Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
T uesday afternoon meant Frankie’s first assignment for Zane. By noon, she was dressed and ready to go, wandering around the house with the air of someone who couldn’t make up her mind about something. Rick was at work, and Ida was at the docks. Nellie sat on the back porch reading and occasionally opened the sliding glass door to call inside and say, “Do you want to sit on the porch with me? You’re freaking me out.”
Frankie couldn’t say exactly why she was so nervous right now. There was an expectation in her chest that felt like a growing rash. She wanted to explain more of her assignment to Nellie—that she was delivering packages of flower seeds from the inn to the ferry—but something about it gave her pause. She imagined Nellie saying, You’re too good for something like that, Frankie. She didn’t want anyone to drag her down from this emotional high. She didn’t want anyone to suggest that she shouldn’t spend as much time with Zane as possible.
Frankie left early, taking the car into town and parking next to the coffee shop. She sat on the patio with iced coffee and scrolled through social media to kill time. This was how she saw the first image Colin and Brynne posted of each other kissing on the Brooklyn Bridge.
It felt like a stone dropping into Frankie’s stomach. She closed the app and gripped her iced coffee. It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m doing my own thing, and Colin’s doing his.
It was suddenly time for Frankie to pick up the packages from The Wild Lily Inn.
Frankie set her jaw and walked three blocks through the eighty-degree heat to stand in front of The Wild Lily for a solid ten seconds. It had been a while since she’d really looked at the little place with its lavender-painted window shutters and matching door, its willow in the front yard, and its cute bay window with a little reading nook inside. Because she was an islander, it was rare for Frankie to actually enter hotels and inns. It was surreal to walk up to the front door, open it, and hear the jangle of the bell.
The man behind the front desk flinched when she came in. He was wiry with a bad mustache and a baseball hat. His eyes echoed distrust, which felt strange to Frankie. Weren’t the hotel concierge meant to be overwhelmingly welcoming? Weren’t they supposed to smile warmly?
“Hi,” Frankie said, blinking around the foyer to find that nobody else was there. “I’m here for the flower seeds?”
The man’s face crumpled up with confusion. “I’m sorry. What is it you said?” He had a strange accent like he was from somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Frankie’s heartbeat intensified. “Um? Zane sent me?”
Immediately, the man’s face transformed from incredulity to understanding. His cheeks smoothed out. With a long hand, he beckoned for Frankie to approach the front desk. He pressed three boxes into her arms when she reached him and said, “Here they are. The flower seeds.”
Frankie didn’t want to admit that the boxes were far heavier than she’d imagined flower seeds. But then again, what did she know about flower seeds? What did she know about anything besides linguistics?
(What a useless degree!)
“Give my love to Zane,” the man behind the counter said. “Cheers.”
Frankie smiled nervously and stepped into the sunlight outside The Wild Lily Inn. She adjusted the boxes gingerly in her arms. Why hadn’t she parked the car directly at The Wild Lily? Because I thought they would be lighter boxes. I thought it would be easy. She sighed and marched back to the coffee shop, where she placed the boxes in the passenger seat and checked the time. It was only 3:10. She had twenty minutes before the ferry left.
But as Frankie drove to the docks, she couldn’t help but consider the boxes.
Why would Zane lie to me about their contents?
Why wouldn’t he tell me?
Frankie’s stomach felt twisted up. Was it possible Zane himself didn’t know what was in the boxes? Maybe The Wild Lily guy lied and said they were seeds; perhaps Greg, the business associate, lied about the operation, too. Maybe Zane really was just the go-between guy. The middle manager in a machine that was far more complicated and dangerous than he could imagine.
What if I’m breaking the law?
The thought rang through her, and Frankie shuddered. All I’m doing is delivering packages from one location to the next. All I’m doing is making cash during a difficult time.
Frankie carried the boxes up to the ferry to find a man in a collared red shirt with a name tag that read Greg. Easy, she thought. Greg opened his arms for the packages and winked.
“You must be new,” he said.
New? Like new in the business? Or new as Zane’s girl?
“I just met Zane last week,” Frankie said.
“He’s a cutie, isn’t he?” Greg said.
Frankie cocked her head. Greg continued to look at her like he knew something she didn’t. As though he was playing with her like a cat to a mouse.
But that was when Greg turned on his heel, strode up the ferry ramp, and disappeared.
Frankie remained on the dock with her arms hanging down and her shoulders slumped. Behind her was a line of tourists waiting to board the boat. No fewer than three women in her immediate vicinity were weeping. One of them said, “I just didn’t imagine the trip going like this!”
Frankie checked her phone to find it was 3:25. The job had taken twenty-five minutes. What had she earned? She still hadn’t braved that discussion with Zane.
Frankie texted Zane to tell him the delivery had been made.
ZANE: That’s my girl.
ZANE: Thank you.
ZANE: Dinner later?
Frankie nearly leaped from her skin with happiness.
FRANKIE: Yes! Can’t wait.
Suddenly, her name rang out across the docks. “Frankie?”
Frankie snapped her head up from her phone. On the other side of a stream of thirty or forty tourists was Shelby, her mother’s business partner. Her blond bob flashed beneath the sunlight. She wore the same lipstick she always wore, the same kind Ida had picked out for her in New York, and a pretty white dress that highlighted her powerful legs. Frankie remembered hearing she’d sculpted them in Pilates or yoga.
Shelby waved her arms and smiled brightly. Frankie was drawn toward her—this woman whom she’d called Aunt Shelby for the majority of her childhood. Shelby had been a permanent fixture, frequently around for family dinners, making her mother light up with stories from their college years. Shelby had been Ida’s maid of honor and held Ida’s hand during childbirth. She’d been Ida’s everything.
Shelby threw her arms around Frankie, overwhelming Frankie with the smell of her perfume. “What are you doing here?” Shelby cried.
How could Frankie explain what she was up to? She hadn’t imagined anyone would see her. She hadn’t imagined she would have to account for this.
“I’m out for a walk,” she said. “And you? You’re pretty far from work.”
Shelby nodded. “I had a meeting over here this afternoon. Just got out.”
Frankie wore a smile that felt false.
“I have a little bit of time,” Shelby said. “Do you want to grab a coffee? An ice cream?”
“I have to get back home soon,” Frankie lied. “I told Nellie I’d help her with something.”
“Oh, come on. It’ll only take a few minutes. And when was the last time we hung out? Just the two of us?”
Frankie wet her lips and followed Shelby down the docks and into a little shadowy coffee shop. The place was notorious for its smell, as it still reeked of the stale cigarettes that had been smoked there thirty years ago, and it sold the worst coffee on the island—usually to fishermen or staff workers on the ferry. It remained in operation because the married couple who owned it were Nantucket legends. It was said the husband was related to Nantucket whalers going back generations.
Plus, there was something about that little coffee shop. Entering was like going back in time.
Shelby ordered them both iced coffees, and they sat at a corner table. They were the only two people in there, save for the wife behind the counter, who stirred their drinks into ice.
“I don’t know if I ever properly congratulated you on your graduation,” Shelby said. “It’s a huge achievement.”
Ida smiled nervously. This is weird, she thought. But she couldn’t put her finger on why.
“Your mom was saying you had a job interview in Manhattan?” Shelby asked.
“I didn’t get it.”
Shelby’s cheek twitched. “But there are so many jobs in Manhattan. I’m sure you’ll get one eventually.”
“I don’t really know if I want to move to the city,” Frankie answered. Her tone felt flat.
The woman delivered their coffees and retreated into the back room. Frankie had the strangest sensation that she wanted her to come back.
“But you don’t want to stay in Nantucket,” Shelby said. “I mean, it’s a great place to raise kids or whatever. But you shouldn’t settle down already. Not before you do something with that linguistics degree.”
Frankie tilted her head. Why is Shelby giving me life advice?
“Your mom mentioned you’ve had a hard summer,” Shelby said. “I was sorry to hear about your boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend, I mean.”
Frankie’s mouth felt terribly dry. She filled it with coffee and felt her anxiety spike.
“The doctors think my thyroid is weird,” Frankie answered after a pause. “But I feel pretty good right now.”
“That’s amazing.” Shelby’s voice was high-pitched. “You know, your mom and I saw you out with some guy? Some much older guy?”
“Oh. Yeah. She told me,” Frankie said.
“Did she?” Shelby sipped her coffee.
“She just wanted to hear the details,” Frankie said.
Shelby leaned over the table. “And what are the details? I’m dying to know.”
“Um? I don’t know. His name is Zane. I met him on the ferry last week,” Frankie said.
“Cool!” Shelby’s tone was saccharine and strange.
Frankie thought of Shelby’s daughter Stacy and said a prayer for Stacy’s future. When Stacy started dating, Shelby would be supremely uncool about it. Apparently.
“I just hope he isn’t too old for you?” Shelby suggested. “With these older guys, it’s hard to know what they really want. You know what I mean?”
Frankie was stunned into silence. Is Shelby insinuating I’m stupid? That I don’t know what some men are like?
“I’m being careful,” Frankie assured her.
“I know, honey. At least, I know you think you’re being careful. But men like that can be so slippery.”
“He’s been really kind. Nothing but kind, in fact,” Frankie said. Her cheeks were hot. She stood, gripping her iced coffee with both hands. She suddenly wanted to get out of there and away from Shelby’s rabid interview. “Listen, I have to head home. Like I said, I told Nellie I’d help her with something.”
Frankie frowned down at Shelby, who looked as though she had a million other things to say, a million other things to warn Frankie about. Frankie didn’t have time for some forty-five-year-old woman who’d only really ever dated the man she’d eventually married. What does she know about the real world?
“If you go back to the office, tell my mom I said hi,” Frankie said, putting on a false tone of joy. “Thanks for the coffee, Shelby. See you later.”
Frankie fled the coffee shop and hurried back to her car. She felt she was getting away with something, although she couldn’t articulate it.
By the time she buckled her seat belt in the car, Shelby texted her.
SHELBY: I just hope you know what you’re doing.
Frankie rolled her eyes all the way into the back of her head.
FRANKIE: I’m fine and happy.
FRANKIE: Thank you!
She wanted to add I can take care of myself, but she decided that sounded too youthful and left it at that.