After disconnecting, Zoey stared blankly at the phone, wondering,Am I really the best person to look after Gabi? Or am I theonlyperson?
She’d always had a close relationship with her niece, but that was before the teenager started acting up the way Kathleen had just described. And how was she going to talk to Gabi about boys or be a good role model for responsible behavior and healthy relationships when she herself had allowed her last boyfriend to all but bankrupt her?
It was mortifying to acknowledge the part she’d played in her own financial ruin by signing off on all the transactions Erik had suggested without fully researching them. Later, she tried to convince herself it was because she’d been too distracted by her job search. Or that she hadn’t had enough time to examine the fine print because she’d been ferrying back and forth between her place and Dune Island to care for her aunt Sylvia. But the truth was, she’d been stupid to trust Erik with her money. And stupider to trust him with her heart. Or was that the other way around? Regardless, Zoey wouldn’t be making the same mistakes with any man again any time soon.
Hopefully, Gabi feels the same way about the boy at school,she thought and went downstairs to talk to her aunt about their youngest family member coming to Dune Island to find her footing again.
* * *
As she waited for the line of vehicles in front of her rental car to disembark the ferry on Tuesday morning, Zoey glanced at her niece dozing in the passenger seat. Then she looked at herself in the rearview mirror. She fully felt every one of her thirty-eight years. This was partly because the spray of lines near the outer corners of her eyes—which reminded her more of a cat’s whiskers than of a crow’s feet—always appeared deeper when she hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
It was also because seeing her niece brought Zoey back to when she and her sister were teenagers, another lifetime ago. With her fair skin and hair and pale blue eyes, Gabi had always generally resembled her mother, but this past year the girl had blossomed into her spitting image. The same high cheek bones, straight nose and slightly pointed chin. She’d inherited Jessica’s long legs, too.
When she was growing up, Zoey desperately wished she looked more like her mom and sister. Instead, she was short, had a heart-shaped face, hazel eyes, and an aquiline nose. Although her hair was thick and wavy, it was a decidedly ordinary shade of brown. As a kid, Zoey envied her sister’s golden locks. When they became adults and Jessica lost her hair because of the chemo treatments, Zoey couldn’t look at her without tearing up.
“Why are you crying? I’m the one who’s bald,” her sister had asked.
Zoey had confessed she used to fantasize about waving a magic wand and making Jessica’s hair all fall out at once. “Now that it has, I wish I could wave a wand and make it all grow back.”
Ever practical, Jessica had replied, “It will, eventually. You don’t need magic for that.”
“Yeah, but I can’t believe I wished such a thing on you. I’m sorry, Jess.”
Zoey recalled Jessica’s charitable response. “That was only petty jealousy, Zo. It’s not as if you madethishappen. And if it helps you feel any better, sometimes when I used to watch you curling your eyelashes, I wished they’d break off. It drove me nuts that mine weren’t even long enough to use a curler—every time I tried, I pinched my eyelids.”
Zoey didhave really long, thick eyelashes, but until that discussion, she’d never known Jessica envied them as much as she’d envied Jessica’s hair. For the most part, the Jansen girls were so close that any sibling rivalry between them was negligible. If anything, Zoey admired her sister. She was proud of how charismatic and smart Jessica was, especially in the sciences and math. And she marveled at her optimism and intrepidness. Her singing voice. Her wit…Does Gabi remember any of these things about her mom?Zoey wondered.
She peeked at her niece again. Her eyes were still closed. After a red-eye, cross-country flight, it was possible she was truly sleepy, but Zoey got the sense Gabi was avoiding conversation. At the airport, the teenager had allowed her aunt to hug her hello, but she had barely returned Zoey’s embrace—a first. And although she’d replied to Zoey’s questions on the way to the ferry terminal, Gabi’s answers were practically monosyllabic and she didn’t initiate any conversation on her own.Is she afraid if we start talking, I’ll grill her about smashing up her dad’s car?Zoey hoped not; the two of them had always had such an easy rapport and she didn’t want her niece to shut her out.
Gabi’s eyes opened and she caught Zoey looking at her. “What?”
“I was just thinking how much you look like your mom did at your age.”
Gabi scowled. “Not really. I have my dad’s overbite.”
Zoey was secretly glad her niece had to wear braces; they kept her from appearing more mature than she was. Kathleen mentioned that Gabi had shot up so much this past year she was now taller than most of the boys and virtually all of the girls her age at school. So Zoey was counting on her orthodontic hardware to prevent the juniors or seniors at school from mistaking her for being in their grade.
“I hope you brought some cooler clothes to wear. Aunt Ivy keeps the house awfully warm.”
“I’ll be fine.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
After they drove down the ferry ramp and merged onto Port Newcomb’s Main Street, Zoey pointed to a restaurant. “Do you remember the first time you went to Captain Clark’s? You were about five years old and your dad asked you to help him choose a lobster from the tank. They had bands on their claws, so you thought he was going to let you keep it as a pet. When you found out he was planning to eat it for supper, you threw such a tantrum we had to leave before we were served.”
Gabi shook her head and closed her eyes again. “That was a long time ago. I hardly remember anything about being here.”
Really?Zoey was disappointed. Her sister had loved Dune Island as much as Zoey did, and Jessica, Scott and Gabi had spent two weeks there every July from the time Gabi was a baby until she was eight years old. Zoey always joined them. Summer vacations together in Benjamin’s Manor had been a family tradition since they were girls themselves and the sisters looked forward to it all year.
In fact, when it became clear Jessica’s cancer was terminal, even though it was only May she insisted on going to Dune Island, so they could enjoy one last vacation there as a family. It had been Jessica’s hope that her daughter would consider Benjamin’s Manor her second home, too.Even if Gabi doesn’t remember much about being here as a little girl, maybe if I show her what her mom loved about the island, it will become meaningful to her, too,Zoey ruminated.
It was gloriously sunny and there were plenty of interesting things to see on the brief trip back from the ferry dock. Hope Haven was made up of five towns, also called hamlets or villages by the local old-timers. In addition to Benjamin’s Manor and Port Newcomb, there was Rockfield, Highland Hills, and Lucinda’s Hamlet—Lucy’s Ham, for short. Each community had a distinct vibe and offered unique vistas of both land and sea. Zoey would have pointed out Jessica’s favorite views to Gabi, but her niece didn’t open her eyes again until they were parked in the driveway.
“Look who’s here,” Ivy said when they came through the back door. “My great and grand niece.”
When Gabi was little and her mom was trying to explain how they were related to Ivy and Sylvia, she said, “My mother was their niece. I’m their great-niece. And you’re their great-grand-niece.”
Gabi had asked in wide-eyed astonishment, “They think I’m greatandgrand, Mom?”
Jessica had managed to suppress her laughter, saying, “Yes, honey. You’re definitely the greatest and grandest niece they have.”
