Chapter 10
Present Day
“I barely remember who that person is,” Candice lied.
“I’m sure,” Lindsey said.
It was true that Candice’s interest was piqued, but she didn’t want her sister to see.
She rubbed her knees and wondered what Frank Delaware might look like, so many years after she’d last seen him.
He’d been a teenager, gangly and funny and whip-smart.
She wasn’t sure how his features could have transformed into a man’s.
Candice had never gotten social media, as she saw it as a direct assault against her ability to write well.
It meant that nobody from her past knew what she looked like, nor what she was up to, and she didn’t know what they looked like, either.
It was for the best, she thought. It was how things used to be, back before screens ruled our lives.
“Have you ever thought about deleting social media, Linds?” she asked her sister now.
Lindsey laughed. “Why on earth would I do that? That’s how I got back together with these people! That’s why we’re going out tonight.”
Candice guessed her sister had a point there.
The bar in Oak Bluffs was packed with islanders.
As soon as Candice and Lindsey walked in, a table in the back leaped up and called their name.
Marie was the first to come over and hug Lindsey, then Candice.
Candice couldn’t believe it, but Marie—whom she remembered as the pimply girl who’d run around with Lindsey—was a beautiful woman in her early forties, a full-on adult, just as she was.
Marie’s husband had been in Candice’s class, a guy named Rod who shook her hand and welcomed her back to the Vineyard.
Around the table were others from high school: Tyler, Audrey, Bethany, and Stephen.
And beside Stephen sat Frank Delaware, his hair frothy and thick and black, his eyes penetrating and filled with humor.
It didn’t feel like so long ago that she’d “fallen in love with him,” if that was what you called something that happened in high school.
Frank came over to shake their hands and welcome them. Candice was grateful that he hadn’t gone in for a hug. They were strangers, after all. Sort of.
“We were so sorry to hear about your mom,” Frank said, reaching for his beer, which he raised. “To the iconic Stella.”
“To Stella!” Marie echoed. “Nobody ever did it better than her.”
Candice smiled nervously, then grabbed a seat next to Lindsey, praying that Lindsey would talk enough for both of them. It had been ages since Candice had socialized with anyone in the city who wasn’t her MFA students. She was beginning to realize how pathetic that was.
After a period of painful conversations about the city, about the Vineyard, and about how strange it was that they were all together again, Candice got up, thinking that maybe she would call a taxi to take her back to the Harbor House.
She went to the bathroom to regroup, but Lindsey snuck in after her and begged her not to go.
“I’m trying to flirt with Stephen,” Lindsey said. “But it’ll look weird if you leave. It’ll make me look desperate.”
“Stephen?” Candice was surprised.
“He is so much cuter than he was in high school,” Lindsey said mischievously. “I should have had more patience for him back then! He was in love with me, and I hardly gave him the time of day.”
Candice laughed. “And now he’s ignoring you?”
“Not really. I mean, I don’t know.” Lindsey pouted. “I really want this summer to be special, Candice. What if it’s our last summer on the Vineyard?”
Candice sighed and agreed to stay out with her for one more hour. “But after that, I’m in a cab. I promise you that.”
Lindsey thanked her, then hurried back out to order herself another drink.
Candice took a moment at the mirror, fixing her makeup and wondering what Nathan was up to in the city.
What if he was out with Janie? What if he was out with another girl, another of Candice’s MFA students?
Candice hated how pathetic she felt. She wasn’t sure if she could ever trust him again.
When Candice returned to the bar, it felt as though they’d turned up the speakers, and everyone had to scream at each other to communicate.
She felt a migraine coming on. Rather than stay at the table, she decided to step outside with her drink, where she leaned against the cool wall and looked up at the stars.
She couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
The door opened, bringing Frank into the moonlight.
She took a breath, frightened that he’d followed her out there, until she saw that he’d answered the phone.
He hadn’t followed her after all. He raised his finger toward her, as though to say, I’m so sorry.
This is rude. And then he said, “I get it. Really. You don’t need to worry about it.
” He paused. “We’ll take care of it. Talk soon. ”
He hung up, then pocketed his phone and looked at her. “Too loud to talk in there.”
Candice smiled. “I thought I was going to get a headache. I guess we’re really not teenagers anymore.”
“They’re saying that forty-five is the new thirty,” Frank said.
“Tell that to any part of my body,” Candice said. “Tell that to my knees and my hair.”
Frank laughed and came closer. Candice ached to ask him who he’d been talking to. Was it his wife? But he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Maybe a girlfriend then?
“It must be hard to be back on the Vineyard now that your mom’s gone,” Frank offered.
“It is, and it isn’t,” Candice said. “I’m enjoying the change of pace. Things in the city were a little tough the past semester.” She waved her hand. “Sorry, I still talk in semesters.”
“You never left the college environment,” he said.
“I don’t know anything else,” she agreed. “But what about you? You haven’t been here since graduation, have you?”
“No, I moved around a lot,” Frank said. “I came back to the Vineyard a few years ago. To be honest, I still sometimes panic, wondering whether I made the right decision in coming back. When I was gone, it felt like every opportunity was available. And now, it’s like the world is tightening in on me.
Sometimes, it can feel suffocating. Sometimes, it’s cozy. ”
Candice knew what he meant. “That’s poetic,” she said.
“It’s just life, I think.”
They regarded one another. Candice couldn’t recall being so impressed with him when they were younger. Then again, his brain probably hadn’t been fully developed back then. Neither had hers.
Finally, Candice asked him about his family, about his mother and his sisters.
He told her that his sisters were fine. “But Mom has Alzheimer’s,” he said.
“It’s been really hard. That was her on the phone, actually.
She forgot that I already called her tonight.
Heck, she forgot that I spent most of the evening with her.
That’s the thing about this awful illness.
I do everything for her because I’m worried about her, and I don’t want her to feel alone. But she forgets.”
Candice took a breath. She had no idea what to say. “I’m sorry,” she offered finally.
“It was in the cards, I guess,” Frank said sadly.
“But the other day, the funniest thing happened. Mom doesn’t talk much, unless she’s nervous.
And she rarely sings. But she started singing this old country song.
It was out of the blue. I’d never heard it before.
I didn’t recognize the lyrics. It wasn’t like it was something she’d played for us when we were kids. ”
“That's a funny coincidence,” Candice said. “I was just in my mother’s study, going through her old records. I picked up a Dolly Parton one. She always loved Dolly.”
“This wasn’t Dolly,” Frank went on. “But when I asked her what it was, she couldn’t remember. A few minutes of silence later, she snapped her fingers and told me that we needed to ask Stella what it was. That’s what she said. ‘Stella would know.’”
Candice shook her head in surprise. “Why would my mother know something like that?”
“My mother doesn’t remember saying it,” Frank admitted sadly. “Who knows what’s going on in her head? But you know that our mothers were close back in the old days. Maybe they used to listen to country albums together.”
“What a funny thing,” Candice said. “Two women in Massachusetts, listening to songs from the South. It doesn’t make sense, does it?”
I don’t think any one of us makes sense when you get down to it,” Frank said. “That’s the beauty of being alive, maybe.”
“Maybe it is.”
Candice was beginning to grow nervous. Her conversation with Frank moved into territory that not only made her heart ache but also made her think more than she wanted to.
She was relieved when Frank suggested they head back in for “one more round” before the end of the night.
“You’ll have to convince me to get Lindsey home after that.
” Candice laughed. “She promised me that we wouldn’t be out too long. ”
“That’s Lindsey,” Frank said, opening the door to the roar inside the bar. “She loves to push limits, doesn’t she?”
“Absolutely,” Candice said. “Maybe I’m too boring for that.”
“You’ve never been boring in your life,” Frank said before he turned and pressed his way through the crowd and toward the back table.
Candice hesitated for a moment, watching him walk farther and farther away from her. There was a strange tug at her heartstrings, but she told herself not to even think about it. Before long, she knew, she’d be gone.