34. Dumped
“We’ll have a big party at the Oystercatcher right after Labor Day,” Andrea says. “But I think we should do something more intimate too. A dinner with just us and the Wheelers and the Drakes. What do you think about that?”
Kacy is at the kitchen island, staring at a text from Isla that reads I’m booking a flight to Nantucket. I have to see you.
“Kacy?” Andrea says.
Kacy looks up. Her mother is waiting for… some kind of answer? Kacy didn’t hear the question. This whole thing with Rondo is real; Rondo is in love with Tami Dunne, he’s leaving Isla. And Isla is flying out to see Kacy. Kacy has been dreaming of Isla realizing that she loves Kacy in a way she will never love Dave Rondo and leaving him despite the inevitable outcry from her family.
But this is a little different.
“Sounds good,” Kacy says to her mother, hoping this is an appropriate answer.
“I’ll let your father pick the place,” Andrea says. “Do you think you’ll bring a plus-one? Maybe Coco?”
“Um… yeah,” Kacy says. Since the horrible scene at the day-drinking party, things between Kacy and Coco have cooled. Kacy texted her a few days after the party: Hey, again, I’m sorry. I hope you don’t hate me. Coco had responded right away: I don’t hate you. So that, at least, was good, but there has been nothing else—no invitations to hang out on the Richardsons’ beach, no more nights out. “What is this for again?”
Andrea swats at Kacy’s arm with a dish towel. “Your father’s retirement dinner. Us, the Wheelers, the Drakes. We’ll do it next Thursday, a week from today.”
“Okay, sorry.” This is the perfect opportunity to make things right with Coco. “I’ll ask her.”
She types: Hey there—Mom wants to know if you can join us for my dad’s retirement dinner, a week from tonight.
Coco responds: Can I let you know? It’s crazy around here right now.
That’s a no, Kacy thinks, and she clicks out of her texts. Her mother is portioning skinless chicken breasts for her father’s sad lunch salads but Kacy feels Andrea watching her. She has to get out of the house.
“I’m going to the beach,” she says.
The south shore is foggy, which turns Kacy’s introspective beach walk into a whole mood. She meanders along the water’s edge as the waves crash, then froth around her feet. Seagulls cry out; sandpipers scurry along in a V formation. There’s a guy surf-casting and when Kacy passes, he gives her an appraising look. If this were a rom-com he might say, Why the long face?
Kacy keeps going. What if she brought Isla as her plus-one to her father’s dinner? That has long been the fantasy, that Isla would show up and declare her love and Kacy could introduce her to her parents, to Eric and Avalon. This is my girlfriend, Dr. Isla Quintanilla. They would be impressed with Isla—a brilliant neonatologist, so well educated, from an important Mexico City family.
Why has Kacy been keeping you from us?Andrea would ask.
Isla was engaged,Kacy would answer. But her fiancé has fallen in love with someone else and taken down his wedding Pinterest page, so… here she is!
It’s wrong. Isla should have left Rondo, not the other way around. Isla wants to come to Nantucket now because she’s been dumped. Kacy is her backup, her plan B, her second choice.
Kacy is getting what she wants, but not for the right reason. And the reason matters.
She pulls out her phone and texts Isla: Don’t come.
Immediately, Kacy’s phone rings. She declines the call.
When Eddie enters his office on Main Street, his sister, Barbie, gives him a wide-eyed-closed-mouth look. Something is up.
What?he mouths.
She points to the partition between their two desks. Eddie peeks around the corner and sees Bull Richardson sitting in the chair meant for clients.
Eddie is spooked. Everyone on earth has a cell phone; there’s no excuse for showing up anywhere unannounced. This is an ambush. Bull is here to tell Eddie that he’s out of the deal.
Eddie is about to back out of the office when Bull spins in his chair, cranes his neck, and sees Eddie. He jumps to his feet. “Edward!” he says, thrusting out a hand.
What can Eddie do but shake it? “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Please sit,” Bull says and Eddie thinks, This is my office, I’ll sit when I’m good and ready. Also, he hates being called Edward; it reminds him of his grandmother and his high-school principal, Dr. Lewicki.
Eddie takes off his panama hat and settles into his chair. Sexy indifference, he thinks. The original idea for purchasing Jeanne Jackson’s property was his, but no biggie. Easy come, easy go. He’ll be glad to be rid of the stress because, you know, in real estate development, there’s always stress. It’s almost worth the eight million he would have made to have it go away, ha-ha-ha. He’ll handle this with grace. Bull will not be able to call him inelegant.
Bull leans forward in his chair and lowers his voice to a stage whisper. “I think we should cut Addison out of the deal.”
Eddie blinks. “Addison?”
“There’s something a little slippery about the bloke,” Bull says. “Are you aware that his nickname around town is Wheeler Dealer?”
Of course Eddie knows this. It was Eddie’s brother-in-law Glenn Daley who gave Addison the nickname a million years ago. These days, Wheeler Dealer is a term of affection and respect for Addison.
“What am I missing?” Eddie says. “Did something happen?”
“Phoebe and Addison just aren’t the people I thought they were,” Bull says. “Leslee and I made a large financial gesture that would benefit their son—”
“The donation to the boarding school,” Eddie says, thinking, See, Addison does tell me things.
“Precisely,” Bull says. “But when it came time for Phoebe and Addison to reciprocate, they didn’t deliver. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to do business with a fella like that.”
Eddie isn’t sure what the Wheelers promised the Richardsons and he doesn’t care. “Addison and I are a package deal,” Eddie says. “I heard you at the garden party last week telling Addison the two of you should dump me. I heard the things you said about me, Bull.”
Bull says, “Well, then, I guess the person who’s leaving the deal is me. Have fun financing this by yourself, mate. You can kiss my money goodbye.” Bull gets to his feet so rapidly, his chair topples over behind him. Inelegant, Eddie thinks.
Barbie appears in the doorway, resting-bitch face in place. “I’ll see you out, Mr. Richardson.”
Eddie sets Bull’s chair upright, then all but collapses into his own. Addison—he has to call Addison! They can get a loan from Nantucket Bank as long as they’re partnered up. They should have done this in the first place; what were they thinking?
But before Eddie calls Addison, there’s someone else he needs to talk to. He dials Blond Sharon.
“Hey, bae,” he says. “Do you know what happened between the Richardsons and Phoebe and Addison?”
There’s a pause. “It’s confidential,” Sharon says. Then she laughs. “But it’s too good to keep secret. Sit down.”