Page 7 of The Sandy Page Bookshop

Her father, too, had a hard time watching when the specialists came in.

Now he excused himself to go get a coffee.

But her mother seemed to relish it, somehow, as though the mere presence of whatever staff was doing whatever therapy was proof that they believed like she did.

“Look how strong you are, darling!” she murmured softly. Lucy had to look away.

Judy was just finishing up when there came a scuffle and raised voices from out in the hallway.

All three women’s heads turned. “Stay here,” Judy said, hurrying for the door.

Lucy peered around her for a better look.

Two men were in a heated discussion at the nurse’s station in the hall.

It was then that Lucy realized one of the men was her father.

“How dare you show your face here!” he shouted. A male orderly intervened, positioning himself between the two of them. Right away Lucy knew who the other person was.

“What’s happening out there?” her mother asked, still standing by Ella’s bed as if on guard. But Lucy was too fixated on the unreal scene before her to answer.

Jep Parsons faced her father head-on, but he looked more ready to receive a blow than to throw one. Lucy watched him push a flop of dark hair out of his sad brown eyes, shoulders squared.

Jep was one of the beautiful people in the hallways at high school.

But he was otherwise completely unlike Ella’s other friends.

Jep was quiet, he kept to himself rather than running at the front of the crowd like the other guys.

He was built like an athlete, but you wouldn’t find him at the pep rallies or the football games.

Instead he hung out in the art room and worked at his father’s mechanic shop on weekends.

He wore Converse sneakers and black hoodies, but he wasn’t a stoner or a loser or a nerd.

Jep wasn’t a guy you could put your finger on.

When Ella whispered one night in Lucy’s bed that she had a crush on him, Lucy wasn’t surprised—almost every girl did.

But when they secretly started dating, Lucy wondered.

They could not have been more different.

Maybe that was one of the reasons Ella had kept their relationship a secret from the family. Their strict father was the other.

Jep Parsons represented everything their parents feared.

It wasn’t his fault. Both her parents were lifelong locals (lifers , her father joked without smiling) who’d grown up in working-class families.

They’d never gotten off the Cape. They’d never achieved the upward mobility they so often talked about with their girls at the dinner table.

There was a time, however, when Lucy’s father had had the chance: a full scholarship to Princeton, for wrestling.

Maybe that was why he was so quiet. Maybe that was why he was so strict.

Years ago, Martin Hart was poised to be the first in his family to go to college, and to an Ivy, no less.

It was what he’d worked hard for and he was so close, he could taste it.

Until the all-states tournament his senior year, when he blew out his knee in his first match.

Despite two surgeries and six months of recovery, Martin’s wrestling days were over.

So, too, was Princeton. Without the scholarship, his family simply could not afford the cost. Resigned, Martin remained on the Cape, took classes at the community college and eventually took over Shoreline Suites from his father.

It was something he never spoke of; what Lucy and Ella knew about it came from their mother, in private whispered moments.

But it cast a hard shadow across his outlook, a veil that hung over both his kids, whether he intended it or not.

All Martin wanted was for his daughters to make a better life for themselves than the 24/7 grind of running a local motel.

Dating was frowned upon: it would distract them from their schoolwork.

Dating a kid from another lifer family, who skipped classes and had his sights set on becoming a local mechanic, was out of the question.

The fact that Jep Parsons had been driving drunk and had stolen a bright future from his daughter filled Martin Hart with fresh rage.

It didn’t matter that Jep had been arrested.

It didn’t matter that his blood alcohol level was borderline while Ella’s was well over the legal limit, or that Jep had been kept overnight in jail.

Nor did it matter that his pretrial conference loomed in the coming weeks.

There was no justice that could satisfy Lucy and Ella’s parents that summer.

Now, in the hallway, Lucy’s father puffed his chest out and leaned in like he might rush Jep. Lucy could see the old wrestler in him come alive. It was as heartbreaking as it was alarming.

“Mom!” Lucy cried.

Her mother turned but would not leave Ella’s side. “Martin, no!” she called out to her husband. The orderly reached for Jep. By then, two nurses had stepped in, too.

“Kid, you have to go,” the orderly barked, placing his hands on Jep’s shoulders and steering him swiftly away from Ella’s door. “Now!”

Jep didn’t fight. “I just wanted to see her,” he begged. His voice was full of desperation. “Please… let me see Ella.”

As the nurses tried to calm him down, Lucy’s father roared in reply. “You stay away from her! You will never see my daughter again.”

Lucy felt her mother go rigid beside her. “It’s alright, honey,” her mother cooed to Ella, eyes still trained on the hallway. “Everything is alright now.”

But it wasn’t alright. As the shouting in the hall dissipated, there came a sudden scratching sound in the room. Lucy glanced back at her sister. Ella’s fingers spasmed on the sheets. “Mama, look.” She pointed. “What if…”

As if reading her mind, her mother’s head snapped in her direction. No, she mouthed, eyes wild.

In the hallway, Lucy’s father had collapsed into a chair, head in his hands. A nurse was talking softly to him. Jep Parsons was being escorted out and away, but his voice carried down the hall. “Please don’t do this,” he cried. “I just want one minute!”

Meanwhile Ella’s fingers scratched away at the sheets, like an animal in distress. Lucy went to her and placed her hand atop her sister’s.

“Now, now,” her mother cooed, stroking Ella’s head. “The noise is over. Let’s calm down and try a few pages of our book.”

Lucy ignored her mother’s words, hanging on to her sister’s hand instead. Ella’s green eyes opened and locked on hers. She squeezed Lucy’s finger, and fighting tears Lucy squeezed back.

Ella was coming back to them. She was fighting her way back. And it wasn’t just for them, Lucy realized with a start.

The fresh silence in the hall was palpable. Jep Parsons was gone.