Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze Read Free Page B

ride home from the airport.
    Jason was lifting Abbie’s luggage from his truck. He was two years older than Lily and six years younger than Abbie. He’d just gotten out of the army, and he was grown up and bulked up. He’d been a hunk to start with, with his dark hair, black eyes, and the exotic looks he’d inherited from his Cape Verdean ancestors.
    Abbie reached for her duffel bag and roller suitcase. “Jason, thanks for the ride.”
    “No problem.” Jason nodded at Lily. “Hi, Lily.”
    “Hi, Jason. Thanks for bringing Abbie home.” Lily batted her long lashes at Jason. “Would you like to come in for some iced tea or something?”
    “Another time, maybe. Abbie tells me she hasn’t been home for a while. You guys have some catching up to do.” With a smile, Jason climbed up into his truck and drove away.
    Lily grabbed her sister’s arm, pulling her toward the house. “I can’t believe you’re really here! I went out to Bartlett’s and got a bunch of their arugula …”
    The front hall was cool and dim; the back of the house got the sun. As she dropped her bags down by the stairs, Abbie saw the dust powdering the baseboards, the frame of the mirror, and the etched glass globes of the overhead light.
    “Look!” Lily nodded toward the hall table, where a vase of wildflowers stood next to the brass bowl where the family tossed their mail and keys. “Just for you!”
    “How nice, Lily! Thanks.” Abbie hugged her sister again, but she couldn’t keep her gaze from sweeping over Lily’s shoulder. She’d been gone for just eighteen months. How could the house have become so cluttered in that short space of time?
    “Where’s Emma?”
    “She’s in her room. She might be asleep. She sleeps a lot.” Lily studied Abbie’s face. “We haven’t gotten around to washing the windows for a while. I never think about it, until, well, I never think about it.”
    And then it was as if the entire house came crashing down all around Abbie, the weight of the windows and the sofa and the chairs and the dust all balancing right on her shoulders, weighing her down so much she could scarcely breathe. And she hadn’t even made it into the kitchen yet.
    Since she was fifteen, Abbie had been in charge of the house, taking care of Lily and Emma, cooking and cleaning. She hadn’t been able to go to college, not with the death of her mother and the family responsibilities that had brought her. Sometimes she’d thought she would never be able to have her own family, her own life. She loved her family, but she’d longed to see just a bit of the world.
    When she turned twenty-eight, two years ago, she accepted an au pair job with a summer family and traveled with them to London.She was being paid for work, yet she’d never had so much time to herself. The children she took care of were ten and twelve, good-natured and easy. With them she went to museums, concerts, plays, and to watch the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace. At night, she helped herself to a book from Mr. Vanderdyne’s library. She read Dickens, Hardy, and T. S. Eliot. She watched DVDs of Noël Coward plays and Truffaut movies. She sat with her charges during their French lessons and began to learn French herself—the Vanderdynes were going to France this summer.
    Then Lily’s worried emails arrived. Abbie had to come home.
    It had felt good, at first, to feel needed. Yet how good a job had she done of raising Lily if Lily was still dependent on Abbie?
    Sensing the drop in Abbie’s mood, Lily was babbling, “We’ve been too busy working to pay attention to stuff like dusting. Even before the stock market crashed last fall, Nantucket was kind of falling apart. People have stopped building new homes. Several of Dad’s clients backed out of deals. He always has some work, but you know he puts his crew first, and he’s kept paying their salaries and health insurance. I’ve helped out financially as much as I can. I pay for some of the