother and her desperation for her affection wars with her exhaustion from dealing with Amber’s destructive chaos. Though Emma cannot recognize it, her tumultuous feelings reveal the unresolved trauma that continues to shape her life.

“Then why did you live out of a suitcase the entire time we were at home? […] You never once unpacked. Not really. […] So you don’t think that’s weird? That you can’t ever act like you actually live somewhere? That you’re always ready to take off on a moment’s notice?”

Maddy remains true to her character by voicing the truths Emma prefers to avoid. By calling out Emma’s tendency to live out of suitcases, Maddy implies that Emma has unresolved trauma despite Emma’s protests.

“For a second, I let myself imagine. Pretended that five years from now I’d be coming here for Christmas. Maybe they’d be married and she’d be comfortable, living with all this wealth and privilege, and he’d be happy because his life had been graced by a beautiful, charming muse. I wanted it so badly. Even though experience and common sense told me not to hope, it burst into life inside me anyway.”

Despite claiming she doesn’t want permanency, Emma daydreams of stability for her mother. This hints at the unhappiness and discontent that lingers in the back of Emma’s mind even while claiming to love her current lifestyle.

“He didn’t hold me for longer than he should. But I found myself sort of wishing he would have. I needed the hug, I realized. And Justin was a really good hugger. Warm and firm, like he’d given and received a lot of hugs in his life.”

While Emma’s unresolved trauma impacts her relationships with others, Justin’s lack of childhood trauma shows in his ability to give and receive love so easily. The solidity and comfort of his hugs are a manifestation of the stable and loving childhood provided to him by his parents.

“I think the thing that always got me through the stuff with my mom was knowing that she didn’t want to be the way she was. Nobody wants to be the villain, Justin. If you start there, it’s easier to get how people end up who they are and where they are. My mom put me through a lot. She hurt me. A lot. But she’s full of more cracks than I can ever comprehend.”

Emma’s ability to Always Choose Empathy is a strength in that it allows her to choose happiness over anger, which is arguably healthier. However, it is a reason for her lack of boundaries with Amber, which allows her mother to take advantage of her hope. This passage also refers to the metaphor of “cracks” that Emma uses to understand how trauma and pain shape people’s choices, and that will eventually transform Justin’s relationship with his mother.

“I liked the idea of Justin talking about me to her, I realized. Of him talking about me to anyone. Being important enough to come up in conversation. And then I realized that I’d actually feel hurt if I wasn’t. If I was just some fling for him that didn’t warrant mentioning to his friends and family. But why would that bother me? That’s essentially what this was—a fling.”

Emma’s admission reveals that Justin is not like the past men she’s dated. Unlike them, she sees a future with Justin. Even though she claims to not want it, she yearns for it deep down.

“Maybe a wall that I usually had up was coming down a little—probably because of the circumstances of our arrangement. Or maybe not. Maybe it was just him. Something about this made me feel uneasy. Like something scary was happening but I couldn’t explain what.”

Emma is unable to pinpoint what bothers her about her feelings toward Justin. This is because she has unresolved childhood trauma that she is avoiding rather than facing head-on. The fact that she cannot understand her discomfort demonstrates that part of the way trauma affects her life is by operating at a subconscious level that she cannot yet confront.

“I was angry again, but not at Mom. This time I was angry at the world. The judge who gave her such a long sentence. The manufacturer of the airbag that didn’t save my dad, the friends who didn’t stop the drunk driver from getting in the car—I was even mad at the nonprofit that didn’t notice money was missing until it was so much it meant this. And I was angry at the timing. Of all of it. Because none of it was fair and I knew deep down what it meant. I would lose Emma to this. It was early and it was new between us, but everything in me was shouting that she was important. But I also knew I couldn’t make it work now. Not with my life like this. I felt selfish for wishing she would stay, meet me where I was, in the rubble that was my family.”

Though Justin was able to choose empathy over anger before his mom was imprisoned, it is something his character continues to struggle with. It is not until his third-act breakup with Emma that he will be able to effectively put this technique into practice.

“Every single molecule of my body was in the place where his mouth touched mine. I hadn’t even seen it coming and then suddenly it was everything and all there was. The headlights of a truck, so close and fast it’s all you can see before it hits you.”

Abby Jimenez subtly calls back to what Brad tells Justin about the moment he found The One. The moment is described as all-encompassing, like a head-on truck collision. The metaphor also alludes to how frightening having such a feeling for Justin is for Emma, who flees from emotional attachment.

“Maybe it was unfair to expect more from Mom. I was a twenty-eight-year-old woman, capable of making my own lunch. She didn’t have to do that for me. […] It hurt my feelings anyway.”

From the moment Amber first appears, it becomes clear that her presence transports Emma back to her childhood. Emma is giddy and desperate for attention, as a child would be when her mother is around. This passage highlights this truth when Emma becomes upset that her mother does not fix her lunch for her shift at the hospital, just as a child in elementary school would be. The fact that Emma experiences childhood emotions around her mother also points to the fact that she is re-experiencing her childhood traumas.

“Because you have this thing where you always believe the best in people—especially with her. It shouldn’t surprise you that she continues to be disappointing, yet again, but it always does and I’m sick of seeing you get hurt. You need to lower your expectations waaaaaay down. The bar is on the floor and she’ll bring a shovel, every time. The sooner you realize that, the happier you’ll be.”

Maddy’s character has a reputation for speaking harsh truths and voicing lessons Emma will have to learn to claim her life and reach true happiness. In this passage, Maddy admits that while Emma’s empathy for others is a strength, it’s also to blame for her lack of boundaries with Amber, which causes her further harm and prevents her from being happy.

“Something about it scared me. Gave me the urge to pull back, like a hand jerking away from a hot stove. Something told me I should think more on that. Try to figure out why liking him made me nervous, made me feel like something was wrong.”

Emma is terrified about her feelings for Justin, but out of habit doesn’t go looking into what the reason might be. As Maddy alludes to many times in conversations with Emma, there is unresolved trauma she claims to have healed from but really hasn’t. She instinctively interprets her attachment as dangerous, but she doesn’t understand why.

“It was easier to pretend to be angry and tough than to admit to being devastated and heartbroken. And by the practiced way she wielded the attitude, she’d been devastated and heartbroken for a long time.”

This passage describes the mask Sarah wears to hide her pain after her mother’s imprisonment. Emma sees her own emotions reflected in Sarah’s behavior, and this point of relation allows Emma and Sarah to connect more deeply.

“It was always like that with her. Didn’t remember, couldn’t recall. Like everything’s a secret, like my whole past had been smudged with an eraser. She took a broom and brushed the sand behind us so I could never look back and see where I’d been or where I came from. All I had was where I was going and I could never stop moving forward because of it.”

The negative effect Amber has had on Emma’s childhood is starkly depicted in this passage. Part of the reason Emma struggles to identify her emotions or their origins is because her mother metaphorically “smudges” or “brushes” them away. This passage illustrates quite clearly why Emma is the way she is, why she moves from place to place, and why no one place ever seems to feel like home.

“He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. And for the first time maybe ever, I felt like I belonged somewhere.”

This passage acts as an answer to the chapter toward the beginning of the novel where Justin suggests that home might not be a place for Emma, but a person. This is the moment Justin becomes home for Emma, proving his theory correct.

“You can love someone and still not be willing to give up your way of life for them. And then there are those you love who you’d take a bullet for. It’s all the same emotion, just different levels. I’d lived on the low, safe side of everything. With the exception of Maddy, I kept my friendships at arm’s length and my relationships even further away. I never fell for anyone. I never let anyone close enough to try.”

Jimenez imbues her contemporary romances with more realism than the genre typically calls for. In Just for the Summer, she puts her own unique, but highly realistic, take on the third-act breakup and eliminates the miscommunication trope and grand romantic gesture common to the genre. Instead, Emma must reckon with her past and emotions before she can rebuild her relationships.

“I was realizing that even though I loved her, I wasn’t sure I liked her. Even thinking this felt wrong. She was my mom. But I didn’t like what she did to Neil that day in the driveway. It put such a bad taste in my mouth, and she hadn’t made any attempts to see me since then so the feeling lingered. She never replied to any of my texts from the days I was sick. Didn’t return one call. Never circled back to check on me. Even Maria had texted to ask how I was.”

Emma begins to see Amber more realistically as her behavior becomes worse and it begins to affect the life Emma’s made for herself in Minneapolis. This subtle change in perspective hints at the character arc Emma will continue to travel as the novel progresses.

“How easy it was for him to acknowledge this monumental thing. To say it out loud without fear that the universe would take it from him now that it knew what he needed to live. That’s what the universe always did to me. Took away the people I loved.”

Emma marvels at Justin’s ability to open himself to love without an overwhelming fear of getting hurt. This is one of the first times Emma acknowledges why she has an aversion to love.

“Resentment bloomed in my chest. I don’t think it had ever been so clear to me before that Mom was responsible for her own circumstances. I always gave her an out. I always argued in her favor. She had bad credit, she had no support, no money, no help. Only this time she did. And she didn’t want it.”

Emma’s character arc progresses significantly in this passage as she recognizes Amber for who she truly is. With the rose-colored glasses now gone, Emma is able to see that Amber is not her responsibility. This realization allows Emma to let Amber go when it becomes clear she’s not willing to even help herself.

“This was my curse. Not the silly thing I was trying to undo once with Justin. It was my ability to not love.”

Alongside Emma’s official realization of the extent of her trauma and the depth of her mother’s toxicity comes the realization that her inability to find The One isn’t because of the curse she and Justin invented. It is due to her inability to love anyone properly at all as a result of her trauma. This realization culminates in the theme of Unresolved Trauma’s Impact on Relationships.

“I thought about the rom-coms Mom used to watch when I was growing up. The dramatic grand gestures that keep them together at the end. But that’s not what real grown-up relationships are like. They’re like this. Being mature enough to know your limits, and adult enough to accept when someone tells you what they are. Even if it breaks your heart.”

This passage ironically calls out romance movies and novels for portraying unrealistic versions of love. The inclusion of this in the narrative differentiates this novel from other contemporary romance novels by going against the preferred story template, which requires a grand romantic gesture after a third-act breakup that allows two love interests to speedily recouple. Instead, the couple separates for several months while Emma works through her personal issues.