AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After he ate some cold cereal, he left his bowl in the sink. That wasn’t what he’d normally do. He would’ve rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher so Ashleigh wouldn’t wake up to a mess. But now that he was on his own, what did it really matter?
It was growing light as he pulled into his parents’ driveway, but he could see that the barn door stood open. His father—and most likely Hank—were already out of the house, which came as no surprise. Buzz was nothing if not punctual. The rest of his brothers, except Ryan, who was away at college, wouldn’t be available to help again until after they got home from school.
He turned off his engine, then sat in his truck staring out at the land on which he’d been born and raised. Did he want to live here his entire life? Die here like his parents would?
His father appeared in the doorway of the barn and looked over at him, so Jack got out.
Buzz waited as he trudged over. “You sleep okay last night?” he asked when Jack was close enough.
Apparently, he didn’t look much better than he felt, or his father probably wouldn’t seem quite so worried. “I did.” With a little help from the pill he’d taken. He didn’t mention that, because he knew his father wouldn’t like it. “I can’t imagine Ashleigh with Jessica,” he said. “I just can’t wrap my mind around her being with anyone else.”
“Don’timagine it,” his father recommended and Jack followed him into the barn.
Sure enough, Hank was there, his dark blond hair standing up on one side, a testament to the fact he’d come to work right after rolling out of bed. “You okay, bro?” he said.
This time, Jack was able to meet his brother’s gaze and nod.
“I’m sorry. I feel terrible for you. I feel sorry for all of us. We loved Ashleigh, too, you know?”
He nodded. “Thanks. I’m just...hoping I can recover a bit before word starts to spread.”
Hank exchanged a look with their father.
“What?” Jack said.
“Word is already starting to spread,” Buzz replied.
A sick feeling rose in the pit of Jack’s stomach, making him wish he’d skipped breakfast. “How do you know?”
Hank indicated a basket covered with a towel sitting on one of the tables that held bushels of snow peas. “The Sandersons left that on the doorstep last night.”
“What’s in it?” Jack asked.
“All kinds of baked goods,” Hank replied.
Jack walked over to take a look. He found a large loaf of banana nut bread, a dozen or more chocolate chip cookies in a red tin, several jars of peach jam, a jar of local honey, and some homemade fudge. The card readWe are thinking of you at this difficult time with love and support. The Sandersons.
“That’s really nice,” he said. “But...how would the Sandersons know?” Although they were members of the same church and attended the same meetings, they weren’t related to any of the families involved.
“Who knows?” Hank said. “We knew news would spread fast, and...I guess that’s what it’s doing.”
Jack looked down at his phone and eyed that missed call from his only sister. Ismay had said he should come out to Mariners—escape, get away.
“What is it?” Hank asked when he didn’t speak for several long moments.
“I’m leaving for a couple of months,” he said.
Buzz had been fixing some broken baskets, fitting them with twine for the handles. At this, his head jerked up. “You’re what?”
“I’m going to stay with Ismay on Mariners.”
His father spoke carefully, calculatedly—as if he didn’t want to set Jack off. “Okay, but...what will you do for work?”
“If I can’t get a job there waiting tables or whatever, I guess I’ll do nothing. But—” he took one more look at that basket and imagined what it would be like to walk into church for the next several weeks, possibly months, depending on whether Ashleigh and Jessica continued attending, and shook his head “—there’s no way in hell I’m staying here.”
11
It was a chilly morning with a biting wind, but Ismay had gone to the beach anyway. She wasn’t about to hang around the house and have Bastian suggest they do something together. Apparently, he had some friends from college who were on the island for a few days—she’d heard him talking to one of them on the phone—so she was hoping he’d start hanging out with them and forget about her.
