Endless Summer, page 36
Kate hadn’t.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Jessie says. “You must have known how badly I was hurting.”
“I was ashamed,” Kirby says. “I missed my father’s funeral because I was in rehab? I didn’t want you to know I was a screwup. I didn’t want anyone to know, Blair and Tiger included. It was better if you thought I was just too busy or indifferent or whatever. So yes, you’re right. I am self-absorbed.”
Jessie closes her eyes; suddenly, she’s exhausted. “You know I look up to you, Kirby. I always have.”
“That makes no sense!” Kirby says. “I look up to you. You’re smart, you’re an attorney, you have a man who loves you, who applauds as you soar as high as you want to go.” She stops to wipe tears away. “And yes, I do know you look up to me, which is why you were the one person I wanted to hide from. I’m supposed to be setting an example. I’m the big sister.”
Jessie feels the anger evaporate off her skin. She thinks about her mother, setting aside a vendetta she has nourished for thirty-five years. What catharsis it must have been to sit next to Lorraine Crimmins, dip lobster into melted butter, and laugh.
“When I walked in just now, who were you on the phone with?” Jessie asks.
“My ex-girlfriend, Tyesha,” Kirby says. “She’s a producer and I was pitching her a movie idea—about our family, actually. The stuff going on with the twins—”
Jessie should have known that Kirby would cannibalize their family drama. “Was I in it?”
“No, but we can add you in as a character,” Kirby says. “How would you like to be portrayed?”
“Set the movie here at the house next summer,” Jessie says. “I’ll be the aunt who’s getting married.”
“What?” Kirby shouts. She rushes over to Jessie, pulls her to her feet, and gives her a crushing hug. “You and Pick are actually going to do it?”
“Yes,” Jessie says. “Mom and Lorraine are all buddy-buddy now and they gave me their blessing, so… yeah. I was just about to call Pick and propose.”
“Don’t let me stand in your way,” Kirby says. “I should get to bed. This day has been a hundred hours long.”
Just then the phone rings and Jessie and Kirby look at each other. It’s a quarter to eleven—any phone call at this hour is bound to be bad news.
Please let it be nothing, Jessie thinks. Let it be benign—Tyesha calling back or Pick calling because he somehow intuited what had happened with the mothers.
Jessie picks up the receiver. “Hello?”
There’s a pause, then a voice that sounds like it’s coming from the other end of a long tunnel. “Jessie? It’s me.”
“Blair?” Jessie says.
“I tried calling earlier but nobody answered,” Blair says. “So I’m standing in a phone booth at five in the morning and I charged this to my credit card, which is already maxed out. Are the twins there?”
“No,” Jessie says. “They’re… out.”
“Oh, shoot,” Blair says. “How are the kids? Did they have a nice birthday? Did anything interesting happen?”
Anything interesting like all of them seeing a skull tattoo up close and personal for the first time, like George sleeping with Blair’s best friend, like Kate and Bitsy’s geriatric antics, like Helen Dunscombe venturing out in public for the first time since her husband died of AIDS, like Kirby showing up at the front door drunk and high delivered by a person nicknamed Blowman, like Magee outdoing Martha Stewart with her hors d’oeuvres aesthetic and that rum punch, like Lorraine Crimmins showing up with the best strawberry shortcake any of them had ever tasted?
“It’s been kind of dull, actually,” Jessie says. She gives Kirby an exaggerated wink and Kirby doubles over in silent laughter.
“Even so, I wish I were there,” Blair says. “I’ve been beating myself up all day. I shouldn’t be in Paris, I should be there, in Nantucket.”
Jessie feels a rush of sympathy for her sister. Attitude adjustment complete, she thinks. Despite everything, Jessie realizes she wouldn’t have missed this weekend for all the world.
Acknowledgments
There are two unsung heroes in my publishing life that I would like to acknowledge here. The first is the man to whom this collection is dedicated: Timothy Ehrenberg. Tim and I started working together several years ago when he took over as the marketing director for Nantucket Book Partners. He has, pretty much single-handedly, taken my career to its present height. With every new book of mine that’s released, Tim brainstorms inventive ways to get signed and personalized copies into the hands of both longtime and brand-new readers. Could people buy the book from a big-box store or the biggest retailer in the world? Sure. But Tim has created an elevated book-buying experience in what is the backbone of our civilization: the independent bookstore. He also came up with the ideas for all of my merchandise, including the wildly popular Elin Hilderbrand Christmas ornament. No detail escapes his notice. He is a strict taskmaster and before each novel’s release, I spend hours and hours in the dim, scary basement of Mitchell’s Book Corner, signing books. It has never felt like anything but a joy because Tim sits with me and I like him so much as a person that the time flies. We have some belly laughs; occasionally, we drink wine; and always, always, we talk about what we’re reading. Tim is the magic behind the Bookstagram @timtalksbooks—it’s where I get most of my recommendations. I call Tim my “work husband” because we spend so much time together. He’s the secret to my success, and above and beyond that, he’s my treasured friend.
The other gentleman I would like to thank is the great Terry Adams, the digital and paperback publisher at Little, Brown. Back in 2013, Terry asked if I would consider writing an e-short for my novel Beautiful Day. He wanted something that was a companion piece, not necessarily a sequel. Because I had attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I had a lot of experience writing short fiction and I loved the idea of exploring a story that wasn’t included in the novel. I wrote “The Surfing Lesson,” which takes place a few years before Beautiful Day and delves into Margot and Drum’s marriage, something there wasn’t time or space for in the book. I loved this idea so much that I did it again for my novel The Matchmaker. Terry has been a smart, incredibly kind, wonderfully supportive member of my publishing team from the beginning and I am so lucky to know him and benefit from his wise sensibility. It’s thanks to his keen editorial eye and his belief in my characters that I felt inspired to write all these pieces.
As always, I want to thank my brilliant editor, Judy Clain, and my agents Michael Carlisle and David Forrer.
Thank you to my beloved inner circle on Nantucket—you know who you are—and my children.
Finally, thanks to all of you who read my novels and love my characters, flawed though they are, and are willing to read about what happens to them before and after. I send a heart emoji to each and every one of you, the best readers in all of publishing.
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ALSO BY ELIN HILDERBRAND
The Beach Club
Nantucket Nights
Summer People
The Blue Bistro
The Love Season
Barefoot
A Summer Affair
The Castaways
The Island
Silver Girl
Summerland
Beautiful Day
The Matchmaker
Winter Street
The Rumor
Winter Stroll
Here’s to Us
Winter Storms
The Identicals
Winter Solstice
The Perfect Couple
Winter in Paradise
Summer of ’69
What Happens in Paradise
28 Summers
Troubles in Paradise
Golden Girl
The Hotel Nantucket
Elin Hilderbrand, Endless Summer
