Page 20 of The Summer We Started Over

A year passed, and then another. Eddie graduated and went to New York to work as an assistant in a publishing house. Barrett attended classes, dated a bit, and worked at a farm stand after school and on weekends. She saved her money and wasn’t sure why, except that it gave her comfort. Stearns continued to attend classes and work at the computer shop. Their mother worked longer hours at the jewelry shop in Pittsfield and their father taught an extra course in English literature and it was as if they wereallgrowing up, changing, becoming more particular in themselves and less part of a family.

In October, Stearns came by the house.

Halloween was near. The moon was full, the trees half-stripped of leaves, and the air was pure and bracing. Eddie was home for the weekend. She and Barrett were in the family room watchingStranger Things.As usual, their mother wasn’t home. Their father was in the living room, watching the History Channel.

They heard their father open the door.

“Girls,” he called. “Come to the living room.”

For a moment, the sisters couldn’t make sense of what they saw.Stearns had always been tall, but he’d grown a few more inches and added weight and muscles to his body. He wore canvas trousers and a clean shirt.

Stearns was aman.

Next to him sat Dove.

Dove.

She was radiant. Her blond hair was held back in a low bun, curls escaping, all glossy and clean and lovely. She wore jeans and a white T-shirt and a thin gold chain around her neck.

Barrett burst into tears.

Eddie walked close and pinched her beautiful old friend. Not hard, just enough to have Dove’s skin between her fingers so she could believe Dove was real.

She didn’t even try to be subtle as she sniffed the air around Dove.

Dove cracked a sideways smile. “Yeah, I’m sober. Have been for months.”

“We missed you,” Eddie said, her voice splintering with emotion. “We missed both of you.”

“Thanks, sis.” Stearns gave Eddie an awkward hug. “We missed you.”

“Can you stay for a while?” their father asked.

“Yeah, awhile,” Stearns said.

Eddie put her arm around Barrett, who was red-faced and trembling. Awkwardly, as if they were new to sitting on furniture, they sank onto the sofa.

Stearns had been promoted to a full-time junior-level job at the computer company. He would make more money than his father made as a college professor.

“I’m so proud of you,” their father said. “You’ve found work you love.” He added happily, “And you will be close enough to come home every so often.”

Dove was going with him. She planned to attend a communitycollege. They’d live in Stearns’s apartment in Troy, which wasn’t that far away, Stearns said, just a drive over the Taconic Trail through the mountains and up past Albany.

When Dove was asked, she told them that her parents were okay. Her father was in jail, but would probably be out in a year. Her mother had moved to Florida to live with a friend. A male friend, Dove added with a sardonic smile.

Yes, she said, she’d been living with Stearns for the past six months.

Yes, she said, it was Stearns who found her, brought her to live with him, and got her sober.

“Maybe,” she said, “maybewe’ll get married.”

“What?” Barrett blinked in surprise. “Married? But, Dove, I don’t understand. How could you do all this without even telling us? We always told youeverything! You always told us everything! We were your best friends.Wecould have helped you get sober!Wewouldn’t have let you get drunk in the first place!”

“Things change,” Dove said softly. “Sometimes things change really fast. I didn’t know my father had lost all our money and was a crook. I didn’t know my father would go to prison. I didn’t know we would lose our house. My mother vanished and never gets in touch with me.I lost everything. I am sorry. But I was stumbling in the dark for a while.”

Eddie leaned forward and spoke quietly. “Okay, then, Stearns. Why didn’tyoutell us? Why didn’t you tell us something, anything, at least that Dove was alive?”

Stearns shrugged, looking apologetic. “Come on, Eddie, you know how you are. If I’d told you she was okay, you two would be demanding to know how I knew, and where did I see her, and why wouldn’t I take you to see her? And you would have been freaked out if you’d seen her when she was getting sober. It was not a pretty sight.”

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