Diane Chamberlain - Summer's Child

“Everybody makes mistakes.”

“Daria.” Chloe turned to her sister, taking both Daria’s hands in her own.

“I’m so sorry you had to take such complete responsibility for Shelly. When Mom died, I probably should have taken over, but it would have meant leaving my order, and you never seemed to mind being in the position of caretaker.”

“I never did mind,” Daria said. She sounded flat, and Rory had no idea how she was handling the revelations filling this tiny room. She had to feel betrayed by both Chloe and himself. But he guessed that right now, her mind was on Shelly. Nothing else—no confessions, no disclosures—could eclipse that primary concern. “If Shelly lives…” Chloe pressed the tissue to her eyes, and it was a moment before she could continue.

“If she lives,” she said, “I’ll take care of her, Daria. I’ll stay in Kill Devil Hills with her.

It’s time you were able to live your own life. Move to California with Rory, if that’s what you want. “

Daria said nothing. She avoided Rory’s gaze, and he could hardly blame her.

Andy suddenly spoke up again. “What did you mean at the bonfire, Daria, when you said that Shelly overheard you and Rory on the porch?”

Daria pressed her fingers to her forehead, rubbing her temples.

“I

think Shelly must have heard us talking about how Pete broke up with me because of her. And she heard us talking about. ” Daria’s voice trailed off.

“Do you remember the plane accident back in April, Andy?”

she asked.

Andy nodded. “Remember how Shelly swam out to help us? The pilot was this young, eighteen-year-old girl,” she explained to Chloe and Zack.

“It turns out she was Grace’s daughter, but none of us knew that at the time.”

“Grace’s daughter?” Andy asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not important now,” Daria said.

“What is important is that Pete was trying to free the pilot. She was trapped in her seat, twisted around in her seat belt, somehow. Pete kept having to go underwater to try to get to her belt. And then, suddenly, he started yelling at Shelly. Shelly was supposed to be keeping the plane afloat, but she was leaning on the propeller instead, actually dragging the plane down. She was”

“What?” Andy interrupted her.

“Is that what Pete told you?”

Daria stared at him.

“Yes,” she said.

“He” — “Son of a bitch.” Andy stood up, fire in his eyes.

“Shelly didn’t do anything wrong. How stupid do you think she is? It was Pete who dragged the plane down. I saw the whole thing. He didn’t mean to, I know that, but he was standing on the pontoon for a minute, and that pulled the plane and the pilot under. When Pete figured out what he was doing, he started yelling at Shelly. I didn’t get why he was yelling at her. She was just treading water;

she didn’t have a clue what he was yelling at her about. Pete is a frigging coward. He wanted to find a way to get you to lock Shelly up so you could go with him to Raleigh. “

“My God, Andy.” Daria’s face was ashen, and Rory knew she believed every word Andy had said.

“Iwish you’d told me sooner.”

“If I’d known he was pinning the blame on Shelly, I would have.”

“Poor Shelly,” Daria said.

“She probably overheard” -She turned at the sound of the door opening, and the woman physician who had been treating Shelly walked into the room. Rory stood up, and the others followed his lead, as they waited to hear what their futures would hold.

1 he sun was a creamy orange globe hanging low over the ocean as Grace drove to Rodanthe in the morning. She was exhausted and numb, confused and dazed. Shelly was not hers; that much was clear. Yet she had come to love her, and as she drove, she prayed. Prayed and cried.

She pulled into her driveway and went into the house. She’d been living there with Eddie ever since the day he’d followed her to Rory’s house. It was Eddie who’d persuaded her to go to the bonfire the night before. It was time she told everyone the truth, he’d said. She needed to do it to be sure Shelly was evaluated for Marfan’s syndrome. Chloe, though, had beaten her at the truth-telling game. How Grace’s heart had survived that revelation, she had no idea.

She’d called Eddie from the trauma center late last night to tell him all that had happened, and now she found him waiting for her in the living room. He handed her a cup of coffee, gave her a hug.

“How is Shelly?” he asked.

“She’s in critical condition,” she said, sitting down on the sofa.

“They only give her a fifty percent chance of pulling through. And if she does make it, she may have even more brain damage.”

“That’s terrible.” Eddie shook his head.

“What a shame.”

“I’m still in shock.” She lifted the coffee to her lips,

but lowered the cup again without taking a sip.

“I just can’t believe she’s not mine, Eddie.”

“I can,” he said.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because,” he said, “I found the nurse.” “What?” She set the cup on the coffee table. “How did you” — “That doesn’t matter,” he said. “Does she know what happened to my daughter? Does she know who adopted her?”

He nodded.

“Yes, she knows. But she didn’t want to get into it on the phone. She asked that I bring you to her. She said it was the sort of thing she should talk to you about face-to-face.”

Grace looked at her watch. “Can we go today? Is it too early to go now?” She was ready to race out the door.

Eddie smiled.

“Let me give her a call first,” he said.

“But I think it will be okay.”

He made the call to the nurse, Grace dissecting his every word as she tried to imagine what Nancy was saying on the other end of the line.

Nurse Nancy. How Grace had hated her all these years!

Then Eddie called Sally to tell her they wouldn’t make it into the cafe today and to ask her to take over for them. Finally, they were ready to leave.

They were both quiet in the car as they drove up the Barrier Islands and across the bridge to the mainland. Grace kneaded her hands together in her lap, anxiously wondering what sort of people had adopted her child. And would her daughter want to see her? She had to be prepared for the fact that she might not.

She read the directions to Eddie as they entered Elizabeth City. They drove through a beautiful old neighborhood, with tree-lined streets and old-fashioned streetlights, finally coming to stop in front of a large brick house.

Nancy and Nathan had obviously moved up in the world since 1977, Grace thought, when they’d only been able to afford that raunchy little cottage for their vacation. Eddie looked at her across the seat.

“Ready?” he asked. She nodded, pressed her clammy palms together and got out of the car.

They walked hand in hand up the slate walk to the front door. Eddie rang the bell, and Grace waited for Nancy to appear. Instead, though, the door was opened by a young woman Shelly’s age. She was tall and slender, with dark hair, an uncertain smile and a deep and definite widow’s peak.

Epilogue

Only as the ambulance raced toward the beach near milepost 6, did the irony of the situation strike Daria full force. Here she was, one year almost to the day after the plane crash, heading for another water emergency on the beach. This time, it was an early-morning surfing accident that needed her attention.

Daria was once again a full-fledged EMT, having battled her demons over the death of the pilot, and she felt no trepidation as the ambulance parked at the end of the street. She and Mike jumped out and ran toward the small crowd that had formed around the fallen surfer.