Chapter 6
Chapter Six
S teven had a second cousin with a cabin on Martha’s Vineyard. His name was Tommy Gasbarro, and he was an accomplished and world-renowned sailor who’d previously traveled the world nonsensically before he’d fallen in love with a Vineyard woman named Lola Sheridan. Steven adored Tommy. He looked up to him as an older brother and begged him to regale stories from his times at sea. Darcy’s favorite was the one Lola told, the one in which she and Tommy met and immediately went on a sailing adventure from the Florida Keys all the way up to Martha’s Vineyard. They’d encountered a storm and had a passionate fight that forced them to acknowledge the depths of their longing for one another. Tommy never would have said “depths of their longing.” His stories weren’t romantic. They were filled with action and adventure.
On Saturday afternoon, Steven convinced Darcy to head to Martha’s Vineyard to meet Tommy and Lola. It wasn’t a hard sell, save for the fact that Darcy was knee-deep in ideas for her “beauty and wellness” app. Her phone and computer were filled with notes, and she’d even drawn a mock-up of what she imagined it looking like on someone’s cell. She hadn’t shown it to anyone, not even Steven. She still wasn’t sure if she should be embarrassed for wanting something at all.
Lola and Tommy waited for them at a little beach that was more off the beaten path than the others the tourists frequented. Lola threw open her arms to collect Darcy in a hug. Tommy immediately launched into a story for Steven, and Steven was cracking a beer and nodding along, rapt.
“They never waste time,” Lola joked.
Darcy grinned and wrapped her arms around her knees. Lola assembled a cheese, fruit, and nut plate and sliced a beautiful French baguette that she said her sister, Christine, had baked that morning. At the mention of “sister,” Darcy’s heart seized.
“My sister can bake, too. She’s a chef.” Darcy wasn’t sure she’d ever told Lola that.
Lola’s eyes sparkled. “It sounds like a difficult life. And that’s coming from a journalist.”
Darcy hadn’t known Lola had a career beyond swimming in the sea and sailing with Tommy.
“That’s the real reason I was with Tommy on that sailboat,” Lola explained their origin story. “I was fascinated with him. I wanted to tell his life story. But I think a part of me knew I was following him around less for the story than for the story of my life, if that makes sense.”
Darcy nodded and glanced at Steven. Just last night, he’d secured two venues for a local tour for his band, both nights to be held in early August. It felt as though the world was shifting on its axis. As though changes were afoot.
After a brief hesitation, Darcy reached for her phone. “Do you mind if I show you something?”
Lola welcomed it. Darcy showed off her ideas for implementing her app, plus photographs of her drawings. Lola asked relevant questions that made Darcy think more critically about the user interface. Her head thrummed as she made more notes to herself.
That’s when she heard wild laughter from a child. Darcy flinched up to watch as two little boys with black hair buzzed across the sand, swirling around and around a half-made sand castle. Darcy and Lola watched the scene for a few moments. They watched as the father built the tower higher than his sons had made it, then watched as the younger son ran across the tower and cried, “Destroy!”
Lola and Darcy giggled.
“That’s little boys for you,” Lola said. “I only had a girl.”
“My mom only had girls, too,” Darcy said.
“And you? What do you want?” Lola asked.
Darcy’s heart thumped. “I think I love the idea of both.”
“Good answer. You can’t choose!”
Just then, the father turned his head so that Darcy could make out his profile. It was Joel, Reese and Oriana’s son. Her eyes widened with surprise.
“I just realized I know him,” Darcy said. “He’s my cousin. Or second cousin? My family is weird.”
“All families are weird,” Lola said. “Does he know you?”
“We’ve met a few times,” Darcy said.
Before she could stop herself, Darcy snapped to her feet and brushed sand from her legs. As Joel’s little boys took off in a mad dash again, Darcy tried to fix her face, to smile in a way that said I am a professional young woman with dreams. Just before she reached him, she realized she was wearing her black bikini, which wasn’t exactly professional attire. Too late now.
“Joel?” Darcy’s voice warbled.
Joel turned too quickly and then hissed with pain and touched his neck. “Ouch! Hi!” His smile came a second later. “Sorry. I’m getting old. Can’t turn my head too quickly.”
Joel couldn’t be much older than Darcy. Twenty-seven, maybe. Twenty-eight.
“You’re not old,” Darcy said with a laugh. “I was just sitting over there and realized I know you. I’m–”
“You’re Sam’s daughter,” Joel interrupted. “Aren’t you on the wrong island?”
“I think we must have taken a wrong turn,” Darcy said. “Do you know the way back?”
“Once you get to Martha’s Vineyard, there’s no turning back,” Joel joked.
“I guess we’ll have to start a new life. Actually, I heard that’s what you’re doing? You moved back? That’s what your mom said the other day.”
Joel bit his lower lip as though he were reluctant to face this fact. “We just got here last weekend. It’s an adjustment period. Obviously, the boys are having the time of their lives. Aren’t you Peter? Tyler?”
The boys screamed and ran past.
“Listen,” Darcy said as a storm of anxiety quaked in her chest, “it’s funny that I ran into you like this. I promise I’m not a stalker. But I wanted to talk to you anyway. Like, I have an idea for an app.” She winced at how stupid she sounded and searched Joel’s face for a sign he thought she was dumb, too. But he just smiled back.
“What’s it about?”
Darcy took a deep breath. “I work as an aesthetician. It means I know the way faces handle various anti-aging treatments, the difference between various skin types and tones, and how heart-shaped faces should be handled differently than round or square. I wrote out everything I’ve learned over the past five-plus years of doing this and realized it’s definitely enough for an app. Something to help the average woman or man with a morning and nightly wellness routine.” Darcy took a deep breath and realized she was talking too quickly. “Sorry. I’m not used to pitching.”
“This isn’t a pitch,” Joel said kindly. “We’re just talking.”
Tension spilled out of Darcy’s shoulders.
“I think it sounds great,” Joel went on. “Maybe you can come by the office and talk more about it? My head is a bit woozy from the sun.”
“Of course. I’m sorry to spring this on you.”
Suddenly, Reese and Oriana appeared at the edge of the beach. They looked picture-perfect: Reese wore a sun visor and a pair of dark swim shorts, and Oriana wore a white dress and a Red Sox baseball hat. Oriana carried a picnic basket. Peter and Tyler whipped across the sand to greet her and see what snacks she’d brought.
“This is a surprise!” Reese said as he approached.
“We didn’t plan it. I’m here with my boyfriend,” Darcy explained.
Reese followed her gaze to find Tommy, Steven, and Lola strewn across blankets twenty feet away. Reese waved and said, “Tommy and Lola. One of my favorite couples.”
“Tommy is Steven’s second-cousin,” Darcy said.
“Everyone is connected around here one way or another,” Reese said.
Ten feet behind him, Oriana helped Peter open a bag of fruit snacks as Tyler chomped through a Cheeto and explained what games they’d already played. “Peter destroyed the sand castle because he was King Kong.”
“Darcy was just telling me about an idea for an app,” Joel mentioned.
Reese raised his eyebrows.
“I know what you’re thinking. The world doesn’t need more apps,” Darcy said sheepishly.
“On the contrary. Personally, I think the world will never have enough apps!” Reese said and elbowed his son. “We’re in business together now, Joel and me.”
“I told her she could come into the new office and talk about it,” Joel said.
Darcy remembered that, at the Coleman House, Oriana had said Joel and Reese had always had a difficult relationship. She scrutinized their expressions and their tones, hunting for strain between them. Maybe they were good actors. They just looked like a happy father-son business duo here on the beach. Darcy hoped that was closer to the truth than it once had been. Things could turn on a dime.
“Where’s Lauren?” Darcy remembered to ask.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Reese’s eyes flickered with emotion. What’s that about?
“She couldn’t make it,” Joel explained. “She’s had a summer cold the past couple of days.”
“Moving is stressful,” Darcy said. “Give her my best.”
“Thanks. When do you want to come by the office?” Joel asked.
Darcy’s heart ballooned. Was this really happening? “I don’t work Wednesday or Thursday afternoon.”
“We’ll book you in for Wednesday,” Reese said, drawing his phone out of his swim shorts and making a note in his calendar. “How’s three?”
Darcy agreed. It’s happening.
Tommy, Lola, and Steven joined not long after that for a rowdy game of frisbee that left Darcy gasping and falling all over herself with laughter. Steven was a gifted athlete and whipped all over the beach, even sprinting to catch a rogue Frisbee that Oriana had thrown. He flew into the air, caught it, then collapsed immediately in an oncoming wave. Everyone howled and clapped. When he emerged, he shook his hair like a golden retriever and flailed the Frisbee. He’d saved it before it had been swallowed up by the sea.
Not long after that, Tommy and Lola admitted they had to head to the Sheridan House for dinner. There was chaos to attend to. Their family inn the Sunrise Cove was closed for the foreseeable future because a secret historical room had been discovered in the foundation. “Everyone is so worried we’ll have to close up forever,” Lola said with a sigh. “But we’ve been through so many trials at this point. We have to get through this one too.”
Steven confessed he was starving. They packed up their bags and bid goodbye to Oriana, Reese, Joel, Peter, and Tyler and followed the softly-trodden path of Lola and Tommy through the little oak forest and then to the parking lot so that Tommy and Lola could drive them back to the harbor. In the rearview mirror, Lola redid her eye makeup and smeared lotion on her face, then turned around to say, “Darcy, I need that app ASAP. I’m going to be forty-three this year! And I heard a rumor there’s no going back in time.”
“I know of a few retinols that can do the trick,” Darcy said.
Tommy dropped them off at the docks. They waved goodbye until Tommy’s truck disappeared around the carousel. Steven then took Darcy’s hand and whispered in her ear, “I don’t know how to tell you this.”
A shiver raced down Darcy’s spine. He’s going to tell you he loves you for the first time. He’s going to propose. He’s going to ask to move in.
But Steven said, “I need an ice cream cone,” then smiled mischievously.
Darcy hit him lightly on the shoulder and laughed. “I could use one, too.”
They crowded around a little ice cream kiosk selling soft serve vanilla, chocolate, or swirl—old-school and exactly what they wanted. The sun dimmed into a cloud and cast the gorgeous day in shadows. Across the parking lot a toddler screamed, his face red as a tomato. His mother was doing his best: squatting in front of him and holding his hand. But he smacked her with his other one. She looked stricken.
Steven laughed gently and said, “It’s been a long day for all of us!”
He was the sort of guy to have compassion for everyone from toddlers to middle-aged folks to people in retirement homes. He had empathy for every kind of story.
Darcy got vanilla, and Steven opted for swirl with a cherry on top. But on their walk to a little bench, the cherry melted off and toppled to the pavement. Darcy and Steven stared at it wordlessly for a second, then burst into laughter. It looked so sad and forlorn, laying there, covered in melted chocolate.
“What are maraschino cherries made of, anyway?” Steven asked. “They don’t taste like any cherry I’ve ever eaten off a tree.”
Suddenly, there was a squawk of a motorcycle as its engine flared up. A big Honda shot through the parking lot and very nearly rolled over the cherry. Up front was a handsome guy with dark hair and a large Roman nose, and behind him was a blond woman with her chin wrapped adoringly over his shoulder and her eyes closed. Her arms were around him, holding tight. It wasn’t clear if she was frightened or serene.
And then it struck Darcy that she knew her.
“That’s Lauren,” Darcy breathed when the motorcycle kicked away.
“Who?”
Darcy explained the connection; that Lauren was Joel’s wife. A clammy feeling came over her. She licked her ice cream and shivered.
“You think she’s…” Steven trailed off. Darcy knew he wanted to say: cheating on Joel.
Darcy shrugged and sat down on the bench. She felt heavy and wordless. “Do you think everyone cheats?”
“No,” Steven said. He sounded so sure.
“But so many people do,” Darcy reminded him. “My great-grandfather had a whole other family when he started a new one. And then there’s my father.” A stone fell into her stomach. She realized she’d let most of her ice cream melt across her hand in a sticky mess. It was rare she spoke of her father. He felt like a stranger in her life. Someone better left ignored.
“A lot of people do a lot of things.”
Darcy was quiet. She threw the ice cream cone into the trash beside her and wiped up her hand as best as she could. Once they got on the boat, she would dunk it in the water and let it dry with a layer of salt crystals.
“I have this feeling about affairs,” Darcy offered. “That they crack through families and through generations. Maybe the first ‘affair’ tainted all other relationships after it.”
“You’re saying that if your parents had an affair, you’re more likely to?” Steven’s eyes were wide but not accusatory.
“No. I don’t know. Maybe.” Darcy rubbed her temples. “It just feels like a poison that seeps through everything. And I hate that those little boys we saw on the beach today might be victims of this new affair. And more than that, I hate that I have this knowledge now. I barely know Joel. Why would he listen to me?”
“It might be totally innocent,” Steven offered.
Darcy furrowed her brow. It didn’t look innocent. Lauren had looked euphoric, wild, and free in ways a young mother and wife shouldn’t. It looked twisted. Wrong.