The Summer We Mended (Martha’s Vineyard #1)

Prologue

Lily

The late afternoon sun filtered through the trees in golden streaks as Lily adjusted the string of white paper lanterns hanging across the back porch.

Their little house in Vineyard Haven, tucked among the maples and oaks, hummed with energy.

David’s laughter echoed from the side yard where he was helping Luke set up the grill, and Lily paused to watch him for a moment, barefoot, wearing jeans and a faded gray T-shirt, a dish towel slung over his shoulder like he owned the place. Which, in many ways, he did.

It was a small barbecue, just family, but it felt like the world had converged on their little corner of Martha’s Vineyard.

Luke had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and they were heading to Langley AFB in a few weeks.

This was their send-off, and no one wanted it to be overly formal.

It was about warmth, good food, and the kind of love that settled into your bones.

Lily heard the door swing open behind her.

“Hey, you,” Margot said, stepping onto the porch, holding a pie she had no doubt made from scratch.

Lily smiled. “Blueberry?”

“Of course. Luke’s favorite. And Anna said she had more ice cream than any one person needs.”

The screen door clattered again, and Anna came out with a tray of drinks, the twins bouncing behind her like excited puppies.

“Mom, why can’t I drink the Kool-Aid inside?” Blaze called out, a blur of knees and elbows.

Nora followed close behind, her hair in two messy braids and her hands sticky from the popsicle she’d had in the car.

“Because you’ll get it everywhere,” Anna answered matter-of-factly.

She was six going on thirty. Nora had a quiet reserve about her, and her brother had her missing energy. He was all boy, that was for sure.

“Hey, my babies!” Lily dropped to her knees as both kids launched into her arms. She caught them in a warm embrace, inhaling the scent of summer, grass, sunscreen, and sugar.

“Mom said Dad got a new job,” Nora said, pulling back with wide, serious eyes. “Is he gonna be famous now?”

Lily grinned. “Something like that. He’s going to help run a whole Air Force base. That’s a pretty big deal.”

David called from the grill, “If they let Luke run anything, I worry for national security.”

“Hey!” Luke turned, grinning widely at his father-in-law. “I outrank you now, old man. Show some respect.”

“David wasn’t in long enough to be at your rank,” Lily called out. “Did his four and came home.”

“I never got to fly those fancy jets, so it wasn’t as fun for me,” David teased.

Anna laughed, sliding the tray onto the table. “Don’t listen to him, Dad. He still can’t remember to take the trash out.”

Margot snorted into her glass of Pinot Grigio. “Nothing new there.”

Lily stood, brushing her knees, and watched as Cody came around the corner of the house with his girlfriend, Nessa, in tow.

They’d been together for almost four years.

Cody looked good, tanned, strong, his hair buzzed short, and his posture unmistakably Marine Corps.

There was something comforting about the way he walked, with confidence and calmness.

Nessa held his hand, beaming. She had a sweet smile, a little uncertain, but open.

“Cody!” Luke called, waving a pair of tongs. “Come educate your dad on the proper grilling techniques.”

“I’m infantry, not a chef,” Cody replied, grinning. “I gotta give Mom a hug before I do anything.”

He stopped and hugged Lily tightly before he veered over to where David and Luke were at the grill, trading a quick hug with David before greeting Luke.

Lily approached Jess with a gentle smile. “Nessa, I’m so glad you could make it with Cody. How’s school going?”

“It’s going well. I’ll be glad when I have that Nurse Practitioner behind my name, that’s for sure,” Jess said shyly.

“You’ve worked so hard for it.”

Within minutes, the backyard was full of chatter and clinking glassware. A light breeze kept the mosquitoes away, and the scent of grilled food mingled with the heady fragrance of lilies blooming near the garden.

The scent of grilled peaches and marinated chicken filled the air as David manned the grill, his Red Sox apron smudged with charcoal and pride.

Lily moved through the yard with a tray of lemonade, smiling as Anna passed her a bowl of fresh-picked strawberries.

The twins squealed near the garden hose, already soaked to the bone, and Luke and Cody sat on the steps, showing them how to make water balloons pop louder.

The side gate creaked open and Henry strolled in, his arm slung casually around Claudia. “Hope there’s still food left,” he called out with a grin.

“Barely,” David shot back with mock sternness, waving the spatula. “I told Lily we should start hiding plates once you two are on the guest list.”

Henry chuckled and walked straight over, clapping his brother on the back with a strength that only decades of camaraderie could build. “You still burn it the same, David?”

“Tradition’s tradition.” David smirked. “You want perfection, you grill.”

“No thanks. I came for your over-charred sausages and your bad jokes.”

They laughed, the kind of easy laughter that only came from years of watching kids grow up side by side, of shared tears, shared wins, and too many weekends like this to count. Claudia leaned into Lily with a smile. “Look at them. Haven’t changed a bit.”

“They really haven’t,” Lily said softly, her eyes lingering on David. “Thank God for that.”

Henry poured himself a glass of lemonade, raised it toward David with a nod, and said, “To annoying brothers, old friends, stubborn grills, and never running out of beer.”

David raised his own glass. “Amen to that.”

“You got any water guns?” Henry asked David after everyone had eaten.

“Yeah, there’s an entire basket inside the garage filled with them. Why?”

“I’m thinking that together, you and I can sneak attack the kids.”

“That sounds like the best idea you’ve ever had,” David replied, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

Lily laughed to herself. She looked over at her sister-in-law, Claudia, and shook her head. “These two are something else.”

“Two peas in a pod,” she giggled.

David and Henry disappeared into the garage. The kids didn’t notice because they were too busy playing a game of soccer with Luke and Cody.

Twenty minutes later, it was like something out of a movie the way the two older men came running out of the garage with two large Super Soakers in each of their hands. They were yelling as they started shooting the kids with streams of water.

It was mass chaos, and it didn’t take long before Cody and Luke were sprinting for the extra water guns. Anna had overheard her father and uncle’s plan and had already filled up guns for the kids.

David ducked behind the garden shed, eyes narrowed like a soldier scanning for enemy movement. “I think they’ve regrouped behind the picnic table,” he said in a mock whisper, nodding toward where the twins were crouched and giggling.

Henry, drenched from head to toe and breathing heavily from the last sprint across the lawn, wiped water from his face with the back of his hand. “We’ll flank them. You take left, I’ll distract from the right.”

David flashed a grin. “Just like the old days.”

“You mean when we were twelve and still thought we were invincible?” Henry deadpanned, but the mischief in his eyes gave him away.

The two of them broke into a charge, half stealth, half chaos.

David let out a playful war cry as he slid across the damp grass, firing off streams of water from his oversized Super Soaker.

Henry, not to be outdone, sprinted straight toward Luke and Cody, who were defending their position with overturned lawn chairs as shields.

“Retreat!” Luke yelled, grabbing Blaze and hauling him away as if they were escaping a battlefield.

“I’ve been hit!” Cody called out dramatically, collapsing in slow motion onto the lawn as Nora pounced on him, giggling.

“You traitor!” Luke shouted at his daughter as she joined David’s side with a smug little smirk, now armed with her own squirt gun.

David scooped her up with one arm, twirling her in a circle until they were both dizzy. “That’s my girl!” he said as she squealed with laughter.

From the porch, Anna doubled over with laughter, nearly losing her balance as she leaned on the railing. “What is even happening right now?”

Lily, holding a glass of lemonade, wiped at her eyes. “They’ve lost their minds.”

“They’ve regressed,” Claudia added with a chuckle. “Completely and utterly.”

“And we’re the ones who’ll be stuck washing all the towels,” Anna said, but the joy in her voice made it clear she didn’t mind one bit.

The backyard was alive with energy. The twins darted across the grass, their laughter high and bright.

The adults weren’t much different. Cody tackled Luke with a soaked towel, shouting something about “revenge for last summer.” Blaze ran through the sprinkler like it was a finish line.

Henry, soaked and laughing, grabbed another water balloon from a cooler and threw it across the yard at David, missing him by inches.

“You throw like a grandmother,” David taunted.

“You are a grandfather,” Henry shot back.

David only laughed, chasing after him again with Nora right at his heels.

It was the kind of afternoon that burned itself into memory, not because of any grand occasion, but because of the love. Because of the laughter. Because it felt like home.

And in that moment, with the sun beginning to dip low and shadows stretching across the lawn, David turned toward Henry, breathless and grinning. “I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

Henry, his shirt clinging to him and a water gun dangling from his hand, simply clapped his older brother on the back. “Me neither.”