Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
When Nora got back to the Greenaway house after two weeks in Manhattan, she was surprised to find that her aunt and uncle had had Toby and Greg cook for her an elaborate feast, one meant to celebrate her “great success” in the big city.
There was fish, apparently, and homemade biscuits and lemon meringue for dessert.
Aunt Cynthia told her to “dress up fabulously” and join them on the veranda, where they would dine as the sun was setting.
Although she ached to see them after so long away, Nora knew better than to ask about the children.
Aunt Cynthia didn’t usually like to talk about them, not unless they’d done something that made her look better than she was.
Nora assumed that the stand-in babysitter was upstairs, reading them books and helping them to calm down before sleep.
Maybe she’d been “promoted” beyond babysitting.
Perhaps she was now accepted into the family.
She allowed herself to forget, if only briefly, that Uncle Everett had gotten her the internship in the city as a way to keep her mouth shut about his affair.
More than that, she allowed herself to forget that many people thought he was a murderer.
It was impossible. He’d be in prison if that were so, rather than upstairs, changing into a suit jacket for an expansive dinner on his very own veranda.
Later at the table with her aunt and uncle, Nora smiled as her plate of food was brought out and set before her. It was Jan who carried it, smiling down at her nervously, before hurrying away. They knew that Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Everett couldn’t know how friendly they were with each other.
“She looks different, doesn’t she, Everett?” Aunt Cynthia said, grinning down the table at Nora. “She looks like a woman of the world.”
“She certainly does,” Uncle Everett said. “The rumor is that you were a sensational intern. Ollie suggested you could do it again next year. You’d be given more responsibilities. Maybe you’d get to work directly with the editor herself. Tell me, where were you thinking of applying to school?”
“Harvard?” Nora declared, although she half assumed they would laugh at her.
“Harvard is a very good school,” her aunt said seriously.
“Harvard would be lucky to have you,” Uncle Everett said.
Nora was taken aback. Was that kind of future actually a possibility for her? She thought of Cecily, Rachel, and Martha, imagining them all at Harvard together, studying in some beautiful mahogany library hall, laughing about how they’d met one another when they were “just kids.”
Dinner was divine, especially after two weeks of eating street food for cheap.
Nora felt nutrients returning to her muscles and mind.
Feeling as though she had to perform, she told her aunt and uncle story after story of her time in Manhattan and at the magazine.
She was careful never to mention Max or their romance.
As the evening dimmed to night, it was becoming clearer to her that Max was probably a liar, that he hadn’t told her about his father, and his assumption that her uncle was to blame.
She wondered whether Max was jealous of her.
After all, Uncle Everett and Aunt Cynthia had decided to give her everything, including their wealth and connections.
She hadn’t been born into this world, but here it was, all laid out for her. Max didn’t have that option, she knew.
Her heart ached. All she wanted was for Max to appear on the beach at night, to beckon for her again. She’d yell at him, and maybe he’d explain himself. She’d accuse him of using her, and he’d tell her what was really on his mind.
Late that night, she gazed out the window, waiting for him. But he didn’t appear.
She guessed that meant he didn’t want anything to do with her, now that she knew the truth.
Just as she’d suspected, now that she was back on Nantucket, she wasn’t needed for babysitting duties.
A woman named Stacy, who was around her age, cared for the kids instead, feeding them, taking them for rides in the clunky car, and putting Band-Aids on their wounds.
It meant that Nora’s days were open and her own to do whatever she liked.
But it also meant that she was lonely. She missed the kids.
She missed Max. She missed those long, salty days when she’d been able to hide from her heartbreak over her parents by helping somebody else.
Three days after she returned, Nora spotted the new babysitter, Stacy, guiding the kids out to the beach near the house.
Nora put on her swimsuit and headed down there after them, eager to make a sandcastle with Mona or throw Felix into the waves.
When she arrived, the kids were overjoyed, leaping on her and getting sand everywhere.
Stacy looked annoyed. She expected the kids to be well-behaved and ordered in a way that Nora felt kids shouldn’t have to be.
“Quiet down,” Stacy said. “Please, don’t rile them up, Nora.”
Stacy gave Nora a look of contempt that made Nora think she really was one of the Nantucket elite. In Stacy’s eyes, Nora was like her aunt and uncle. She was like Ollie. No amount of explaining would convince her otherwise, Nora knew. She’d been given a piece of the kingdom, and now she was evil.
Nora slunk back to the house, watching out of the corner of her eye for some sign of Max. But he hadn’t been back to the Greenaway house since their return from Manhattan. She wondered what he was thinking about. She questioned if she’d disappointed him.
When Nora reached the veranda, she found her aunt reading in a bikini, her skin bronzed and shining. She set her book to the side, adjusted her sunglasses, and said, “We’re having another party this weekend, Nora. This time, we want you to be a guest.”
Nora was surprised. She hadn’t thought her aunt and uncle would host a party so soon after their last one. But she couldn’t hide her excitement. “I’d love that,” she said.
Her aunt smiled falsely. “It’s occurred to me that I owe it to my sister to teach you something about the world,” she said. “She was a dear, but there’s so much she never bothered to learn. There was so much she was never going to pass on to you. God rest her soul.”
Nora and Aunt Cynthia had talked so little about Nora’s mother that it rattled Nora. She’d almost let herself believe that Aunt Cynthia and her mother were strangers and had nothing to do with one another.
“I appreciate that,” Nora said flatly.
“I had to learn all of this on my own,” Aunt Cynthia said. “It was a terrifying journey. I made many mistakes. It’s no small miracle that I ended up here at the Greenaway house, married to Everett. If he had met me at another time, he never would have looked twice at me.”
Nora’s mouth went dry.
“Maybe if you play your cards right, you can meet someone like Everett,” Aunt Cynthia said. “Maybe you can have a house just like this one. And four kids to call your own.”
Her kids and husband were like accessories, Nora thought.
Aunt Cynthia picked up her book and busied herself in its pages, leaving Nora swimming with mysteries.
She continued into the house and went upstairs, where she sat at the edge of her bed, wondering about her aunt and uncle.
How much of their marriage would she ever understand?
And was this really the life she wanted for herself?
That weekend, Nora found a jewel-green dress on her bed.
Aunt Cynthia had left a note with it, telling her to wear it during the party.
Nora showered and put it on, frightened of how fine the material was and how stringy the straps were.
But just as Aunt Cynthia had surely known it would, it looked divine on her.
A part of her hoped that Max was working the party so he could see her in that dress.
Did he miss her at all? Did he remember what he’d written in the letters he’d sent her, letters she now kept in a box under her bed? Or had he decided to shove away all memory of their time together?
Nora joined her aunt and uncle during the party's buildup. Sitting around the pool, they drank burnt-orange cocktails and greeted everyone as they came in. Many people had brought presents, flowers, bottles of wine and spirits, or little desserts, which were given to a member of staff. Nora was introduced as their niece who’d recently worked in Manhattan.
“She’s staying with us so she can learn a little something about the business world,” Uncle Everett boomed to whoever would listen. “She’s going to go to Harvard. Mark my words.”
Nora smiled and said everything she thought she was meant to. Based on her aunt’s and uncle’s smiles, she thought she was doing okay. Maybe her instincts around this were there. She could fake it.
As the crowd filled and the music pumped from the speakers and the sun grew orange and heavy, Nora noticed Max, standing on the outskirts of the crowd.
He wore a catering uniform and held a round tray with plates of appetizers: stuffed mushrooms, fish croquettes, and fresh garlic knots.
Nora stared at him until he looked over at her.
The look they shared made her heart melt.
She could tell that he liked her dress, that he wanted to abandon his food tray and run over to her and kiss her and apologize.
But this wasn’t the time for a scene like that. Soon, another server came over and muttered something in Max’s ear, ripping him away.
“Nora!” Aunt Cynthia called, pulling her farther away. “I want to introduce you to someone!”