Jack watched the old couple. “You’re right, it is supposed to turn out that way.”
“So your wife grew up here?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that why you came down here? Memories?”
“I guess so,” Jack said slowly. He stopped and turned to her. “And my wife planned to bring the kids down here this summer. So I thought I’d do it for her. And I wanted to see the place too.”
“You’d never been here before?”
Jack shook his head. “My wife had a twin sister who died of meningitis. They lived here for a while longer. But then I guess it just wasn’t that... um... good,” he finished, a bit awkwardly.
“I’m so sorry.”
They started walking again. She said, “So how’re the kids dealing with the move and all?”
“With three kids, they all sort of handle things differently.”
“Makes my job seem simple. I’ve only got one.”
“Well, Mikki is pretty independent. Just like her mom.”
“She seems fantastic. Liam is not easily impressed when it comes to music.”
“She and I butt heads a lot. Teenage girls. They need... stuff that dads just aren’t good at.”
“I feel that deficiency with Liam too, just on the flip side.”
“He looks like he’s doing fine.”
“Maybe in spite of me.”
“So you’re divorced now?”
“Long time. Right after Liam was born. My ex moved to Seattle and has nothing to do with him. I just have to put it down to my poor choice in men.”
“How’d you manage college and law school with a kid?”
“My parents were a huge help. But sometimes I’d take Liam to class with me. You do what you have to do.”
Jack stopped, picked up a pebble off the beach, and threw it into the oncoming breakers. “Yeah, you do.”
Jenna sipped her coffee and watched him. “So are y’all just down here for the summer?”
“That’s the plan. Look, I’ll write up that estimate and get it to you tomorrow.”
“I tell you what. Why don’t I just give you a check tonight to help cover the materials and you can get started.”
“You don’t want an estimate?” he said in surprise.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I trust you.”
“But you don’t know me.”
“I know enough.”
“Okay, thanks for the coffee.” He smiled. “And the trust.”
“Stop by the Little Bit again. Have to try the killer onion rings.”
As they walked back, she said, “I really am sorry about your wife.”
“Me too.” Jack glanced back at the old couple still walking slowly hand in hand. “Me too.”
28
Mikki awoke the next morning in her attic bedroom. She stretched, yawned, and sat back, bunching her pillows around her. Then she rose, picked up her guitar, and started playing a new song she’d been working on, using the new technique Liam had taught her. The long fingers of her left hand worked the neck of the instrument, while her right hand did the strumming. She put down the guitar, went to her desk, picked up some blank music sheets, and started making notations and jotting down some lyrics. Then she started singing while she played the guitar.
A minute later, someone knocked on her door.
Startled, she stopped singing and said, “Yeah?”
“Are you decent?” Jack called through the door.
“Yes.”
He opened the door and came in. He had a breakfast tray in hand. Bacon, eggs, an English muffin smeared with Nutella, and a glass of milk. He set it down in front of her. Mikki put the guitar aside.
“How’d you know I like Nutella?”
“Did some good old-fashioned reconnaissance.” He pulled a rickety ladder-back chair up next to the bed.
“What?”
“Okay, I looked in your room back in Cleveland. Dig in before it gets cold.”
Mikki began to eat. “Where’s everybody else?” she asked.
“Still sleeping. It’s early yet. Did you have fun last night with Liam?”
Mikki swallowed a piece of bacon and exclaimed, “Omigod, Dad, he is, like, so awesome. That thing he showed me with the fingers, the pressure points? It works. We played some sets together, and he likes the bands I like, and he’s funny, and—”
“So is that a yes?”
“What?”
“You did have a good time last night?”
She grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I did. How did things go with Jenna?”
“I agreed to do the job. She gave me a check to start. Sammy and I will get the materials and go from there.”
“She seems really cool. Don’t you think?”
“She’s very nice.” Jack slipped something from his pocket and handed it to her. “I found this in a box in the lighthouse this morning.”
“The lighthouse? Pretty early to have already been out there.”
“Look at the picture.”
Mikki held it tightly by the edges, her brow furrowing. “Is this Mom?”
“Yep. There’s a date on back. Your mom was right about your age in that photo. It was taken down here at the beach. It must’ve been the summer before she moved to Cleveland. The lighthouse is in the background.” He paused. “You see, don’t you?”
“See what?”
“That you look just like her.”
Mikki squinted at the image of her mom. “I do?”
“Absolutely you do. Well, except for the weird hair color and goth clothes. Your mom was more into ponytails and pastels.”
“Ha-ha, real funny. And my clothes are not goth, which is, like, so last century anyway.”
“Sorry. Why don’t you finish your breakfast and we can go for a walk on the beach before things get going.”
“Is this part of you being a dad thing?” she asked bluntly.
“Partly, yeah.”
“And the other part?”
“I had a long time to be alone after you guys left, and I hated it. I never want to be alone again.”
As they hit the sand, the sun was slowly coming up and the sky was a sheet of pink and rose with the darkened mass of the ocean just below it. There was a wind that had dispelled most of the night’s heat. Gulls swooped and soared over the water before diving, hitting the surface and sometimes coming away with breakfast in the form of a wriggling fish.
“It’s really different down here,” said Mikki, finally breaking the silence.
“Ocean, sand, hotter.”
“Not just that.”
“I guess no matter where we’d be right now, it would be different,” he replied.
“I wake up sometimes and think she’s still here.”
Jack stopped walking and looked out to the ocean. “I wake up every morning expecting to see her. It’s only when she’s not there that I realize...” He started to walk again. “But down here, it’s different. I feel... I feel closer to her somehow.”
Mikki gazed worriedly at her dad but said nothing.
They threw pebbles into the water and let the fingers of the tides chase them up and down the sand. Mikki found a shell that she pocketed to later show her brothers.
“You’ve got a great voice,” he said. “I was listening outside the door this morning.”
“It’s okay,” she said modestly, although it was clear his praise had pleased her.
“Do you want to study music in college?”
“I’m not sure I want to go to college. You didn’t.”
“That’s true.”
“I’m not sure the sort of stuff I want to play would be popular in college curriculums or in the mainstream music industry.”
“What kind is it?”
“Are you asking just to be polite, or do you really want to know?”
“Look, do you have to make everything so complicated? I just want to know.”
“Okay, okay. It’s very alternative, edgy beats, nontraditional mix of instrumentals. No blow-you-out-of-the-house cheap synthesizer tricks. And no lollipop lyrics. Words that actually mean something.”