Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Lauren had a great visit with her parents. They went to dinner Tuesday night at her favorite neighborhood restaurant, The Yarmouth House, and she had the lobster Thermidor, which was insanely delicious. She’d worked as a server there during school breaks while she was in college, and it was fun to see some of the people she’d worked with. And the food was always so good. She took the ferry back to Nantucket Wednesday morning and was well rested and ready to dive into work.
She’d gotten an email from Jason that he and Anna were now officially dating and open to filming a date night. She was thrilled to hear it—it would be great content for the show but mostly because she’d been rooting for their friendship to turn into a romance. She thought the details of their actual date were really sweet, but that it might be difficult to recreate with all the crowds downtown. She’d called Hudson on the ferry ride over and he agreed that for filming purposes, it might be better to have them go to an actual restaurant where they could chat over a nice dinner and they could go extra early before the restaurant got too busy.
They arranged to have their first date at Ships Inn, which was a historic bed-and-breakfast with an incredible small restaurant. The building itself was a whaling captain’s home and dated back to 1831. It was the perfect spot, with white linens, and they arranged to have dinner an hour before the restaurant officially opened, so that they wouldn’t disturb other patrons and so there would be room for the production team and equipment.
Jason and Anna were nervous at first and self-conscious with the cameras, but once they put their orders in, they relaxed and had a wonderful ‘first date’ conversation. Lauren knew that the viewers were going to love how their date turned out—and if the show was renewed, she suspected the two might still be together and that would add a fun dynamic to the second season, if they both agreed to return.
On Friday night they had their last party at the share house and they pulled out all the stops, with another popular local band and caterers that were grilling up an elevated surf and turf—steak tips, pesto shrimp and marinated lemon swordfish.
They had another group restaurant dinner planned for the following night, Saturday, their last night at the share house. Lauren was planning to fly back the following Tuesday and was going to enjoy two final days off before then.
The party on Friday night was fun but bittersweet. Lauren was acutely aware that time was speeding up, and she’d be back in LA in a week. She tried not to think of that, though, and to just enjoy the moment as much as possible.
This time when she and Eloise invited all the neighbors, almost all of them agreed to come—some were curious and others were just glad that it was going to be the last event. Although most were friendly and appreciated that they were given notice when the noise levels might be higher than normal. The cast had been pretty good about not getting too out-of-hand. It was the first show that Lauren had worked on where the police hadn’t been called at least once for complaints during parties.
Lisa and Rhett came as well as Kay and Walter and got there early enough to get the table they liked at the back of the deck. Lauren, Eloise, and Hudson sat and ate with them before the rest of the crowd arrived and they had to work.
“We’ll actually be sorry to see you go,” Kay said. “Walter and I have gotten such a kick out of watching all the activity. It will be quiet when you leave.”
“We’ll have to go back to just watching the beach, which isn’t such a bad thing,” Walter said.
“What do you have planned for tomorrow night?” Lisa asked.
“It’s our final group dinner. We’re going to Galley Beach. I thought that might be a good spot to film as we can sit outside and there’s plenty of room on the beach for the production team.”
Rhett nodded. “That’s a great spot. Will give a good Nantucket feel being right on the beach.”
“Walter took me there a few weeks ago. The actual tables and chairs are literally on the beach. I thought it was just the restaurant overlooking it. It was fun to take my shoes off and stick them in the sand.”
Walter nodded. “It’s a crowded place, though. I assume they know you’re coming?”
“Yes. We’re going a bit early before it gets too crowded and they’ve reserved two tables for us. One for the cast and one for the production team.”
“I’ve actually never been there,” Hudson said. “So, I’m looking forward to it.”
Lauren smiled as she looked around the table. She grabbed her cell phone and waved Anna over to take a picture of their table. She took a few shots, and Lauren showed them to everyone at the table.
“I’ll email copies to you all,” she promised. It was a great picture, with the rosy sunset in the background and their little group all with their Nantucket t-shirts or sweatshirts. That was the only theme for their final night—everyone had to wear something that said Nantucket on it. They thought that visual would look great on film. There were a lot of Nantucket Red sweatshirts and t-shirts but also lots of pale blue, navy, red and even white.
Once they finished eating, Hudson left to man his camera. Lauren and Eloise poured themselves a glass of white wine sangria and slowly roamed the party, which was inside as well as outside and had also expanded onto the beach.
The band started playing once everyone was just about done eating. The music was lively and loud, but not too bad, and it didn’t take long before people were up and dancing.
The whole cast was dancing and laughing, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Lauren noticed that Jason and Anna were the first ones up dancing and the others followed. She was a little surprised to see Sami dancing with Billy. But Katy was inside talking with Honey and Brett in the kitchen.
When the music slowed, Katy stepped outside and found Billy leaning against the deck railing, chatting with Sami, Suzanne and Noah. She pulled him onto the dance floor and wrapped her arms around her neck. He looked down at Katy with the charming smile that Lauren knew so well. It looked like things were still going well for them, and she was hopeful, for Katy’s sake, that it would continue.
Lisa and the others left an hour or so after dinner. Lauren promised she’d fill Lisa in over breakfast if anything interesting happened after she left.
The band stopped playing around eleven and most of the visitors left. A few of the cast members, Honey, Brett and Katy, headed to bed.
“I hate to head up so early, but the combination of the sun this afternoon and an extra glass of wine tonight and I’m so ready to go to sleep,” Katy said. She and Anna and most of the cast had spent the day on the beach, but most of them were in and out all day. Katy had fallen asleep for several hours in the hot sun. She’d had plenty of sunscreen on so she wasn’t burned, but Lauren understood why she was so tired. The sun could be draining.
By midnight, the only ones still up were Suzanne and Noah, Anna and Jason and Sami and Billy. When Anna headed to bed and a few minutes later, the others started moving towards the stairs, Lauren ended filming for the night.
“I’ll walk you back,” Hudson said.
They headed to the beach and walked in almost complete darkness to the inn. The moon was just a tiny sliver in the sky.
When they reached the steps to the inn, Hudson asked what her plans were for her final days off.
“Angela is having me over for a goodbye dinner on Sunday. But I’m totally free on Monday.”
“Let’s do something. Maybe Millie’s?” That had been the first place she’d gone to with Hudson, so it seemed fitting that it would be her last dinner as well.
“Sure, that sounds perfect.”
Hudson held her gaze for a moment and looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated.
“What is it?”
He stepped toward her, close enough that she could smell a hint of his cologne, and she leaned in. He put his arms around her and she immediately felt goosebumps and a shift as the energy around them grew charged.
“I just wanted to say that the show will be over by then. So, if you wanted, we could consider it a date?”
She smiled. “I would love that. But I’m leaving on Tuesday.”
“I know, but there are things called phones and planes…we can keep in touch and even find ways to see each other. If you want?”
Lauren nodded and found her gaze drawn to his lips. She held her breath for a moment in anticipation as he lowered them towards hers and kissed her. It was a brief kiss, but it changed everything between them.
“See you tomorrow,” he said as he turned to leave. She watched him head back to the beach and then went inside, feeling a sense of excitement that she hadn’t felt since she first dated Billy. She didn’t know how they’d make it work as they couldn’t be further apart location wise. But she was thrilled that he wanted to try.
Katy was sound asleep when Anna went to her bedroom. She walked quietly so she wouldn’t wake her, and changed into her pajamas in the bathroom. She was about to slip into bed when she remembered she’d left her big glass of water on the kitchen counter. She always slept with water by her side in case she woke up thirsty. She tiptoed toward the door, opened it slowly and stepped into the hallway, then stopped in her tracks as she watched a giggling Sami and Billy stumble into his bedroom.
Her heart sank on Katy’s behalf. She would be devastated if she knew that Sami and Billy had hooked up. There was a slight chance that what she just saw was innocent, but it didn’t look good. Anna continued on to the kitchen, got her water, and went to bed. She dreaded telling Katy what she’d seen and decided to chat with Lauren and Eloise first, as she knew they’d review the overnight film in the morning and they would know how long Sami stayed in Billy’s room and what actually happened.