Girls of Summer

by Nancy Thayer

  “I love this house,” Juliet said.

  “So do I. The view is magic, not that I get to enjoy it often. But look how high the water is. We used to have a beach. Now the water is almost to the house. Someone two houses down has plans to raise his house on stilts like Florida houses. I don’t have the time to focus on that. I don’t want to sell the house, but I can’t live here full-time, either.”

  “What about your sister?” Juliet settled into the corner of a sofa.

  “She doesn’t come down here. She is a dedicated farmer and doesn’t like being away from home.”

  “Interesting,” Juliet said. “You’re always traveling and she won’t leave her home.”

  Ryder was in the kitchen, and he returned with a glass of red wine and a board with cheese and crackers on it. “This is all I’ve got. I tossed your clothes in the dryer. When they’re dry, I’d like to take you out to dinner.”

  “Maybe we can stop by my house first,” Juliet said, accepting the wine with a smile. “Even if my clothes are dry, I won’t want to wear them to a restaurant.”

  They clicked glasses and looked out the high sliding glass windows.

  “The wind is dying down,” Ryder said.

  “And the tide is going out.” Juliet looked up at him. “Ryder, thank you for coming to help with the sandbags.”

  “You’re welcome. It was the right thing to do, but you must know I came because of you.” He added, “Also, it was a great photo opportunity. I got some fabulous shots on my phone. I’ll have Georgia in my Boston office add them to my other photos for my next slideshow and lecture.”

  “Where is your next lecture?” Juliet nibbled a bite of cheese. The physical work of hefting sandbags in the storm had exhausted her. She wanted more than a nibble. She wanted a five-course meal.

  “I missed the one scheduled for tonight in Narragansett,” Ryder said. “I don’t have to leave the island for two more days.”

  Juliet smiled down into her glass, pleased that he had skipped a professional engagement to stay with her, helping during the storm, even if it had provided a great photo opportunity.

  Watching the waves through the window, Ryder asked, “Have you thought any more about what we talked about? About you working for me, and traveling with me?”

  “Yes, of course I have. It’s complicated, and what you’re suggesting isn’t—clear.”

  “I see. Okay. I’ll rephrase. I want you to travel with me and work for Ocean Matters but also sleep with me. Would you like me to propose marriage?”

  Juliet tossed her head. “You do have a singular way of going about things.”

  “That’s because I don’t know you that well. I haven’t been with you that long.”

  “You haven’t been with me at all,” Juliet reminded him.

  “I’m here right now,” Ryder said, meeting her eyes.

  Juliet looked away. “Can we talk?”

  “Of course.”

  Juliet perched on the end of the sofa. Ryder sat in a chair across from her.

  “You look very businesslike,” Ryder said.

  “I’m trying to think how to say this. First of all, if you ever propose to me, please be a bit more elegant than you were a moment ago. But second, don’t propose to me yet. I would say no.”

  “Juliet—”

  “Listen, please. I’ve told you about my parents, the divorce, all that. It’s made me afraid of marriage. At least getting married quickly. My mother and father knew each other for only a few months before they married.”

  “So,” Ryder said, “a long engagement would work for you?”

  “I don’t know,” Juliet said. “Ryder, I am so attracted to you. But that doesn’t mean I could spend my life with you. And another thing, I’m not sure I want children. Maybe someday, but not soon. Not for years. And children often come with marriage.”

  “I’d like to have children someday,” Ryder said softly. “I think you and I would have great children.”

  “Ryder, you would have great children with a lot of women.” Juliet shifted away from his look. “It’s difficult being rational when you’re making me feel so…gooey.”

  “You prefer being rational to being romantic?” Ryder asked.

  “I don’t trust romance,” Juliet said. I haven’t had very good luck with romance, she thought quietly.

  “You said you’d like to see China.”

  “Yes. Yes, I would. I’d like to travel, see the world, and now that Theo is back on-island, and now that my mother has Mack in her life, I feel free to travel. I’ve always stayed near Nantucket so that I can be here quickly if she needs me, and now she doesn’t need me. I like this feeling of freedom. I’m not used to it yet.”

  “I have to go to China soon, you know.” Ryder reached over and took Juliet’s hand. “You could come with me. You could be my assistant. I need an assistant. You could have your own room in the hotel. I wouldn’t press you. We could see how we work together, how we travel together.” He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, smiling at her. Seeing her, and wanting her so much it showed on his face.

  “Not this time,” Juliet said. She let her eyes rest on him, adoring the sight of him, his sexiness, and his intelligence.

  “Ryder, listen. I’m going to start my own business. I’ve had a lot of really good offers from organizations that want me to build their websites. I want to catch my breath, find a good lawyer, and map out a business plan. I’ll be able to work on the websites from anywhere, as long as I have my computer with me, but I think at this stage, in the beginning, I might need to hold some face meetings. I might have to travel to L.A. or Houston.”

  “Wow,” Ryder said. “That’s ambitious. And exciting.”

  She liked the admiration in his eyes.

  “And terrifying,” she added with a smile. “I’ll have to organize my own pension, health benefits, all that. And I’ll have to work hard and be as creative as I think I can be.”

  “But someday you might travel with me?” Ryder asked.

  “Yes, someday.”

  “For now, you’ve got to focus on your own adventure.”

  She smiled. “Yes, that’s absolutely right. You know, Ryder, I feel like I did years ago when our seventh grade class went on an educational tall ship cruise. I had to climb the rigging of the main mast while the ship was on open water. It was terrifying and exhilarating. I want that again.”

  “Then you should have it.” Ryder sat next to her, watching her, not forcing her, not even charming her. “I’ll be around whenever you want me. However you want me.”

  “Oh, magic words.” Juliet set her wineglass on the coffee table. She stood up, took Ryder’s hand, and pulled him up. “Want to have an adventure right now?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” Ryder answered.

  “I suppose the bedrooms are all on the second fl—” Juliet began.

  Ryder interrupted her, kissing her, kissing her passionately, and she matched his passion with her own, and they fell back onto the sofa. The house, as wide and spacious as the future, spread around them, clear and ready.

  thirty-three

  As Lisa entered her house, she didn’t know if she was more tired or worried. She couldn’t even decide whether to make herself some steaming hot tea or take a hot shower first. She decided on the hot shower.

  She stripped off her sodden clothes in the hallway, not afraid that someone would see her in her undies, because she’d had a text from Theo saying he was fine, he was with Beth, and he was going to spend the night at her place, which was the apartment over Ryder Hastings’s garage. Before they left the nursing home, Juliet told Lisa she was going to spend the evening with Ryder, in his family’s house. That’s going to be a busy block of territory tonight, Lisa thought.

  The only person she hadn’t heard from was Mack.

&n
bsp; Of course, the cellphones had been out for over an hour, so he probably had tried to get through and failed. Or maybe he felt like she did, that he needed a hot shower before anything else.

  She climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered her wonderful new bathroom. Mack and his crew had done a marvelous job. The floor was a glistening clean white ceramic tile, and all the fixtures were new. The walls had been painted a muted sea-green that she loved, and the trim was marshmallow white. She’d bought new towels and bath mats in a turquoise, so thick and fluffy she wanted to wear them.

  Mack had found a way to install a shower next to her beloved claw-foot bathtub, and she peeled off her undies, stepped into the shower, and sighed with bliss as hot water rained down over her. She washed her hair and soaped her body, and finally, when her skin was almost red from the water, she turned off the faucets and stepped onto a bath mat. The room was filled with mist. Through the window, Lisa could see that night had fallen.

  Because she would be alone tonight—unless Mack suddenly appeared—she slipped into her warm chenille robe with the thick collar and cuffs. She combed out her hair, creamed her face, and put on a touch of lipstick, just in case. Why hadn’t she heard from Mack?

  She stood in her bedroom, looking around. It was a nice room, airy and spacious. How many times had she cried in this room, or laughed, or cuddled a sick child, or read a book late into the night? Certainly she hadn’t made love many times in this room, only a few times before Erich left her for his European mistress. So it was an attractive room, but now she thought it was a lonely room.

  She stepped out into the hallway. Three more bedrooms and one more bath opened onto the hall, and as she stood at the head of the staircase, she wondered what on earth she was doing living in such a large house by herself. She’d been happy enough, but now, after weeks of Theo and Juliet coming and going and Mack and his men carrying tools and lumber in and out and Dave and Tom singing and laughing, now she thought she would be very lonely with the work done and the house empty.

  She sat down on the top step and began to cry.

  “Hello?”

  The kitchen door opened and shut.

  “Theo?” Lisa called.

  “No, it’s me, Mack. Your door’s unlocked, you know.”

  For some reason, the tears came harder, faster. “I’m up here.”

  Mack climbed the stairs to her, large and comforting in his jeans and flannel shirt. His work boots made reassuring sounds against the steps. His hair was damp, and from where she sat, she could smell the light fragrance of Ivory soap. He sat down next to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her toward him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I didn’t know where you were.” She couldn’t stop crying. “Oh, Mack, look at your hands, they’re all bruised and scratched! What happened?”

  “I was out in Madaket when the storm hit. I was boarding up the homes of several families I caretake for. Then Millie Maxwell, you know Millie, her daughter Marianne was a couple of classes behind Theo and Beth, Millie ran over to get me because Marianne had gone into labor. The storm felled a large tree right across their driveway and Marianne’s husband’s in the Coast Guard and was out at sea. Fortunately, I had my chain saw in my truck, so I managed to cut the tree into thirds and move the middle third out of the way so Millie could drive her daughter to the hospital.”

  “Good Lord, Mack,” Lisa cried. “What would they have done without you?”

  “I tried to call you, but the cellphones were down. After they drove off, I finished boarding up the Stowes’ cottage, then I went home for a shower. I wasn’t so much wet as I was covered with twigs and leaves.”

  Mack smiled then, and she smiled, too. Her tears stopped. Her heart calmed.

  “How’s Juliet?” Mack asked.

  “She’s good. She helped with the sandbags, and then she went off with Ryder. She texted that she’s having dinner with him. And I’ve spoken to Beth…”

  “She just texted me. Theo saved her life, apparently. She was very dramatic about it. She’s at Ryder’s garage, preparing dinner for Theo, her hero.”

  “Really? So we’ll be all alone here?”

  “Looks that way.”

  Lisa grinned. “Would you like something to eat? Maybe some scrambled eggs or a brandy?”

  “Both,” Mack said. “Please.”

  Lisa stood up. “I’m in my robe. I’d better change.”

  Mack said softly, “Don’t change. I like you in your robe.”

  Together they went down to the kitchen. Lisa scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and chives from her garden while Mack poured them each a glass of wine. She toasted bread, spread it with butter, and set it on the table with an open jar of Nantucket blueberry jam. As they ate, they discussed the past few hours, the frightening flood that had shocked them all. What the flood forecast for the future of this island with the seas licking at the shores.

  “Lisa.” Mack left his chair and drew Lisa up out of hers. “Let’s forget the floods for a while. Let’s give ourselves a few moments to be happy. I found you. I love you. We’re going into the future together. Right?”

  “Right,” Lisa agreed. She kissed him, then stepped back. “Do you know what I’d like to do right now?”

  “I know what I’d like to do right now,” Mack said in a growl.

  Lisa laughed. “I’d like for us to look at my photo album.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I’m so very very old that I have actual photo albums, and I’d love for us to look at them together. I think maybe you’ll have a better idea of who I was, who I’ve become, if you see them.”

  “Okay. I get that, kind of. But remember, you and I have lived on this island for decades.”

  “True. But we didn’t hang out together. And I was different back then. You were, too.” She pulled him by the hand into the living room, settled him on the sofa, and went to the bottom shelf of the bookcase to pull out three heavy leather-back albums. She put them on the table and sat next to Mack.

  “What’s this?” Mack asked when she opened the first album.

  “This,” Lisa said, “is my first wedding. Well, my only wedding so far.”

  “It doesn’t look very…fancy. You guys must not have had much money.”

  Lisa laughed. “We had enough money for an extravagant wedding, believe me. But Erich was in a hurry, and his parents were in another country, and Erich thought that weddings were sort of provincial especially when we were going to change the world…”

  Mack peered down at the photos, turning the pages. “You were beautiful.”

  Lisa smiled.

  “I mean, you still are, but, wow, Lisa. Where were you married?”

  “In my parents’ house. With only my friend Rachel in attendance. I didn’t even have a special dress. That was my ‘dressy’ dress that I wore to church and certain events.”

  Lisa leaned back against the sofa while Mack flipped through the pages. “Where did you marry Marla?”

  “Here on the island, in the small chapel of the Congregational Church. It wasn’t elaborate, either. We didn’t have much money, and we needed it for rent. Marla’s mother made her wedding dress.” Mack chuckled. “Marla said she looked like a polar bear.” He chuckled again. “She kind of did.”

  “It makes me sad thinking of my wedding,” Lisa told him.

  Mack took Lisa’s hand in his own big hand. “Well, then, why don’t we have a spectacular wedding and a great big blowout party for the reception?”

  “What a wonderful idea, Mack! Flowers, music, and we could fill the church. I’d love to wear a real wedding dress…but would you wear a tux?”

  “For you, I’d wear almost anything. Please note the almost.”

  “I promise, no blue velvet. We could have a band for the reception. A
live band…do you dance?”

  “I do. My own way. Please don’t make me take cha-cha-cha lessons.”

  Lisa squealed with laughter at the thought. She drew her legs up, sat on her knees on the sofa, facing him. “We could have the full deal. A sit-down dinner! Champagne for everyone! Cool take-home gifts.”

  “No ice sculpture.”

  “No. No ice sculpture.”

  “Juliet and Beth could be my bridesmaids…if you think Beth would like to.”

  “And Theo could be my best man.” Mack sobered. “Being realistic, Lisa, we’re old enough to have the money for a party like this, but we certainly don’t have the time to make all the arrangements this summer. Or even this fall. Or not until January, if we want to do it right.”

  Lisa slid off her knees and sat naturally. Actually, she realized, she couldn’t sit on her knees comfortably anymore. When had that happened? “You’re right, Mack. But really, January would be more fun. You and I are working straight-out in the summer and fall. Then Christmas makes us all crazy busy. So we can’t plan an extravagant wedding for the summer even if we needed to, and we don’t need to.”

  Mack wrapped an arm around her, pulling her against him. “So we’ll plan for January. But I’ll want to give you an engagement ring before then.”

  “Oh,” Lisa sighed. “I would like to have an engagement ring I can keep.”

  Mack leaned toward Lisa, lifted her face toward his, and kissed her slowly and softly.

  The back door opened and shut.

  “Mom? You home?” Theo called.

  “We’re in the living room,” Lisa called back. She whispered to Mack, “We need to visit that spec house again.”

  Theo came into the room and Beth was with him. They were holding hands and they were both glowing.

  “Hi, Mom,” Theo said.

  “Hi, Dad,” Beth said.

  Their parents said hello, and for once Mack kept his arm around Lisa, holding her close to him.

  thirty-four

  Theo was glad to see his mom with Mack because she looked so happy. He hoped that would keep Mack calm when he and Beth broke the news to her father that they wanted to move in together.