Page 4 of Sunset on the Solstice

“People are resistant to matchmaking,” Lily offered.

“But there’s an art form to it,” Rebecca chimed in, smiling, although she felt a swell of sorrow. Why couldn’t Lily find someone better suited for Shelby? Why had they all failed her?

Soon, the entire veranda and beach were full of Suttons. Esme and Victor arrived, both looking suntanned and happy after a full day out on Victor’s sailboat. Esme bent to play with her great-granddaughters on the sand, and her laughter rang out across the waves.

“Kade’s on his way,” Victor announced, setting down a bottle of wine.

“Our new high school graduate!” Bethany said. She was off to the side, trying to scrub the hands of her youngest child, now five, who had gotten into something sticky.

“He’s quite an adult now,” Victor said, a touch of sorrow to his voice.

Rebecca remembered that Kade was eleven when her father became his therapist. Because of Kade’s heinous living conditions at the time, and because he was mostly alone in the world, Victor and Esme had taken him in, and after enough time passed, they’d fully fallen for him and adopted him. Very soon after that, Kade had changed his last name to Sutton, and now, he was officially one of the family. Rebecca knew this had been an essential “fresh start” for her parents, especially as Esme and Victor had spent so many years apart. Decades. It was hard for Rebecca to fathom, sometimes.

Her life in Maine was often hard for her to reckon with, as well. But it had happened. Her first marriage had happened. Her husband had—horrifically, terribly, life-alteringly—died.

Don’t think about that now, Rebecca told herself, fixing a smile on her face.

It was time to eat. Rebecca ushered everyone to the long table, where Ben and the other guys kept bringing grilled chicken and burgers. There were salads, soups, cheeses, and gorgeous French appetizers stuffed with goat cheese and spices. Everyone piled their plates high and refilled their glasses with wine, soda, and sparkling water. There wasn’t a moment of silence, not for at least two hours, as everyone ate and told stories and watched the sun drop into the ocean.

After a wonderful barbecue feast, Rebecca told everyone to forget about cleaning up and enjoy themselves. She sat at the table with her sisters, Bethany and Valerie, and her mother, Esme, watching as their family strolled out along the beach in the coming twilight, making sandcastles and putting their feet in the water. Esme reached over to refill everyone’s glasses with wine, smiling mischievously.

“You don’t have surgery tomorrow, do you, Bethany?” Esme asked.

“I’m free.” Bethany laughed. “But that doesn’t mean I need that much wine.”

“You’ll be fine. It isn’t so much, is it?” Esme smiled. “And Valerie? How’s planning Chad’s wedding going?”

“Jenny has a vision,” Valerie said, her eyes narrow as she watched her son August running down the beach alongside his cousins and father Alex. “Working with an artist on their wedding is always more challenging for me, but also more exciting. It will come together, but I’ll have to hustle.”

“She’s really something,” Esme said as, about a hundred feet away, Jenny sidled up to Chad and took his hand.

“How is it going between you?” Bethany asked Rebecca.

“I think we’re friends,” Rebecca said, her heart spiking with adrenaline. “It was hard. When she first came into our lives, I don’t know if I was totally receptive to someone new.” She stalled, remembering that she’d struggled to connect with Jenny, if only because her heart had been so battered after everything that had happened with Shelby. “But now, we meet just the two of us every month or so. I’m so grateful she wants to live and work on Nantucket.”

Rebecca wasn’t sure what she would have said if Jenny had wanted to steal Chad away.

“You’ll know their kids,” Esme said, smiling. “When they have them.”

“I worry about this with August,” Valerie said, her voice small. “Alex and I were wild at heart, you know? I worry that August will inherit that and want to get out of here.”

They were quiet for a moment, reflecting on their lives.

“Then again,” Valerie offered, “it was good that we all left, so we could come back.”

“Everything happened the way it was supposed to,” Bethany offered, before dropping her gaze and muttering, “Well, not everything.”

“It’s all right,” Rebecca assured them, trying to lighten the mood.

There was a moment of quiet. Bethany cleared her throat.

“You haven’t tried to reach out to her lately, have you?” Bethany asked.

Rebecca knew she was talking about Shelby.

“It’s been about three months, I guess,” Rebecca said. “Nobody answered the phone, and nobody answered my letters.”

Valerie nodded sadly.