Firefly Beach

Firefly Beach

Hubbard's Point [1]

Luanne Rice

Random House Publishing Group (2006)

Under the summer sky, anything is possible....

Author of the acclaimed novels
Cloud Nine
and
Follow the Stars Home
, Luanne Rice returns with another moving portrait of a family in crisis—as three sisters come face-to-face with the past and find in each other the courage to go on.

Coolly sophisticated and steadfastly single, Caroline Renwick has always been the sister everyone could count on. As she and Clea and Skye gathered at Firefly Hill, their childhood home, Caroline thought that they had all put the past behind them. But as summer gets under way, a mysterious man arrives—a man who has the power to bring it all back....

Joe Connor was only six when his father died at Firefly Hill. Though he and Caroline had never met, the five-year-old girl reached out to him. They became pen pals and friends, until a teenaged Joe finally learned the truth about what had happened to his father that night. Now, after years of silence, Joe is suddenly here ... and Caroline still feels a connection. But she can't help but wonder if this handsome man holds the key to her family's healing—or its destruction. And in his presence, how long will she be able to guard her heart?

From the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Rice (Follow the Stars Home; Dream Country) brings her signature sensitivity to this beautifully textured summertime read. Famed artist Hugh Renwick is an adulterous alcoholic who is touched by genius. Long after his death, his wife and three daughters struggle with his oversized legacy and the damage left in his wake. Skye, the youngest, drinks to numb the pain of an abusive marriage and to squelch the memories of a past mistake on a hunting trip with her father, she accidentally shot a man. Meanwhile, the eldest sister, Caroline, hides her vulnerability behind a shell of brittle competence. The family's delicate balance shifts forever when treasure salvager Joe Connor arranges a dive in the waters near their home. Linked to the Renwicks by a tragedy that occurred when he was just a child, Joe helps Skye get sober, melts the ice in Caroline's heart and heals his own scars in the process. As always, Rice excels at evoking the strong but contradictory emotions that both bind and divide families. In her capable hands, what could have been a superficial glitz-and-glamour story of affluence, death and fame rings with truth and warmth. With its crisp New England ambiance and delicate prose, her latest is a lovely celebration of sisterhood, summer and survival.

From Booklist

The daughters of hard-drinking, womanizing, Hemingwayesque artist Hugh Renwick are traumatized by two bloody deaths. When she was five years old, Caroline was standing next to the husband of Hugh's mistress when he shot himself. Intent on protecting his girls, Hugh taught them to hunt and fish, bringing about the second devastating death when Skye shot and killed a young man thinking he was a deer. Years later Skye, a talented sculptor, is an alcoholic and an abused wife. Caroline, who has never married, runs an inn that caters to an artsy crowd. Her life is turned upside down when Dr. Joe Conner, a treasure hunting oceanographer and the son of the man who committed suicide, turns up. As a girl she had felt a deep connection to him, and now they must struggle to make peace with the past. Rice, usually published in hardcover, does a masterful job of telling this powerful story of love and reconciliation.
Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALSO BY LUANNE RICE

FOR EVERY LOVE, THERE IS A SEASON…

DISCOVER FIVE TIMELESS SUMMER FAVORITES FROM
LUANNE RICE

COPYRIGHT PAGE

For Bill and Lois,
Bob and Anne

With love and thanks to Carol Cammero, Rosemary McGinn, Jim Silvia, Jan Watson, Emily Andrews, Lisa Billingsley, Gerry Chylko C.Ss.R., William “Rip” Collins C.Ss.R., Ed Dunne C.S.sR., Maureen Gaffney R.S.M., Inge Hanson, Jayne Libby, April Fishgold, George Rose, and to all my friends from Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, and New York.

DECEMBER 1969

T
HE HOUSE SMELLED LIKE
C
HRISTMAS COOKIES
.

Butter, sugar, ginger, and spice. The aroma filled the warm kitchen; carols played on the radio. All their senses told Caroline and Clea that something wonderful was about to happen. The sisters were five and three, baking cookies on a snowy night with their mother. When the cookies cooled, they decorated them with white icing, silver balls, and red and green sprinkles.

Whenever the girls saw a crèche, they thought of their own family. Their mother was going to have another baby soon. The baby would be their new brother or sister, and the girls already loved him or her. The baby’s crib was ready, just like the crib in the manger. The family had decided to name a boy Michael, a girl Skye. Caroline and Clea hoped for a Skye.

The doorbell rang.

Augusta Renwick, the girls’ mother, wiped her hands on her dark green apron. The sight of floury handprints on their mother’s big, pregnant belly made both girls laugh like crazy, and they ran with her to the door. On a night like this, anything could happen: Maybe Santa was there early, or maybe a small family in need of lodging had come to their house. Their father was away, painting the winter waterfront in Newport, but maybe he had come home early to surprise them.