One Summer

by David Baldacci

  “Can you give me a minute, Charles?”

  A sulking Sammy had gone into another room, and the kids had disappeared.

  Jenna said to Jack, “Miracle Man?”

  Jack stared at her, the ice pack held to his face. “It’s a long story.”

  “I’m a good listener.”

  “I appreciate that, Jenna. It’s just that…”

  “I can tell you’re the sort of man who doesn’t open up easily. Keeps it all inside.”

  “Maybe we can talk about it. Just not right now.”

  “Well, you need anything else, just let me know.” She rose to go.

  “Jenna?”

  She turned back to see him watching her. “Yes?”

  He touched the Band-Aid on his face. “Thanks for coming over. Means a lot.”

  She smiled. “Only next time I hope I don’t have to bring my first-aid kit.”

  37

  The sound woke all of them. Lights burst on. Jack and Sammy made sure the kids were okay before checking the rest of the house.

  “Sounded like a bomb going off,” said Sammy. “Or a building collapsed.”

  Jack looked at him quizzically and then said, “Oh, damn!”

  He ran toward the rear of the house.

  “Jack! What is it?”

  Sammy raced after him.

  Jack sprinted across the backyard and over to the rocks. He ripped open the door of the lighthouse and stopped. The stairs had collapsed. He shone his light upward. Forty vertical feet of wood had tumbled down.

  Sammy ran up next to him and saw what he was looking at. “Hell. Weren’t you just up there?”

  Jack nodded, his gaze still on the fallen structure. Now he couldn’t get to the top.

  “Close call, boy.”

  Jack turned to him. “I need to rebuild the stairs.”

  “What?”

  “We can go get the materials tomorrow.”

  “But we still have to finish some other jobs. And Charles has got some more referrals for us. Lady named Anne Bethune has a big house on the beach. She wants a screen porch enclosed and some other stuff done. Good money.”

  “I’ll do this on my own time.”

  “Yeah, all your spare time.”

  “I have to do it, Sammy.”

  Sammy looked at the jumble of splintered wood. “Gonna be expensive.”

  “Take it out of my share. And I don’t expect you to help.”

  Sammy frowned. “Since when do we have shares and don’t help each other?”

  “But this is different, Sammy. I can’t expect you to do this too.”

  Sammy looked at the hand-painted sign next to the door and said quietly, “We’ll take some measurements in the morning. Get the materials. We’ll do the paying stuff during the day and this after hours. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Jack. As Sammy turned to go back in the house, he added, “Thanks, Sammy.”

  He turned around. “Never been married, Jack. But I understand losing somebody. Especially someone like Lizzie.”

  He continued on into the house, and Jack turned to look back at the lighthouse he was now going to rebuild.

  “What’s all this for?” Charles asked as Jack and Sammy finished loading the truck to capacity. He eyed the items in the truck bed. “Scaffolding, and you’ve ordered enough wood to build another Noah’s ark?”

  “Had a little accident at the Palace,” said Sammy when it appeared Jack was not going to answer the man’s question.

  Charles looked alarmed. “Accident? Was anyone hurt?”

  “Stairs in the lighthouse fell down,” said Jack. “No one was hurt.”

  “So you’re going to rebuild the stairs?” he asked, looking perplexed.

  “Yes,” said Jack tersely.

  Sammy eyed Charles and shrugged.

  “But the light doesn’t even work.”

  “He plans on fixing that too,” replied Sammy.

  “But why? It’s not registered as a navigational aid anymore.”

  Jack finished strapping everything down before he looked at Charles and pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him. “I found a schematic on the lighting system. I’d appreciate it if you could see if these pieces of equipment could be ordered.”

  Charles glanced down at the list. “Might take some time. And it won’t be cheap.”

  Jack started to climb into the truck. “Thanks.”

  Sammy gave Charles a helpless look and got in the truck.

  As they were driving out of town, Sammy said, “Isn’t that Bonnie?”

  Jack looked where he was pointing. It was indeed Bonnie. And she was sitting in a car with a younger man dressed in a suit.

  “Who’s the guy?” asked Sammy.

  “Never seen him before.”

  “She’s a strange bird.”

  “Yeah.” Jack glanced back at the woman and then drove on.

  They unloaded the materials at the Palace. Then Sammy took the VW and drove off to meet with Anne Bethune about what she needed done, while Jack continued on to Jenna’s house in the truck.

  Jenna met him at the door. She was still dressed in a robe and slippers.

  “Sorry about my appearance. The restaurant business isn’t nine to five; it’s more like ten a.m. to midnight. You want some coffee?”

  Jack hesitated.

  “No extra charge,” she said, smiling.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  She poured out a cup and brought it down to him in the music room. She watched him work hanging new drywall.

  “You really know what you’re doing,” she said.

  “It’s just drywall. Once you know what to do, it’s pretty easy.”

  “Right. I can’t even hang a picture.”

  “I doubt being a lawyer in D.C. was easy.”

  “Just a bunch of words, legal gobbledygook.”

  “If you say so.”

  Jenna sipped her coffee and continued to watch. “Our kids have really hit it off playing music together.”

  “Yeah, Mikki told me.”

  “First time I’ve seen Liam really take an interest in anyone down here.”

  “He seems like a fine young man. And Mikki’s mood is a lot better. That’s worth its weight in gold.”

  He put down his tool and took a sip of coffee. “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”

  She eyed him with mock caution. “Should I be scared?”

  “No.”

  “Then shoot.”

  “Ever think about getting married again?”

  “I’ve thought about it, sure.”

  “I mean, from what you’ve said, you’ve been divorced a while. You’re young, well-off, smart, and educated. And… really pretty.”

  “Can I hire you as my publicist?”

  “I’m serious, Jenna.”

  She put her cup down, sat, and covered her bare knees with her robe. “There have been some men interested in a permanent relationship with me. Some right here in Channing.”

  “But?”

  “But they weren’t the right ones. And I’m a woman who’s willing to wait for the real Mr. Right. Especially considering how wrong I got it the first time.”

  Jack picked up his tool again. “Lizzie and I met in high school. We would’ve celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary this year.”

  “Sounds like you found Mrs. Right on your first try.”

  “I did,” he said frankly.

  “I suppose that makes the loss that much harder.”

  “It does. But I’ve got our kids to raise. And I have to do it right. For Lizzie.”

  “And you, Jack. You’re part of the equation too.”

  “And me,” he said. “I hope you find Mr. Right.”

  “Me too,” said Jenna wistfully, as she stared at him.

  38

  Sammy turned to Jack and said, “I think it’s time to knock off. It’s almost midnight.”

  “You go on. I’m just going to finish up a few things.”

 
They were in the lighthouse. After working most of the last three days at Anne Bethune’s house, Sammy and Jack had eaten a hasty dinner and worked another four hours on the lighthouse. They had cleared out all the wood from the collapsed stairs and assembled the scaffolding up to the top platform, which also needed repair. Fresh lumber delivered from Charles Pinckney’s hardware store was neatly stacked outside in preparation for the rebuilding process.

  “Jack, you’ve put in sixteen hours today. You need to get some rest.”

  “I will, Sammy. Just another thirty minutes.”

  Sammy shook his head, dropped his tool belt on the lower level of the scaffolding, stretched out his aching back, and walked slowly to the Palace.

  Jack tightened down some of the scaffolding supports and then climbed up to the top and stepped out onto the catwalk. What he was trying to imagine was how Lizzie the little girl would have thought of the view from up here.

  “Were you scared at first, Lizzie? Did you think you might fall? Or did you love it the first time you saw it?” He stared out at the dark ocean and let the breeze wash over his face. He eyed the sky, looking for the exact spot where little Lizzie had imagined Heaven to be perched. And also where her twin sister had gone.

  And now where you are, Lizzie.

  Farther out to sea he could see ship lights as they slowly made their way across the water. He closed his eyes, and his thoughts carried back to that frozen cemetery four days after Christmas, when they’d laid Lizzie into the ground. She was there right now, alone, in the dark.

  “Don’t, Jack,” he said. “Don’t. Nothing good will come from dwelling on that. Remember Lizzie in life. Not like that.”

  He looked to his right and was surprised to see someone walking along the beach. As the person drew closer, Jack could see that it was Jenna. She was holding her sandals in one hand, slowly swinging them as she walked close to the waterline. He looked at his watch. It was nearly one in the morning. What was she doing out here?

  She suddenly looked up and under the arc of moonlight saw him. She waved and started toward the rocks.

  She called up to him. “Working late?”

  He said, “Just finishing up a few things. Surprised to see you out.”

  “I sometimes take a walk on the beach after closing down the Little Bit. Helps to relax me.” She gazed at the lighthouse. “Heard you were fixing it up.”

  “Trying.” He added, “Guess it seems pretty crazy.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” she said, surprising him.

  “Why?”

  “I just think it’s a good idea. That’s all.” He didn’t say anything. “By the way, you did a great job on the soundproofing. Can’t hear a thing. It’s raised the quality of my life a thousand percent. And I won’t have to kill my only child.”

  “I’m glad I could help.”

  “Well, I guess I better head back.”

  Jack looked down the dark beach from where she had come. “Do you want me to walk back with you? It’s pretty dark out there.”

  “No, I’ll be fine. It’s a safe place. And you look like you have some thinking to do still.”

  Before he could say anything, she’d turned and walked off. He slowly climbed back down the scaffolding. When he touched bottom, he passed through the doorway and then turned and looked at the hand-painted sign.

  “I’m going to get it working,” he said. “Lizzie, I promise that this light will work again. And then you can look down from Heaven and see it.”

  And maybe see me.

  39

  “Oh, great,” said Mikki. It was Saturday night and she was at the beach party Blake Saunders had invited her to. There were lots of people already there, and one of them was Tiffany Murdoch, holding court by the large bonfire that spewed streams of embers skyward. There were quite a few large young men in football jerseys and teenage girls in short shorts, tight skirts, and tighter tops. A catering truck was parked on the road near the beach. Mikki, who’d brought a blanket and a bag of marshmallows, looked on in shock as men and women in white jackets carried trays of food and drinks around to the teens partying on the sand.

  Blake spotted her and strolled over, a bottle in his hand.

  “Hey, glad you could make it.”

  “Never been to a beach party that was catered before,” she said in a disapproving tone.

  “I know. But Tiffany’s dad is a big football booster, and he pays for the party every year.”

  “So I guess that’s why Tiff’s here?”

  “Oh, yeah. The center of attention as always. A real queen bee.”

  “Bees sting,” Mikki shot back.

  “What’s in the bag?” he said.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly, hiding the bag of marshmallows behind her.

  He held up the bottle. “Want a taste?”

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

  “It’s not alcohol.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  A little put off, he said, “Well, there’s plenty of food and drink. Help yourself and then come join us.”

  He left, and Mikki went to the tables manned by other adults in white jackets. She asked for a Coke. The woman, weathered looking