Page 100 of Summer Light on Nantucket

Holly glared at her older sister and blurted, “Dad and Teri and Kate are yelling at each other. They’ve been fighting all morning. Dad’s mad at Kate and Teri says she’s heartbroken.”

“Well, adults do yell…” Blythe wanted to calm her daughters, but how?

“It’syourfault!” Holly blurted.

Daphne tried to speak quietly, but her hands were trembling. “It’s because you kept a secret about Dad’s…something.”

“I kept a secret?”

“Teri wants a baby,” Holly informed Blythe. “Aunt Kate said that you should have told her what is wrong with Dad!”

“Oh, sweetie.” Blythe reached out and pulled Holly into her lap.

Daphne sat at the table, folded her hands, and announced in the manner of a judge handing down a sentence, “They were in the kitchen when we came down just now. We were in the hall. We heard Aunt Kate say that Grandmother told Aunt Kate something that Dad said she shouldn’t know and Aunt Kate told Teri.”

“Ahh.” Understanding uncoiled the tight vise around Blythe’s heart.

She took a deep breath. This was a complicated mess. Blythe didn’t understand how it made her at fault, and it absolutely was not up to her to reveal her ex-husband’s vasectomy to their children.

“Girls…” She took on her best schoolmarm’s tone. “What you overheard was a private conversation. It is between your father and Teri. You need to ask them why they were fighting.”

Holly cried, “But we heard Teri say she’s leaving Dad! She’s going to pack and go back to Boston. She’s so hurt she doesn’t want to be with Dad anymore.”

Daphne’s face went red. “I think Dad is sick. He needs something cut out of him.”

The parent’s trick, to be soothing and authoritative while she was quivering inside, was something Blythe had, over the years, become expert at. “Your father is not sick. He and Teri and Kate were discussing something very private and grown-up.”

“If it’s so private, why were they yelling?” Daphne demanded.

What should she do now? Blythe wondered. She got why it was, in some way, her fault. Blythe had told Celeste that Bob had had a vasectomy. Celeste had no doubt told Kate, who in turn had told Teri.

But this was not Blythe’s problem to solve.

“Holly, stand up.” She gently removed her daughter from her lap. “We’re all going back to Grandmother’s house. Your father can explain everything there.”

She marshaled her daughters out of the house and into the minivan. She didn’t even bother to take a quick glance into the mirror. She didn’t care how she looked. She’d insist that Bob tell Teri the truth, and if he refused, Blythe would tell her herself. What a cad Bob was for not giving Teri this significant piece of information. How cruel! It would serve him right if Teri left him.

She screeched into the drive of Celeste’s house, killed the engine, and said, “Come on, girls.” She was feeling powerful, righteous—and liberated. Finally, it was clear that she was not the only parent who needed to take care of the children.

Without knocking, she threw open the door and strode into the house.

Daphne was right behind her. “They’re in the kitchen.”

Blythe walked to the kitchen door and stopped so suddenly that Daphne bumped into her.

Bob was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. Celeste sat at the other end of the table, pouring a shot of brandy into a cup of tea. Miranda lurked at the door into the dining room, ready to sprint away. Teddy sat on the kitchen counter, scrolling through his phone.

“Drink this,” Celeste said to her son.

Blythe and her two daughters entered the kitchen and stood there dumbfounded, as if they’d been set down in some stranger’s house.

“Where’s Teri?” Blythe asked.

“She’s gone,” Celeste said, sliding the tea over to Bob.

“What?” Holly’s voice had gone so high she could have joined a boys’ choir.

“She’s left me,” Bob said. “Teri has left me.”

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