Out of the Clear Blue Sky Read online

  Praise for

  Good Luck with That

  “A powerful testament to the hard work of self-love. . . . A paean to how it’s never too early (or too late) to be a little kinder to yourself. . . . [A] story of learning to love oneself and living a life that leads with that love, in all its joy, sorrow, failure, and triumph.”

  —Entertainment Weekly

  “A bold, unflinching look at a reality every woman thinks about every day of her life—body image. If you like stories that celebrate women’s challenges and triumphs, you’ll love this book. If you struggle with body issues and need comfort and wisdom, this book could change your life.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs

  “Wholly original and heartfelt, written with grace and sensitivity, Good Luck with That is an irresistible tale of love, friendship, and self-acceptance—and the way body image can sabotage all three.”

  —Lori Nelson Spielman, New York Times bestselling author of The Life List

  “An important and brave book. . . . I can’t imagine a single reader who won’t recognize herself somewhere in these pages.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips

  Praise for

  Life and Other Inconveniences

  “Deeply touching, real, and raw, but infused with the love and hope that make life possible, despite everything.”

  —Abbi Waxman, author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

  “Higgins is a mastermind of family dynamics in this poignant novel about two different generations of women struggling to find common ground. I couldn’t put it down!”

  —Emily Liebert, author of Some Women

  “A shining star, Higgins writes with heart, humor, and honesty about women’s real lives.”

  —Susan Elizabeth Phillips, #1 New York Times bestselling author of First Star I See Tonight

  “Kristan Higgins’s new book Life and Other Inconveniences already has us hooked.”

  —PopSugar

  “A heart-wrenching page-turner told with warmth and humor.”

  —People, Pick of the Week

  “A rich testament to the power of second chances.”

  —Woman’s World

  Praise for

  Always the Last to Know

  “This sparkling story is perfect summer reading.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A thoroughly entertaining exploration of families’ complexities—from bitter disappointment to quiet strengths.”

  —People, Pick of the Week

  “Filled with hilarious honesty and heartwarming moments. . . . A moving portrait of a family putting their differences aside in favor of love.”

  —Woman’s World

  Praise for

  Pack Up the Moon

  “A gorgeous study of love, life, and grief, this book broke my heart—and then stitched me back together again. Kristan Higgins is a masterful storyteller.”

  —New York Times bestselling author Colleen Oakley

  “New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins tells a heartwarming—and heartbreaking—story about young love, loss, and the lingering effects of grief. . . . A story about resilience and everlasting love, this stunningly written tale is a true tearjerker.”

  —Good Morning America

  “Kristan Higgins is beloved for her rich, heartwarming sagas—which her latest novel delivers.”

  —Woman’s World

  “A moving and life-affirming portrait of grief that’s sure to bring the tears.”

  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  “Higgins is a master of snappy dialogue, and her characters are authentic and relatable—a must for this type of novel. The heart of the story is tragic, but just like real life, there’s humor hidden in the darkest moments. This warm, bighearted story about grief, family, and the redemptive power of love will appeal to fans of Katherine Center and Jennifer Weiner.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  “Perfect pacing and plotting lift Higgins’s masterly latest. This is going to break (and restore) plenty of hearts.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Higgins has crafted one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read. It will make you cry but also leave you breathless and aching for a love like Joshua and Lauren’s.”

  —Bookreporter

  BERKLEY BOOKS BY KRISTAN HIGGINS

  Good Luck with That

  Life and Other Inconveniences

  Always the Last to Know

  Pack Up the Moon

  Out of the Clear Blue Sky

  For a list of Kristan’s other novels, please visit kristanhiggins.com.

  BERKLEY

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  penguinrandomhouse.com

  Copyright © 2022 by Kristan Higgins

  Readers Guide copyright © 2022 by Penguin Random House LLC

  Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Ebook ISBN: 9780593335345

  The Library of Congress has catalogued the Berkley hardcover edition of this book as follows:

  Names: Higgins, Kristan, author.

  Title: Out of the clear blue sky / Kristan Higgins.

  Description: New York: Berkley, [2022]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2021048837 (print) | LCCN 2021048838 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593335321 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593335345 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.

  Classification: LCC PS3608.I3657 O98 2022 (print) | LCC PS3608.I3657 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20211015

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021048837

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021048838

  Cover design: Eileen Carey

  Cover images: dog by Erin Vey/Getty Images; beach by plainpicture/amanaimages/Doable

  Book design by Elke Sigal, adapted for ebook by Kelly Brennan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  pid_prh_6.0_140138093_c0_r0

  Contents

  Cover

  Praise for Kristan Higgins

  Berkley Books by Kristan Higgins

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Lillie

  Chapter 2: Lillie

  Chapter 3: Lillie

  Chapter 4: Melissa

  Chapter 5: Lillie

  Chapter 6: Lillie

  Chapter 7: Lillie

  Chapter 8: Melissa

  Chapter 9: Lillie

  Chapter 10: Lillie

  Chapter 11: Melissa

  Chapter 12: Lillie

  Chapter 13: Melissa

  Chapter 14: Lillie

  Chapter 15: Lillie

  Chapter 16: Lillie

&nb
sp; Chapter 17: Melissa

  Chapter 18: Lillie

  Chapter 19: Lillie

  Chapter 20: Melissa

  Chapter 21: Lillie

  Chapter 22: Melissa

  Chapter 23: Lillie

  Chapter 24: Lillie

  Chapter 25: Melissa

  Chapter 26: Lillie

  Chapter 27: Lillie

  Chapter 28: Melissa

  Chapter 29: Lillie

  Chapter 30: Lillie

  Chapter 31: Melissa

  Chapter 32: Lillie

  Chapter 33: Lillie

  Readers Guide

  About the Author

  This book is dedicated to my aunt, Teresa Kristan, the best and bravest. The biggest heart, the smartest mouth and quite an inspiration, too, whether you like it or not, dear Tess. Love you.

  Acknowledgments

  A thousand thanks to Carin Tripodina, PhD, for sharing her knowledge, and for putting me in touch with Michelle Killingsworth, CNM, who walked me through the details of midwifery. A thousand thanks, Michelle! Without the firsthand information and wisdom of these two, I would not have been able to write this book. Any mistakes or exaggerations are mine.

  Thanks also to Rachel of Daylynn Designs, for helping me envision the fascinating, gorgeous world of high-end event planning. I’m so glad your couples are not like Hannah’s.

  To Stephanie Sykes, program and outreach coordinator at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, thanks for giving me such great information on scallop fishing. I will think of you and the fleet every time I order my favorite seafood.

  To Maria Carvainis, thank you for hand-holding supreme during a difficult year and being such a good friend. To the entire team at Berkley, thank you for the innumerable things you do for me.

  Thanks also to Mary Ellen Pettit and Robyn Carr for so many wonderful conversations and laughs. Hilary Higgins Murray, Joss Dey and Jennifer Iszkiewicz, when you look up “best friends” in the dictionary, there you are, you gorgeous creatures! Hilary, extra points for being the world’s best sister. Thanks to my sainted mother for always thinking my ideas are great.

  This book is, in many ways, about parenthood. When I started writing my first book, my kids were adorable toddlers who took long naps and went to bed at seven o’clock. Today, they’re adults and have lives of their own, and every day, I think about how wonderful they are and how lucky I am. To the Princess and Dearest Son, and also the World’s Best Son-in-Law, thank you for being the absolute best. I’m so proud of you, I have so much fun with you, and I love you all so much.

  Terence Keenan, you are the love of my life. Marrying you was the smartest, best, happiest thing I’ve ever done.

  Finally, thank you, readers, for spending your time with this book. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  PROLOGUE

  Lillie

  Six months ago, if you had asked me what I thought I’d be doing today, the answer would not have been transporting a drugged skunk to the house where my soon-to-be ex-husband lived with his much-younger fiancée.

  Yet here I was.

  And today, for the first time in a long time, I felt happy as I bounced down the dirt road in my father’s pickup truck, my cute little cargo snug and snoring in the back atop a pile of blankets, sleeping the sleep of Benadryl.

  If you live in the wilds of Cape Cod, as I do, you know about skunks. They’re everywhere—on the beaches, on the pond shores, in the woods, especially at dusk, or waddling past the house in the middle of the night, heavy with funk. When we were little, my older sister, Hannah, and I would lie still in our room and catch a whiff of that smell and instantly start giggling into our pillows, trying not to laugh and startle it. Back before Hannah left, that is. From time to time, my dad, who had also grown up here, would have to trap one if it made its home under our shed, before it had babies. We always used the catch-and-release traps. And since I was his shadow, I learned to do the same.

  This morning, my mission clear, I walked from my house, which is tucked into a hill overlooking Herring Pond, one of the chain of glacier-formed kettle ponds on the ocean side of Wellfleet. I went down the steep, winding path of stone stairs we’d put in fifteen years ago, down the little path past the dock we’d rebuilt when we first moved in, and over to the sandy shore, accessible only to those who knew where to find it.

  There was the trap, and there was my sweet little skunk, sound asleep, its little sides rising and falling, a slight snore escaping its pointy little snout. Adorable. Flower, I’d call her. I felt a little guilty for what I was about to subject it to. It wouldn’t get hurt. Brad was so not the type to do anything other than jump on a chair and scream. I couldn’t see Melissa bashing in a skunk’s head and possibly getting her perfect clothes messy.

  The daughter . . . she might like the chaos. She was practically a teenager, after all. And my sources told me she also hated Brad, and possibly Melissa.

  Today, Bradley Thayer Fairchild, my husband of nineteen and a half years, was at my sister’s office, making wedding plans with his child bride, sixteen years younger than he is. My sister, Hannah, is a wedding planner. The bride, or that slut, as I call her, was closer in age to our son than to Brad. Harassment was warranted.

  The court views divorce as the dissolution of a business arrangement. It is a bloodless legal process that refuses to consider fairness, or hurt, or responsibility. It ignores the blazing trash fire of your life, in other words, and doesn’t want to hear about what’s fair or just.

  Enter the skunk.

  Brad and Melissa deserved some chaos after ripping up my life, my son’s life, our family and our future. I pictured them coming home to their perfect, vast, expensive house and discovering this cute little critter in their all-white home. The screams!

  Flower would stamp her tiny front feet, then turn, twitch her tail upward, and spray, which, in this fantasy, would go directly onto one of their perfect white sofas, into the beautiful Persian carpets. Every rainy day, the smell would haunt them, no matter how hard they cleaned, or rather, how much they paid someone to clean. Even Melissa’s $500 Jo Malone luxury candles wouldn’t cover skunk, and with every whiff, they’d think of yours truly. Because who else would do something like this? They could call the cops, but I had babysat half the force and gone to school with the other half. Plus, I was leaving no clues.

  It felt good to smile.

  I wasn’t always a half-crazy harpy bent on revenge. A few months ago, I was just probably the nicest, most normal person you could find. A certified nurse-midwife, delivering babies, soothing worried moms-to-be, taking blood pressure and teaching childbirth classes. I was the adoring mother of a wonderful young man, the loving wife to Bradley T. Fairchild, PhD, and the devoted daughter-in-law to his parents.

  Now, our son had just left for his freshman year of college (in Montana, the wretch), and Brad had dumped me for a thirty-year-old widow who loved money, herself and middle-aged men, and I was transporting a skunk to their six-thousand-square-foot architectural monstrosity on the other side of Wellfleet.

  You’d have thought that at least they wouldn’t settle in my hometown. You would have been wrong.

  Melissa. The name was a hissed curse in my mouth.

  My sister had informed me that today was the first and lengthiest wedding consultation. Hannah, who owes me several decades of sisterly favors, is the most sought-after wedding planner on the Cape and islands. She was also my spy.

  How would I get in the house with my furry black-and-white friend, you ask? Melissa’s house—Stella Maris, because of course it had a name—had both a hidden key and a code that might not have been changed since I showed Melissa the house last January. My in-laws were the Fairchilds of Fairchild Properties, and they’d been in Bali last winter. Vanessa had called—could I be an angel and show a house for them? Of course I could! Anything to help Vanessa, my beloved mo
ther-in-law, more like a mom than my own mother. Seven months later, the new owner of that house would be marrying my husband. They’d gotten engaged three weeks after Brad moved out, which was also the day our son had left for the University of Montana.

  You can’t make this stuff up, right?

  When Brad and I had gotten married twenty years ago, I was just about to graduate from Emmanuel College, and he was finishing his PhD at Boston University. We met on Boston Common when he ran past, sweaty, blond and gorgeous, and told me my ice cream cone looked amazing. (It was.) Eight months later, I found out I was pregnant—miraculous, given my medical history—and Brad and I were married in a hasty but tasteful wedding at the Hampshire House, tab picked up by my in-laws, who were utterly delighted that I was expecting.

  This wedding—of my forty-six-year-old husband and his barely-thirty-year-old bride—was another animal. The kind my sister specialized in—archways made of orchids, bands flown in from Austin, dinners that cost $500 a plate, wine shipped in from vineyards and, if rumor was true, Bruno Mars dropping in for a quick solo.

  Let’s say it stung. Let’s say it ripped my broken heart out of my chest and ground it on the sharpest shells and let the seagulls pick at it. Maybe I should’ve caught two skunks. Or a wolf. A great white shark. Then again, there was Melissa’s kid to consider. Wouldn’t want her to be eaten. I’m not a monster.

  Obviously, though, I stalked Melissa on social media. She was filthy rich and loved showing the world how the one percent lived. There was nothing she enjoyed more than photo shoots starring herself, occasionally her kid, but also the apartment she had lived in with Husband #1 in New York City. The vacations they’d taken—Thailand, London, Madrid, Kenya. Over the past six months, her feed had been filled with shots of the mansion on the water here on the Cape. Melissa just adored furnishing with the work of local artists. She posted a walk-through tour, like she was Oprah. The BMW she’d just bought herself, played down in a humblebrag. Felt so strange, buying a $90K car, but want the highest safety rating for my Ophelia! Tried to make up for the guilt by giving money to the local food pantry. #RandomActsOfKindness #BMW #Tweens #CapeCod #SmallTownLife #SafestCar #Donate #EndHunger