Page 79 of The Summer We Started Over

A spark of anger flared in Barrett’s chest because Drew considered his work more important than hers.

“I’d really like to see you,” Drew continued, his voice low and compelling.

She might as well go, Barrett thought, and her emotions were all over the place.

—

Eddie walked around the Book Barn, filling in the empty spots on the shelves. An older couple came, purchased a few old science books, and left. A young mother with a baby in a back carrier and a three-year-old tugging on her hand arrived. The three-year-old was obviously hot and bored. Instead of sitting on the small child’s chair by the children’s books, he ran past the shelves, pulling the books to the floor and yelling like a banshee. When the mother told him he could choose one book, he flung himself onto the floor in a tantrum of resistance. He wantedmore!

The kid could use a cold shower, Eddie thought, but she had great sympathy for the mother, who was trying to calm down her son while her baby woke up and screamed.

The woman’s eyes were wild. “I…I have to go to the car to nurse my baby,” she told Eddie.

“Sit in that chair,” Eddie told her. “No one else is around. I’ll help your little boy choose books.”

The woman collapsed in the chair with the baby at her breast. Eddie sat on the floor next to the child who had gone quiet at her presence.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Timmy,” he said.

“Timmy, you see all these books you’ve pulled on the floor?”

Timmy’s eyes welled. “Sowwy.”

“Here’s the deal. Do you see that house over there with steps to the flowers in a pot? If you can run there and back in the time I count to ten, I’ll give you two of these books to take home.”

Before she could start counting, Timmy raced off and back.

She made the bargain three more times, and when Timmy returned, panting, Eddie leaned toward him and whispered, “See those pretty red flowers in the pots? Pick off two to give to your mother. Don’t worry. More will grow.”

So the family left with a well-fed baby snoring in the back carrier,Timmy with eight children’s books in his hands, and the mother holding two geranium stems with bright red flowers.

“This is the best rest I’ve had this year,” she told Eddie. “How can I thank you?”

“It was fun,” Eddie told her, and she meant it.

—

A few days later, Eddie turned on the HVAC, to hell with the electric bill. She worked in the house, choosing more books to put in the barn. Duke lay asleep on the back porch, knocked out by the heat. The arrogant horse spent the day nibbling the grass in the shade of the barn and Eddie was diligent about filling the horse’s water trough.

Her father was secluded in his office, Barrett was in her shop, and Dinah was at the library, when Eddie heard the crackle of shells and peered out the window to see a car she didn’t recognize coming up the driveway. She went out the back door and walked to the Book Barn.

The car was an ancient Volvo, so dented and scraped Eddie was amazed it still ran.

A woman stepped out of the car. For a moment, Eddie thought it was Dove…She hadn’t seen her since before Bobby was born and Stearns died.

A child climbed out of the backseat and went to stand with his mother, holding hands.

“Eddie,” the woman called. “Hi.”

“Dove? Is that you?” Eddie walked toward the woman, and it was as if she were walking through a garden, as if joy, grief, love, and guilt were petals brushing against her skin.

“It’s me.”

Dove came closer, still holding the child’s hand. The little boy was three years old and looked like Stearns. Goosebumps broke out all over her skin.

Eddied summoned up all the courage she possessed to ask lightly, “And who is this?”

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