Summary

In Chapter 1, Ellie’s father, Jim, had four children from three different marriages. Because he “couldn’t get custody” of them all at once, he hosted “holidays out of season” (3). Ellie’s family started celebrating Summer Christmas when Jim was married to Barbara. After he divorced Barbara and married Colette, Ellie wondered if she knew what Jim was like (5). She started seeing Colette differently when she and Jim had Van, and “they were bound together” by Van’s needs as a deaf child (6).

Their last Summer Thanksgiving was in 2012, the year Ellie “finished college,” “moved to Washington, D.C.,” and started working a “journalism job at a news website called Apogee” (6). When Ellie left for the holiday, her boss, Jane Ostrawicz-Jones, told her to stay near her phone (7).

Jim picked up Ellie at the station. She was careful not to mention her boyfriend...