Beach Read

January finally decides to clear out the master bedroom. She and Gus enter the room to find it furnished but mostly cleared out of personal belongings. January keeps expecting to see something that will give her answers or make her feel differently, but all the drawers and a porcelain box they find are empty. They find a safe, but January can’t crack the code and is heartbroken that it isn’t her parents’ anniversary, like all the codes of her childhood home. January becomes upset thinking about how Sonya has pieces of January’s dad that January will never have. She figures she’ll have to email Sonya for the code but decides instead to try to finish her book.

January is satisfied that the house is mostly ready to sell but worried about where that will leave her and Gus. She is also happy that she is writing so easily now that so much has been cleared from the house. To focus on finishing her book, she bans Gus from the house for all but an hour each evening. January finishes her draft. The family in her book still has some loose ends. The dad has stolen the mother’s ring to sell and give his second family money. The mother has no idea and still loves the dad deeply. The daughter has her heart broken as the circus moves and she must leave behind the guy she’s fallen in love with. January can’t help herself, though, and leaves the book on a positive note despite the lingering conflict that implies all will not end well.

She emails the draft to Anya with a note saying, “Please don’t hate me” (305). When she gets back from the copy store after printing a hard copy of the manuscript, January finds Gus waiting outside her house. He quiets January’s fears about being fired by Anya. Gus is also close to finishing his own book. They part ways, and January takes a nap before the book event at Pete’s.

At Pete’s, Pete and Maggie have set up four chairs facing opposite the rest—two for January and Gus, and two for Pete and Maggie to act as interviewers. The crowd is small. January recognizes a few people from the cookout, and the rest are strangers. She notices Gus’s demeanor change when he looks into the crowd. He is staring at one woman. Pete and Maggie also seem to change to a more protective posture. January realizes this must be Naomi.

They go through the interview, Gus looking anxious and January feeling sick. When the event ends, the rest of the crowd trickles out, but Naomi hangs back, waiting for Gus. Pete tries to get rid of Naomi, but Naomi refuses, and Gus goes over to see what she wants. January walks home alone, leaving Gus there to speak with Naomi. When she gets back, Sonya is on her porch waiting to talk.

January tries to tell Sonya she doesn’t want to hear what she has to say, but Sonya insists and begins reading off a paper she brought while January fumbles with the front door lock. Sonya reveals that January’s dad was her first love. They reconnected when January’s dad visited on business. He told Sonya he was separated, and they began their love affair. He bought a house for them to fix up together. He talked about bringing January up to live with them and driving the boat around the lake, just the three of them.

Things seemed great to Sonya until January’s mother’s first cancer diagnosis. Then January’s dad spent less time with Sonya, called less, and eventually sent an email saying that January’s mom was doing much better and so was their relationship. During the second diagnosis, he started coming back around, but Sonya knew she was more a distraction than January’s dad’s true love. When January’s mom beat cancer, January’s dad stopped seeing Sonya. Sonya says she was left to give the house and letter to January because it’s likely January’s mom never would have.

Sonya also reveals that there’s more than one letter. January confirms she hasn’t read the letter yet. Sonya tells her it’s her choice but that she has the last pieces of him that anyone will ever have.

January goes inside to read the letter. In it, her dad says he usually writes them on her birthday, but he decided to start this one early. He says he wants her to know all the parts to him and be able to decide for herself whether she wants to forgive his mistakes. He also gives her the code to the safe and an address in town.

Inside the safe, January finds the rest of the letters as well as a key. She follows the address to a marina, where she finds her dad’s boat with her name painted on the side. She boards the boat and begins to read the letters. The letters are written every year on her birthday, revealing things about January as she grows and things about her dad at the age January is turning as well as during the time he is writing them. The 13th letter is more regretful, but vague. It references the fact that he and January’s mother separated briefly. The 16th letter mentions his first kiss with a girl named Sonya.

One of the letters was written as January was leaving for college. Her dad reveals how hard it is for him to let her leave. Another letter talks about how January should be in graduate school, but the plans were put on hold to deal with her mother’s second cancer diagnosis. In this letter, her dad confesses to his affair with Sonya. He says he sometimes feels like he’s in love with her and sometimes feels like he’s punishing himself by being with her and ruining his life with January and her mother.

In the 28th letter, he tells January that this is the age her mother gave birth to her. He says January’s mother knows about the affair. He confesses to being many different things in the time January has grown up, but today he feels like the same person he was when she was born.