Page 30 of Sunset on the Solstice

“Sugar is bad for you,” Shelby said.

“Having a severely underweight baby is bad for you,” he said. “Let’s focus on what’s important.”

Shelby left the doctor’s office in a shivery fit of rage. After helping her kids into their car seats, she sat in the driver’s seat and considered what to do. Oh, how she ached to call her mother. Oh, how she ached to call Lily, if only to hear how they’d tell her, “You messed up, Shelbs. But we can fix it.”

Here alone in Montana, Shelby wasn’t sure how she would ever fix it. Everything felt horrifyingly dark and deep.

“Are we getting McDonald’s?” Billy asked from the back seat.

Shelby’s arms and legs shook as she drove out of the parking lot and headed for the Golden Arches. Maybe she’d let herself eat something, too. Ice cream, or a milkshake, or a greasy burger. Maybe she wouldn’t even hide the smell of it on her clothes from Jared later. Maybe she’d look right at him and say, “I enjoyed myself. For the first time in years.”

15

Nantucket Island: July 2032

At nine thirty on a sticky-hot evening in July, Rebecca’s mother appeared in the doorway of the restaurant kitchen, hands on her hips and magic in her eyes. “Leave those dishes for the dishwashers, honey,” she said. “Come on. We just opened a bottle of white.”

Rebecca was unstable on her feet. After a six-hour rush, she’d worked herself to the bone. Now, feeling a little guilty about leaving the rest of the staff for cleanup but eager to sit, she followed her mother out to the porch of the Sutton Book Club, where her two sisters waited, smiling.

“You outdid yourself today, Sis,” Bethany said, squeezing her shoulder. “What was in that sauce?”

“I’ll never tell,” she said, laughing. She collapsed in the chair between her sisters and reached for her glass.

“Weren’t you just talking about retiring last week?” Valerie teased her.

“I don’t know how she’ll ever manage to retire,” Esme said. “She’s getting better year after year.”

“Ha. I don’t know about that.” Rebecca smiled to herself and gazed out along the gorgeous street, where tourists and locals milled about, eating ice cream cones and discussing their days at sea. There was a peace that came from being downtown late at night, a feeling that the entire island was interconnected and there for one another, a feeling that everyone was eager to stay up all night long, telling stories and secrets.

Just then, Hilary Salt and her longtime best friend Stella appeared at the bottom of the steps. They’d clearly just had dinner and maybe a glass of wine, and they were smiley and thrilled to see the Suttons.

“Join us!” Esme said, getting up to make space at the table.

Rebecca had always liked Hilary Salt. Hilary was the daughter of a famous Swedish actress and the mother of another famous American actress, and probably because of all that movie money coming in, she lived in one of the more iconic mansions on Nantucket. There, she ran a little club she called the Salt Sisters, a gathering of women who’d encountered tremendous pockets of grief in their lifetimes. Rebecca had been invited along several times. Her breakup with her daughter and the loss of her husband were not secrets on this island. Hilary Salt and her Salt Sisters were receptive to that. But Rebecca was often too busy at the restaurant to make time to see them.

“How has your summer been, ladies?” Esme asked, reaching for a fresh bottle of wine from the cooler to fix their glasses.

“Another gorgeous summer on Nantucket,” Hilary said, shaking her head. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe how lucky we are!”

Stella nodded and spoke about a golden retriever puppy she’d recently adopted. All the Suttons bent down to see the photographs. They agreed that he was the cutest puppy they’d ever seen.

“I know you have to say that,” Stella said, pocketing her phone, “but he’s brought a whole lot of joy to my life.”

“A new era,” Valerie said. “We all need that.”

Rebecca’s heart surged. For some reason, she was thinking about Shelby, about the new era that she and Jared had created for themselves in Montana. Why did they have to go so far away? Why did Jared have to be so needlessly cruel? Why had her daughter needed a new era away from Rebecca?

At the table, the conversation turned to other things, allowing Rebecca a long time to stew and sip her wine.

Suddenly, she felt someone’s hand on her knee and nearly jumped out of her skin. It was her mother, leaning toward her, checking in. “You all right, honey?” Esme asked.

“Of course!” Rebecca straightened her spine and returned to their conversation, trying to pretend that she’d never drifted. But Hilary Salt gave her a look that told her she knew exactly where her head had gone, and why.

“Your son’s getting married this summer,” Stella said to Rebecca.

“He is. We’re so lucky,” Rebecca said. “Jenny is a wonderful girl. It’s so hard to know what will happen, but we think and hope they’ll be really happy together.”

“Chad’s one of the good ones,” Hilary agreed.