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“Are you suggesting you’ve read over Dad’s principles?” Valerie asked, her eyes flashing.
Bethany stuttered. “I just glanced over them.” After another pause, she added quietly, “My marriage is not always in the best state.”
“Well, Dad’s getting divorced for the second time,” Valerie countered. “We don’t even know why. Maybe he cheated on Bree with someone else?”
“If he left Bree for someone else, he wouldn’t be on Nantucket with us,” Rebecca pointed out.
“If we’re going to ‘trust Dad again,’” Valerie said with air quotes, “then we need answers from him. I want to know why he’s really here. I want to know what he really wants from Mom and from us. Otherwise, I see no reason to let him back into our lives. He could be hanging around here, nursing his wounds until he can leave us again. And I made a pact with myself a long time ago never to let anyone fool me twice.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
That night and the one after that, the Sutton sisters didn’t hear from their father at all. Together, they watched listlessly as the world noted Victor’s previous grievances. The talk show host he’d helped through her custody battle took to her platform to say she was “listening to what the public had to say about Victor and would make an informed decision regarding her relationship with him going forward.” To Rebecca, it was ridiculous. Victor’s pain and torment had dictated his life thirty years ago, but wasn’t it possible he’d learned and grown? Wasn’t it possible he had the capabilities to heal so many of his patients, without fully knowing how to heal himself?
On top of not hearing from her father, Rebecca hadn’t heard much from Lily in several days. Lily’s lack of text messages hadn’t initially been a worry to Rebecca. She was young, living her life in a huge city. But when Rebecca called to check in, and Lily sounded tired and flippant, Rebecca’s heartbeat raced. As softly and timidly as Rebecca could, she asked her eldest if she was all right. To this, Lily became irritated and volatile. “I’m fine, Mom. I’ve just got a lot on my plate. This internship is a big deal. You know?” After that, she found a way to get off the phone.
The morning after the article came out, Rebecca showed her mother the waterlogged books from Ben and Doug’s place. Esme was mesmerized with them, flipping through the saturated waterstained pages and looking at the illustrations. “It seems like my father had books like these, too. I wonder where they went?” She set to work on drying them out, propping them in front of a large fan she dragged out of the basement. She told Rebecca there was no salvaging them for money purposes. “At least Ben and Doug can enjoy them for what they are—important historical artifacts. I assume they’re brilliant stories, as well. If only I could read German!”
Two mornings after the article came out, it was time to prepare for the impromptu Veterans’ Dinner. When Rebecca had asked Esme if the newly planned dinner was okay, Esme had smiled and said that there was a poetry reading at the Sutton Book Club that afternoon, but they would clear out by six. She then asked Rebecca if she could help her cook.
Now, Esme and Rebecca strolled through the busy stalls at that morning’s fish market. A Nantucket local, Esme knew every single person there by name. Once, she stopped at the man who sold salmon and said, “Randy, you know, I found that book you were looking for. Why don’t you come by the Book Club and check it out?” To this, Randy’s eyes became wide, matching the smile on his face. “I can’t believe you found it. That’s such a help, Esme. My kid has been asking me about it for months.” Esme’s chest puffed out proudly when they walked from the stall with numerous piles of pink salmon. The man had given them forty percent off.
“You are such a pillar of this community,” Rebecca said to her mother. They had paused for coffee a bit away from the fish market madness.
Esme smiled to herself. “I’m sure you’re the same up in Bar Harbor.”
“Maybe. Maybe I was. Fred and I were such a good team. But these days, when people see me, a light goes out in their eyes. They’re terrified that what happened to me could happen to them, too. Like the bad luck will wash onto them.”
Esme grimaced. “People can be so cruel. I remember something like that after your father left. Nobody could believe that my perfect marriage became sour. But people only see what they want to see. I’m sure you, Bethany, and Valerie have a far different memory from that time than I do.”
“What do you mean?”
“We put all our love into Joel,” Esme said simply. “We thought it would help him through. When it didn’t, we couldn’t return that love to each other anymore. It was a tragedy. But it wasn’t anything you could explain to your neighbors or friends. Everyone thought we could use our love to pull through. But they didn’t understand that, at that point, our love was a finite resource. And we both had had to find it in someone else.”
Rebecca and Esme drove toward the Sutton Book Club with the fresh fish and ice packed in the coolers in the back. Early morning light streamed across the downtown streets and illuminated the shop windows. The mornings in coastal towns were beautiful and sleepy, as though no one was in a hurry to get started.
As they stored the fish in the Sutton Book Club in preparation for the night’s dinner, Esme asked Rebecca, “Do you think you’ll ever want to date again?”
Ben’s face flashed through her mind for reasons Rebecca couldn't understand.
“I think I should get Chad and Shelby through school first,” Rebecca answered instead. “After that, I can re-evaluate.”
“You know, Nantucket High School isn’t such a bad place,” Esme said simply.
Rebecca’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought for a second about moving to her island home. “I’m sure Shelby and Chad don’t want to leave their friends.”
“Of course,” Esme said. “It was just a thought.” She paused, then added, “Sorry to repeat myself, but I’d just love to meet them.”
Rebecca recognized the pain behind her mother’s eyes. She cupped Esme’s elbow and said, “I know they’d love to meet you, too. It’s finally time.”
Again, she remembered Lily’s strange voice on the phone. A pang of fear came over her, but she soon shoved it away. If Lily really needed her, she would call her. Wouldn’t she?
That evening, Rebecca, Bethany, Valerie, and Esme gathered in the Sutton Book Club back kitchen to cook a Veterans’ Dinner. As they sliced vegetables and watermelon and prepped clam chowder, salmon, crab cakes, and corn, Bethany explained she probably had to return home soon.
“It’s been such a dreamy time,” she said, her knife flashing over an onion. “But my hospital needs me.”
Esme lifted one of her eyebrows. “You know, the Nantucket Hospital is not such a terrible place to work.”
Bethany gave Esme a curious look.
