That Summer

Fifteen-year-old Haven McPhail is having the worst summer of her life. She has shot up four inches since April, now stands five-eleven, and feels her body betraying her as she towers over everyone she knows. Her parents are divorced, her older sister Ashley is getting married, and her father is about to remarry. On the morning of her father's wedding, Haven wakes to the sound of her mother hacking ice from the freezer, a nervous energy filling the house.

Haven's father, Mac McPhail, is a local sports anchor on WTSB News Channel 5. He is marrying Lorna Queen, the station's meteorologist, whom Haven's mother bitterly calls "the Weather Pet." Their affair was discovered after months of exchanged glances during broadcasts. Haven's mother has read every divorce book and keeps her pain restrained, but Haven finds this quiet control more unnerving than any outburst would be. Haven feels bound to her mother by a kind of tether, yanked by her mother's every movement.

Haven's sister Ashley, 21, is petite and once the picture of high school popularity. Now she is engaged to Lewis Warsher, a steady man she met at the Yogurt Paradise at the mall. Haven finds Lewis unremarkable but understands that Ashley, after the upheaval of the divorce, needed someone safe. Haven and Ashley leave for their father's wedding in matching pink bridesmaid dresses while their mother waves from behind the screen door.

At the reception, Haven endures constant comments about her height. Ashley cries during the vows, and Haven understands the tears are for finality, not happiness. Haven thinks back to Sumner Lee, the most significant of Ashley's many ex-boyfriends. Ashley met Sumner at the beginning of 10th grade. He was unlike her usual athlete boyfriends: skinny and curly-haired, with bright blue eyes, a lazy Alabama accent, and beat-up Converse high-tops. Haven's mother said Sumner was the kind of person things just happen to. More importantly, when Sumner was around, Ashley was looser and happier, nicer to Haven, and the five-year age gap between the sisters shrank. He drew the whole family together.

The best memory is the summer after fifth grade, when the family vacationed in Virginia Beach. Sumner drove Haven and Ashley in his old Volkswagen convertible, beach music on the radio and stars overhead. Haven remembers her parents happy, her father's arm around her mother's waist, Frisbee games on the sand at night. Then, on Halloween, Haven watched from her bedroom window as Ashley abruptly dumped Sumner in the driveway, her voice harsh and final. Sumner stood on the front lawn staring up at Ashley's window before slowly driving away. Haven pressed her palm to the glass, but he did not see her.

Back in the present, Haven's world is consumed by Ashley's approaching wedding. Haven works a dreary job at Little Feet, a children's shoe store at the Lakeview Mall, where management pressures her to push socks on reluctant customers. After the divorce, Haven's mother threw herself into gardening on her own, ripping up the yard and filling the house with color. Then Lydia Catrell, a brassy widow from Florida, moved in next door and introduced frosted hair, a divorce support group, and Thursday nights out at the Holiday Inn bar. Lydia is now urging Haven's mother to join a four-week trip to Europe. Haven feels left out: Ashley has Lewis, her mother has Lydia, and Haven can only share her mother's worries from a distance, overhearing conversations through the bathroom vent.

During a dinner with her father at a restaurant called Vengo, Haven is startled when Sumner appears as the pepper-and-cheese man. He is back in town after college in Connecticut. They catch up, and Haven is thrilled, but when she tells Ashley about the encounter, her sister is dismissive and uninterested.

Haven's best friend, Casey Melvin, returns from camp transformed, bolder and defiant, with a long-distance boyfriend named Rick. Casey shares neighborhood gossip: Gwendolyn Rogers, a famous supermodel who grew up on their street, has come home after a mental health crisis. Gwendolyn's photographer fiancé betrayed her, and she now wanders the neighborhood at night. Haven, who has always felt a connection to Gwendolyn through their shared height, is fascinated.

Sumner keeps reappearing across his many jobs, from mall security guard to paid dance partner at the senior center. He becomes Haven's confidant. When Haven's mother reveals she is considering selling the house, Haven reacts sharply, feeling yet another piece of her life being ripped away. She confides in Sumner, who shares that his own parents' divorce once drove him to pack up his car and disappear.

Events accelerate. At the Lakeview Mall's Fall Fashion Preview, Gwendolyn, gaunt and lost, bursts into tears when young models crowd around her for a photo. Haven sees her father and Lorna announce on live television that they are expecting a baby, deepening her sense that her father has started over completely. Casey's boyfriend Rick dumps her over the phone, and Haven holds her sobbing friend on the curb, witnessing heartbreak up close for the first time.

In the days before the wedding, Haven feels something shift inside her, as if she is finally growing into herself rather than fighting her own body. At the mall, a rude customer throws a shoe at Haven's head. Haven chases the woman and throws the shoe back. She is fired. The day before the wedding, her frustration erupts. She slams her door in her mother's face, snaps at Ashley, and runs from the house. Her father arrives to take her shopping for a wedding gift but stays in his car at the curb, as always. Haven watches from the porch, silently daring him to walk up to the house. He drives away without her.

Haven finds Sumner at the senior center, where he is dancing with elderly women at a nostalgia dance. For the last song, he crosses the floor and asks Haven to dance. She protests, but he leads her gently, and for the length of the song she forgets her height and her anger. Afterward, in the car, Haven pours out her belief that everything fell apart after Ashley sent Sumner away, that his departure marked the beginning of the family's unhappiness. Sumner grows frustrated, insisting there is much Haven does not understand. A thunderstorm breaks, and Haven jumps out of the car and runs into the woods. She bursts into a clearing and collides with Gwendolyn, who is out running in the rain. They stand face to face, and Gwendolyn touches Haven's cheek, a silent moment of recognition.

Ashley arrives in a yellow raincoat, alerted by Sumner. As they walk to the car, Haven asks why she dumped Sumner. Ashley reveals the truth: Sumner cheated on her with their friend Laurel Adams, and Ashley caught them together at the Halloween party. After Sumner and their father, Ashley needed someone she could trust completely, which is what Lewis provides. She tells Haven that the first boy is always the hardest to get over.

Haven's idealized vision of the past shatters. That night, she, Ashley, and their mother sit at the kitchen table drinking wine and laughing, sharing old family stories. Haven recognizes this evening as a new perfect memory. She resolves to let her mother go to Europe, to accept that Ashley will be leaving, and to begin building her own life.

At the wedding, Haven takes her place as a bridesmaid. When Ashley walks down the aisle on their father's arm, Haven is the only one up front visibly crying, overwhelmed by everything the summer has meant. Ashley steps away from their father and hugs Haven tightly, whispering that she loves her. Haven understands she does not have to say anything. For both of them, there is no more time to look back to that summer at the beach and a boy who charmed and disappointed them. There are only the years ahead, full of new summers and promise, with all the time in the world to start again.