All Our Summers by Holly Chamberlin

Author:Holly Chamberlin [Chamberlin, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781496719225
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 61

The roar of the old vacuum, loud as it was, was not loud enough to drown out the thoughts racing through Bonnie’s head. She had hoped, vainly as it turned out, that a vigorous session of housecleaning might help her forget, even just a bit, even for just a while, what Carol had told her about their mother.

Shirley had had an affair.

Bonnie remembered Judith pointing out that her parents had been far more liberal than Shirley and Ronald Ascher. How little she knew!

Bonnie turned the vacuum to the worn runner just inside the front door and attacked it as if her life depended on stripping it clean of every particle of dust and grit it possessed. Bonnie wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. She had always seen her mother as a model of moral rectitude, a genuinely decent person who always did the right thing no matter how it might inconvenience her.

But an affair . . .

She was sure her mother had loved her father. There had been evidence in the way Shirley had taken Ronald’s arm whenever they were in public, protective and proudly possessive at the same time; it was obvious in the way Shirley’s eyes had lit up when Ronald came home from work at the end of the day.

The vacuum began to whine alarmingly and Bonnie turned it off. It was probably time for a new machine. Ken had been urging her to buy a new one for months before he got sick. Bonnie unplugged the vacuum and hauled it to the closet, where she stored her cleaning supplies.

Suddenly, she felt exhausted. She went back to the living room and fell gratefully into the plaid lounger. It had been her gift to Ken on his fiftieth birthday.

Bonnie rested her head against the back of the chair. The thing that hurt and confused her most about the whole thing was the fact that Shirley Ascher had chosen to share her secret with Carol. Why not with her? Bonnie was the dutiful daughter. The least her mother owed her was her confidence. But perhaps with Carol, the adventurous child, Shirley had trusted she would not be judged.

In spite of her tiredness, Bonnie hauled herself out of the chair and went into the kitchen. She would at least clean the window over the sink. No matter how careful she was when washing the dishes, splashes of soapy water found their way to the window pane. She spritzed Windex onto a sheet of paper towel and began to scrub.

If Carol was telling the truth about their mother’s long-ago lover, and for better or worse, Bonnie believed that she was, there might have been other secrets Shirley Elgort had kept from her family. Like another child? Like a second affair? Of course, everyone had a right to her secrets, but . . .

Bonnie shook her head and gave the window one final wipe. She had to let it go. It was in the past, all of it. You

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