Page 10 of Seven Summer Weekends

“Have you met Gicky’s niece? Addison Irwin?”

“I have not had the pleasure.” Shep wiped his hand on his shorts and reached out for a shake. Addison obliged.

“Gicky left me a painting, so she said. Keep an eye out for something with my name on it, please.”

“Me too!” Margot added, laughing, “And I thought I was special!”

She put her hand on Shep’s arm. “We will have a good look for them before I go.”

Shep looked satisfied, then perturbed.

“So, Addie, let’s come right out and ask. What are your plans for your aunt’s house?”

Aaaah.Introducing the crazy widowed neighbor, Addison thought, before reminding herself that he wanted to steal her house.I will not be bulldozed, she promised herself.

“It’s Addison, not Addie,” she corrected him, adding a smile so as not to come off too rude. “And I have no plans. I only just got here.”

“Well, the entire block is worried you’re going to knock the place down and build a monstrosity. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we are possibly the only monstrosity-free street in this whole town. We asked the real estate agent about it, but she was quite tight-lipped. That young lady is only interested in one thing.”

Young lady. Addison laughed inside, while Shep rubbed his thumb and forefinger together—the universal sign for money.

Margot sensed it was time to change the subject.

“Are you free for dinner tonight, Shep?”

He was. The two clearly had a lot of catching up to do.

“You can join us,” Margot said to Addison afterward, adding, “Gicky told me Shep has been crazy lonely since his wife died.”

Addison thought to joke,I don’t know about lonely, but I got an earful on the crazy from the real estate agent, but then thought again. There was no need to be mean. She cited a prior commitment instead. She was happy to have a break. The complex family history was a lot to take in, and she knew the afternoon would be filled with more of the same.

And she was right. Later, back on the beach with their lunch, Addison learned how Gicky occasionally struggled with depression herself. She had been old enough to remember her mother rocking and crying on the bathroom floor and being taken out of the house in a straitjacket. Scenes that Addison’s dad had escaped by being too young to recall or by Gicky protecting him.

“The thought of having a toddler hanging on her leg again, or, God forbid, passing down her mother’s depression gene, stopped her from ever considering having children of her own. Until she reached her forties and began worrying about her old age and keeping her beloved house in the family.”

That part frightened Addison. She’d be thirty-five on her next birthday. Surely, she had time left for a family, if she decided she wanted one. A month before, she wanted nothing more than that promotion at work, and now her future felt like a blank slate—a scary blank slate.

“Family was everything to Gicky—and then it was nothing.That sense of loyalty defined who she was for so long. I guess it never left her. She loved this island too, though, and leaving this place to your father would have been an insult to it. He may not have even visited before selling.”

Addison knew that wasn’t true. She knew that his estrangement from his sister upset him terribly. She remembered witnessing him crying in the den when she was young. She had climbed up on his lap and put her hands on his cheeks, asking him, “What’s wrong, Daddy?” And even though she was just a little girl, he had answered her honestly. “I miss my family,” he’d said. His parents had both passed away by then. “And I don’t know how to make things better with my sister.” He’d wiped his eyes and changed his tune from remorseful to forceful, adding, “Promise me you will never let anything come between you and Ivy.” And even though she was quite young, she always remembered that promise. Sometimes, when her sister was particularly awful, that promise was all she had to keep her from crossing the line.

Addison took pity on her dad. She herself was often guilty of compromising just to keep the peace at home. In her gut, she knew that was most likely the lion’s share of his reasoning here. At least that was the excuse she had used when he took the easy road in life—which meant siding with their mother. It wasn’t a good excuse, but it was what they all needed to do to survive. And she had to admit, leaving your baggage behind was quite tempting.

“I’m not trying to pressure you,” Margot added kindly. “You should do what you need to do regarding this place.”

Addison reached into her bag to apply more sunblock. She usually forgot to reapply, but Margot’s leathery skin worked like an ad for the stuff.

“I understand about my dad, but why did Gicky leave the house to me alone, and not to me and my sister?’

“Ivy, right?”

“Yes.”

“She said that Ivy had settled down and that you seemed to be anchorless.”

“Anchorless.” Addison repeated it quietly, like a word she needed to keep in her pocket to think more about later.

Chapter Seven

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