Page 14 of The Summer We Started Over

“When we were having lunch, Sara said, ‘Don’t look now but you have a fan.’ ”

“That’s probably exactly what he is. A fan. An admirer.” Eddie spoke with humor and affection. “Come on. You can’t believe that a stalker would wear a camel-hair coat.”

“They do in my novels!”

“Right. And we’ve talked about this before. Your novels and your life are two completely different realities.”

“I know that! But this man is not imaginary. Eddie, if you don’t come back, I won’t be able to sleep and then I won’t be able to write, and I’ll miss my deadline, and everything will be a mess!”

Eddie heard genuine alarm in her employer’s voice.

“Dinah, I’m not coming back for a month. We’ve talked about this. I thought Sara was planning to spend the night.”

“One of her kids has the flu. She has to go take care of him.” Dinah whimpered. “Never mind about me.”

“Okay, Dinah, here’s a plan. You feel safe in hotel rooms, right? Why don’t you go over to the Ritz or the Waldorf Astoria and get a room. Not a suite. You don’t want too much space. Just one really nice room without a connecting door. Spend the night there. You’ll be safe.”

Dinah began to cry, her sweet breathy cries, as if she were a doll with the air being squeezed out of her.

Eddie stayed strong. She knew Dinah wasn’t faking her fear, and she had so much sympathy for her. Yet the more sensible voice in her head said, in a sarcastic tone,Get a babysitter.

It wasn’t such a bad idea. All the babysitter had to do was sleep in the guest room, or maybe on the sofa near the front door.

Dinah sniffed. “Sara’s back.”

“Good. Listen, ask her to spend the night with you after she’s got her child settled. Or she can bring him to your place. They can both sleep in the guest room.”

“Fine.” Dinah’s voice went all haughty. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

The phone blinked off.

Eddie sat in the car for a moment, wondering if every person alive was crazy, and if so, did that mean she was crazy, too? Probably. Seeing Jeff at the boat had knocked her off-balance, that was certain, but she hadn’t had time to process it yet.

four

Today Eddie believed she could conquer the world.

Last night she had taken Barrett and her father to dinner at Crosswinds, the restaurant at the airport that summer people never went to because it wasn’t expensive enough. They’d ordered cocktails and pineapple ginger shrimp stir-fry, and several men had come to the table to say hello to William. They hadn’t seen him in a while, they said. Where had he been? They wanted to ask him to join their men’s Winter Group, but they hadn’t been able to find his email, and it didn’t matter now because they were facing summer, but they’d be in touch with him come fall. When they got home, Eddie and Barrett went into his office, woke his computer, and saw that their father still used his college email address. Eddie set up a new account for him.

“What do you want the name of your account to be?” she asked him.

Her father came and leaned over her shoulder as she sat at his desk, tapping away on his laptop. “I don’t know. Professor Grant?”

“Dad.” Eddie shook her head. “You’re not a professor anymore so get over yourself.”

Barrett agreed. “She’s right, Dad. Do you think Lindsay Kellogg uses‘retiredtransplantsurgeon@gmail’as his address?”

The three of them discussed possibilities that became sillier and sillier and they laughed together, and for a moment they were a family again, until Eddie ruined it by saying, “How aboutvaguelysenilebookhoarder@gmail?”

“Not funny,” Barrett said.

“But true?” Eddie nudged her sister.

“I’m not a book hoarder,” William protested.

“Sorry, Dad. I’ll bow out. I’ve got to go to bed.” She kissed the top of his head and pecked a kiss on Barrett’s cheek. It wasn’t until she got to the top of the stairs that she realized this was the first time in two years that she’d been frank and forthright about her thoughts, because no matter what, her father and sister would still love her and couldn’t fire her. She had this job—daughter, sister—for life. Nothing said family like an honest argument.

She was tucking herself into her familiar bed when Barrett knocked on the bedroom door and stuck her head in.

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