Page 165 of The Book of Summer

“There are things I have to take care of. Real-world stuff. I can’t just…”

“I know.”

“But I’ll find my way back. Somehow, in some way that will be more than it was before.”

He doesn’t answer.I know,he’s said. Does he know? He doesn’t. But he hopes.

“All right, you two,” Chappy calls, tramping back toward the car, Cissy trailing after him. “Bess and Cissy, you gals need a final picture at the old homestead.”

“Some homestead,” Cissy says, trying to catch her breath.

Chappy holds up his phone.

“Let’s do this,” he says. “You’ll hate yourself if you don’t.”

“Do you even know how to work that?” Evan asks.

“It’s a damned phone, not a nuclear code. Cissy. Bess. Get together. One last photo taken at the head of Sankaty Bluff.”

The women trade looks and shrug. Why not?

Cissy and Bess sock in together and unleash their biggest smiles as the wind whips up the sand and shells around them. In between takes they comment on the weather. It’s a glorious afternoon, they agree. Finally and at last. Mark it in the Book of Summer: the first clear day.

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