Page 157 of The Newcomer
“Thank you, Sammi.”
Letty sat on the top stoop of the brownstone. The marble step felt cool beneath the fabric of her skirt. She scrolled through the contacts on her phone until she found the one she wanted.
The icon was a photo she’d snapped of Joe at sunset, standing knee-deep in the surf, silhouetted against the glowing orange sky with his fishing rod cocked, mid-cast, over his bare shoulder.
She hadn’t talked to Joe since the night she’d arrived back in New York—just a brief call to tell him that she and Maya were okay. She’d sent a few emails and a couple of texts, but had been steely in her resolve not to call him.
Letty’s finger hovered over the tiny icon on the phone screen. Maybe he wouldn’t answer. She realized, with a start, that it was theFriday of Labor Day weekend. Maybe he was working. Or out on the boat. Maybe he’d ignore her call.
Enough uncertainty, she decided. Enough hesitation, enough maybes. Nothing in life was promised to us, Mimi had always preached. She tapped the icon and held her breath.
Epilogue
THE FIRST PINK STREAKS OFdaylight were visible in the eastern sky as the truck bumped over the crushed-oyster-shell pavement.
She found comfort in the sight of the blinking neonMURMURING SURFsign. She turned in her seat to check on Maya. The child was sleeping, her head tilted to one side of her car seat, Ellie clutched in her hand.
Letty rolled her window down and inhaled the scent of salt air.
When Joe switched off the ignition, she heard the distant whoosh of waves lapping at the shore. “We’re home,” he announced.
“Yeah,” Letty said, smiling. “Home.”
“You’re sure this is what you want?” he asked, for what seemed like the tenth time since they’d left New York.
“I’ve had six months to think about it,” she said. “And yes, this is what I want, for Maya, and for you and me.”
“You’re full of surprises, you know that?” he said.
“But not secrets,” she replied. “No more of that.” She ran her fingertips across the strap of Tanya’s Louis Vuitton purse.
Somewhere south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, she’d summoned the courage to tell Joe about the remaining contents of her sister’s go-bag.
“How much money did you say was in there?”
“There was about nineteen thousand,” Letty admitted. “But I had to spend some of it—on the Kia, and living expenses.”
“How much is left?”
“About eleven thousand, after I sold the Kia. But ever since Sammi told me about Tanya’s will, I’ve been sort of sprinkling the money around.”
Joe chuckled. “Sprinkling?”
“I’m calling it Tanya grants. I gave the girls at the Lazy Daizy, the diner where I used to work, two thousand dollars to split five ways. And I gave the doorman at our apartment in the Village a thousand.”
“That’s some sweet tips.”
“I gave Zoey three thousand. I don’t know what I would have done without her. And I’ve set some aside, as a gift to Isabelle. And the rest for your mom, for a vacation.”
He looked at her in amazement. “I don’t think she’s ever taken a vacation. At least, not since she’s been running the Surf, she hasn’t.”
Letty chewed her bottom lip. “You think I should have turned the money in to the cops in New York, don’t you?”
“Not necessarily. You didn’t know where the money came from. Tanya told you it was hers, and she specifically told you to take it if something happened to her, so you could take care of Maya. Which is what you did.”
“I sold the push ring, by the way. Even after I paid the estate taxes, I made close to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
Joe let out a long low whistle. “Good for you.”
