UNKNOWN NUMBER: I guess that’s a common thing, isn’t it? The good guy interested in the dark side.
Mila texted back, smiling all the while.
MILA: I can teach you to be bad if you want.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: You’d do that? For me?
Mila laughed outright as Diana turned her eyes toward her daughter and demanded, “What on earth has gotten into you?”
“Just keep your eyes on the road, Mom. We don’t want to get pulled over again.”
“Maybe we do. Let’s get you another date lined up,” Diana teased. “Everyone! Mila Ellis is ready to date again!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mila stood on the fluttering sands of the Edgartown beach and clenched her eyes tight. It was hard to believe that, twenty-four years ago, Michelle had disappeared into the waters of the Nantucket Sound. Since that night, her laughter, her beautiful voice, her immense and electric spirit had disappeared. She lived on in their memories — but what good were memories, anyway? In every sense, Mila wanted Michelle here with them.
The other sisters stood on either side of her. Mila opened her eyes just the slightest bit to take in the view of Jennifer, Michelle’s twin. Jennifer was regal and powerful, a woman of incredible kindness and strength. But now, her cheeks were streaked with tears, and her shoulders were hunched. She had once told the others that, in everything she did, she thought of Michelle. “I just want her to know that I think of her every single waking moment. I want her to be proud of me. I want to live the kind of life she would have been happy with.”
Olivia opened the bottle of champagne and poured out four flutes’ worth. Amelia had brought her own sparkling water. They lifted their glasses toward the rolling waves and spoke in whispers as though Michelle could hear them. They told her how much they missed her; they told her that still more had changed in their lives — and that they struggled with the changes but knew better than not to welcome them.
“Change is the only eternal constant,” Jennifer said. “The only regret we have is not to know how you would have changed, Michelle. We love you so much.”
“I feel you in The Hesson House,” Olivia murmured. “I know you would love it. You’d party yourself silly there.”
“Jonathon talks about you sometimes. I love that he keeps your memory alive with me,” Camilla offered.
“I had a dream about you while I was on bed rest,” Amelia confessed. “You sat on the edge of my bed and told me I would have a little girl. I hope you’re right.”
After they sipped their champagne, they loaded back into Jennifer’s car and headed to her house on Green Hollow Road. They’d set aside the evening for girl-time — telling their partners and their children and their parents that this night was for them and only them. They ordered all their favorite foods from high school, including garlic bread, mozzarella sticks and double-fudge brownies, and they sat in a circle on Jennifer’s floor and talked about their favorite memories.
Slowly, as their stomachs grew full, their conversation found wind for present-day events.
“Apparently, Chelsea and Xavier both already found jobs,” Olivia said somberly. She wrapped her arms around her knees and tried out a smile. “Chelsea is a waitress again, but it’s at a fine dining place, so she said the tips are killer. Xavier is working at a hardware store. They’re going to paint their kitchen yellow, they tell me. It’s so strange. I see them setting up their lives in the same way Tyler and I once set up our life together. I just pray they aren’t making a mistake.”
“They have to have space to make mistakes,” Mila pointed out. “Otherwise, they’ll never know.”
Olivia nodded. “Very true.”
“I think Mandy is getting more and more freaked out about becoming a mother,” Amelia said later. “I think she feels that a piece of her life died out with the coming of this baby. Especially as she sees Andrea heading back to New York City for school, and Chelsea heading to Brooklyn, and the rest of her classmates moving forward.”
“You know, I don’t think she’ll remember this feeling once the baby comes,” Jennifer said. “I remember feeling something kind of similar when I was pregnant, but the minute I looked in his eyes, I knew it was all worth it.”
Mila remembered that, too. Those two sets of eyes. Her twins. Her entire world.
“I’ve been reading one of Peter’s books,” Mila said suddenly. “I thought I’d read all of them, but I discovered one in the den that I never got to.”
Her friends looked at her curiously.
“It’s funny because Zane, Isabelle and I are featured so prominently in the book,” Mila said. “It’s about a man who has to go off to investigate a series of murders in the Alaskan tundra. And he leaves his wife and two babies behind. In the wake of his departure, however, the murderer learns who his wife is and heads back to his home in Minnesota to get to know her.”
“Oh my God. It’s so much like that creepy guy from the app,” Amelia said.
Mila nodded. “Yes. But another funny thing happened in the book. There’s this funny, very sweet cop who comes to her rescue. He’s madly in love with her and he stops at nothing to make sure she’s all right.”
“What?” Jennifer cried. “Are you serious? That’s just crazy.”
“I know,” Mila said as her smile widened. “Of course, in Peter’s version, the cop is ultimately murdered by the murderer and then the Peter-like character comes back to save his wife and children. Crazy right? It’s stranger than fiction, isn’t it?”
Her friends exchanged knowing glances after that. Mila’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment.
“Does this mean you’ve agreed to meet the cop again?” Olivia finally asked.
Mila rolled her eyes. “I mean, we have a date tomorrow, I guess. If it’s even a date.”
“Oh! What will you do?”
“Turns out, just like every other guy on this island, Liam also likes to sail,” Mila said.
“No! After talking so much trash about every other sailor, this happens?” Camilla said.
“I know. I know.” Mila couldn’t help it; she had the kind of smile that might have cracked her face in half. “All I can say about it is — we’ll see.”
Jennifer shrugged. “That’s all we can ever say about anything.”
“You just can’t be afraid of it. Whatever it is,” Camilla said pointedly.
“It’s just like we told Michelle at the beach,” Jennifer said.
“We have to be open to life’s changes,” Amelia said as she slid her hand over her pregnant belly.
“And you know, no matter what happens, we’ll be here,” Jennifer added. “We’ve been there for you every step of the way.”
“That’s one thing that won’t change,” Camilla told her.
Mila clenched her eyes tight. Feeling overwhelmed, it crashed over her like a wave. She knew that there would be more of it: more love, more feeling, more fear, more pain. She had to be brave enough to welcome it. It was the only thing.
LIAM LOOSENED THE ROPE and shifted his boot against the dock. The boat burst through the water as the sails flung out and took in the air, and with that, the two of them swept out toward the far horizon. Mila lifted her chin with the breeze against her skin; her eyes caught the chill, making them water ever so slightly. For a moment, she forgot everything: who she was and what she wanted, where she’d been and where she was headed. All that mattered was right then in the moment; the wind and the sun and the sky and the water.
Unlike other times, Liam didn’t become awkward out on the waves. He was powerful and strong and very capable on the boat and he sent them westward, out toward the Aquinnah Cliffs, where the chalky white ridge burst up above the turquoise waters. There was an element of autumn in the air. It left a sinister feeling that soon, time would stamp its way forward and take them away from summertime and sunshine.
Mila looked up into Liam’s eyes and tried to imagine them a year from then, or two years from then, or five years down the
line. Would they still know each other? Would they fall in love with each other? What would it all mean to them later on?
“I packed some snacks,” Liam said instead.
Mila could have laughed aloud at the ridiculousness of snacks versus the rest of their lives. But she was grateful either way. She took a slice of cheese onto a cracker and ate slowly, savoring every bite.
When the winds slowed, Liam sat across from her. He looked like he wanted to touch her but held back.
“I feel like I’ve spent the past few years since my divorce in total fear.” He said this so quietly that Mila almost didn’t hear.
“I understand,” Mila whispered.
“I just thought my life would go one way, but it took a much different direction.”
Mila nodded as tears sprung to her eyes.
“I don’t want to put any expectations on you or on us or on anything at all,” Liam said. “I just want you to know that ultimately, I respect you. I feel that you’re a remarkable woman. And I’d like to continue to get to know you if that’s okay with you.”
Mila decided to do it first — to bridge the space between them and take his hand. Their fingers laced together beautifully. It was a perfect fit.
“Do you have any regrets in this life?” Mila asked him then.
He looked surprised at the question. He pondered for a moment as he looked up at the large cliff before them. Mila wondered if this was the kind of life they could have together — one built on total honesty, right from the get-go.
“I can’t think of anything. But I do know one thing,” Liam said. “If I hadn’t asked you out, I would have regretted that for a very long time. I could feel the regret in my bones. My dad always said that there are some things in this life you jump for. You jump for them, and you hold onto them and you never look back.”
“Your dad sounds about as intense as my mom,” Mila said.
“Maybe they should meet,” he returned.
“I don’t know. The world might explode.”
Mila eased against him. She placed her head gently on his chest and gazed up at the impossible blue of the sky. It had been ages since she’d felt any kind of peace. Maybe it was time to let herself have those feeling again. Maybe it was finally time to breathe.
Coming Next in the Sisters of Edgartown Series
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Other Books by Katie
The Vineyard Sunset Series
Secrets of Mackinac Island Series
Sisters of Edgartown Series
A Katama Bay Series
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