Page 33 of The Summer We Started Over

It was almost midnight when Drew took her home. He stopped at the end of the drive, out of range from the porch light.

“I have to go back to Boston tomorrow,” he said. “I’m here only for my sister’s birthday. But I’m due some time off. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

“I hope so,” Barrett told him.

He leaned toward her and they kissed lightly.

From the house, Duke began to bark.

“See you soon.” Barrett slipped into the house, glad that it was quiet and everyone else had gone to bed. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts.

—

At midnight, Eddie was in her room, scrolling through her phone, texting New York friends. She’d spent an hour on the phone with Dinah, praising her for her bravery, assuring Dinah she was safe. At last, she heard a car in the drive. Barrett, coming home from her date. She rolled off her bed and went to her window to look out. Drew kissed Barrett before she left the car and hurried into the house. The convertible pulled away.

Now Barrett would run up the stairs to Eddie’s room, throw herself on the bed, and gush all about her evening.

Eddie waited.

She heard Barrett on the stairs. Barrett passed Eddie’s door, went down the hall, entered her own room, and shut the door very quietly, as if she didn’t want anyone to know she was home.

As if she didn’t want to talk to anyone. As if this date, this evening, was private.

Eddie understood. She’d been away for two years. Barrett would be out of the habit of reviewing each date with Eddie. Still, this must have been a very good date. Barrett had been gone for five hours.

Good grief, Eddie thought, what had happened to her that she was sitting in her bedroom like an eighteenth-century spinster aunt, longing to live off someone else’s romance?

It was better, she decided, to wonder about Barrett than to imagine what would happen when Jeff returned tomorrow to start building the bins for her father’s books.

She brushed her teeth and crawled between her sheets and knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep, and fell asleep at once.

—

Eddie woke early in the morning, before the others were up. Pulling on a loose shirt and ripped jean shorts, she slid her feet into sandals and crept down the stairs. During the year she’d lived here, two years ago, before she went to work for Dinah, when the island was new to them and the house was unfamiliar and their lives sparkled with sea air and hope, she had often made coffee and brought it out to the back porch to sit and watch the morning arrive. The air was always fresh, carrying the scents of ocean salt and flowers.

It was comforting to be back, making coffee and sitting on the porch again. Duke was already here, lying on the warm boards in a patch of sun, snoring. Birds called. Duchess stood at the fence nuzzling the grass. Eddie called out a greeting. Duchess snorted.

Behind her, the door opened. Barrett stepped out to the porch.

“Good morning!” Barrett almost sang the words.

“Good morning,” Eddie answered. “You seem awfully cheery. How was your date?”

Barrett wore an ancient sundress that once had belonged to Eddie. She sank onto the wicker swing, cradling her coffee in her hands.

“My date was fine,” Barrett said. “Drew’s nice. And handsome.”

“Wow. You really like him.”

“He’s a distinct possibility,” Barrett said, using her really bad British accent.

Eddie asked, “Have you seen Dad?”

Barrett stretched. “Yeah. He’s already in his study, deep into his book.”

“Let’s leave him there. I don’t want him freaking out when we start working in the barn.”

Just as Eddie spoke, a truck came rumbling down the drive all the way to the barn. A load of boards lay in the bed of the truck. Jeff stepped out from the driver’s side. Another man jumped down from the passenger side. He looked vaguely familiar to Barrett but she couldn’t remember his name. He had black hair and sky blue eyes rimmed with thick black lashes.

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