The Girl From Summer Hill (Summer Hill 1)

“Oh, no! What happened?”

“Nothing,” Tate said. “I’m glad to be back and the play is going well and—”

“Don’t you dare use your actor voice on me. You’re a mess and I want to hear every word of what happened to you.”

“Your ex-husband—”

Nina groaned. “I want you to get to a computer and put it on Skype. You’re going to tell me all of it, and I want to see your face as you do it.”

—

It was an hour and a half later that Nina closed her computer, and for a moment she gave herself over to quick tears. She well knew the treachery her ex-husband was capable of. His lies, his plots, his manipulations, could destroy lives.

When she was married to Devlin, she’d known he was having affairs, but the truth was that toward the end she was glad for anything that kept him away from her and Emmie. When he was with them, all he did was complain. No one ever gave him enough, did enough for him. She never understood his extreme sense of entitlement, but over the years she’d learned not to confront him. Confrontation made him go into rages that could last for days. Nina could stand it, but a baby didn’t deserve it. She’d learned to tiptoe, to be quiet, to agree with him, and especially to constantly, endlessly, without relief, build his ego. Yes, he was magnificent; yes, everyone in the world was too stupid to see what a glorious being he was. Whatever it took to keep his rages under control, she did.

When Tate came home after finishing his fifth movie in a row, he was appalled to see what had happened to his sister. When she was near her husband, every other sentence she spoke was about what a great man he was and how everything he did was better than anything anyone else did.

But Tate saw a man who did no work at all. He didn’t support his family, didn’t take care of the house Tate had given them, paid no attention to his wife and daughter. Nina was exhausted from housework, childcare, and doing every menial task her husband could think of.

When Tate tried to talk to her, Nina repeated what Devlin told her. Without a good job, he couldn’t feel like a man. So Tate had pulled strings, spent money, and made promises to get Devlin a starring role in a TV series. But he’d messed it up. When confronted, Devlin had blamed Nina for the show’s failure. He couldn’t be expected to succeed when he had a wife who never supported him, who never said a good word to him or about him.

In the end, Tate turned down a movie so he’d have

time to oversee the divorce.

But now it looked as if her dear brother was on the receiving end of Devlin’s lies. Nina could tell that Tate really liked this young woman, Casey, and she was sure her ex-husband had seen it too.

Nina went to Emmie’s room. Her daughter was painting at her easel. “How’d you like to spend the night at Alicia’s house?”

“Did she invite me?”

“No,” Nina said, “but I’m going to ask her mom if you can stay. It might be for two nights. I have to do something for Uncle Tate, so I have to go to L.A.”

Emmie looked at her mother hard. “You’re going to save him, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. When I get back, you and I are going to Summer Hill, and we’re going to fix all of Uncle Tate’s problems. How does that sound?”

“Great!” Emmie said. “Do you think they sell riding boots in Virginia?”

“Are you kidding? They may have invented them in that state. Meanwhile, think about what you want to eat. Tate’s girlfriend can cook anything, and I want her to be very busy with the Landers family.”

“Uncle Tate says the best food in the world is peacock and dumplings.”

Nina laughed. “My brother is…” She stopped. “Deserving of the best,” she said. “Now pack, and you’re allowed to take only two suitcases to Alicia’s house.”

“Mom!”

Nina started to leave the room. “Two and that’s all,” she called over her shoulder.

Smiling, Emmie pulled four pink cases from under the bed.

“I am in the right,” Casey said aloud. It was what she’d been telling herself for days, but she still felt awful.

After the picnic, Gizzy had shown up and Casey told her everything.

“They did it all for publicity?” Gizzy said, aghast. “How frightened that little boy was!”

Casey had made them drinks and snacks and they’d spent hours sharing—or Gizzy did. She told of every date she and Jack had been on, of the intimacy, the laughter, the adventures they’d had. Casey’s eyes widened when she heard of all the things the two of them had done together.