Suddenly Last Summer

Bathed in sunlight, he could see just how much had been done and it took a minute for him to reconcile the sleek lines of the renovated boathouse with the wreck that had been his sanctuary growing up.

Before he could announce himself she’d turned, her hair swinging softly around her face and brushing her jaw. “Are you going to make a habit of showing up behind me without warning?”

“Sorry. I was just wondering what happened to all the splintered planks and spiders.” Pushing aside the past in favor of the present, he stared at the cup in her hand. “I don’t suppose you need more practice using that fancy new machine?”

“No, but if you’d like coffee I’ll make you one. Jackson and Kayla not treating you well?”

“The only coffee I could find was instant. And they definitely need you to stock their kitchen.” Sean walked across the half-finished deck, scanning the work that needed to be done. “So do you run every morning?”

“Yes. With Brenna and Kayla. You just missed them. We do a circuit of the lake.” She reached for another cup. “Espresso? I don’t have milk here yet. You’ll have to drink it black.”

“Black works for me. Double please. So this is how the place looks in daylight.”

“We’re expecting delivery of the tables today. Apart from that, the interior is almost finished.”

“That coffee machine looks as if it could fly to the moon and back on its own.” Polished chrome and levers stood proudly behind the counter that would no doubt stock an array of food once they opened. “Looks complicated.”

“This from a man who operates on complex fractures?”

“Most of the time it’s like doing a jigsaw. There’s a certain rhythm to it.” He watched as the coffee dripped into the cup, the rich, pungent smell mingling with the tang of varnish and fresh paint. The old boathouse was barely recognizable as the place he’d hidden out in his youth. The stained, splintered walls peppered by daylight no longer existed. In their place was creamy paintwork and polished floorboards. The eye was drawn, not to trees waving through gaps in the wood, but to large photographs of the lakes and mountains around Snow Crystal that now hung on the walls. Where cobwebs had once been strung floor to ceiling, there were tall elegant plants. It was stylish, and yet welcoming.

He couldn’t fault it, nor was he sentimental, so it made no sense to feel a sense of loss for what had once been. “You’ve designed this place well. I never would have thought of developing it.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time. Today, I’m not so sure. At some point Kayla and I have to start calling a hundred and twenty people to tell them the party isn’t happening.”

“There’s no way the deck will be finished on time?”

“Not unless the elves come in the night. I am angry with myself for not putting in place a contingency plan.” She handed him the coffee, scooped up her own and took it outside. The half-finished deck was warmed by early morning sunshine. “I am lucky Jackson is too much of a gentleman to shout at me.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think there’s a reason to shout.” He followed her. “Seems to me you’re angry enough without anyone else adding to it. Are you always this hard on yourself?”

“I don’t like letting people down. I’m part of the team here.” Her voice was fierce. “This party is important. We’ve invited people from the tourist office, from local business, Kayla even has journalists coming in from New York. And I’ve messed it up.”

“I don’t see why it’s your fault. Sometimes things happen. Life happens. Believe me, I know. I clear up after life all the time. She has a habit of leaving her mess everywhere, often when people least expect it.”

“I should have built in more time. But I chose the date because I wanted the Boathouse open so that we could make the most of the summer months. I was doing my best to boost our profits and get good publicity, but now it will backfire because we will look inefficient.”

Her loyalty and devotion to a place with which she had no blood ties still puzzled him. “Do you always give your all to everything?”

“Of course. My passion is my biggest strength.” She sipped her coffee and gave a wry shrug. “And my biggest failing.”

He remembered how that passion had felt under his hands and mouth. “I don’t see it as a failing.”

Their eyes met briefly and he knew her mind was in the same place as his.

Then she turned away. “This is my favorite time of day, before I face the stress. When I see the mist on the lake, I think it’s the most beautiful place in the world, don’t you agree?”

He didn’t, but he’d learned long ago to keep those feelings to himself so he stood still and let the silence wash over him.

“Sean?”

For a moment he’d forgotten she was standing there.

“This place is full of memories.”

He turned his head and looked at what needed to be done to finish the deck, but instead of seeing planks of wood he saw his grandfather, back curved like a bow as he hunched over, sawing wood and banging in nails, Jackson kneeling next to him, soaking it in.

It had been his grandfather who had taught all three boys about the forest, the lake and the wildlife. His love for Snow Crystal was deep and unwavering. He’d been born on O’Neil land and his wish was to die on it. Sean remembered his grandfather taking him into the forest when he was five years old and showing him the growth rings on a tree trunk that had split during a storm in the night. He remembered wondering if his grandfather had the same inside him. A ring for every year he’d spent at Snow Crystal. Walter O’Neil loved the place so deeply he wasn’t able to comprehend that others might not share that devotion. That some people needed more than fresh air, beautiful scenery and a family so close there were days it had felt like being buried in an avalanche.

Sean had felt trapped and unable to breathe. Smothered by expectation.

Élise sighed. “It’s so peaceful, isn’t it? Unbelievably beautiful. You must miss it when you’re in the city.”

Miss it?

He forced himself to glance at the water and see what she was seeing. This time, instead of his grandfather, he saw trees reaching skyward, their shape reflected in the mirrored surface of the lake with perfect clarity. He saw light bounce and sparkle as the early rays of the sun kissed the surface of the water and realized that at some point in his life he’d started to see Snow Crystal as a pressure, not a place.

How often did he take the time to stand still and admire the beauty around him? His day was a series of obligations and commitments. He lived a life that barely allowed time to breathe and rarely allowed time for reflection. His job was about working fast and hard and getting things done, never about standing still.

“It’s going to be a pretty day.” It was the closest he could get to saying what she expected to hear.

“This is one of my favorite spots.” Élise moved to the edge of the deck, stepping over the part that wasn’t finished. “I went for a run on my first morning here and couldn’t understand why it hadn’t been developed along with the rest of the buildings.”

“Snow Crystal has always been full of falling-down buildings. Restoring it is a labor of love.” And he didn’t feel the love. Just the pressure. He wasn’t like Jackson, who had taken the old dilapidated barn and turned it into a stylish home. It was Jackson who had seen the potential for building log cabins in the forest for families to enjoy the outdoors. Sean was happy fixing bones, but not buildings. Left to him, the whole place would have all fallen down.

“It was an obvious site for a café. The building was already here and it had become a safety issue.” She turned, her eyes glowing with pride as she looked at the Boathouse.

Sean remembered the shaft of light that had shone through the hole in the roof onto his textbooks.

Science had excited him the way a steep slope had excited Tyler. While his brother had been executing eye-wateringly difficult feats on the snow, Sean had been indulging his fascination in the development of surgery in prehistoric cultures. He’d learned about the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the earliest known surgical text, which showed that the Egyptians had had a scientific understanding of traumatic injuries. He’d greedily devoured everything he could find about the history of surgery, reading about the Greek Galen, the work of Ambroise Paré, a French barber surgeon, and studying Joseph Lister’s contribution to reducing infection rates during surgery.

The potential of surgery to change and save lives excited him in a way that living a quiet life at Snow Crystal didn’t.

At seven years old he’d known he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. It was a burning ambition inside him and he knew then he didn’t want to die here with those rings inside him, showing how long he’d spent in the same place doing the same thing. He didn’t want to spend his days mending leaking roofs and maintaining trails so that tourists could churn them up again. He wanted to fix people’s bones and help them walk again. How cool was that?

“We spent a lot of time on this lake growing up.”

“Jackson told me about the time you all sank the boat.”

“That was Tyler. He was the one who sank the boat. We built it from scraps of wood lying around the place. It wasn’t what you might call completely watertight. Tyler couldn’t help standing up in the thing and rocking it. Jackson was yelling at him to sit down but Tyler never did anything anyone told him. Damn boat sank to the bottom of the lake and we all took a soaking.”

Her eyes danced. “Growing up here must have been very special.”

Special?

“It didn’t look anything like this back then.” He leaned back against the railing, remembering. “This place was a wreck. Perfect for playing pirates. We used to scoop up spiders to take to Mom.”

“Poor Elizabeth. It is a wonder she is sane.”