Page 21 of Sunkissed Memories
Up at the high school football field, Peter took her hand and led her to the stands. Kade, Kathy, and Olivia walked behind them, Kade fidgety in his collared shirt. Olivia giggled and waved at someone, and Ada followed her gaze to find a thirteen-year-old boy sitting with his family and smiling at her. Ada thought,Uh-oh, and considered the next five years of Olivia’s life: boyfriends, heartaches, and plenty of calculus. It would be a different story, similar to the Hannah High School experience, but entirely distinct as well.
Midway up the bleachers, Ada found a familiar face: Nick Willis. He sat by himself, dressed in a pair of Dockers and a button-down shirt. Their eyes met, and Ada offered him a soft smile before continuing up the steps after Peter. Peter grabbed a seat toward the top, insisting it provided the best angles for photographs.
“There she is,” Peter said, pointing toward a sea of high schoolers in glossy uniforms. “She’ll be up soon. The Bushners always are. Guess that was different for you, huh? Wagner must have always gone last in the alphabet?”
Ada smiled, her mind still on Nick and the conversation they’d had at their Friday afternoon session. He’d been talking about his wife and how painful it had been to watch his daughter say goodbye to her, how Carleigh had had to grow up in a short span of time. Nick had teared up during the session, his cheeks blotchy with embarrassment.
But Ada hadn’t been able to stop herself from wondering,Does Peter ever wish I’d die so that he can carry out his affair to its natural conclusion? Does he ever wish I’d get a serious disease, or have an accident, or drown? Does he ever fantasize about me never coming home?
Now, Peter touched Ada’s shoulder and said, “I’m proud of you, Ada.”
Ada flinched and looked into his eyes. “I’m proud of you, too. We have a high school graduate. We did it!” She made her voice bright and joyful.
Not long after, Peter’s mother and father, Greg and Laurie Bushner, grabbed bleacher seats in front of them and began to gab excitedly with Kathy about their role as grandparents in Hannah’s life.
“Always such a bright girl!” Laurie cried. “She’s going to go on to do amazing things.”
“She sure is,” Kathy said, puffing her chest, as though she wanted to prove herself the better of the two grandmothers. “Vassar, here she comes.”
“I still think she should have applied to Stanford,” Greg said, because he’d gone there a million years ago and had sway.
Ada grimaced into a smile. Although she hadn’t said anything during the process, she hadn’t wanted Hannah to apply to somewhere so far away.
“Vassar will be just fine,” Peter said. “It will be better than fine. Our Hannah picked it.”
Hannah was the second to cross the stage. “Hannah Marie Bushner.” Hannah walked proudly, with her shoulders back and her chin held high. She accepted the diploma and made eye contact with first Ada, then Peter, before gliding back down to her seat. Ada and Peter were on their feet, applauding like crazy. Tears fell down Ada’s cheeks.
“That’s my girl!” Kathy cried.
Like Ada Wagner in her old life, Carleigh Willis had to wait until the very end of the ceremony to get her diploma. By the time she strode across the stage, most everyone was packing up their things and preparing to head to their private family parties. Nick was on his feet, clapping like crazy and finger-whistling.Carleigh’s cheeks were bright red. Ada joined the applause, and Peter gave her a sideways look.
“She was on Hannah’s tennis team,” Ada explained.
“Ah. Go, Catie!” Peter said.
“It’s Carleigh.”
But Peter wasn’t listening to her. Already, he joined the stream of audience members, stomping down the bleachers and heading for Hannah. Ada, Kade, Olivia, Kathy, Greg, and Laurie followed him and threw their arms around Hannah, congratulating her. The sun was a pounding red ball in the sky. Already, it was eighty-three degrees, and they were saying it might reach eighty-six before the afternoon was through.
Back at the house, Ada insisted on taking a series of photographs of Hannah with all of her grandparents and siblings. Eventually, Peter asked Ada to stand with Hannah for a photograph, for which Ada was grateful. So often, husbands don’t remember to take pictures. Peter wasn’t like that. He was a good husband. A good father. Her starry-eyed man. Ugh!
The house was open for the party, with Peter and Ada’s colleagues and friends of the family swinging by for hors d’oeuvres, grilled fish, and buttery biscuits. Peter was at the grill for most of the afternoon, sipping a light beer and chatting with whoever swung by to say hello and ask him about the world of teeth. Ada was just as busy, but always with her eye on him. Was he flirting with their neighbor a little too long? Was he laughing at Natalie’s joke in a way that suggested he was into her?
Ada had never been a jealous wife before. It was an awful cycle. She wished she could crack it.
At around six thirty, when everyone was bursting with food and scattered around with soft drinks or glasses of wine, Ada took a breath and approached her husband. He was cleaning the grill diligently, never one to let tasks like that go for long.
“You know, you can get out of here if you want to,” Ada said, surprising herself with how open she sounded.
Peter frowned as the dirty rag was raised over the bars of the grill. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you have plans tonight,” Ada said, keeping her voice light. “You can head out whenever you want. I can take care of everything else. Gosh, there isn’t that much more to do, is there?” She looked around the backyard, the veranda, and the pool, where one of Greg’s friends from work floated on a noodle with his nose toward the sky.
“You think I want to leave my daughter’s graduation party?” Peter asked.
Ada took a breath and let herself dive into Peter’s intense and beautiful eyes. “I just wanted to give you that option, if you wanted it,” she said.
Peter sputtered. Under his breath, not loud enough for anyone to hear, he asked, “Have I ever given you any indication that I don’t want to be your husband and Hannah’s father?”
