One Summer

46

“Okay, so what’s the conspiracy?”

Jenna had come into the kitchen at the Little Bit to find Liam and Mikki using their break to huddle in one corner.

“Nothing, Mom,” Liam said a little too innocently.

“Son, you forget I was a lawyer. My lie detector is well oiled.”

He looked sheepish and glanced at Mikki. “You want to tell her?”

Mikki said, “We entered the talent competition as a musical act.”

“Well, that’s great. Why keep it a secret?”

Liam answered. “We’ll be going up against Tiffany, and I know her family is an important player in town. We beat her out of winning for the fourth year in a row, the Murdochs might mess with you.”

“They can try and mess with me, but I don’t think it’ll do much good. The Little Bit is pretty much here to stay.” She looked at both of them curiously. “So why this sudden interest in beating Tiffany Murdoch?”

The two teens looked at each other.

Sensing they were holding something significant back, Jenna said, “Okay, both of you, I happen to be the boss. And I want the truth. Right now.”

Between them, Mikki and Liam told her what had happened on the beach.

When they’d finished, the look on Jenna’s features was very dark. “That was a criminal assault on you, Mikki. And you too, Liam. You two could have been really hurt.”

“It was no big deal, Mom,” said Liam.

“It was a very big deal. Those kids need to be held accountable for what they did. Otherwise, they might do it again.”

“Mom, please don’t do anything. We want to handle this in our own way.”

Mikki added, “And if my dad finds out, he’ll beat them all up and probably end up in jail. I know my dad. He’s really overprotective. They were just teenagers, and he’s an ex — army ranger. You saw what he did to those two big guys. He can be like a SWAT team all by himself when he needs to be. They’d throw the book at him. So please don’t say anything, Jenna. Please.”

Jenna’s features finally lightened. “Okay, I see your logic. But does your dad know you’re entering the talent competition?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, I think the sooner he knows, the better.”

Mikki gazed at her. “Would you mind telling him?”

“Me? Why?”

“It might be better coming from another parent. I don’t think he’ll mind, but he’s been a little preoccupied lately. And we’ve already entered. I can’t pull out now.”

Jenna thought about this for a few seconds. “Okay, I’ll talk to him.” She checked her watch and smiled. “Break time’s over. We run a real sweatshop here. So get to it.”

Mikki gave her a quick hug. “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver. So when do you think you’ll talk to him?”

“I think I know where to find him at the right time.”

At a little past midnight, Jack stood on the catwalk of the lighthouse, staring out at a clear sky. After his conversation with Mikki and the disappointment so evident on her face, he had really tried to not come out here, but something made his legs move, and here he was.

He’d worked all day with Sammy on Anne Bethune’s project, which had also given him time to see her camp. He had to admit that Jackie and Cory were having a wonderful time, and they were learning things too. Anne had an instructor who took the kids down to the water and showed them about marine life and other science subjects appropriate for younger kids. Cory was in his element with painting and acting out scenes that he had written in a performance art workshop the camp also offered. It was exactly the sort of experience Jack had hoped for when they came down here for the summer. However, Jack was trying not to focus on the fact that he wasn’t an integral part of that experience, that it was being done through what amounted to surrogates.

If I can just finish the lighthouse.

He walked back inside the structure and gazed down at the new stairs. He’d just driven in the last nail a few minutes ago. Work still needed to be done on them, mostly finishing items, but they were safe to walk on and would last a long time. He planned to start disassembling the scaffolding tomorrow night and return it to the hardware store. He picked up Lizzie’s doll and went back out on the catwalk. Sweaty from all the hard work in the confines of the lighthouse, he took off his shirt and let the cool breeze flow over him.

He looked at the doll and then gazed up at the sky. Heaven was somewhere up there. He’d been thinking about where a precocious little girl would have thought it was located. He looked at discrete grids of the sky, much like he’d compartmentalized and studied the desert in the Middle East when he was fighting in a war there. Which spot was most likely to hold an IED or a sniper?

Only now he was looking for angels and saints.

And Lizzie.

He set the doll down and took the letter from his shirt pocket. Now that he’d finished the stairs, he told himself it was time to read the next one. The envelope had the number four written on it. He slipped the letter out. It was dated December twenty-first. He leaned against the railing and read it.