Chapter 12
Twelve
I took a photo of the lighthouse—to pair with the watercolor—and on our way out of Edgartown, Connor pulled over near the Greek Revival masterpiece that was the Old Whaling Church.
Originally built for Methodist whaling captains way back when, it now hosted various events.
A few celebrities had even gotten married there.
I didn’t have Annie’s Polaroid with me, but I knew it showed her posing near one of the columns with a straw bag and a small bouquet of daisies.
A sign that her love for freshly cut flowers had bloomed ages ago.
I’d kept Annie’s diagnosis to myself, but I did show Connor the list and tell him about my plan to make her a new Shutterfly book, this one full of both her Vineyard memorabilia and photos of me in the same places two generations later.
He’d grinned, a smile that I hated to admit rivaled today’s sunshine. “Oh, she’s going to love that!”
I nodded, knowing she would…
Especially if she recognized and remembered her summer here.
Connor offered to take a picture of me, and I put my hand on my waist and smiled when he’d framed me in my iPhone’s crosshairs. “Relax!” he called to me. “You don’t need to be so stiff.”
“I wasn’t aware I was stiff,” I said, but I rolled my shoulders back. He wordlessly took a couple shots, both horizontal and vertical, then stepped closer and even crouched down a little.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Covering every angle,” he answered as a light breeze rippled through the warm air. “Liam taught me this one!”
I started giggling.
Smiling, Connor captured it.
“Thank you,” I said after he handed back my phone. “Hopefully there are one or two good ones.”
“Olivia, come on.” Connor lifted his sunglasses, to give me a look that made my stomach drop. His eyes—his eyes were so hypnotically blue that I felt the urge to dive into them. “You know you’re gorgeous,” he said, then turned toward Teddy and Finn. “Right?”
“Right!” the boys echoed, both cracking up when I shrugged and casually flipped my hair to play off the moment. Hopefully no one caught the embarrassment warming my cheeks.
You know you’re gorgeous.
How was I supposed to respond to that?
Even if I knew, I couldn’t. I was tongue-tied.
Connor played Finn’s favorite playlist on the drive home, and once back, they raced inside to change for the beach. “Their turnaround time is usually ten minutes,” Connor informed me. “Late-afternoon snack selection is a serious business.”
I nodded knowingly. “The kitchen’s closed!” Erica told Bryce multiple times a week, usually after dinner.
“I’d love to see your grandmother’s photos,” Connor added, making my heart spark, and together we retreated to Summer Camp.
I spread out the Polaroids and watercolors on top of our dresser and watched Connor’s eyes slide across them.
“Wow…” He picked up the Aquinnah Cliffs painting. “Did she do this?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, I would think so—my great-grandfather was apparently a pretty good artist—but I’ve never seen her paint. She does draw a little, though.”
Drew, I silently corrected. Annie drew a little, since she could no longer hold a pencil.
“You haven’t asked her…?” Connor trailed off, his attention stolen by a Polaroid. The tractor photo, of course. Something in my chest twinged when he flipped it over to read Annie’s elegant handwriting. “Where’s ‘summer camp?’”
“I don’t have the slightest idea,” I told him. “But something tells me it’s not our summer camp.”
He laughed and studied the photo again and then looked all too quickly back at me, this time with a glint in his eye. “You look just like her.”
“I know,” I told him. “You aren’t the first person to call me gorgeous.”
At that, Connor arched an eyebrow, but he didn’t seem to have any words.
I thought, Who’s tongue-tied now, pipsqueak?
* * *
It seemed like games were the theme of Wednesday, since Maisie and Bryce spearheaded a volleyball match with all the younger kids on the beach while Erica and my dad challenged Jay and Allison to a surprisingly less-than-competitive game of cornhole.
(They sipped beers and High Noons as they tossed beanbags.) I read my book, ate a peanut-butter-and-fluff sandwich, and then collected shells with Sage and Meredith.
“I wonder what Teddy and Finn are up to this afternoon,” Sage mused once we were back on her beach blanket, sorting through our haul.
Meredith had run off at the sight of her aunt with a water gun.
“They’re usually asking to bury Nick alive by now… ”
I felt myself flush, never slow on subtext.
Peggy thankfully appeared before Connor’s name could officially come up.
Her brown eyes were bright under her wide-brimmed hat.
“I hope you girls don’t have any plans tonight,” she said, and after Sage and I shook our heads, she instructed us to be in the upstairs den after dinner.
“Secretive as always,” Sage whispered to me, reading my mind. She winked. “We never know the game ahead of time…”
The upstairs den, I discovered post–shish kebabs, was up a narrow staircase that opened up into a panoramic room. Wow, I thought, even though I’d seen the rounded third story from the outside. How many surprises does this house hold?
Large glass windows showed off tonight’s waterfront slow sunset, gold light reflecting off Oyster Pond, and wood-paneled walls made the den feel especially cozy.
A chunky plaid sectional looked like it could fit a dozen people, and while it was July, I didn’t mind the fire burning in the grate.
The temperature had dropped with the sun.
“Everyone over here, please!” Peggy waved us over to the couch then clucked at her son when he sniffed around the mysterious boxes on the coffee table. “Jay, you know better…”
“Granddad, what’s up with the hat?” Maisie asked, since Topper wasn’t donning his beach Stetson. Instead, he wore a blue-white-and-silver embroidered fez, similar to the one Daniel Craig wore while soaking in the bathtub in Glass Onion.
“It’s an old favorite,” he told my sister. “I bought it years ago in San Francisco. Cable Car Clothiers.”
“I think it’s fantastic.” Erica snuck up behind him so she could playfully flick the hat’s silver tassel. “Do they make a child version?”
Bryce would look adorable… I silently agreed.
Topper chuckled as his tassel twirled. “Perhaps you can check their Instagram.”
“Perhaps I will,” Erica lightly replied before Jay spoke. “Why are you wearing it tonight, Dad?”
Most of us looked at Peggy. Try as the Carmichaels might, no one had figured out tonight’s specifics. Sage hadn’t been exaggerating; Carmichael family game nights involved much intrigue and drama.
“Mom,” Beth said. “Tell us.”
“What a thoughtful way of saying hurry up,” I just barely heard Erica mumble, the dry inflection sounding unlike her. I knew her sister got under her skin, but she wasn’t normally this sarcastic.
Had something happened earlier?
Smiling, Peggy pulled a blue Bugs Bunny–style sleeping cap from one of the boxes. “If everyone could please draw a marble…” She offered the cap first to impatient Beth. “Tonight’s game will involve plenty of teamwork. As your judge, I will explain more once teams are chosen.”
Beth pulled a blue marble, her husband yellow, and Sage red. Nick cheered when he drew yellow too. The more people pulled marbles, the more everyone seemed almost giddy with excitement. I caught Connor’s eye; he shrugged and smiled amusedly, as if to say, This might be bonkers, but I’m here for it!
It felt somewhat strange to be participating. A game of Monopoly would’ve been one thing, but this—an unknown game—was another. Did my dad also feel like an outsider?
It didn’t look like it. He and Charlie executed a perfect high five, both members of Team Blue.
I wished I could talk to Annie; I wished she could give me advice.
She had been able to light up any social situation, whether that was being the consummate hostess, making others feel welcome, or charming people at a party where she knew few.
If you want to be a part of things, I distantly heard her say. Then be a part of things!
Embrace this.
Teddy waved around his green marble as soon as he pulled it out of the hat, and then it was my turn. I also picked green. “Yes, I’ve got Olivia!” Teddy cheered, which made me smile. “Who’s jealous?”
“No one!” Maisie and Bryce called, as if it were a rehearsed joke. My sister giggled when I rolled my eyes.
I felt a rush of love for her.
Teddy and I ended up with Allison and an extra person on our team…Erica. My enthusiasm deflated a bit, but at least she was fired up from whatever had gone down with Beth.
“Wonderful!” Peggy clapped her hands when Bugs Bunny’s nightcap was finally empty. “Now it’s time to go over the game…”
“Oh my god,” Beth gasped when her parents brought out what looked like an old-fashioned men’s nightshirt. “I know what this is!”
“What, Gram?” Finn asked, everyone now officially on the edge of their seat.
Too overwhelmed, Beth shook her head. “We did this as little kids,” she said, then looked at Jay. “Remember?”
I noticed she wasn’t tugging Erica down Memory Lane.
Jay jokingly stroked his chin. “Vaguely…”
“It was before I was born,” Erica told him. “But maybe balloons will ring a bell?”
As if on cue, Peggy held up a package of colorful balloons.
What the hell? I thought as Jay’s eyes widened in an epiphany and Topper held up a nightshirt that looked straight out of Ebenezer Scrooge’s wardrobe.
Had they gotten them at that kooky vintage store Sage had mentioned?
That old fishing shack? I liked thrifting with Gwen and Quincy but preferred the organized chaos of Poshmark.
“Where did you get these?” Beth asked her parents. “They’re too clean to be the ones we used when we were kids.”
“Hopefully not from the Mermaid’s Trove,” Charlie said. “That place looks like it should be condemned…” He side-eyed Sage.