Page 93 of A Novel Summer
“She looks good, right?” Justin said.
She nodded. They watched Ladyslipper swim as the loud ambient hum of the lights and the tanks filled the void between them. Neither of them spoke, and she didn’t want to be the one to break the quiet.
A curly-haired technician walked over and scooped up the turtle. She waved her front flippers in protest.
“You’re going home,” Justin said.
Jan placed the turtle in the same simple cardboard banana box that they used to rescue her from the beach. She carried the turtle outside to a tarmac and the waiting Cessna, and they followed.
Justin greeted the volunteer pilot, someone he knew from the various organizations he was in constant contact with to coordinate rescues. He took the turtle box from the MARC biologist, and walked it over to Shelby so she could see her one more time before he helped load it onto the plane headed for Texas.
Shelby covered her ears against the roar of the plane propellers as it took off. With Justin beside her, she watched until it disappeared.
“Look at that,” Shelby said. “Literally flying off into the sunset.”
He looked at her. “Do you mean that thing you say—that you write fiction because it’s the happy ending you can’t have in real life?”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s notwhyI write, but maybe it’s the reason behindwhatI write. Am I wrong?”
“About happy endings in real life? It’s tough to say,” he said, his brow furrowed. “As a scientist, I like to have all the facts.”
“Of course,” she said with exaggerated solemnity.
“But I would theorize that happy endings are possible,” he said.
She nodded as if considering this. “Tough to prove.”
“It is. But I’d like to test the hypothesis. Know anyone who could help me with that?”
He looked into her eyes and smiled. She leaned against him, nodding, and he pulled her close. She tilted her head up, and he kissed her.
Sixty-Five
Two years later
Shelby stood on the beach behind Land’s End, doing a quick head count. It was standing room only and she wondered if she’d ordered enough books. Concerned, she pulled Mia off to the side.
“I’m never doing this again.” Planning her own book launch at her own bookstore was more stressful than planning a wedding.
“Sure you will,” Mia said.
Shelby spotted Colleen rounding the building towards them. Madeline, holding her mother’s hand, was dressed in a pink sequined T-shirt and a little denim skirt. Her fine blond hair was in two pigtails. Doug and Mathew followed close behind. Hunter called them over. Madeline scurried over to Shelby, and she bent down to hug her. She radiated heat and smelled like strawberries.
“Watch out—her hands are sticky,” Colleen said.
“Everything is always sticky now,” Doug said.
Shelby didn’t care. It was hard to believe how she’d agonized over what to wear to her first book event years ago. Today, she’d barely been able to think about it long enough to make sure she had clean jeans to wear with her red Land’s End Books T-shirt. Mathew was wearing the kiddie version of the same shirt.
“I tried to get Maddy to wear hers, but she insisted on glamour tonight,” Doug said.
“Who can argue with sequins?” Shelby said.
“I’d say everyone is a little underdressed,” Hunter said, walking up to them in an elegant, bone-colored Theory pantsuit. Gone were the concert tees and Doc Martens.
“We’re at thebeach,” Colleen said. “Doug, can you watch them for a second?” She turned to Shelby and Hunter. “I’m not going to be able to stay for the party. I can’t leave Doug to wrestle them into baths on his own. And I know you’ll be mobbed after the reading. But I wanted to say I’m really proud of you.”
Shelby hugged her. “Do you want to take a quick walk to the water? I could use a minute away from all this.”
