Page 27 of Sunset on the Solstice

Rebecca swallowed the lump in her throat. She turned to look at Lily, who seemed to be drowning in sorrow.

“It’s just so fast,” Lily breathed. “We want to make sure you’re really and truly sure.”

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Shelby demanded. “For the rest of my life, I’m going to feel guilty for breaking things off with him over the summer. It was because of me that he got into that accident. He almost died. Now, I can make it up to him. For the rest of my life.”

Rebecca shivered. She was too terrified to speak.

“And besides,” Shelby continued, smiling wider. “We have to get married, if you know what I mean.”

Rebecca’s heart stopped beating. Lily crossed her arms over her chest.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lily said, although of course there could only be one reason.

Shelby’s eyes widened. “I’m pregnant,” she said. “We just found out two days ago.”

Lily reached for Rebecca’s hand, squeezing it hard. Rebecca thought she might faint. Oh, how she wished Shelby’s father were here to try to knock some sense into her.

“You don’t have to marry him just because you’re pregnant,” Lily tried. “This isn’t the eighteen hundreds.”

“The baby is a blessing,” Shelby tried to assure them. “I don’t want any other life but this. This is my romance story, Lily. This is what I’m living for.”

It was clear that nothing they could say would change Shelby’s mind.

Just then, Jared poked his head out into the hall to check on them. When he spoke, his tone was flat and cruel. “I don’t think they’ll wait for us all day.”

“Of course!” Shelby rushed off, beckoning for her mother and sister to follow. It was showtime.

During the brief yet harrowing ceremony, Rebecca, Chad, and Lily hovered to the side, feeling cold and strange and unmoored. When Shelby said, “I do,” Rebecca couldn’t breathe, and when Shelby and Jared kissed for the first time as husband and wife, tears rushed down her cheeks. They were not tears of joy.

After the wedding, they all shared a meal at a fancy restaurant in downtown Boston. Chad ordered a steak and potatoes and tore in, while Rebecca and Lily could barely touch their duck. Shelby ate a salad delicately, as though someone had told her that was how she was meant to behave, now that she was a Kissinger. Rebecca remembered that over the summer, she and Shelby had gone out to get burgers almost weekly, sharing onion rings and fries and never once considering their caloric density. Health was about balance. Rebecca had always thought that she’d taught her children that. How had Shelby unlearned it so quickly?

“I suppose we should make a toast,” Jim said, halfway through the meal. He raised his glass of wine and regarded Shelby and Jared. “This has all been very fast. But love is love, I suppose. Welcome to the family, Mrs. Kissinger.”

In one fell swoop, Jim had annihilated Shelby’s real name.

It disgusted Rebecca. More than that, it made her feel as though Fred had died all over again.

After their meal, there wasn’t much left to do. It was snowing again, and Jared wanted to get back to Cambridge as soon as possible, as he had a paper to write. Shelby wanted to do a few things at home, as well. By then, Shelby and Jared were sharing an apartment not far from the Harvard campus, where they frequently hosted dinner parties and where Shelby acted the part of a brilliant hostess. Rebecca ached to ask more questions about Shelby’s time there. She wanted to know if Shelby missed school, or if she at all communicated with her old professors, or if any of Jared’s Harvard friends recognized Shelby’s intellect.

But these were not questions Rebecca could ask in front of Jared, she knew.

On the drive back to Nantucket, Rebecca couldn’t stop shaking, so much so that Chad suggested he drive the rest of the way. Rebecca got into the back seat and pressed her forehead against the cold glass, listening as Lily and Chad talked about how “weird” the Kissingers were.

“Do you think Shelby knows how weird they are?” Chad asked, his hands at ten-and-two on the wheel.

“I don’t know. Shelby was always so receptive,” Lily said. “But love has blinded her, I guess?”

“It’s scary,” Chad said. “I don’t want to lose my personality over anyone.”

Lily reached over and patted her brother’s shoulder. “I won’t let you.”

Rebecca felt nauseated with her own sorrow. She felt as though they were driving away from Shelby, away from any concept of helping her. She felt as though they were trying to make peace with the fact that she wasn't in their lives anymore. Rebecca wasn’t sure how to handle that. She told herself she’d fight it for as long as she lived. But what if she didn’t have the strength?

14

Livingston, Montana: July 2032

In the heat of the summer, Shelby was four months pregnant and battling a head cold. It didn’t make parenting any easier. During the early morning hours, her children, Billy, Penelope, and Evie, were particularly rowdy, demanding more attention from Shelby than she fully knew how to give. Of course, Jared was away on a work trip, which meant their care fell to her. The television could only help her so much. Eventually, she told her kids to get ready. They were going to the stream for a picnic and a swim.