Nobody said anything about it, but Nancy felt pretty sure that her granddaughters wanted to return to the island because of the incoming test results. News of this had had everyone on edge. Janine had only picked at her food the previous few nights. Her wine pours had been extra healthy, as well. The conversation hadn’t flowed with its usual easy, lovely energy. Instead, it had faltered and drawn itself into silences.
“I still can’t believe you went on such a romantic date with Maddox,” Janine said now as she clicked the radio off. “The way Jack used to talk about him, I never imagined him to be such a romantic.”
“It doesn’t sound like he reveals his true self to most people,” Nancy told her.
Janine considered this. “You always had that way with people. I remember as a kid, feeling like everyone from the bodega owner to the bartender at the local bar, just looked at you differently and treated you differently. Like you were made of magic.” She chuckled to herself. “I thought you were made of magic, too.”
“You were wrong,” Nancy said softly. “Just old bones and muscle, like everyone else.”
“If there’s one thing I know, it’s that my mother isn’t like everyone else,” Janine said pointedly, making heavy eye contact. “Maybe she’s a little messy, a little all over the place. Maybe she loves a little too hard. Maybe she hasn’t made every good decision in the book. But she’s lived a wide-open and free life. And isn’t that more than most people could ever ask for?”
Nancy blinked back tears. She placed her hand over Janine’s and tried to come up with the right words to say— words that would eliminate the fear that permeated between them. The fear of the unknown. Nancy had watched Neal die; she would have given anything to take that sort of thing away from Janine.
Janine had been her first love. She was her forever love.
“There’s the ferry.” Janine reached back for a large umbrella, then ducked out to trace a path over to Nancy’s side. There, Nancy jumped under her umbrella as the two hustled over to the ferry.
“Do you remember sharing an umbrella in New York with me?” Nancy asked as they raced along. “We always jumped through puddles, which kind of made the umbrella thing silly. We were always soaked clean through by the end.”
Alyssa and Maggie appeared at the top of the ferry and waved down beneath their umbrellas. Both wore this year’s iconic Prada collection along with glorious rain boots and perfect fall hats. Nancy was continually stunned with their fashion sensibilities. Janine liked to tell her that Alyssa and Maggie had learned from Janine, who’d taken everything she’d learned from Nancy. Nancy had had to put together her fashion sense with “whatever she found along the way.”
“There she is! My married daughter,” Janine said as she hugged Maggie beneath the umbrella, careful to keep it upright over herself and Nancy.
“And your unmarried one!” Alyssa said, beaming. “Completely single and loving it.”
“She’s only saying that because she wants to talk all about how Peter is begging her to get back together,” Maggie said with a roll of her eyes.
“And why won’t you?” Janine asked.
Alyssa shrugged.
“She likes the game too much,” Maggie said.
“I can understand that,” Nancy affirmed as she placed a hand over Alyssa’s shoulder. “The game is almost enough, isn’t it?”
Alyssa’s smile widened. “I knew Grandma would get it. She’s the only one who takes any real risks around here.”
“Mom said you had a little sailing adventure with Maddox?” Maggie asked coyly.
Nancy laughed and dropped her head back. Joy permeated through her muscles; her cheeks ached with her grin.
“She’s not going to tell us what happened,” Alyssa said, aghast. “She’s going to keep it to herself.”
“Mom, what happened at the end of the sailing trip?” Janine asked as they stepped back toward the car.
Nancy shook her head. “A lady never reveals her secrets.”
“You’re no lady,” Janine quipped. “You’re Nancy Grimson. You’re an icon.”
WHAT HAD SHE AND MADDOX done? The thought of it thrilled her. She put herself back in that story as she sat at the edge of the couch back at the house, her hands clutching her knees tightly. As usual, Maggie and Alyssa had dragged several suitcases of clothes along with them to the Vineyard. Even now, they splayed out some of their new outfits to show off for their mother and grandmother. Maggie had countless stories about her honeymoon, which she shared now.
“We panicked one night because Rex has a peanut allergy, and we were sure he’d eaten something with peanut sauce,” she said. “We rushed to the hospital and ordered that he be taken care of. But then we waited, and nothing happened.”
“Then, tell them what you did after that,” Alyssa urged, wagging her eyebrows.
Maggie’s cheeks brightened to crimson. “Well, we wandered down the hallway to a supplies closet.”
“Maggie!” Janine cried.
Nancy clapped her hands joyously. “You’re a married woman, Maggie. And you’ve already discovered the first thing about marriage. You have to mix it up with surprises; otherwise, it gets stale.”
Janine shook her head wildly. “I don’t believe this. So you’re condoning this kind of behavior?”
“Absolutely. One hundred percent,” Nancy nodded with a wide grin.
Alyssa and Maggie held onto one another and cackled.
“Grandma, you should write a book,” Maggie suggested as her laughter subsided. “I know tons of women in their twenties who lack the spirit you have. Maybe you could sell it to them.”
“A fifty-nine-year-old woman at the top of her game,” Alyssa agreed.
Nancy’s smile faltered. Her eyes scanned toward the phone, which remained silent. Had the doctor already looked at the test results? Did he plan to wait till after lunch, before dinner? When would the call come?
It was good to distract themselves. It was one, and Alyssa drew out a bottle of French wine, which Maggie had brought from her honeymoon. She popped it open and poured them each glasses. Alyssa and Maggie sat on the ground and crossed their legs and demanded still more stories from Nancy about her life around the world. In turn, Nancy demanded more about Maggie’s honeymoon. When Maggie spoke of Rex, it was as though her eyes formed to glowing clouds; her hands scattered around her like butterflies as she explained each tale. In everything she did, she exuded love for him.
“You remind me of the way I was after I met Neal,” Nancy said quietly. “You know that love has given you this impossible strength.”
Maggie nodded as her smile faltered. “It’s like you’re flying and praying all the time that you’ll never fall.”
“You won’t fall. Not as long as you believe in what you’re doing, in what you have.”
The call came just after three-thirty. Nancy had drunk two and a half glasses of French wine by then. She felt giddy and strange but oddly calm. When she lifted the phone, she exhaled and said, “Hello, Doctor. Get me out of this not-knowing baloney. I’m so tired of not knowing.”
The doctor cackled. The laughter had nothing to do with any somber realities. Instead, it was like a song.
“Nancy Remington, you’re going to be just fine. I’m going to put you on medicine to balance out some of your hormones; I think that’s why you’ve been so tired lately. It happens. Our bodies can go out of whack like that. I’m also going to suggest some B12 shots as well.”
Nancy’s lips parted in disbelief. “That’s it?”
“Yes. All your tests came back negative. You’re still almost a portrait of health, just like I always said. But again, I’m sorry it took so long to get back to you. The hurricane really threw us for a loop.”
“Us too,” Nancy said. “The whole island, I guess.”
“I’m going to pass you over to the secretary to make preparations for another appointment: next week or something. We’ll get to the bottom of this fatigue problem and get you back out
and about. We all know you’re just about as fiery as ever. Not even sure we should fix you up, to be honest. You might go out on another adventure and never see us again,” the doctor continued.
Nancy laughed. Beside her, Maggie and Alyssa and Janine had caught on to the fact that Nancy would be all right. They huddled around her and hugged her close as the doctor’s secretary made plans for the next week. When she dropped the phone to the side, Nancy placed her head tenderly on Maggie’s shoulder and let herself cry for the first time that day. It felt like the ultimate release— like the air being let out of something so full it was on the verge of combustion.
The pressure was gone now, though.
She was going to live.
Suddenly, at fifty-nine, the winds had returned to her sails. Whatever she could dream about could be possible. The time now belonged to her. And she would be brave enough to fly.
Coming next in the Katama Bay Series
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Other Books by Katie
The Vineyard Sunset Series
Sisters of Edgartown Series
Secrets of Mackinac Island Series
A Katama Bay Series
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Autumn Secrets Page 15