Page 34 of Summer Rose
“As well as can be expected.” Rebecca turned on the engine and drove them away from the fish market and back toward the Sutton Book Club. “Sometimes, I think they’re much more resilient than I am.”
“That’s the nature of being young, isn’t it? It’s so much easier to learn and grow and change.”
Rebecca nodded, thinking of Lily in her apartment in Brooklyn, of Shelby in the Acadia Mountains, and Chad at basketball camp in Virginia. How she ached for them. How she wished they would tell her exactly what was on their minds. If she had the capacity to fix their broken hearts, she would. She would do anything.
To Rebecca’s surprise, Victor arrived at the Sutton Book Club at four that afternoon. She and Bethany had just begun to slice and dice vegetables and prep the fish. They hadn’t expected their father until dinnertime, if he bothered to show at all.
“Dad!” Rebecca greeted him with a side hug. As he walked into the Sutton Book Club, he eyed the downstairs bookstore, the antique staircase, and the beautiful paintings of Nantucket’s coastlines and lighthouses.
“This place hasn’t changed so much on the inside,” he said timidly.
“Are you okay to be my sous chef? I need all the help I can get.”
Victor followed Rebecca through the door that separated the community area and its two long wooden tables with the kitchen. A Bluetooth speaker played music from the eighties and nineties, which reminded Rebecca and Bethany of the years they’d spent together on Nantucket. Some of the songs were so emotional that memories threatened to make them break down. Still, they had a job to do. Fish had to be prepped and seasoned, salads prepared, and onions sliced. Throughout, they sang the lyrics they remembered and made up the ones they didn’t.
Rebecca set Victor up with a sharp knife, onions, peppers, eggplant, and garlic. Victor set his jaw, clearly nervous. He wanted to please Rebecca. As he began, it struck Rebecca that Chad had many of her father’s facial features. Why had she never noticed before? Had they been in the same generation, they could have been twins.
Victor was a crater in her family’s story. But he did not hide from what he’d done. Perhaps he was in her mother’s Book Club to ask for forgiveness. Maybe he was here to make amends.
The veterans began to arrive around five thirty. Bethany greeted them with warm smiles, and Victor waited for them in the dining area with tea and coffee, various types of juice, Coke products, and water. Rebecca remained in the sizzling madness of the kitchen, hyper-focused on the meal.
And suddenly, out of nowhere, Ben popped into the kitchen. Rebecca leaped with surprise, and she dropped a spatula on the floor. It bounced toward him.
“Oh no!” Ben laughed and got to the spatula before she could. He had the tap running in the sink and had scrubbed the spatula clean in no time. Suds covered his hands.
“You don’t have to do that,” Rebecca said. Her chest was hot, and her heart fluttered. She couldn’t help but notice the powerful surge of Ben’s arm muscles as he dried the spatula and handed it back to her.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Ben reported. “I would have never just walked in here to say hello to Esme. I don’t know what came over me.”
Rebecca laughed and returned to the food on the stovetop. She had absolutely no idea what to say.
“It smells insanely good in here,” Ben said.
“Thank you. I hope it turns out okay. I used to be good at cooking for a hundred people a night, but I’m out of practice.”
“The most I’ve ever cooked for is two. Doug has made it very clear he doesn’t want me to get too experimental. A fish stew I tried a few years ago made us both sick.” Ben chuckled.
Rebecca turned and locked eyes with Ben. She burned to know why he lived with Doug and had never settled with someone. He was a handsome veteran—strong, capable, and charming. Still, he had darkness behind his eyes, telling her there was more to the story than could meet the eye. He’d clearly seen active duty because a part of his soul had been destroyed.
“If you ever want some hints,” Rebecca tried. “I’m not the world’s best teacher, but I would be happy to give you a few lessons. To me, being able to cook a good meal is the single greatest gift you can give yourself.”
“I imagine it’s a different feeling than removing a frozen pizza from the oven,” Ben joked.
Rebecca giggled. “Oh, but I have some decent tricks for frozen pizza. They don’t always have to taste like cardboard.”
Ben’s smile was exceedingly handsome, so much so that Rebecca had to turn back to her food. For a moment, she thought she’d ruined the potatoes on the stovetop. She couldn’t let herself get distracted. The veterans on Nantucket looked forward to this dinner. It had to be tremendous.
Bethany had set the two tables with twenty-two place settings. Along the far wall by the window, they’d decided to set up the buffet, so their guests could fill their plates with whatever they wanted. As Rebecca hurried out to the buffet table with an enormous basin of herb-crusted fish, Victor poured wine and passed out beers in the corner. She winked at him and mouthed, “Thank you.” He just smiled back, at ease.
Ben hurried behind her, carrying the potatoes.
“They put you to work?” Doug stood near the table with a beer. He smiled eagerly and leaned on his cane with his other hand.
“They said I have to work for my dinner,” Ben joked.
“That’s right, Miss Rebecca. You have to keep him in line,” Doug said. “I won’t always be around to make sure he behaves.”
Rebecca laughed and followed Ben back into the kitchen, where he collected two enormous bowls of salads. Rebecca grabbed the chopped watermelon and hurried out to the table. The guests were restless; they needed to eat. Bethany chatted with two women in their forties or fifties, both of whom had been stationed in Iraq. Rebecca heard bits and pieces of their conversation as she breezed in and out of the kitchen. “It was difficult to leave my children behind,” one woman said. “My husband accused me of not being a proper mother, which was hard to hear. I’d trained in the military for years, just as he had, and I wanted to serve my country.” Bethany nodded and furrowed her brow. Under her breath, she said, “That must have been so hard to hear.”