Дэвид Балдаччи - One Summer

Jenna had tried to comfort her, while Fred just sat in another chair and stared at his hands. When Sammy called from the hospital and told them they would be home shortly and that everyone was okay, Jenna had finally broken down and wept.

Afterward, Jenna had ventured into Jack’s room; she wasn’t sure why. As her gaze swept the space, it settled on the letters, which were still lying on the bed. She went over, sat down, picked them up, and started reading.

She emerged from the room ten minutes later, her eyes red with fresh tears. She walked over to Bonnie and tapped her gently on the shoulder. When Bonnie looked up, Jenna said, “I think you need to read these, Mrs. O’Toole.”

Bonnie looked confused, but she accepted the letters from Jenna, slipped on her reading glasses, and unfolded the first one.

The storm, its fury rapidly spent after fully hitting land, had largely passed by the time they returned from the hospital. An exhausted Mikki was laid in her bed with Cory and Liam watching over her like guardian angels, counting each one of her breaths.

Jack told everyone that Mikki had suffered no permanent damage and should be as good as new.

“The doctor said she was one strong lady,” added Sammy.

“Like her mother,” said Jack as he looked at Bonnie.

He passed through the house and went outside and up to the top of the lighthouse. He stared out now at the clearing sky, the sun coming up in the east. He bent down and saw the wires he had spliced the night before. It was a miracle that he had finally spotted the trouble that had befuddled him for so long. Yet a miracle, thought Jack, was somehow what he, however irrationally, had been counting on.

He leaned against the wall of glass and stared out at what looked to be the start of a beautiful late-summer day.

He turned when he heard her.

Bonnie, wheezing slightly, appeared at the opening for the room. He helped her through, and they stood side by side looking at each other.

“Thank God for what you did last night, Jack.”

Jack turned and looked back out the window. “It was Lizzie, you know.”

“What?” Bonnie moved even closer to him.

Jack said, “I’d given up. Mikki was dead. I didn’t have any breath left. She was dead, Bonnie. And I asked Lizzie to help me.” He turned to her. “I looked up to the sky and I asked Lizzie to help me.” A sob broke from his throat. “And she did. She did. She saved Mikki, not me.”

Bonnie nodded slowly. “It was both of you, Jack. You and Lizzie. The match made in Heaven. Two people meant for each other if ever there was.”

He stared at her, surprised by the woman’s blunt words.

From her pocket she drew out the letters. “I think these belong to you.” She handed them back to him and reached out and touched his face. “Sometimes people can’t see what’s right in front of them, Jack. It’s strange how that works. How often it happens. And how often it hurts people we’re supposed to love.” She paused. “I do love you, son. I guess I always have. And one thing I know for certain is that you loved my daughter. And she loved you. That should have been enough for me.” She paused again. “And now, it is.”

They exchanged a hug, and she turned to go.

“Bonnie?”

She looked back.

“The kids?” he said in a small voice.

“They’re right where they should be, Jack. With their father.”

When Mikki opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was her dad. Right after that she saw Liam, peering anxiously over Jack’s shoulder.

“I’m really okay, guys,” she said a little groggily.

Jack smiled and looked at Liam. “Give us a minute, will you?”

Liam nodded, flashed Mikki a reassuring grin, and left the room.

Jack gripped her hand, and she squeezed back. Mikki said, “Sorry for all the excitement I caused. It was really dumb.”

“Yes, it was,” he agreed. “But we were all under a lot of pressure.”

“So the lighthouse finally worked?”

He let out a long breath. “Yeah. If it hadn’t...” His voice trailed off, and father and daughter started to weep together, each clutching the other, their bodies shaking with the strain.

“I can’t believe how close I came to losing you, baby.”

“I know, Dad, I know,” she said in a hushed voice.

They finally drew apart.

“So what now? We still go with Grandma?”

“No, you’re staying right here with me.”

Mikki screamed with joy and hugged him again.

“Does Liam know?” she said excitedly.

“No, I thought I’d leave that to you.” He rose. “I’ll go get him.”

As he turned she said, “Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“No matter what happens in my life, you’ll always be my hero.”

He bent down and touched her cheek. “Thanks... Michelle.”

Later, as he stood by the doorway watching the two teens excitedly talking and hugging, Jack first smiled, then teared up, and then smiled again. She was clearly not a little girl anymore. And Jack could easily see how fast her life, and his, would change in the next few years.

Later, as Jack walked along the beach, a voice called out, “I’m going to miss you Armstrongs when you go back to Ohio.” He turned to see Jenna walking toward him.

“No, you won’t,” said Jack, “because we’re staying right here.”

She drew next to him. “Are you sure?”

He smiled. “No, but we’re still staying.”

She slipped an arm around him. “I’m glad things have worked out.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You’re way too generous with your praise.”

“Seriously, Jenna, you helped in a lot of ways. A lot.”

“So what are we going to do about the budding romance?”

“What?” he said in a startled voice.

“Between our kids.”

“Oh.”

She laughed, and he grinned sheepishly.

“I think we take it one day at a time.” He looked directly at her. “Does that sound okay, Jenna?”

“That sounds very okay, Jack.”

A little over two years later, Jack sat on the beach in almost the exact spot he and Mikki had occupied the night he’d realized he had so much to live for. The house was quieter now. Mikki and Liam had just left for college. She’d aced her last two years in high school and gone out to Berkeley on a scholarship. Liam the drummer had cut off his hair and was at West Point. Though they were a continent apart, the two remained the best of friends.

Cory was working part-time at the Play House and learning the ropes of theater management from Ned Parker. Jackie had started talking full-blast one morning about a year ago and had never stopped since. Although, Jack noted with some measure of fatherly pride, his favorite toy was still the monster truck.

He got up and made his way to the top of the lighthouse. He hadn’t been up here since the morning after almost losing Mikki. He stepped out onto the catwalk and looked toward the sea. His eyes gravitated to the spot where father and daughter had fought so hard for their lives. Then he looked away and up to a clear, blue summer sky.

Lizzie’s Lighthouse. It worked when I needed it to.

Jack had two very important things to do today. And the first one was waiting for him down the beach. He left the lighthouse and set off along the sand. His hands rode in his pockets; the words he would say slipped through his mind. As he drew closer, Jack realized that he had just traveled over a half mile by beach and a lifetime by every other measure.

She was there waiting for him by prearrangement. He slipped his arms around Jenna and kissed her. And much like he had done two decades before, Jack knelt down and asked a woman he loved if she would do him the honor of becoming his wife.