Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
F rankie never felt closer to childhood than when she rode in the back seat of her father’s car with her sister beside her. Off they went to Aunt Estelle and Uncle Roland’s, a place they called “the Coleman Estate” because it was sprawling over bluffs along white sandy beaches, without a single other beach house in the vicinity. Roland and Estelle had raised their children there—Sam, Hilary, and Charlie. Frankie was excited to see Sam, Hilary, and Charlie’s children, her second cousins. She was excited to see her Grandma Katrina and squeeze her tight as she drank rosé on the veranda. Beyond anything, I remember falling in love with a man named Zane.
And nobody knew.
This was her secret from everyone save for Nellie. Already last night, Frankie reminded Nellie over and over again that you can’t tell anyone about this. It was amazing to have a secret, something that was entirely hers. Nellie agreed that it wasn’t her news to tell anyway. She said, “You know Mom and Dad will freak out about how old he is, right?” And then she’d asked, “How old is he, anyway?”
But Frankie didn’t know how old Zane was. She also didn’t care. Age was just a number, after all.
Already that morning, Zane had sent her a text: Good morning, beautiful. I had such a wonderful time last night.
This was nothing a college boy ever would have done. This was a new league.
Frankie’s father pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. Frankie carried the salad inside, following the arrival of her mother and her sister, Rick, coming in last. They were immediately welcomed with what felt like a thousand hugs and well-wishes. It hadn’t been so long since her grandpa Grant’s birthday party, but everyone acted as though it had been years. Grandma Katrina kissed Frankie on both cheeks and gushed, “Don’t you look beautiful!”
Just a few days ago, Frankie might have thought her grandmother was being overly kind about her looks to compensate for Frankie’s weight gain. But right now, Frankie felt gorgeous. So she smiled back and said, “You look beautiful, too, Grandma.”
Frankie dropped the salad off in the kitchen and said hello to the other Colemans: Hilary, Samantha, and their daughters, Darcy and Aria. Samantha’s other daughter was in Rome, working at a restaurant, and Darcy and Samantha missed her and spoke of her often. Sometimes, this filled Frankie with dread. What if Nellie moved to Rome someday? And what would actually happen when Nellie returned to college in a couple of weeks and left Frankie alone in Nantucket? But these were worries for other days.
Sam ushered Frankie, Nellie, Aria, Hilary, Darcy, Ida, Sophie, Estelle, and Grandma Katrina out onto the veranda. They carried chilled wine, olives, peppers filled with cheese, pretzels, chips, pita bread, and hummus. Dinner was later, but at family parties, eating was an essential part of the bonding process. “Being too full to eat” didn’t exist. Second and third helpings were necessary.
“Tell us, Frankie,” Grandma Katrina said, raising her glass of wine. “How did it go in Manhattan this week?”
Frankie peered at her Grandma, struggling to remember what she was talking about. Manhattan? When had she gone to Manhattan?
“Your job interview,” Nellie muttered.
“Ah! My job interview.” Frankie rubbed the back of her neck and realized she hadn’t told anyone about the email. Everyone still thought the job was a potential next step. “It was pretty good.”
Grandma Katrina’s eyes were illuminated. “Brilliant. Can you imagine? Our girl Frankie in the big city!”
“What did they ask you in the interview?” Sam asked.
“Lots of stuff,” Frankie said, although she couldn’t fully remember anything about the interview save for the fact that she’d wept afterward. “You know, typical stuff. Like what would I bring to the work environment?”
“Only joy,” Hilary said.
“Right. And she can make killer banana bread,” Ida said with a smile.
Frankie’s smile felt strained. Although it felt fine to lie to everyone else, lying to her mother about the potential job felt sour.
“When will they let you know?” Darcy asked.
“Probably this week,” Frankie said. “Or next.”
“I hate that they make you wait that long,” Grandma Katrina said with a sad shake of her head.
There was a strange silence over the table. Frankie raised her glass of wine.
“But I have a job in the meantime,” she added. “Something to pick up the slack until I find something more permanent.”
Immediately, the table exploded with questions. What do you mean? You got another job already? How? What is it? The questions came from everywhere, demanding more of her than she knew how to give. Because the truth was, she didn’t fully know what gig Zane was offering her. She just knew that she really wanted to do whatever he said. She wanted to link her life with his.
“It’s some copywriting stuff,” she said. “Freelance.”
“Wow.” Ida looked impressed. “I always knew you would want to work for yourself.”
Frankie smiled. “It’ll be cool to make my own hours.”
“And you can save up a little bit before you move to the city,” Grandma Katrina pointed out.
“Yes. That’s great,” Frankie said.
Nellie gave her a side-eyed look that meant, Don’t push it.
Nellie wasn’t as convinced about Zane’s job offer as Frankie was. She’d asked several times last night, “What if you stop dating? Will he just fire you immediately? And what are the specifics? Will there be a contract? Is it legal?” Frankie had been surprised at how “business-oriented” her sister’s mind was. But she remembered what Zane had said about Frankie. She thought outside the box. She was different. Maybe Nellie just didn’t think outside the box as much. Maybe that was okay.
Dinner was served not long after that. There was a spread of roasted chicken on the grill, burgers, steaks, plus plenty of side dishes. Frankie filled her plate and overheard her mother telling her father about her “side hustle” of copywriting and freelancing.
“That’s fantastic!” Rick told her mother.
Frankie kept her head down. She didn’t want them to know she overheard. A blush crawled up her arms and neck.
After dinner, Frankie and Nellie went to the beach with their second cousins to catch up without the older adults around. Charlie’s daughters pulled off their shirts and stretched out in their swimsuits in the sun, gleaming and bronzed after a long summer in Nantucket. Aria pulled her red hair into a ponytail and met Frankie’s gaze.
“My dad said something was up with your mom’s business?” Aria said.
Frankie cocked her head. “There was an accident the other night, I guess.”
Thinking about that night on the Benson yacht made her head spin. It felt so long ago.
Aria’s eyes flashed. “My dad was saying something else, actually.” She lowered her voice. “He said it might have to close?”
Frankie’s blood pressure spiked. “Where did he hear that?”
Frankie considered Aria’s father, Marc, who’d moved to Nantucket full-time last year after many decades in San Francisco. He and Hilary had decided to revamp their romance to invigorate it, and Marc had abandoned his friends and his close professional circles. At the time, Frankie and Nellie had called it “really romantic.” But now, Frankie wondered if Marc was too bored of his life here, so bored that he needed to gossip about the Nantucket Sunset Cruisers.
“My dad has a lot of contacts,” Aria said. “One of them mentioned that they’re struggling.”
“My mom’s business is not struggling,” Frankie assured her. “I mean, she’s stressed all the time. But that’s no different from any other year.”
Aria stitched her eyebrows together and turned back to say something to Marcy, who was smearing sunscreen over her shoulders.
Frankie twisted around to look at Nellie. Nellie watched the water contemplatively, her hands stretched across the sand and her long legs out in front of her.
“You haven’t heard that, have you?” she asked Nellie. “Anything about Mom’s business?”
“She hasn’t been sleeping,” Nellie said after a pause.
Overhead, a seagull swooped and cawed.
“That’s no different from any other summer,” Frankie said.
“But it’s not like Mom would tell us if something was going on,” Nellie said.
Frankie turned to gaze up on the veranda, where her mother sat with Sophie and Sam. Sam and Sophie were talking animatedly, moving their hands wildly, but Ida was staring into the middle distance, her eyes unseeing. When Rick came up and touched her shoulder, she jumped with alarm. She was a million miles away, thinking of anything else but the family that surrounded her.
Life just gets harder and harder, Frankie thought.
Another text came in from Zane.
ZANE: Do you have time tomorrow to hang out? I’d love to see you again.
ZANE: And I have a job for you if you’re ready to make some cash.