Page 25 of The Sandy Page Bookshop

Lucy

She didn’t tell her parents about the gold bracelet she’d found under the seat of Jep Parsons’s car.

She didn’t dare. Instead, she tucked it into the back of her sister’s jewelry box, hoping no one would realize Ella had been wearing it the night of the accident.

It was bad enough sneaking onto the garage lot and removing the tarp from the Mustang.

Her parents were already under so much pressure.

Even with Ella making slow progress, things were not improving at home.

If anything, they were getting worse. With Ella finally out of the woods, awake and alert, it was like they could shift their anger from fighting for her to fighting who did this to her.

When Lucy got home from the bookstore, there was a strange car in her driveway.

She propped her bike up against the garage and walked around the sleek black Mercedes.

Inside, her parents were seated on the living room sofa and two people Lucy did not recognize sat across from them in armchairs.

The man, dressed in a navy suit, looked up when she came in the door. “Oh, hello. You must be Lucy.”

The young woman taking notes on a steno pad beside him glanced up, too.

“Lucy,” her mother said, “this is Mr. Jeffries and his partner, Ms. Williams.” As if that explained everything. “Would you like a snack?”

She followed her mother into the kitchen, watching as she pulled crackers from the cupboard and a block of sliced cheese from the fridge like it was any other afternoon.

“What’s going on in there?” Lucy asked, nodding toward the living room.

Her mother didn’t seem to hear. “Oh no. I meant to offer them coffee.” She set the box of crackers down and hurried over to the coffee machine. “I should probably do decaf at this hour.”

“Mom, who are those people?”

Her mother looked at her like she’d forgotten Lucy was there. “Honey, go ahead and make yourself a bite. We won’t be much longer, and then I’ll start dinner.” Then she disappeared into the living room to inquire who wanted coffee.

Lucy took her plate, taking the steps purposefully slow so she could listen in.

The woman was talking about the accident. “So, according to the police report Ella did have a concentration of alcohol that exceeded the legal limit. But that doesn’t matter to us in this context, because the defendant was driving.”

It mattered to her parents. “Ella should never have been drinking. And she should never have gotten in the car with that fool.” Lucy’s father threw up his hands, his voice rising with them.

When she reached the top of the stairs and was safely out of view, Lucy lowered herself onto the top step as quietly as possible. From there she could still see the backs of her parents’ heads sitting on the couch.

“Unfortunately, these things sometimes happen with teens, Mr. Hart,” the man said.

“In this case, Ella is the victim. Our job, as her lawyers, is to protect her from further damages.” He cleared his throat.

“We have two options here. His insurance policy will kick in, of course. But we can also go after the family.”

“You mean sue the Parsons family?” her mother asked, sounding alarmed.

“In some cases, yes, people do go after the family.”

“Still, it seems cruel, doesn’t it? His parents didn’t throw the party. They didn’t provide the alcohol. It was a bunch of kids drinking at a beach party.”

The woman, Ms. Williams, piped up. “I know it’s hard not to think of this personally, especially when it involves another family here in town, but it isn’t personal, Mrs. Hart. It’s a matter of compensation for damages incurred. It’s a way to make sure Ella is taken care of.”

“Let’s also remember, Jep Parsons is eighteen years old. He’s no longer a minor.”

“What does that have to do with it?” her father asked.

“I’m saying you can file a civil suit without going after his parents.”

“He’s just a kid. What does he have, besides a totaled car?”

“A whole lot, as it turns out,” Williams said.

Jeffries passed her parents a piece of paper. “Jep Parsons has a fifty percent stake in the family business. He has the financial resources.”

For a wordless beat her parents turned to each other. “I didn’t know he owned part of his father’s business,” her father said finally.

“Fifty percent. So he does have means.”

Lucy sucked in her breath. It was just as Ella had told her. And Jep could lose it all.

“I don’t know,” her mother said, voice wavering.

“Let me reassure you both, civil suits of this nature are not uncommon in a situation like yours. Ella has suffered severe injuries. There is no way to know for sure how this accident will impact her long term, or what kind of care she may need in the future. You want to be prepared.”

“And,” Williams went on, “there are the emotional damages to consider. For Ella. For all of you.”

“Us? We don’t need anything from that family,” Lucy’s father interjected. “My only interest is for my daughter.”

“I understand, but let’s examine the emotional suffering already established. Ella was an exceptional student you say.”

Even from where she sat on the stairs, Lucy could see her father’s posture change. “She was valedictorian.”

“Exactly,” Williams said. “Ella was supposed to start Tufts University this fall.”

Was. The living room went silent as the words hung thick in the air.

“You shared with us that you had to defer her acceptance, correct?”

Lucy’s mother sniffed and nodded.

“So we don’t know when Ella will go to Tufts. Or even if.”

Lucy rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. They’d not told Ella. Even though Lucy feared she already knew, no one had said the words out loud since the day her father made the difficult call to the school’s registrar. They didn’t dare.

“None of us knows what the future holds,” Williams explained. Her voice was hushed and soft, the way Lucy imagined her own heart beat in its rib cage. “That’s why we try to protect our clients by collecting damages. So they may have some alleviation through compensation.”

Despite their deferment call to the office of the registrar, each day it seemed some new correspondence arrived from Tufts in the mail.

Welcome postcards. Orientation details. All while Ella lay in a hospital bed three towns away.

What if Tufts wouldn’t hold her place? What if she never recovered enough to attend any college anywhere?

Lucy hadn’t realized she was gripping the plate so hard until it slipped from her hands.

Down the stairs it tumbled like a rolling disc, the crackers and squares of cheese flying like projectiles.

It landed in two distinct pieces on the landing with a clatter. Lucy’s parents leapt up from the couch.

“Lucy?” her mother cried, hurrying over. “Are you alright?”

Her father surveyed the mess on the landing and turned back to the attorneys. His resolve was unwavering. “Go after him,” he said. “Go after his insurance. His business. Whatever you can get your hands on. I want this kid to pay.”

When Lucy arrived at the Sandy Page the next morning, she felt drained. All night her thoughts had returned to the conversation between the attorneys and her parents.

A dull ache already spreading across her forehead, she walked into work thinking of her bed at home, wondering how she would keep it all inside for another day.

She was met by the scent of freshly brewed vanilla coffee (Brad’s doing).

Soft piano music emanated from a few carefully placed speakers (also Brad).

At that hour, the morning light coming off the harbor was gauzy.

It was an instant balm to her rawness, and Lucy realized she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

“Good morning!” Leah chirped from behind the register.

Lucy was still trying to figure Leah out; that day she was dressed in white linen pants and sandals with a sleeveless coral top, her hair swept up in a simple clip, managing to look beachy but somehow still elegant.

Leah was a type-A boss lady in the flesh, and Lucy thought that was pretty cool.

But Lucy could tell that beneath all that Leah had her anxieties.

About the shop displays. About the coffee Brad picked.

About the customers coming in and the ways they could better serve them.

Even with her warm smile and bright demeanor, there was a hint of unsettledness about Leah that others probably didn’t see.

But Lucy did. Lucy understood anxiety; she wore it to work each day, like a shadow tracing her silhouette.

So it was oddly comforting to be around someone who seemed to worry like she did but somehow kept it under wraps. Maybe there was hope for her.

“Luce, c’mere.” Leah was also the only person who’d ever called her that, but Lucy didn’t mind. “What do you think of the flyers I made for our teddy bear tea party?”

It would be the Sandy Page’s first official children’s event.

Already they’d selected two picture books to be read aloud and discussed setup.

The children would arrive dressed for tea, with a stuffed animal of their choice.

(All are welcome here!) Lemonade would be served with cookies.

Lucy had been shocked when Leah asked her to run the show. It felt like a pretty big deal.

Lucy examined the flyer and her excitement flagged. There were multiple fonts. Garish colors. Weird-looking bears. Had her boss been drunk? “It’s… cute.”

“You hate it.”

“It’s nice, it’s just…” Where to begin?

Brad appeared. He had a radar for dramatic tensions. “Ugly,” he said decidedly.

“What’s wrong with it?” Leah gasped. “I spent all night working on this.”

“That was your first mistake,” Brad said. “I will never understand why you insist on bringing in sticky children and serving sticky sweets around all your crisp, clean books.”

Lucy tried to hide her smile.

“It’s part of our community outreach,” Leah reminded him. “And it draws business.”