Page 14 of Sunset on the Solstice

“All those wealthy people, worried about their sons,” Chad said, laughing.

“That’s right. How many of your guy friends needed Lily’s help again?” Rebecca asked.

Chad counted them out on his fingers. “Not counting myself, that’s Scott, Henry, Taylor, and Malcolm.”

“All great guys,” Rebecca said. “Is modern dating that bad?”

“It’s a difficult world,” Lily said. “Plenty of people struggle to know what they want.”

“When I met Jenny, I realized that all the dating I’d done before her was useless,” Chad said, eyeing his older sister with love. “I don’t know what you saw in me to link me up with that perfect woman, but I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you.”

Lily blushed. “Aw. You’re kinda sweet when you want to be.”

Rebecca threw her head back in laughter. And then, without considering what she was saying first, she offered, “You know who I saw the other day?”

“Who?” Lily asked.

“What’s his name? Oh, it must be Baxter,” Rebecca said, snapping her fingers. “He went on that date with Shelby.”

At this, Lily’s smile fell off her face, and Chad looked pained and morose.

Rebecca hurried to try to fix it. “I couldn’t believe it. It brought me right back to 2026. I remember when you and Shelby showed me his photograph. You said he was bookish, and I was so excited. We were so eager to help Shelby start dating!” Rebecca shook her head with sorrow.

For a moment, Chad and Lily were quiet. The basketball game on the television roared with cheers. Rebecca cursed herself for having brought up something so painful, a time of their lives that she still blamed herself for. Why had they pushed Shelby so hard into dating? Maybe she hadn’t been ready. Maybe they should have left well enough alone.

“I heard he married an heiress,” Chad said finally. “Baxter, I mean. They live between the United States and Ireland. I heard they’re both miserable. They hate each other. Baxter never really got over that girlfriend of his, the one who went to South America?”

“People hinge their entire lives on things like that,” Lily said. “I can’t tell you how many men I meet who are still hung up on their ex-girlfriends from forever ago. I always want to ask them if they even remember anything about them?”

“People so often believe in fantasies,” Rebecca said sadly, thinking of Shelby. “They can’t see the love that is so clearly in front of them because they’re somewhere else in their minds.”

That night, after they all disappeared into their separate hotel rooms, Rebecca sat alone on her bed and called Ben to say good night. He answered on the first ring. “How is it?”

Rebecca’s heart surged. “I brought up Shelby, in a sort of terrible way.”

“Oh.” Ben was quiet for a moment. “I’m sure she’s heavy on your mind right now.”

“I can’t escape it, I guess,” Rebecca said. “Here in Bar Harbor, I see my three kids as they used to be, running around, getting into trouble. It’s hard for me to reckon with the fact that Shelby isn’t here. She doesn’t even know we come up to Maine every year together to be with Fred.”

“You said Chad invited her to the wedding?” Ben asked.

“He did. No word,” Rebecca said.

“Do you ever think it’s time to head out there again?”

Rebecca closed her eyes. “I never want to give up on her. But I never know how far to take it. What if I poison the rest of my life, running after a daughter who doesn’t want me around?”

“Shelby loves you,” Ben insisted. “She just doesn’t know how to come back right now.”

Rebecca wasn’t sure if her husband was right. But she didn’t want to argue with him, not on the night before she was set to visit her first husband’s grave site. Everything felt tremendously heavy. Rather, she insisted that Ben tell her everything about his day—he was visiting friends in Tennessee—and she lay back on the pillow and listened to Ben talk about black bears and mountains and streams. I love him, her heart whispered. I love him so much.

8

Nantucket Island, 2026

It was the second week of August, and Shelby was in her bedroom, packing her things to return to Columbia. She was weary, as she’d been out till long past midnight at a bonfire party with Jared, but she was expecting a call from one of her professors and trying to stay excitable and smart. When the call came, Shelby’s voice sounded blurry in her own ears. But she heard herself agree to a very difficult set of individual coursework over the next few months.

“We want to get you on track for grad school,” her professor said firmly. “We want to make sure that you’re ready. This means working on a more one-on-one basis going forward.”