Another Summer Read Online Free Page A

her?”
    “There was nothing to find. She died of a drug overdose when I was two.”
    “What about your father?”
    “He could have been any one of a dozen men she hung around with at the time, or a stranger passing through with drugs and willing to trade for sex.”
    She winced at the flat retelling of something that must have devastated him at the time. “I’m sorry.”
    “It wasn’t what I’d hoped to find, but I’ve learned to live with it.”
    “Did you get a chance to know your grandfather?” She told herself that she was asking as an old friend, nothing more, that she was interested more out of politeness than caring.
    Andrew let out a short, harsh laugh. “He didn’t want anything to do with me. At least not while he was alive. I guess it satisfied some hidden sense of family to leave his money to me when he died. But then it was either me or the local men’s club if I decided I didn’t want it.”
    “Are you happy?” This came from curiosity and a raw need to believe he hadn’t walked away unscathed.
    “I have my moments.” He turned to look at her. “What about you?”
    “Most of the time.” The truth would make her too vulnerable.
    They slipped into an awkward silence. Cheryl turned her attention to a man racing a small boy across the sand. They were headed toward the stairs that led to the path beside Andrew’s house. Laughing and out of breath when they reachedthe landing, they paused for one last look at the ocean.
    “I don’t wanna go yet,” the boy said, tugging on the man’s hand, trying to lead him back to the water.
    “Mom’s waiting for us.”
    “She won’t care,” the boy coaxed. “She likes us to have fun. She told me so.”
    “How’s this for fun?” He reached down and lifted the boy, swinging him around and up to sit on his shoulders.
    Not trusting herself to look at Andrew, Cheryl watched the man climb the stairs, the boy hanging on to his ears as he twisted to have one last look at the ocean. “I always imagined you with children,” she said.
    “And I thought for sure that you would have a houseful of your own by now. You and Jerry must have been happy in the beginning. Why didn’t you–” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the railing, staring at the palate of oranges, pinks, and reds coloring the horizon. “Forget that. What happened between you and Jerry is none of my business.”
    Jerry had told her up front that children were a part of the package. He insisted he wanted them even more than she did. Only later did she discover he wanted them for completely different reasons. Along with producing an heir, he saw the media attention and photo opportunities that having children would bring. She saw an end to herloneliness. As disheartened as she was when all their physical and medical efforts to conceive failed, she was glad the end of the marriage was uncomplicated and she could walk away without ties.
    “I do have kids in a way,” she said. “They don’t go home with me, but I get to see them almost every day.”
    “You’re a teacher?”
    “A social worker with a private agency. We’re funded by endowments and a trust.”
    The man stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to face the ocean. “Say good-bye,” he told the boy.
    “We’ll be back,” he said instead, leaning over and pressing his cheek to the side of the man’s face.
    “I know how he feels,” Cheryl said, anger rising in her like bubbles in a pot of boiling water.
    Andrew looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
    She avoided his gaze. “For what?”
    “Everything.”
    “That covers a lot of territory.” She wasn’t going to make it easy for him. She’d waited too long for an apology, needing one even though it would change nothing. “Are you saying you’re sorry I dropped out of school for two years before I went back to get my degree, that I married someone I didn’t love because I wanted to prove to myself I’d gotten over you, or that I’ve wasted half my life