Page 4 of Chasing the Horizon

“Yeah. I mean, it’s such a crazy story, isn’t it?” Valerie said, remembering that a publishing house had wanted to publish Victor’s story about the Sutton family alongside Valerie’s takedown of Victor. They’d wanted to pit the two against one another for corporate gains.

But Valerie and Victor had stopped that plan in its tracks and decided to spin a story all their own—one that was nuanced and built on the multifaceted stories within the Sutton family. One that didn’t neglect the variability of the Suttons’ emotions.

Valerie had never written a book before. She’d certainly never worked so closely with her father on anything, either. But she’d heard the tech.Don’t give in to fear.

It was three o’clock when they returned to the one-bedroom cabin tucked in the trees they would soon have to vacate. Alex had been living there since he’d left San Francisco. Valerie had allowed herself to fully fall back in love with him there, sprawledout on the sands by the water, their hands locked as they listened to the twittering birds and watched the wind sweep sweetly through the trees. It was hard to believe they’d truly shared that San Francisco past, that their mornings had once been so hectic and loud, that they’d struggled to find parking and fought about it and never had enough money.

San Francisco was also where Alex’s alcoholism had taken on its monstrous form.

But Alex was fully sober now. He was healthy, or mostly healthy, if he didn’t always opt for a burger and fries and went for a few runs a week. These days, he hardly worked at his parents’ inn and instead worked on a proposal for a brand-new documentary. For now, Valerie’s event planning jobs were more than enough to sustain them, and Valerie needed Alex to leap back into a career that had previously been his very reason for being. She needed him to feel overjoyed. She needed him to perpetually look around them and think,I am so glad to be living this life.

But once they were back in the cabin, ready to sprawl in front of the television and let the rest of the day melt away, Valerie’s older sister Bethany called.

Valerie answered, “Hello?”

“There she is!” Bethany cried. Her overly enthusiastic voice was proof that Valerie’s entire family was nervous about Valerie’s appointment at the clinic.

“It went great.” Valerie got straight to the point.

Bethany exhaled deeply. “Oh, honey. We’re so glad to hear that.”

Valerie shifted around on the sofa, watching Alex pour himself a glass of lemonade and drink it while standing at the kitchen counter in the next room.

“Listen,” Bethany continued, “I know you’re probably busy, but we’re thinking about having a spontaneous family barbecue. A classic Sutton affair. What do you think?”

A classic Sutton affair? There was nothing classic about it, not anymore.

But Bethany was devoting time and energy to building new rituals. Valerie had to hand it to her. Now that they were all back on the island, some of it was bound to stick.

Valerie put the phone against her chest and asked Alex what he thought.

“Burgers? Steaks?” he asked, brightening.

They’d been planning on salads for dinner at home.

“I think we’re in,” Valerie said to Bethany, laughing. “What should we bring?”

“Just yourselves,” Bethany assured her. “We’re taking care of everything else.”

It was Alex’s idea to sail over to the Sutton house. It was in the upper fifties and sunny in a way that reminded you probably wouldn’t see much of that for the next five months. Valerie bundled up and got on board, watching as Alex whipped around the boat to fill the sails with wind. Before long, they were breezing through the Nantucket Sound, the water on either side of those jewel-colored and glowing. When he could, Alex abandoned his duties to kiss Valerie on both cheeks and say, “I can’t wait to teach Francis Ford Coppola how to sail!”

“What if she’s a she?” Valerie asked.

“Francis is a girl’s name too!”

They reached the Sutton house and tied the boat to the dock near her father’s—Esmewas what it was still called despite Esme and Victor having been divorced for decades and Victor being married to someone else.

Valerie was pretty sure that Victor hadn’t used that boat during his marriage to Bree.

But now, a bonfire was licking the autumn air, and the barbecue near the porch was all lit up and ready to go. The Suttons poured from the house to hug Valerie and Alex hello. Bethany and Rebecca trailed their children, wearing matching autumn boots that made Valerie say, “Why did you leave me out on the matchy-matchy?”

Bethany and Rebecca apparently hadn’t noticed that they’d bought the same pair of boots. They shrieked about it and said, “Oh, you saw they were on sale, too? Great minds think alike!”

Valerie rolled her eyes and hugged her sisters—women who were so different from her, women she was still getting to know after so many years apart. Bethany was a renowned surgeon who’d just moved her practice to Nantucket Hospital after many years in Georgia. Her ex-husband was also a surgeon, but because he was a man and from a prestigious family in Savannah, Georgia, Bethany had often been overlooked when it came to promotions. She was much happier in Nantucket, a smaller but thankful district.

Rebecca was a chef who operated a beautiful restaurant on the second floor of the library that housed the Sutton Book Club. The restaurant wasn’t open every day, and their menu was ever-rotating, allowing Rebecca to listen to her heart and the seasons to be especially creative. Prior to her return to Nantucket, Rebecca had owned a restaurant up in Maine, but after the death of her husband, Victor Sutton himself had gone to “fetch” her, telling her that he’d needed her help to find Esme.

For the rest of the Suttons, Esme had been missing. But the truth was, Esme had been out in San Francisco with Valerie, nursing a broken heart in the wake of her second husband’s death.

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