“We were thinking that maybe if you let it go,” Zinnie said, finishing her sister’s thought, “there would be a little more room in your heart for Tony.”
Aunt Sunny regarded her nieces thoughtfully. There seemed to be many things crossing her mind at once. Then she sighed. “It’s funny,” she said, “how I didn’t see it until now.”
“See what?” Marigold asked.
“How tightly I’ve been holding on to him.” Then she stood up and opened the jewelry box. She handed Marigold the red sea glass, kissing her hand as she passed it along. As Marigold put back the sea horse necklace, Aunt Sunny remarked what a lovely birthday present it would make for a teenager. Perhaps someone’s thirteenth birthday.
Marigold wrapped the sea glass in tissue paper and attached a little poem, which she had written in private:
Here’s a piece of sea glass that is red
in hopes you’ll forgive me for being a butthead
good-bye is something I must say
before I go back to L.A.
Marigold
Now she just needed to make sure she was able to give it to him in person before she left.
67. The Lucky One
“Boy, your girls had me laughing last night,” Edith said as she handed Mom and Dad sugar cones of her signature flavor, the very one for which she’d named her beloved dog, Mocha Chip. Marigold, Zinnie, and Lily already had servings of their favorite flavors: lime sherbet for Marigold, double chocolate for Zinnie, and strawberry for Lily. They were seated at the best table, the one next to the jukebox. Marigold made sure to sit on the side that faced the big window in case she happened to see Peter walking by. The red sea glass and the poem were in her shorts pocket, and she was determined to give them to him today, no matter what.
Even though their parents had both been to Pruet before, the girls wanted to show them all the places they had come to love in the past three weeks. They’d already been to the general store, where they bought a few postcards to hang on the fridge back home, and to the library, where Zinnie returned the book about putting on a play, and to the town beach, where Ashley was enjoying her status as the new town celebrity. In between selling ice pops and candy bars, she was signing autographs. Last on the list was Edith’s ice cream. This afternoon Aunt Sunny was taking a nap, the first one in three weeks, but had instructed them to please bring her back a pint of mocha chip.
“These girls are made for the stage,” Edith said.
“They were great, weren’t they?” Mom said as she paid for the ice cream and stuffed the change in the tip jar.
“Now, I knew Zinnie was a cutup from the minute she walked through my door,” Edith said, “but Marigold is a riot, too. And the little one! Oh, how she lights up a room with those cheeks! All three of them are stars. We’re going to miss them around here.”
“Thanks,” Dad said. “That’s really nice to hear. And this is the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, by the way.”
“I aim to please. Let me give you an extra scoop on the house,” Edith said, gesturing for Dad to give her his cone.
“Excuse me if I don’t refuse,” Dad said, handing Edith his cone.
Mom sat next to Marigold and put an arm around her. Marigold rested her head on her shoulder and felt her whole body relax.
Dad flipped through the music selections at the jukebox. “Oh, this is a good one,” he said. He pressed a few buttons and put in a quarter. “My Girl” piped through the speakers. “Come on, Gwen, won’t you dance with me?”
“I’d love to,” Mom said.
“You’re supposed to eat sitting down,” Lily said. “That’s what they say at school. Bottoms on the chairs!”
“I think we can get away with it this one time,” Mom said, standing up and taking Dad’s hand with the hand that wasn’t holding the cone. “After all, it’s summer.” Lily grinned and joined in. Zinnie did too. Edith turned up the volume so that the song filled the shop. Dancing with an ice cream cone was a little messy, especially for Lily, but nobody seemed to mind.
“Come on over, Marigold,” Dad called. “You’re my girl, too!”
Marigold was about to give in and join them, even if she was wearing her linen pintuck top in the perfect shade of pink that would most definitely be ruined by a drop of lime sherbet. She stood up but paused when she noticed the black SUV with the tinted windows heading toward the bridge. She knew that it was Amanda, heading out of town. Marigold was surprised to find that she felt sorry for the movie star. Amanda may have had all the things that Marigold longed for—an acting career, the most incredible wardrobe, and even her picture on the cover of Young & Lovely—but when Marigold saw her parents and sisters dancing and singing with wobbly ice cream cones in their hands, she knew that she was the lucky one.
“I need to make one more stop,” Marigold said as the Silver family walked by the Pruet Yacht Club. It was four o’clock, and Marigold knew that that was when sailing practice was finished. Marigold’s hands started to sweat, even though she had been charged with carrying Aunt Sunny’s pint of mocha chip.
“At the yacht club?” Mom said.
“I just need to drop something off for someone,” Marigold said, handing Aunt Sunny’s ice cream to Mom.
“Peter,” Zinnie and Lily said at the same time.
“Let’s go find him,” Lily said, but Zinnie held her back. “Zinnie, let go. He’s my boyfriend.”
“I think Marigold might want to do this alone,” Zinnie said. Lily began to protest, but Zinnie cut her off. “Besides, we don’t want Aunt Sunny’s ice cream to melt. Come on, race you to the end of Harbor Road!”
As Zinnie and Lily sped away, Mom took Dad’s hand, turned to Marigold, and said, “See you back at the house.”
Marigold took a deep breath, waved at the clipboard guy, and headed toward the docks.
Peter had just finished tying a dinghy to the dock and was walking in Marigold’s direction. Marigold felt her tummy flutter when she saw his red hair and baseball cap. She couldn’t help smiling. But when he saw her, he looked away.
“Peter,” Marigold said, and she stood in his way to try to stop him from passing her.
“I’m not talking to you,” Peter said, shaking his head.
“Wait,” Marigold called. To her surprise, he actually turned around. She held up the envelope and said, “This is for you.”
“I don’t want it,” Peter said.
“Please,” Marigold said, holding it in her outstretched arm. “I’m really sorry. I was a jerk. And I can explain, sort of. But I think this might say it better than words.”
“If I take that envelope, it doesn’t mean I like you,” he said.
“Okay,” she said. “We’re having a picnic on the beach tonight. Your mom and dad are coming. I hope you will, too.” She handed him the envelope, which was crumpled from spending the day in her pocket. He held it in his hand, noticing its weird shape. Marigold smiled because she knew there was no way he could guess what was inside and she could tell he was curious. Then, feeling that she had said what she’d come to say and done what she’d come to do, she turned around, walked down to the dock, and went back toward Aunt Sunny’s, where her family would be waiting for her.
68. Sisters
That evening, Marigold, Zinnie, Lily, their parents, Aunt Sunny, Tony, Jean, and Mack had a great big picnic on the estuary side of the beach. The sky paled as the sun dipped behind the dunes, but the air stayed warm. The sand was cool beneath their feet as they kicked off their sneakers and flip-flops and searched for a good spot. They wanted to find the best place to enjoy their last night. As they spread their picnic blanket and unpacked the food from the coolers, a few piping plovers raced near the shore.
Aunt Sunny had invited Peter, but to everyone’s disappointment, he’d said he had to go to a very important sailing team meeting. As the captain, he’d said, he really had to be there. Zinnie knew Peter was mad at Marigold, but still, she couldn’t imagine anyone missing this feast. They ate
lobster rolls, drenched with hot drawn butter, that Dad had picked up from the fish market and tomatoes from Tony’s garden. Jean brought potato salad and summer squash, and Mom couldn’t resist buying a blueberry pie from the farm stand. And of course Aunt Sunny made her surprise brownies. Zinnie thought it had been a summer full of so many surprises that she wasn’t sure another one was possible.
But just then she saw Peter walking toward them. Zinnie watched as Marigold’s face lit up, her eyes round with anticipation. When Jean asked him about the sailing team meeting, Peter said that he was on his way, but he wanted to stop by here first. Then Peter nodded at Marigold, and the two of them walked to the water’s edge to talk away from everyone else. Zinnie couldn’t be sure what happened, but when they came back to join the group, Marigold had a secret smile on her face and she was wearing his old, stinky Red Sox hat.
Lily asked if it was finally time for her to show Dad and Mom that she wasn’t afraid of swimming anymore. It had been a full half hour since she’d eaten, and she couldn’t wait a minute longer. “Mommy, will you come with me?” she asked. “Aunt Sunny said I can’t go in by myself.”
“I’d love to,” Mom said. The two of them stripped down to their bathing suits and raced to the water. Mom held out her hands to carry Lily in, but Lily jumped in all by herself. Dad watched in amazement.
“How did you do it, Sunny?” he asked.
“It was a group effort. Your daughters make a good team,” she said, resting her head on Tony’s shoulder as he played a quiet song on the guitar.
“Did I tell you girls about the fairy rings?” Dad asked Zinnie and a very distracted Marigold.
“No. What are fairy rings?” Zinnie asked.
Dad explained that they were perfect circles of redwood trees, created by one mother tree that had died and sent her seeds out around her. He showed them a picture on his phone of him standing in one. The trees surrounded him like great columns. Dad zoomed in on the image. “They share a giant interconnected root system underground, and this helps keep them resilient,” he said. “It reminds me of you girls and how you’ll always have one another to keep you strong.” Zinnie thought it was a magical image.
Marigold was not as fascinated. “That’s cool, but I’m going to go look for sea glass,” she said. Then she headed toward the ocean side of the beach.
Zinnie stood up, about to follow her, but something made her stop. She realized that Marigold probably just wanted to think about Peter. As she watched her sister walk away, she thought of the hollyhocks Aunt Sunny had planted and how she had said that they needed space between them or they wouldn’t reach their full height or bloom brightly. Her dad was right about sisters being like a circle of redwoods; their roots were intertwined. But Zinnie thought that sisters were also like those hollyhocks: They needed their own patches of dirt and bits of sunshine in order to grow. Besides, she wanted to know more about fairy circles.
So Zinnie sat back down and took Dad’s hand. She buried her toes in the warm sand, and he described what it had been like to sit in the arms of the tallest living thing, a tree that may have been a thousand years old; how he’d smelled the fog, tasted a huckleberry, heard a salamander slither across a leaf, and seen what felt like the whole wide world from its branches. As Zinnie leaned against his shoulder and listened, her imagination sparked and crackled. Her dad’s stories seemed to stir up her own. She had the feeling that the idea for a new play was forming, maybe something about fairy circles. She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a thought she could grab onto or describe just yet. But she could sense it in the air around her, in the late-summer breeze tousling her curls, like a secret whispered by the sea.
Aunt Sunny’s Surprise (Peppermint) Brownies
INGREDIENTS
BROWNIES:
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1-pound can liquid chocolate syrup
1 cup flour
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
FROSTING:
3 cups powdered or confectioner’s sugar
4 tablespoons butter
3–4 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon peppermint extract (add more to taste)
a few drops green food coloring
CHOCOLATE TOPPING:
3 tablespoons butter
3 squares bittersweet chocolate
DIRECTIONS
BROWNIES:
Preheat oven to 350˚. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs, mixing well. Then add the remaining brownie ingredients and mix together. Bake in a lightly greased 10” x 15” jelly roll pan for 30 minutes. Let cool.
FROSTING:
Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl. Next, cream the butter and sugar together. The consistency of the frosting should be creamy; add milk, up to 4 tablespoons. Mix in the remaining frosting ingredients and spread evenly over the cooled brownies while they’re still in the pan. Let set for 20–30 minutes.
TOPPING:
Melt the butter and chocolate squares in a saucepan over low heat until thick, stirring frequently so the mixture doesn’t get burned. Pour the topping over the brownies still in the pan. Tilt the pan so the topping coats the brownies evenly. Once the topping has set, the brownies are ready to cut and enjoy!
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my beloved agent, Sara Crowe, for her unwavering belief in me. Great heaps of gratitude to my brilliant editor, Alexandra Cooper, for her vision and wisdom and for loving these girls as much as I do. Thank you to the whole team at HarperCollins, especially Alyssa Miele. I am indebted to Kayla Cagan and Vanessa Cross Napolitano for their encouragement, thoughtful feedback, and friendship. Thank you to my whole family, especially my mom and dad. Thanks also to the late Dorothy W. Gifford, also known as Aunt Dot the Great, teacher, sage, and fairy godmother. Giff, you’ve been my best friend from the get-go. And Maryhope, every day I count my lucky stars that you are my sister. As always, love and thanks to JLD, my sweetheart and secret weapon. And to HHD, who inspires and delights me beyond compare, thank you for opening my heart wider than I thought possible.
About the Author
Photo by Sally Peterson
LEILA HOWLAND was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. A graduate of Georgetown University, Leila spent five years acting in New York, where she was a company member of the award-winning Flea Theater in Tribeca. The Forget-Me-Not Summer is her middle grade debut. She has also written two YA novels: Nantucket Blue, for which she was named a Publishers Weekly “Flying Start,” and Nantucket Red. Leila now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, baby boy, and two dogs. Visit her online at www.leilahowland.com.
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Credits
Cover art © 2015 by JI-HYUK KIM
Cover design by KATE J ENGBRING
Copyright
THE FORGET-ME-NOT SUMMER. Copyright © 2015 by Leila Howland. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Ji-Hyuk Kim. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Howland, Leila.
The forget-me-not summer / Leila Howland. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: When their parents, a screenwriter and a film editor, go off on summer projects, Marigold, twelve, Zinnia, eleven, and Lily, five, must visit their Great Aunt Sunny in Cape Cod, where they learn much about themselves and each other and grow c
loser than ever.
ISBN 978-0-06-231869-5 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © April 2015 ISBN 9780062318718
[1. Sisters—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Great aunts—Fiction. 4. Actors and actresses—Fiction. 5. Cape Cod (Mass.)—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Kim, Ji-Hyuk, ill.
PZ7.H8465For 2015 2014027413
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
* * *
15 16 17 18 19 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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The Forget-Me-Not Summer Page 21