The server arrived to take their order. Mila wasn’t surprised that Liam ordered a light beer; he seemed like that kind of guy — not one to push the limits. That was okay by her.
But after the server left them with their drinks, the date took a strange turn. For whatever reason, Mila had absolutely no idea what to say to this guy. Her brain hammered with ideas surrounding her stalker, the fire at the festival, and what the weather was supposed to do next weekend, but none of it sounded interesting. What had she said previously, on other dates with other guys? Did she even have anything up her sleeves at all?
Liam spoke a bit about the police station, about his colleagues. He talked about the recent Susan Sheridan case, which had been a big deal up in Boston. “Everyone thought that girl was guilty,” he said. “But Susan is one of the best defense attorneys on the east coast.”
He said it proudly, as though he was somehow enamored with her. Mila was used to this; many people were at least half in love with the Sheridan sisters. It didn’t mean she wasn’t the slightest bit jealous.
“I read about it in the paper,” Mila replied as she swirled her wine. “They’d tracked down the girl for an interview. I can’t believe only a few months ago, she was wanted for murder, and now, she’s living out her life on a beach in Mexico somewhere.”
“Life is wild if you’re brave enough to take hold of it,” Liam affirmed.
Mila pressed her lips together. She wanted to ask him what had led him to the island? Had he been brave enough to take life by the horns? What stopped him from being totally open with her, now? And did he actually like her, or had he agreed to go on this date as some kind of charity for a woman he felt bad for?
She hated these swirling thoughts. She stared into her wine, contemplating what to say next. After she finished it, she asked the server for the check. Liam looked deflated but strangely glad. It was clear that they both wanted out of there.
They left the beach bar. Liam pointed toward his cop car and said, “I’m just over there.”
Mila nodded. “Okay. Thanks a lot for coming out.” Her voice was flat.
“Sure, anytime.”
They held one another’s gaze once more. There it was again: that strange attraction. Were they just nervous? Awkward? What was it between them that kept them apart?
“I’m just going to go stop by the salon,” Mila said suddenly. “I realized I left my book there.”
“Oh.”
Mila pressed her teeth into her lip. “Do you want to come along with me?”
Liam looked surprised. Mila was as well — she hadn’t envisioned herself asking. But something in her belly told her that the date wasn’t over, that she and Liam deserved another chance.
When they arrived at the salon, Mila flicked on the lights and headed back behind the counter, where she retrieved her sunglasses and her ledger, which she planned to go over the following day. When she glanced up, she caught Liam ogling the many various creams and ointments and tools, which the girls stored off near the mirror.
“You probably think all that’s so crazy, don’t you?”
Liam shook his head. “My ex-wife actually had a few of these things. I recognize them. She never let me see her like that, though.”
Mila was surprised to hear he’d been married. She wasn’t sure why. There was a tenderness to him that didn’t speak of any aching of divorce. This was proof, yet again, that you couldn’t tell anything about anyone, not really.
“Do you want a facial?” she asked with a smile.
Liam gawked at her. “What?”
Mila laughed. “Come on. It’s so relaxing. My husband let me do it a few times before he died, and he always loved it.”
Liam was awkward at first. For the first few minutes, Mila fully regretted offering. But slowly, he began to relax to her touch. And by the time she smeared the cream across his cheeks, he was full-on laughing.
“I can’t say this is proper police work,” he said. “I’m completely relaxed. If anyone came in right now, they would catch me off guard.”
“You shouldn’t be on edge all the time,” Mila told him. “Your body is probably all rigid with stress hormones.”
“I think you’re probably right. But I haven’t really known how else to live. Not since I joined the police force out here. And it’s not easy to unwind after work when you’re all alone at home.”
Mila stopped smearing the cream for a moment. He opened his eyes to find hers. Again, she had that jolt of recognition, as though she’d known Liam for a long time.
“My kids are about to head off to college,” she said suddenly. “I’m terrified of what will happen to me when I’m alone in that house. Peter and I bought it right after the kids were born. Everywhere I look, it’s riddled with memories.”
Liam nodded. “Everywhere I look in my place, all I see is the emptiness that my life has become.”
Soon, Mila and Liam found other conversations and even a few reasons to laugh. By the time the facial was over, Mila felt as though she could rise off the ground and float into the sky above. Unfortunately, Liam left her there with only a hug, but the meaningful look in his eyes told her that there was so much more to the story of them.
For the first time in a long time, Mila felt she had something to believe in.
Chapter Twenty
Isabelle turned around in the passenger seat, lifted a Cinnamon Toast Crunch square into the air, and then cast it in a perfect parabola into the back seat, where Zane had fallen asleep with his mouth open. It landed precisely on his tongue. A second later, he coughed wildly and erupted back into consciousness.
“I swear. You guys will never grow up. I don’t know what I was worried about,” Mila said.
“What was that?” Zane cried. He chomped down on the cereal, then grinned broadly. “Ah. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The taste you can see.”
Isabelle giggled and turned back to face the road. “Sorry, I just can’t sleep. I’m too anxious. I don’t see why you should be allowed to.”
“We’re only ten minutes away from your dorm, anyway,” Mila affirmed. “Who’s ready to move luggage?”
“Meee...” Zane said, feigning enthusiasm.
As Mila eased her car toward the Tufts University freshman dorm, she found herself in a rock-solid line of traffic. Obviously, this was move-in day, and everyone was in a state of shock and fear and sorrow. The chaos bled over to long lines, screaming parents, and strained goodbyes.
“I read online there’s a parking lot behind the dorm,” Isabelle suggested mid-yawn. “Maybe we can park there, get a feel of the land, and then head up to my room?”
Mila drove the vehicle behind the dorm and managed to find a parking spot near a large dumpster. When they got out, Zane made a big show of thinking the dumpster “reeked.” At this, Isabelle commented, “I bet your dorm room is going to smell ten times worse than that by next week.”
“Actually, very likely,” Zane affirmed.
“Zane, promise me you’ll at least try to use some of the cleaning supplies I got you?” Mila teased.
“I can’t promise anything. The entire year will be a massive science experiment,” Zane said, a huge smile plastered across his face.
“Well, as long as it’s for research,” Mila went along with her son’s joke, then let out a laugh.
Isabelle grabbed her backpack, and Mila grabbed some bedding and a wastebasket. Zane carried a single box, saying he didn’t know how far the room was, so he didn’t want to take on too much. Mila and Isabelle rolled their eyes.
As they approached the front of Isabelle’s dorm, however, Mila’s heart began to thump wildly in her chest. There, stationed just to the right of the main door, stood Jamie and Diana Ellis. Mila almost dropped the bedding. She gaped at them as they stared back.
“Mom. Dad. What are you doing here?”
Other freshmen streamed around them like ants. Nobody sensed the strange vibe between these five people.
“Hi, Grandma. Grandpa.�
� Isabelle was cordial, but her eyes glowed with confusion.
After a moment of silence, Diana lifted her hands and said, “We just wanted to help you move in, honey.”
Mila arched an eyebrow. Obviously, this was some kind of trap. That was her parents’ way, wasn’t it?
“Okay...” Isabelle gestured toward the front door. “Let’s go see my room. Then, I guess, I can put you to work.”
“Sounds good to us,” Diana answered. She splayed a hand across Isabelle’s upper back and then glanced back toward Mila, who probably still looked shocked. “Are you coming, Mila?”
Isabelle’s dorm room was located on the third floor. They staggered up the stairs and discovered her roommate in the first stages of what would probably be an all-day fight with her mother. They paused in order to greet Isabelle and her family. They dropped the supplies they’d brought up so far and then headed back down the hallway, only for the roommate to start in again.
“I hope that’s not a preview for the fights she’ll have with you,” Diana said.
“We’ve talked on the phone a few times,” Isabelle said. “She seems chill.”
“That does not sound chill,” Diana joked.
Against all odds, the next hour went very smoothly. Diana, Jamie, Zane, Mila, and Isabelle flew into a steady stream of moving — carrying the suitcases and boxes into the dorm room, putting the sheets on the bed, and making sure that Isabelle’s computer was connected to the internet. Throughout, Mila was very conscious of her mother — taking note of everything she said. But not once did Diana bring up the concept of Isabelle’s future. She seemed to live totally in the moment.
It was mesmerizing.
After they finished up at the dorm, Jamie suggested they go out to eat, all of them together, as a family. Just before, they took a photo of Mila, Zane, and Isabelle, there in Isabelle’s dorm room. Just after, Diana looked down at the photo; her eyes were rimmed with tears.
“You look so good together,” she breathed. “And I just know Peter would have wanted to be here. He loved his girl to pieces.”
It was such a rare thing for Mila to hear her mother say anything kind about Peter. Diana splayed a hand over her mouth as she turned back, as though she wanted to keep her emotions in check. Zane turned his eyes to the ground as they walked back to the car. Everyone seemed at a loss of what to say. Peter was heavy on everyone’s minds. These moments, after all, were huge stepping stones in their children’s lives.
But at the restaurant, they fell again into easy conversation. Diana impressed Mila yet again, as she asked Isabelle about her class load without a single passing of judgment. Jamie expressed interest in the literature class Isabelle had signed up for and even talked about reading some of the same books so that they could talk about them when she got back to the Vineyard. Isabelle beamed at both of them, kept up with the conversation, and asked interesting questions about their own times at Yale.
“And I know your grandmother doesn’t want me to say this, but there’s always grad school where Yale is concerned,” Jamie said as he wagged his eyebrows.
“Shh, Jamie. You know, we’re so proud of you, Isabelle,” Diana said. She crossed her fingers beneath her chin and eyed her tenderly. “It’s a remarkable achievement, you know. A young woman entering the world the way you are. I can just barely remember what it felt like. I was on top of the world.”
Isabelle nodded. “On top of the world. And terrified of falling.”
“Sounds about right,” Diana affirmed.
AFTER THEIR MEAL, THEY dropped Isabelle off at her dorm and waved their hands so much in goodbye that Mila thought her palm might fall off. The minute Isabelle disappeared, tears sprung to her eyes. Diana’s hand found her shoulder as she said, “That’s a good girl you raised, you know?”
Mila swallowed the lump in her throat. “We can walk you back to your car. Where did you park?”
Diana and Jamie led Zane and Mila back toward the parking lot on the other side of the dorm, opposite of where Mila had parked. Zane kept his chin low; he looked depleted without his twin. Mila wanted to hold him close, the way she had when they’d been babies. As he was nearly a foot taller than she was, it made things difficult.
When they reached Diana’s BMW, they stopped to say goodbye. Again, there was that awkwardness between them. Mila thought about just turning back and walking to the car, giving a wave instead of a hug. But she could see it in her mother’s eye: she wanted to mend the rift between them.
“Thank you for coming today,” Mila murmured softly. “I think it meant a lot to Isabelle.”
“We really mean it when we say it was a pleasure,” Diana replied. “I realized the other day that, well, this is the first time we’ve had to say goodbye to anyone close to us like this since Jessie went off to school. That was hard on us. Really hard.”
“Even though you were so proud of what he was up to,” Mila countered.
Diana nodded. “Yes. But we were always proud of you too, Mila. We just aren’t very good at remembering, sometimes.”
Mila’s eyes glistened. She couldn’t remember the last time her mother had given her any kind of compliment.
And a second later, Diana added, “You’ve raised two remarkable people, Mila. Zane and Isabelle will be absolutely wonderful people in our society. And that’s all because of you and Peter, of course.”
Mila wrapped her arms around her mother and held her tightly. Tears streamed down her face. She prayed with all her might that one day soon, she and her mother would have a normal relationship. She prayed that all the pain would be only a memory. She knew it would take work, that there were bound to be more fights, more disagreements, more memories that would be pulled out of the back of their minds, dusted off, and used as ammunition.
But this was a pretty good start.
Zane and Mila piled into the car after that. Zane sat up front, in Isabelle’s seat, but he didn’t look too pleased about it. He flicked through the stations and then sighed somberly.
“What’s up, kid?” Mila asked.
“I miss her, is all,” Zane said softly.
“It’s a good thing that you’ll be in the same city,” Mila replied.
“Yeah, but it’ll never be the same again,” Zane said.
Mila knew in her heart, he was right.
Chapter Twenty-One
Olivia stood at the far end of the long table and clacked a fork against her champagne flute. She looked anxious, as though her thoughts were a churning tornado between her ears. And as the small collection of fifteen or so people quieted around her, she cleared her throat and began to speak.
“When Chelsea told me a few months ago that she wanted to leave Martha’s Vineyard, I think she was met with a resounding — um, I don’t think so,” she began.
The table chuckled. Olivia adjusted her shoulders as though she’d forgotten fully how to stand upright.
“In any case, Chelsea has always been a girl with a very strong sense of self. Anyone who met her, even when she was a little girl, could see that within her. She would storm up to boys at recess and demand that they treat the girls equally; she always beat everyone to smithereens at debate team — a fact that pleased me since I always felt that I was lagging behind at home when we got into arguments. I told myself, if these super-smart kids at school can’t beat Chelsea, I guess I don’t feel too bad about myself.
“But tomorrow, Xavier and Chelsea will begin their new lives in Brooklyn together. It’s just about the most heartbreaking and exciting thing for me. This summer has been one of changes and hardships. How many nights the past few weeks have I come home and told Chelsea, ‘That’s it! I’m closing the hotel. We had a good run!’ only for her to be like, ‘Mom, come on. Get a hold of yourself. Everything will be fine.’ But I knew, with every small chaotic evening here at the hotel, the biggest storm was brewing up ahead. And that’s now. That’s in saying goodbye.”
Olivia lifted her champagne flute toward Xavier and Chelsea, who were
seated right next to her, there between Olivia and even Tyler, Chelsea’s father, who had driven down for the occasion. On the other side of Olivia sat Anthony, her boyfriend, who beamed up at Olivia as though she was the cleverest woman in the world.
“Good luck out there, Chelsea and Xavier,” Olivia said softly. “Remember that you have all the love in the world back here on the Vineyard. We’ll always have your back — and we’ll always be waiting for you to return. We love you so much.”
In the wake of Olivia’s speech, Mila turned her tear-streaked face leftward to face Camilla. She and the other sisters held court at the far end of the table, along with Camilla’s daughter, Andrea, Amelia, who was newly off of bedrest, Amelia’s niece, Mandy, who was best friends with Andrea, and Jennifer. For a moment, Mila actually hunted for her own daughter, Isabelle but soon remembered, with a lurch in her gut, that Isabelle had left for Tufts five days prior. Zane had followed in her Boston footsteps only yesterday.
She was an empty-nester, now. And her own sadness seemed reflected in Olivia’s eyes up at the head of the table, as she said goodbye to her only child.
Camilla placed a hand on Mila’s upper arm and said, “How did it go yesterday with Zane?”
Mila swallowed the lump in her throat. “It was a bit easier, maybe, than with Isabelle— like I’d already had practice. And he’s a boy, you know. So I dropped him off and already he was getting together some kind of football league.”
Camilla chuckled as Andrea rolled her eyes. “He’ll be fine. If there’s anything Zane is, it’s malleable.”
“And what about Isabelle?” Mandy asked. She placed her hand on her pregnant belly; her bright blue nails glowed in the soft light.
“She seems fine,” Mila returned. “She texts me every once in a while. She sent me a great photo of a smoothie bar they have at the dorm. You know what a health nut she can sometimes be.”
“Yeah. We never had that in common,” Mandy said as her grin widened. “Although Aunt Amelia has me on a heavy green smoothie diet.”
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