Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nina
June 2025
A fter twenty-seven years, there were so many stories to exchange between sisters. There was so much left to say about what had remained unsaid, so much left to reveal, too many people to talk about, and so much healing. But that night when midnight struck, Nina got to her feet, hugged her sister goodbye, told her she’d see her tomorrow, and told Amos it was time to go. Amos looked exhausted, his eyes tinged pink. “Are you sure?” he said. “I don’t mind staying longer.” It was sweet. He took her hand as they walked out of the bungalow and took her keys, telling her he could drive. He’d stopped drinking hours ago, and he’d only had the one glass of wine anyway. He’s responsible , Nina thought dreamily as she clambered into the passenger side and let herself be cared for.
It took ten minutes before either of them said anything. They drove through a black night, their heads heavy with confusion.
“I can’t believe it,” Nina breathed finally.
Amos smacked the steering wheel with his hand. “It’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened.”
Nina bounced in her seat. “I mean, we were looking for Seth Green? Because that’s where Ralph sent us? And Charlotte opened the door? Charlotte Whitmore? My long-lost sister?”
“It was the surprise of a lifetime,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.” Nina opened her window and felt the sharp wind through her hair. She felt alive. “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t know,” Amos said. “You think she knows more than she’s letting on?”
“I think she must know where Jack is. Or she did know.”
Amos smiled and steered them safely in front of the little rental on stilts—a place Nina had begun to think of as her home. It would be difficult to leave it when the time came. Already, she’d extended it till July, telling Nancy she couldn’t get enough.
Right then, she couldn’t imagine Amos leaving for the night. She couldn’t imagine falling to sleep without him beside her.
“Do you want to come inside for a sec?” she asked.
It seemed Amos was unable to say no. He followed her, removing his shoes in the foyer and going to the sink to pour them two glasses of water. Nina changed into a tank top and a pair of loose-fitting shorts and led them to the porch overlooking the ink-black Nantucket Sound. It was where their friendship had begun; it was where they’d shared truths and drawn their souls close. It was where she wanted to be.
That night, Amos told Nina how alone he’d been over the years.
“I never learned how to build anything with anyone,” he said. “I went on many dates, you know. I even went on practice dates with people I knew.”
Nina laughed gently. “Who did you practice date?”
“You remember Stacy from the diner?”
Nina smiled. “Your friend’s wife.”
“Yes. Isn’t that embarrassing? She told me I needed to figure out how to represent myself, so she had me get dressed up and take her out to a restaurant, where we had a painstaking conversation. I was hyperaware that she was judging me the entire time. And I knew she would go home and tell Calvin all about it.” Amos laughed at himself. “It was mortifying.”
“It was a kindness,” Nina said. “Maybe?”
“Totally! Stacy did it out of love. But it killed my confidence even more,” Amos said.
Nina sipped her water and studied his handsome face. It was hard for her to imagine that a hundred women, if not more, hadn’t fantasized about him taking them out. Probably he just hadn’t noticed them. His ego had probably been too bruised, and his heart was too heavy.
“Listen,” she said, her voice wavering. “I’m no expert on dating. I only ever really dated Daniel, and you saw how that wound up.”
Amos chuckled.
“But I would be happy to, um, go on a practice date with you?” Nina tried.
Amos tilted his head. Confusion marred his face.
“I mean,” Nina hurried to fix it, “I mean, a real date. Like I wouldn’t be grading you. I would be genuinely enjoying myself, probably. Because that’s what I always do when I’m around you. It’s weird. I’ve never felt this comfortable before.”
Amos’s eyes shone. He reached over to slip his fingers through hers. “Let me take you out,” he said. “Let me take you sailing. I’ll buy champagne and strawberries and chocolate, and we can go around the whole island and swim in the sea. When we’re done, we’ll get cleaned up and go out to dinner. Anywhere you want to go.”
Nina felt like she was floating.
“And let’s not talk about the Whitmores,” she added.
Amos touched her hair. “Is it smart for the assistant to date the detective?”
“It’s certainly interesting,” Nina said with a smile.
“But I have a hunch that you’ll be five steps ahead of me the whole way,” he said.
“Dating me isn’t a race,” Nina assured him. “It isn’t a game, either.”
Not like with Daniel—a race to tenure, a race to see who was smarter, a race to the end.
They shared their first kiss on the porch as the Nantucket moon shone down upon them. It was the most beautiful kiss of Nina’s life.
At thirty-eight, there was still so much more to come.
Nina met Amos at the dock four days later for their agreed upon sailing date. Charlotte had helped her pick out a brand-new white lace dress and a black swimsuit and forced her to pack fifty-proof sunscreen, saying, “When you get to be forty-five, you’ll thank me.” This tickled Nina. She couldn’t believe her older sister was still bossing her around. She couldn’t believe how much she was enjoying it.
“He’s a dream,” Charlotte had said of Amos. “I honestly already thought you were in love.”
“We sort of already are,” Nina said. “But it’s fast. Maybe it’s too fast.”
“What are the rules?” Charlotte asked. “Throw them out the window.”
Amos was waiting for Nina on his boat, which he’d called Cynthia after his mother. This was touching to Nina, especially because she now struggled with a brand-new sensation. She didn’t know who her mother was. Charlotte said she wasn’t sure but had a few potential ideas. They were going to get to the bottom of it together.
Amos and Nina greeted one another with an initially awkward hug followed by a passionate kiss that made a sailor three boats away wolf whistle. Nina’s cheeks were hot. But she didn’t want to feel ashamed for feeling again. Amos told her to make herself comfortable as he untied the ropes and sailed them out of the harbor. Nina took a photo of him when he wasn’t watching, a memory only for herself. And just before she tucked her phone into her purse to forget about it for the day, she received a message from her lawyer.
HE SIGNED. I have the divorce papers in front of me. I just have to file everything, and it should be over in just a couple of weeks! One of the fastest divorces I’ve ever dealt with. He’s SCARED of you. Ha.
Nina’s heart fluttered. She thought, wow, perfect timing .
“What are you smiling about?” Amos asked.
The boat was emerging from the harbor and into the turquoise light.
Nina didn’t want to bring Daniel into her new life out here, so she said, “I’m just happy.” She got up, teetering slightly on the shaking ground, and wrapped her arms around Amos’s muscular torso. Amos’s smile was infectious. She kissed him again.
Not long after that, Amos dropped anchor and opened a bottle of champagne. “As promised,” he said, pouring her a glass.
They clinked glasses, gazing into one another’s eyes. Nina said, “To the future,” because right now, she didn’t want to focus on the past. There would be plenty of time for that down the road—plenty of time, as the Whitmores revealed themselves. But as an anthropologist, she knew better than to let the past destroy her. She knew how to further her own story and build a life that, maybe, people in the future would look at and describe as “fulfilled.”
Love was the answer. Love was what was lost when the lies stacked up.
Hand in hand, Amos and Nina leaped from the sailboat and into the turquoise blue, plunging deeper than Nina had thought possible. As she swam to the surface, she let her eyes open for the briefest moment to see Amos just a few feet away, making sure she got back to oxygen all right. When they were back on the surface, they laughed and swam like people with nothing to lose. Maybe that was the secret to everything.