Page 81 of The Summer We Started Over

She heard Bobby say, “Read.”Bobby’s part of our family for sure,Eddie thought.

Her head was spinning. Should she tell her father? Should she interrupt his work? Would he have a heart attack when he saw Dove and her child?

As soon as she entered the kitchen, she called Barrett.

Janny answered the phone. “Nantucket Blues,” she trilled.

Eddie rolled her eyes. Janny sounded so sweet and so fake on the phone. But today she was glad Janny was in the shop.

“Hi, Janny. I need to talk with Barrett.”

“Okey-dokey.”

When Barrett said hello, Eddie said urgently, “I need you to come home. Now. Dove is here with Bobby and he looks just like Stearns. Dove looksterrible,skinny and jaundiced, and I don’t know what to do. We’re in the Book Barn. Should I bring Dad out here?” Eddie finished, her panic easing as she talked.

Barrett was decisive. “Don’t tell Dad yet. I’ll come right away.”

Eddie made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Bobby, piled Oreo cookies in a bowl, poured lemonade into three plastic tumblers, set it all on a tray, and carried it out to the barn.

Dove said, “Bobby, look. Auntie Eddie is bringing us lunch.”

They settled Bobby with his sandwich, cookies, and lemonade at the small child’s table. Eddie and Dove took tumblers of lemonade and went to stand just inside the barn doors, out of range of Bobby’s hearing.

Dove sipped her lemonade. Her hands trembled.

“He’s beautiful,” Eddie said. She couldn’t take her eyes off the little boy. It hurt to see Dove so thin, so fragile. Their old best friend, their almost-sister, the woman Stearns had loved. What had happened? Tears welled in Eddie’s eyes. “Oh, Dove, Dovebug, are you okay? Why did you go away? Why didn’t you keep in touch? We wanted to be with you. We would have taken care of you and your baby.”

“I know that.” Dove bent her head, speaking softly. “But I neededto leave. Look around, Eddie. Look at all you have. Your father, and Barrett, and a home.”

“Dove—”

“What if it all disappeared? Your home, your family, the man you have loved all your life…” She flicked tears from her cheek. “I lost it all, Eddie. I lost my parents, and the feeling of being a good person from a good family—”

“Youarea good person, Dove!”

“You have no idea what it was like to live in that town with everyone hating my parents. Those cheerleaders gossiping together about how my father was a thief. I couldn’t stay, Eddie. Especially not with you and your perfect family.”

“God, Dove, we were never perfect!” Eddie protested.

“Yeah, right.” Dove sniffed. “You had Barrett. She had you. You never had to walk down the hall at school and hear someone say, ‘Watch out that she doesn’t steal your bracelet. Her father’s a crook.’ On Instagram people called me a criminal, criminal girl, jailbird. You saw those posts.”

“We did, Dove, and remember, Barrett and I stood up for you! We told them they were lying, being stupid. But you disappeared—”

“—and became the town drunk.” Dove knocked her head against the wall. She breathed deeply, trying to get in control. “The night they took my father to jail? Mom went to her friend’s house and I was alone, the last night I would ever sleep in my house. And I—”

“You should have come to our house!” Eddie cried. “I can’t believe you didn’t come to our house. Or at least called us. We could have come to be with you.”

Dove shook her head. “I knew something was going to happen. I heard my parents talking. You can’t understand, Eddie. What my father did—those men in suits coming to our house—I felt ashamed. I wanted to hide. I didn’t want to beme,the Criminal’s Daughter.”

“But, Dove—” Eddie cried, holding out her hand to touch her old friend.

Dove moved out of reach. “I didn’t feel like I was good enough to be with you.”

Before Eddie could speak again, Barrett tore into the driveway, scattering the shells. She turned off the engine, jumped out of the Jeep, and ran toward Dove.

Barrett smashed into Dove, crushing her in a hug, crying, “You’re here! You’re really here!”

Dove let Barrett hold her as the two women cried together. Eddie watched, tears running down her face.

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