Summer Days

by Lisa Jackson

  “Ben. What in the world?” Celia said.

  “Do you like my new look?”

  “Are you a Jimmy Buffet fan?”

  Ben furled his eyebrows. “I’m relaxed,” he said. “I’m mellow.” “What are you doing here?”

  “It will all become clear,” Ben said. “I’ve learned quite a bit about your past in the last few weeks.”

  “You’ve been here this whole time?”

  “We have plenty of room,” Elizabeth Tanner said with a smile. “He was more than welcome into our home.” Celia stared at Elizabeth. It was a definite dig from the past. Suddenly, more than anything she wished she had barricaded the front door and turned Elizabeth away. Well, screw being polite. This was her house now. Celia ushered them all into the dining room, where she could give them a piece of her mind away from the other guests. Once they were out of hearing range of the living room, she turned to Elizabeth.

  “Didn’t take long for the claws to come out, did it, Mrs. Tanner?”

  “Excuse me?” Elizabeth fluttered her eyelashes. It was eerie, seeing mother and daughter side-by-side. They were a couple of Stepford Wives. Celia would certainly be thinking less of Jacob’s taste right now if it weren’t for parrot-head next to them reminding her that she hadn’t made the best choices either.

  “You’re not welcome here.” Celia pointed to the back door through the kitchen. She’d rather they sneak out the back with their tail between their legs. “This is my house now. Free and clear. And you’re not welcome. That goes for all three of you.”

  “Have you looked under the kitchen sink yet?” Emily said.

  “Don’t do this, Emily,” Jacob said.

  “Why would I look under the kitchen sink?” Celia asked.

  “Everything but the kitchen sink,” Emily said. “Ever heard of that one?”

  What in the world was she getting at? About half the time Emily said things that were so off the wall Celia didn’t have a clue how to respond. Did this have something to do with Jacob’s fixing it? She couldn’t imagine why any of them would care.

  “I think you should do it,” Ben said.

  “Are you sure you want to go down this road, Elizabeth?” Jacob said.

  Elizabeth put her hand on her heart. Here comes the Scarlett O’Hara routine, Celia thought. Sure enough, when Elizabeth spoke next, her voice was about an octave higher. “Why, Jacob. I have no idea what ‘road’ you’re referring to.”

  “You do, Elizabeth,” Jacob said. “You sure do.”

  What are they talking about? Celia hated being in the dark.

  “I’m just here supporting my daughter,” Elizabeth said. “But if you think there will be no consequences for you if you start spreading lies, well then, that would make you very foolish indeed.”

  “Except they wouldn’t be lies, now would they, Elizabeth? Why don’t we all just finally tell the truth?”

  “Go ahead,” Elizabeth laughed. “Tell the truth, Jacob. See how fast your little love flies away.”

  Celia was frightened now. Elizabeth seemed so sure of herself. And Jacob looked absolutely terrified. “Jacob,” Celia said. “What are you guys talking about? What truth?”

  “We’ll show you,” Ben said. He forged into the kitchen. Seconds later he was rummaging under Celia’s sink.

  “Ben!” Celia said. “What are you doing under there?” She followed him in, along with the rest of the group, and soon they formed a semicircle behind him.

  “You always were out of the loop,” Elizabeth said to Celia. “It’s not surprising given your father—”

  With lightning speed, Celia reached for the sink. She grabbed the water-sprayer, turned the faucet on full blast, then unleashed it on Elizabeth. Elizabeth screamed bloody murder, but Celia was in a frenzy, unable to stop. Until Emily started shouting and Celia turned the water on her next. From the way the two were carrying on, she was definitely going to get in big trouble for this. Was it illegal to turn a hose on someone? She would just tell the police she had thought they were on fire. Before she could turn it off, Jacob took the sprayer from her and turned off the water just as Ben popped up from under the sink. He too was soaking wet, presumably from the leak.

  He was holding a pipe from the sink. Water pooled underneath it and snaked onto the floor.

  “What are you doing?” Celia said. “Why are you breaking my sink?”

  “Did you get it already?” Ben asked Jacob.

  “Celia,” Jacob said. “We need to talk.”

  “You think?” Celia said. “Let’s start with Elizabeth. She seems like she has something to say.”

  “You’re still nothing but a little wench,” Elizabeth said. “A low-class little—”

  Celia raised her hand to Mrs. Tanner. She was going to slap her silly, which would definitely get her in trouble, but oh, it was going to be worth it. Jacob intervened again and gently took both of Celia’s hands in his.

  “You deserve everything you’re going to get,” Emily said.

  “And just what would that be?” Celia said.

  “I found it,” Ben shouted. He held something up. It caught the sun and glittered. Celia stepped forward. It was the diamond ring. The boys had shown it to her once, when they were whispering about their mother, how she was coming back for them one day. The princess-cut diamond was the largest and prettiest Celia had ever seen. It was definitely the ring. “It was in the toolbox. Jacob must have already found it in the pipe.”

  “The ring was in this sink?” She turned to Elizabeth and Emily. “Which one of you stole it?” she said.

  “Elizabeth did,” Jacob said. “When I first refused to give in to her demands, apparently she dropped it down the sink.”

  “What demands?”

  “You still haven’t told her,” Elizabeth said. “My, my, my.”

  “Somebody had better start talking,” Celia said. “And by somebody, I mean you, Jacob.”

  “The night after the incident on the beach, I went to talk to Emily,” Jacob said. “I was still trying to piece together why you ran to her crying after we—”

  “I didn’t,” Celia said. “I didn’t.”

  “I know that now, Seal. But I didn’t then. I ran back to our place that night to get the ring. I tossed our mobile home to pieces looking for it. Chris came in—and that’s when he told me that you were at Emily’s crying your eyes out. I was a teenage boy. I thought maybe I’d done something wrong. That you regretted it—and you hated me.”

  Celia glared at Emily. Still dripping wet, Emily just glared back. “Go on,” Celia said to Jacob.

  “The next night, when I went back to see if I could get more details out of Emily, Elizabeth was waiting for me. She said she had the ring. She said she took it to keep me from making the biggest mistake of my life, and she told me that she hid it. She said she’d only give it back if I stopped seeing you.”

  “Why didn’t you just report the theft to the police?”

  “I didn’t have proof. I didn’t know where she was keeping the ring.”

  Celia was having a hard time listening to the details. Shock was preventing her from absorbing it all at once. “When? When did you say you found out she’d stolen the ring?”

  Jacob looked at the floor. Then he forced his gaze up and looked her in the eye. “The next evening. After the beach.”

  “Before she accused my father?”

  “Yes. Although I didn’t know she’d dropped it down her sink. She didn’t admit to that part until after someone else—you—had bought her house.”

  An image of Jacob at her door that first night rose to mind. “And so she sent you that night. To get it back,” Celia said slowly. That’s what he had been doing there. Not fetching a key under the mat like he had said.

  “I didn’t know you were the new owner,” Jacob said. “Elizabeth had been in such a hurry to move that she didn’t remember the ring until the last minute. That’s when I found out what she’d done with it.”

  “But you still
knew she was the one who stole it?”

  “Yes.”

  “The whole time? You sat back while she called my father a thief? Ran us out of town? How? How could you do that? Why would you do that?” Celia could feel herself getting hysterical, but her feelings of grief and rage were so raw, she couldn’t tamp it down.

  Jacob hung his head. “It’s a little more complicated than—”

  “Doesn’t sound complicated at all,” Celia said. “You let my father take the blame for something you knew he didn’t do. True or false?”

  “Celia,” Jacob pleaded.

  “True or false?” Celia demanded.

  “True,” Jacob said. “Very, very true.”

  “Oh my God.” Celia turned on Elizabeth. “You organized a witch hunt against my father when you were the one who stole the ring?”

  Even dripping wet, streaks of mascara running down her cheeks, Elizabeth Tanner looked triumphant.

  “I didn’t know what she was planning,” Jacob said. “I swear.”

  “I don’t understand. What does it matter what she was planning? Why did you let her spread vicious lies about my father?” Celia pointed at Elizabeth. “She ruined his name all over town!”

  “There’s more to it than that,” Jacob said.

  “I don’t see it that way,” Celia said. “I want you out. I want everybody out.”

  “It’s about time,” Ben said. “I can take you home.”

  “I’m not going back to you, Ben.”

  “But he’s a liar!”

  “Out. Out. Out. All of you.”

  Jacob headed for the door. Conversation in the living room came to a hush when the group emerged from the kitchen, but Celia couldn’t worry about strangers now. Jacob threw open the door, and Chris barged in.

  “Did she drop her little bomb?” Chris asked, pointing at Emily.

  “Yes,” Celia said. “Now they’re leaving. All of them.”

  “Bet Jacob didn’t tell you the whole story.”

  “Chris,” Jacob said. “Let it be.”

  “I won’t. Elizabeth Tanner took the ring,” Chris said. He looked around as if expecting a gasp.

  “We got that far,” Jacob said.

  “She also offered your father money to get out of town.”

  Celia froze. “She what?”

  “Enough money to put you through your first year of college.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s always been jealous of you. She didn’t want you marrying Jacob, spending the rest of your life in Hampton Beach.”

  Celia turned to Jacob. “That still doesn’t explain your part. Why did you let her do that, Jacob? Did you change your mind? Did you not want to marry me?”

  “No, God, no. Of course not.”

  “Then why?”

  “Tell her Jacob, or I will,” Chris said.

  “Your father asked me to,” Jacob said.

  “No. No. He wouldn’t do that.”

  “He didn’t like you hanging around Emily. Or me. He hated Elizabeth, too. He wanted to get you out of the whole mess. When I told him that Elizabeth stole the ring and tried to bribe me into breaking up with you, he went to confront her. That’s when she offered him money.”

  “My father wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t take a bribe from her.”

  “It was enough money to send you to college for the first year, Seal.”

  “Oh my God,” Celia said. His new job. A bonus. That was a little white lie.

  “He knew you wouldn’t leave voluntarily, so he concocted the whole ‘Hampton Burglar’ thing. He knew you wouldn’t leave unless it was to protect him.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Celia said. But part of her did.

  “He was even the one who made the flier,” Jacob said.

  “Oh my God.” Celia turned to Elizabeth. “How could you? How could you manipulate our lives like that?”

  “You went to college, didn’t you?”

  “We were never the same.” Celia turned back to Jacob. “You thought I wouldn’t go to college if I stayed here and married you?”

  “I didn’t know what to do. But I knew you were smart. Your dad said you deserved a good education. He asked me to do this for you. He said if I loved you enough, I’d let you go, and if we loved each other enough, that you’d come back to Hampton Beach after college.” He left the rest hanging. Celia hadn’t come back.

  “Please,” Celia said. “Everyone out. I need to be alone.”

  “Everyone out?” Ben said. “Everyone?” He made a beeline for the kitchen. Celia couldn’t believe she was spending fifty percent of her time following people around her own house. And by now, the guests were too curious to even pretend to be polite. Half of them followed Ben into the kitchen. Once there, with everyone watching, Ben lunged at the counter. What was he doing—taking leftovers? Ben held a can of Chock full o’Nuts aloft.

  “Ben,” Celia said.

  “Guess what’s in here, folks? Pete Jensen. That’s right. I’m holding the remains of Pete Jensen.”

  Anna Beth was in the kitchen. She looked at Celia. “Was that what was left of him after the shark?”

  “That’s just coffee, Ben,” Celia said.

  “Just coffee. Just coffee. You want to make me look like the idiot, Celia? You want to force me to show them?” He jostled the can as he talked. He brought his hand to the lid.

  “Don’t—” Celia said as Ben pried it open. Bits of ground coffee flew straight up in the air and then rained down on Ben’s face.

  “Coffee!” Ben said.

  “I told you,” Celia said.

  “Where’s your dad?”

  “I sprinkled him in the ocean this morning.”

  “You did?” Jacob said.

  “I did.”

  “I would have gone with you,” Jacob said.

  “It was something I had to do alone.” She turned back to Ben. “Unless you’re going to make a fresh pot, I still would like all of you to leave. The party is over.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Celia sat on the beach. It didn’t take long before the waves calmed her. This was exactly why she needed to follow through with her dream. There was no better gift than giving someone a place where they could decompress, rejuvenate. Put everything into proper perspective. Was she really going to hold a grudge from twenty years ago? Could she say she was sorry about going to college? If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be in the position she was in now, would never be able to open Ocean House to families. And as far as her father and Jacob were concerned, they had done what they did out of love. Misguided, perhaps. But certainly not selfish.

  Celia took the Chock full o’Nuts can out of her bag. Of course she’d lied to Ben. She hadn’t released her father, but she had kept her father’s tin out of the kitchen. But it was time now. And just as she stood, she saw a familiar figure making his way to her.

  “I got your message,” Jacob said. “Are we too late?” Celia had told Jacob she was having a little memorial and going to release the ashes. She had said he’d be welcome to join her.

  “We?” Celia said. Jacob held his hand out behind him. Celia couldn’t believe it. A small group was making their way toward them, each holding a candle in one hand and a scuba flipper in the other.

  “What’s going on?”

  “These are all the people still here from back then. They all know the truth about your father. They want to pay their respects. Is that okay?”

  Celia nodded; she was too choked up to speak. The group gathered on the beach with their flippers and candles. Chris was there with his wife and kids, along with the older woman from the open house, Anna Beth, and several others whom she didn’t know. It didn’t matter. They were family now as far as she was concerned. Celia set the coffee can in one of the flippers, laid it on the beach, and within a few minutes, a wave took it in its foamy mouth and began the process of carrying it out to sea. “Bye, Dad,” Celia said.

  Jacob had brought a bottle of scotch, her father’s fav
orite, and they took turns drinking and passing it around, as each person had some kind of Pete story to tell. Finally, when they were almost finished, Celia pulled a red rose out of her bag, kissed it, and tossed it to the waves. Jacob took her hand and squeezed. One by one, the crowd made their way back home.

  “Do you want to be alone?” Jacob said.

  “Never,” Celia said.

  “Thank heavens,” Jacob said. “If you had said yes, you would have had to toss me out to sea as well.” As they walked along the beach, Jacob picked up a large stick. As Celia watched he drew a heart in the sand.

  “That’s sweet,” she said.

  “I’m not finished. Close your eyes.” Celia did. She could hear the stick scratching in the sand. “Open them.” Celia opened her eyes. Jacob was kneeling next to the heart. In the center he had written a message. MARRY ME.

  “Yes,” Celia said. “Yes.” She shamelessly threw herself at him, and they shared a long, deep kiss. Jacob pulled away first.

  “I have a proposal,” he said.

  “But I just said yes.”

  Jacob laughed. “Another one.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I want to sell my mother’s ring and use that money for the travel fund for the families.”

  “I love the idea.”

  “I just don’t want you to look at that ring and have any bad memories. We’ll pick out something better.”

  “I totally agree. And I don’t need anything fancy.”