Chapter 24
Out on the porch for the family party, Sophie found Ruth, setting a dark blue cake on the long table, her hair in a loose ponytail, her glasses sliding down her nose. It was as though she were officially a part of the family.
“Oh, Sophie! You’re back! What a wonderful couple of days you’ve had!” Ruth cried.
On the cake, “Congratulations, Sophie!” was written in green icing. Directly beneath it, in icing, was the University of Maine logo.
Sophie hugged her dear friend, thanking her for celebrating with her. It was never far from Sophie’s mind that she was about the same age as Sloane, that Sloane hadn’t been allowed to get older, that her life had been cut short by awful chance.
How could Ruth ever move on from that? How could Ruth wake up every day and carry the weight of all she’d lost?
Together, the Harper family, plus Ruth, sat at the picnic table and ate veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, and, finally, cake.
Sophie allowed herself a slice and a half, then licked the tongs of frosting, surprised at how indulgent she felt.
Around her, her family opened beers and bottles of wine and toasted Sophie’s future.
“Thank you for all of your support this year,” Sophie said, trying to meet the gazes of all of her aunts and uncles and cousins, of Aunt Juliet and Aunt Ivy and Aunt Wren, of Ben and Theo and Elliott and Landon, of her mother, of Lily.
“I know I wasn’t fully honest about how much I needed all of you, not the whole time. But it was like you sensed it. I shouldn’t have doubted the Harper family's empathy. But you all really came through for me when it mattered the most.”
She wanted to add to Ruth and Ruth alone that she was sorry she couldn’t come through for Ruth. She didn’t want to put Ruth and Ruth’s devastation on the spot.
When night fell, and the sky sparkled with stars, Ruth announced she had to head back to Landon and Celia’s place to rest. “But,” she said, getting up and stretching her arms, “I’ll be moving on soon.
I can’t stay in Bluebell Cove forever. As much as I love you all, I need to get back to New York City. I need to return to myself.”
She needed to give up, if only to move on.
The Harpers told her to stay as long as she needed. They reminded her that she was a part of their family, now. Ruth thanked them, then hurried out, as though frightened she’d lose her grip and start sobbing. Sophie’s chest was crushed with sorrow for her.
But Lily reminded her that they had places to be. “The party,” Lily said. “It’ll do us some good, don’t you think?”
Donning jackets, Sophie and Lily said goodbye to the Harper family and traced the path along the cliff before plunging down the trail to Bluebell Cove.
Halfway down, hustling through the dark, they heard the music, pumping from the speakers someone had carried to the beach.
When they emerged from the trail onto the sand, they found a sea of twentysomethings celebrating the end of summer, their arms swaying in the night air, their bodies clad in tight dresses or swimsuits.
It had been ages since Sophie had spent any time with people her own age, and although she was nervous at first, she followed Lily’s lead and eventually started dancing, moving her hips and raising her chin toward the gorgeous sky.
Over and over, she thought, I’m alive. I survived.
Everything is going to be all right. Because it had to be.
She was going to fight to make sure of it.
And then, as though Lily had known it would happen, a guy approached and said hi.
He gazed at Sophie, his eyes blue, his shoulders wide, his hands the size of dinner plates.
“I’m sorry to come over like this,” he said.
But Sophie told him she was glad he had.
After that, he introduced himself as Jared.
Sophie shook his hand and followed him away from the dance area to the cooler, where he grabbed a beer for each of them and used his keys to pop the tops.
Sophie kept thinking, this can’t be happening! But it was.
Together, Jared and Sophie sat at the edge of a rock, smiling nervously and watching the waves crash and churn toward them.
At first, they laughed and joked about nothing at all, about the sand and the music and the people at the party.
Was this what it meant to flirt with someone?
Sophie felt time slipping. The night grew darker as tomorrow came closer.
She wondered if she and Jared would kiss.
She wondered if they would exchange numbers.
Even though she knew it didn’t matter, she felt like she was free-falling.
These people were nothing like Ethan, Cedric, and Freddy. They thrilled her.
Jared grew quiet, and his expression soured.
“Are you from Bluebell Cove?” Sophie asked him then, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say, and she was nervous she was boring him. She was out of practice. That, and Ethan had always been eager to talk her ear off, so she hadn’t had to come up with anything interesting to say.
“No,” Jared said. “I’m here for a family thing, actually. This is my first night out-out in I don’t know how long.”
“Ah. A family reunion?”
“Not quite.” Jared flared his nostrils. “It’s actually crazy. But I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it. Legally.”
“Huh.” Sophie sipped her drink and wondered if Jared had decided he wasn’t interested in her. Maybe that was why he was acting so strangely. He wanted her to freak out and leave so he could flirt with someone else.
But then Jared got to his feet. “You want another beer?” he asked.
“Um. If you do?”
Sophie watched Jared walk to the cooler, bend down, grab two, and return. He continued to scowl, as though he were having a terrible time. Sophie searched the crowd for Lily, but she couldn’t find her anywhere. Maybe Sophie really should go home and recoup.
“It’s actually pretty messed up,” Jared said.
“The family thing?” Sophie asked. Her stomach had begun to curdle. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know about whatever this was. She had her own problems, her own stories.
“Yeah. My sister, she’s a nanny for this really wealthy family in Bluebell Cove,” Jared went on. “We didn’t hear from her for months, and we were really freaked out. Finally, when we wouldn’t let up, she reached out and told us a little of what’s been going on.”
Jared explained that his sister, Daphne, had been working for an elite Bluebell Cove family for nearly a year.
“Throughout that time, they’ve broken nearly every one of their clearly stated contractual rules.
They force her to work late. They threaten her.
They make her work seven days a week without a break.
She’s going a little crazy. She isn’t well.
But recently, I guess, one of the family members hit her.
Assaulted her.” Jared’s breathing was ragged.
“We want her to quit immediately, but I guess there are all these things in the contract that say she can’t walk away so easily.
We’re taking the family to court to get her out of there.
But I don’t know. I’m worried. What’s stopping me from storming over there and banging down the door?
What’s stopping me from saving my sister? I feel so pathetic.”
Sophie touched Jared’s shoulder delicately, overcome. “If she left, what would happen?”
“They’d sue her for thousands upon thousands of dollars, money she doesn’t have,” Jared said.
“And she already struggled to get a job. She was doing music back in the city, but all her gigs dried up, and she had no answers. No options. So then, she sees an ad for this family, to babysit for this family called the Caldwecks, and…”
Sophie snapped to her feet. “I beg your pardon?”
Jared narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“You said the Caldwecks?” Sophie whispered. Had he really said that? Or was she making it up in her head?
But Jared nodded. “Yes. Do you know them?”