Page 9 of Against the Current

“I’m proud of you, Ryan,” she told him. She felt she was repeating herself, but she didn’t care.

Ryan tilted his head as though he wanted to ask a question but was too frightened.

“You know you can talk to me about anything,” she told him.

Ryan’s smile was secretive. Suddenly, Jackie was struck with the notion that her son wasn’t fully her son anymore. First and foremost, he was married to Trisha. Everything he did now would be for his future family.

It was how she’d raised him.

Trisha and her father danced to a country song Jackie had never heard. In the middle, Dana got up and stormed into the mansion, presumably to clean her ears of the twang. But the father-daughter dance was really quite sweet. You could see how much Trisha and her father loved each other. You could see that Tommy had done his best to raise a kind and considerate and beautiful daughter. He’d done so well, in fact, that she’d gone on to marry a Sutton. That was really something around here. They were Nantucket royalty.

When the floor opened for everyone, a shadow poured over Jackie’s glass of champagne. She turned to find her father, Jeremy Sutton. He was smiling down at her.

“May I invite the mother of the groom to a dance?”

Jackie’s heart lifted. “I couldn’t say no to that!”

As she followed her father out on the dance floor, her mind’s eye filled with images of her own wedding day so many years ago, when she and her father had danced to “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac—much to her mother’s chagrin.Why can’t you pick something more classic?That had been Dana’s refrain back then, too. But the song had been a favorite of both Jeremy and Jackie. They’d danced and sung the lyrics. There hadn’t been a dry eye in the audience.

Now, their dance began uneasily. They hadn’t been quite this close since Robin’s wedding a few years back. Jackie struggled to look her father in the eye. Was she worried about what she’d see there? Was he going to reprimand her for not stopping the marriage between Ryan and Trisha when she could?

Not that I could have! Not that I want that kind of power!

But when she forced herself to look at her father, all she saw was kindness. All she saw was love.

“Dad?” she whispered.

“What is it, sweetie?”

“Do you think I did the wrong thing? Should I have pushed back on this? Should I have—you know—told Ryan it’s the wrong family to link up with?”

She said everything as carefully and as quietly as she could. She was sure she blended in with the music. She was sure she wasn’t heard.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows and studied the wide stretch of blue overhead. It was still a few hours before sunset—hours set aside for celebration before fireworks would explode over the Nantucket Sound.

“Honey, you know as well as I do that we can’t control our children,” Jeremy said.

Jackie’s heart softened. “That’s what I’ve been thinking all day.”

Jeremy smiled. “Have you seen our boy? He looks happy as a clam. He’s in love with that girl. Who are we to say it’s wrong?”

“Right! We’re not.” Jackie hung her head. “Mom is so upset. I never know what to say. Oh, but you probably know all of this. She’s probably talked your ear off.”

Jeremy’s eyes twinkled. “Your mother is a complicated woman. But she loves fiercely. She just needs a little time sometimes. She needs to get used to things.” He paused and furrowed his brow. “You know, my mother didn’t want me to marry Dana.”

Jackie gasped. “You’re kidding!”

“I wish I was. It was a nightmare for me. I loved my mother, and I was very loyal to her. But when I met Dana, I knew she was the one. I could feel it. Nobody could talk me out of it. I was very clear on that.”

“What did Mom do? How did she handle it?”

“My mother cried at the wedding,” Jeremy remembered with a laugh. “Dana ran off to fetch some tissues. I’ll never forget what she said. ‘You better take the entire box, Mrs. Sutton. I’m going to be here for a long time.’” Jeremy erupted with laughter. “She handed it over and put her hands on her hips and just stared, smiling, at my mother as my mother sobbed. I’ve never felt more like a child in my life. Two powerful women already in a feud. I was done for.”

“That sounds like Mom,” Jackie said, closing her eyes and imagining her mother as a blushing bride—so many years ago.

“But they got used to each other,” Jeremy continued, his smile fading. Presumably, he was thinking of his own mother, whom they’d buried a few years back.

What an awful thing to lose a parent, Jackie thought. She was grateful for her father’s and mother’s continued health. She was grateful she lived just across the island and was available to help them at the drop of a hat—not that Dana would ever admit to needing help.

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