Rachel had seemed not nonchalant exactly. More like reconciled. It’s a very early diagnosis but his case is fairly clear-cut. We’re going to be meeting with a team of specialists at UC Davis in a few months to come up with a therapy and treatment plan. It feels good to have a few answers about some of the things we’ve seen and to know that we are on a path to find out more, Rachel had told Jess.
Despite Rachel’s positive attitude in that first phone call, Jess had to assume it couldn’t be easy on their family. Rachel and Cody must have been struggling to come to terms with the diagnosis and its implications for Silas’s future.
Shortly after Jess had found out about Silas, Eleanor had reached out to her asking about a possible opening in her schedule. The chance to come to Cape Sanctuary and spend more time with them had seemed serendipitous during this challenging time in her sister’s life so she had rearranged her schedule to make it happen.
Now that she was here, Jess realized how falsely optimistic she had been. Rachel didn’t want to open her life to her. She wouldn’t welcome Jess’s concern or any effort she made to support her.
Her sister had made that clear more than a decade ago. She was perfectly happy to build her life here in Cape Sanctuary without Jess.
Jess lifted her face to the ocean breeze, wishing it could carry away the old pain in her heart.
5
Nate
When his mother returned from visiting Jess Clayton at her trailer, Nate told himself that odd feeling in his chest was relief. He certainly wasn’t disappointed.
“Your guest didn’t want to come to dinner?”
“She had a long day of driving,” Eleanor explained. “She wanted to get some rest so she’ll be full of vim and vigor tomorrow.”
“Is that seriously what she said?” Sophie looked up from her phone long enough to give the world a general look of disgust at the idea of someone using such an old-fashioned term.
His mother laughed. “Okay, those are my words. Jess said she wanted to rest up for tomorrow. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Sophie frowned at that. “I don’t get why you have to do this now. I mean, it’s not like you’re using all those other rooms.”
“I might if they weren’t so crowded with old things.”
“What would you use them for?” Nate was genuinely curious. He had a strange feeling about this whole thing, especially since his mother was being so closemouthed about hiring Jess to help her clean out Whitaker House.
Why hadn’t she told him? Eleanor wasn’t usually so secretive about things. He wasn’t naive enough to believe he knew every detail about his mother’s life but this seemed like such an odd thing to conceal from him.
Eleanor gave them both a breezy smile. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll start a yoga studio. Or open a bed-and-breakfast for starving artists or something.”
That actually didn’t sound as far-fetched as it might. The house would be perfect for something like that, set on a small cliff overlooking the Pacific, with a terraced pathway that led down to a small cove.
The beach was open to the public but because the only access was across property that had been in the Whitaker family for generations, only townspeople in Cape Sanctuary knew about it and used it.
To Nate, Sunshine Cove had always felt like his own private refuge. He had loved waking up before school and taking the long, winding path down to the beach to surf the cold waters.
Sometimes friends from town would meet him but he was often on his own, though more than once he had been joined by a pod of dolphins playing in the surf.
In retrospect, it hadn’t been safe at all for a teenage punk to be down there by himself but he wouldn’t trade those moments and memories for anything.
He hadn’t surfed in a long time. His work schedule had been demanding lately as the construction market in the area boomed. He should do something about that.
“How was the movie?” he asked them.
“Fine,” Sophie said shortly.
He fought down his annoyance at her succinct response. Over the past two or three weeks, one-syllable responses had become the norm for her, at least in her interactions with Nate.
He wasn’t sure what the hell had happened to his sweet, talkative, fun daughter. After she hit thirteen, she had somehow become surly and short with him.
Was he at fault or was it hormones? Or was it something else entirely?
He had no idea. He only knew he was getting seriously tired of it.
“Only fine? You’ve been looking forward to that one for weeks.”
“The book was better,” she said.
“Books are usually better than movies,” Eleanor said. “I remember how disappointed I was when I watched Doctor Zhivago after reading the book.”
“I also don’t like that all the people who never bothered to read the books are stanning all over the movie. So lame.”
While Nate didn’t consider himself the hippest of parents, he at least knew stans were superfans.
“Regardless of the movie’s quality or lack thereof, we had a lovely girls’ day in the city,” his mother said. “The orthodontist appointment went well and then we did a little shopping at a couple of our favorite shops. I bought a new purse and some yarn, of course, and Sophie found some cute new earrings. Show your dad,” she said.
Without bothering to look at him, Sophie flicked one dangly earring that looked like it ended in an arrow.
“Fun.”
She shrugged, not shifting her gaze from her phone, and Nate again fought down his irritation and, yes, hurt.
He felt like the sweet, kind girl with whom he had spent thirteen years building a loving relationship had rolled out with the tide one day, leaving this angry, sullen stranger in her wake.
During dinner, Eleanor and Sophie talked more about their trip to town and the last few weeks of school for Sophie while they ate. When they finished, Sophie cleared her plate and loaded it into the dishwasher then claimed homework.
“I forgot all about an essay I have to write for English class. It’s due tomorrow,” she claimed.
He might have told her maybe she should have made sure she was caught up on schoolwork before taking the afternoon off with her grandmother to go to a movie but he didn’t want to cause more tension so he let it slide.
“Gram, can I use your computer?”
“Sure. It’s already on, since I was using it before dinner.”
“Thanks. This won’t take long.” Sophie raced into the other room.
“So,” he said to his mother after she left, “tell me about Jess Clayton.”