Chapter 21 #2
“Originally another country, Great Britain, controlled the United States, but we decided we wanted to be our own country and be independent, so our representatives sent this letter to the king of Great Britain telling him that the United States would no longer follow their laws or pay their taxes. The letter is called The Declaration of Independence, and it was published on July 4, 1776.” Thank you, Hamilton (the musical) for inspiring me to refresh my memory on U.S. history.
How exactly did people parent before the internet?
“Cool,” Luna said before taking a huge bite of her burger, clearly satisfied with my answer.
I can’t wait for the day she’s old enough to watch Hamilton, I thought, watching her chew and kick her feet happily under the table. But a zap of reality forced my gaze down to my plate and wiped my smile off my face.
I won’t be here when that time comes.
When Luke, his parents, Jeremiah, and Francesca finally joined us, I suppressed my anticipatory disappointment and asked Luke and Jeremiah to tell us more about their business.
They launched into it like a well-practiced duo.
It was Jeremiah’s family that had a home on Martha’s Vineyard, and they started coming here together in the summers during college.
They loved it and came up with the idea of opening a business here.
Luke had known he wanted to do some sort of building since he made his first birdhouse in woodshop class in high school.
He did carpentry throughout school, and by junior year of college, they both got summer jobs over here with a different construction company.
That company still existed, and that was where they’d worked for a few years before they broke off on their own.
Luke looked at his dad when he finished speaking.
“Was your boss upset?” Mimi asked.
“He wasn’t thrilled,” Luke responded. “But he understood. And there was so much work, he was turning down jobs left and right. So we’re a bit competitive with each other, but we don’t let it get ugly because we also end up referring each other for jobs the other can’t take.”
“And it seems like business is booming for you guys,” I complimented.
“Oh, yeah. This guy has been working hard. And he got that huge contract from the town,” Jeremiah announced, a proud smile on his face.
“We,” Luke corrected his friend. He didn’t respond to the other compliments. So humble.
“If work is getting too busy for you, son, and it gets to be too much, there’s great schools in Radnor,” his dad said, taking a bite of his food and looking straight at his son, like what he said was totally casual.
I nearly dropped my fork. Luke chewed and swallowed, lowering his hands to squeeze his own thighs.
He looked pissed. He glanced at Luna, who was engrossed in a side conversation with Francesca about tennis.
Before I could think better of it, I reached for his hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.
“I know, Dad. I went to them. The schools here are great, too.” His tone was cold as ice, his brown eyes suddenly black. Damn, Alex struck a nerve.
I squeezed his hand again, and he squeezed back, almost a little too hard. He’s wrong, I tried to say with the pressure of my fingers. Luna belongs here.
“Of course they are,” his dad said. Sensing he’d opened an old wound, he backed off. “Didn’t mean anything by it.” He looked at his granddaughter with adoration. “She loves it here, obviously.”
It was the first time I detected a hint of hurt in Alex’s tone, and his eyes. My indignation immediately lessened.
Luke let out a breath and released his iron grip on my fingers. His father’s obvious pain seemed to take the wind out of his sails of anger, too.
Luna probably looked just like Monica to them. Even though I was certain Monica and Gardner made the right choice choosing Luke, if I looked at it from his parents’ point of view, I could see how much that must have hurt, especially if they wanted her.
An awkward silence descended on the group. Jeremiah popped out of his chair. “Anyone want an ice cream sandwich?”
Luna’s hand shot in the air, along with Mimi’s. Phew.
When he returned, he also had a paper grocery bag tucked under his arm. He handed out navy blue ball caps that said Karas Construction with a little American flag underneath. “You’re all expected to wear these to the parade,” Jeremiah commanded.
I laughed and put it on my head.
Not that I was going to the parade, I thought with a pang.
Luke’s mother insisted on clearing our plates when we were done. Francesca and Mimi said something about needing to sit in the air conditioning for a while, and Luke, Jeremiah, Alex, and Luna started up a game of cornhole in the yard.
I grabbed a seltzer from one of the coolers, content to watch them play while I tried not to think about how right it felt to reach for Luke’s hand earlier.
I probably shouldn’t be holding my boss’s hand under the table at a barbecue, probably shouldn’t even want to do that, given I was seeing someone.
But it was harmless, I convinced myself.
We’re friends. Friends could support each other with little gestures like hand squeezes in tense moments.
That’s totally normal.
After a few minutes, Luke’s mother joined me, leaning against the porch railing.
“So, Luke told us you’re taking some time away from work?”
I turned to her and nodded. Her brown eyes were a slightly lighter shade than Luke’s, but just as warm.
“I think it’s so great, and brave, that you made a change,” she added before I had a chance to respond.
“Thank you. I—thank you.” I was so used to justifying it, even to myself, I didn’t know what to say to someone who automatically thought my leave of absence was a good thing.
“You never know what is going to happen in life.” She stared at Luna, who was concentrating so hard on her next toss, she’d pulled her lip between her teeth.
There was a sadness in Elena’s eyes. She must be thinking about her daughter, the car accident.
“You need to live it every day, enjoy it, because you just don’t know. ”
I felt myself getting choked up, not only because of their loss and the deep sympathy I felt for them, but because for the first time since March, I stopped doubting my decision to leave Peters & Dowling, whether temporarily or permanently, no matter what happened next.
The doubt just vanished. I could almost feel it leaving my body, like saltwater evaporating off my skin in the sun.
It wasn’t worth it. The sacrifices. Living to work instead of working to live.
There was so much more to life.
When it was time to leave to drop off Mimi and meet Max, I felt like a child getting picked up from a playdate she didn’t want to end.
But I was going boating in Edgartown Harbor on the Fourth of July with my attractive boyfriend who spoiled me with fancy champagne and compliments every time I saw him. I should be excited.
I was excited.
“Max told us you’re on sabbatical from your law firm this summer?” Max’s mother asked after we settled at the front of the boat, glasses of champagne in our hands.
“Yes, I…needed a break. It’s been great,” I said, hoping to avoid a deeper dive.
She popped a grape into her mouth. “I wish he would take a break,” she nodded toward her husband, who was standing in front of the controls, navigating us out of the harbor.
Maybe he just loves it, I thought, relating deeply. I didn’t see myself getting sick of writing any time soon.
Edward Phelps handed the controls over to his son, picked up his glass of champagne, and sat down next to his wife.
“I just finished reading your latest, Something In The Water. It was great!” I said to Ed.
“Oh, did you now? I’m glad you enjoyed it. That one was fun to write.”
I felt the urge to tell him I’d started writing, but I chickened out, hoping Max would bring it up for me and maybe Ed would share his advice. “I bet.” I trained my face into a grin. “I’m going to check on Max.”
I swallowed the rest of my champagne in one gulp before I joined Max at the controls and leaned against his side.
“Hi.” He beamed down at me. I could see my reflection in his sunglasses, my honey-colored hair whipping in the ocean breeze. He tucked a strand behind my ear. “Having fun?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Absolutely.”
I refilled my wine and took another sip, the bubbles popping on the roof of my mouth, and gazed out at the water.
A boat passed us, going twice as fast as we were, with an inflated tube dragging behind.
The two children, a boy and a girl, called, “Faster!” from the tube, their voices barely audible over the engine and the wind.
I chuckled. I bet Luna would love tubing.
Max followed my gaze. “If they go much faster, they’re gonna get tossed.”
“I think that’s exactly what they’re hoping for.”
“Probably,” he agreed.
I turned and looked at the back of Max’s boat. Perfectly polished dark wood and plush padded benches stared back at me. “Can we hook up a tube to this boat?” I asked, my inner child jealous of those kids.
“No. No hookup on this beauty, unfortunately.”
“Bummer.”
“But I can take us out farther and crank up the speed, if you want.”
“About time!” his dad hollered from the bow.
Max gave me a knowing grin and steered us out of the harbor, accelerating once we rounded the lighthouse.
I sat back down in the chair next to his, tied back my hair, and stared out at the waves, smiling every time ocean spray collided with my face.
I was determined to be in the moment and tried my best not to spend the whole time wondering if Luke and Luna were having fun at the parade.
When we got back to the Phelps compound, Max’s mom went up to bed and Max and his dad went to the living room and cracked open an expensive bottle of bourbon.
I was exhausted. A few hours ago, my day drinking had turned the corner from a buzz to the beginnings of a hangover.
Maybe I should’ve kept drinking like Max had.
He and his dad both looked a little flushed.
It was definitely the most drunk I’d ever seen Max. But he seemed happy, at ease.
I was jealous. I hadn’t felt at ease all night.
At dinner at the yacht club, Max’s mom, already a little drunk from the champagne on the boat, mentioned that they weren’t surprised Max found a new girlfriend on the island. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, and Max shot daggers from his eyes when she said it, so she didn’t elaborate.
Sensing the need for a subject change, I asked his parents, “Do you get here for dinner often? The food is excellent.”
“Oh, yeah. This is one of the only places we can have dinner during peak season. Everyone here is too interested in themselves, or too proud, to stop me and ask for a photo. If we go anywhere else, the interruptions from fans are constant.” Ed chuckled, and Brianna and Max joined in.
I forced a smile. Wouldn’t it be nice to be so beloved by your readers they want pictures with you? I’d almost asked, but I refrained.
Ed brought up his writing career a few more times throughout the night, and my heart hoped Max might mention I’d started writing, but he didn’t.
After dinner we’d gone to another private club that Max’s parents were members of.
There must’ve been about a hundred people there, enjoying an open bar and a clear view of the fireworks from the back dock.
Max introduced me to everyone as his girlfriend.
Almost everyone’s first question was: What did I do for work?
Each time Max proudly said I was a Peters & Dowling attorney, it made me feel weird.
Despite the relaxed and celebratory vibe, it felt like we were networking.
Some people asked how we met first. Those conversations were more fun. Max told them how he saw a stunning woman working at the coffee shop behind the bookstore and he somehow came up with enough confidence to talk to me.
“By the end of the conversation, I realized he was flirting with me,” I would add at that point. “He asked me out, and the rest is history, I suppose.”
When Ed put the bourbon glasses on the round, white coffee table in the center of the Phelps’ palatial living room, I excused myself to go to bed, saying I wasn’t a bourbon drinker. Max followed me into the hall, lifted my chin, and stole a kiss.
“Want me to come up with you?”
“No, it’s okay. Enjoy the time with your dad!”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” I said, rising on my tiptoes to kiss him again.
I slipped out the front door and crossed the driveway to his apartment, oddly content with being alone for the first time in hours.
When Max got back to his room an hour later, I still hadn’t fallen asleep, but I kept my eyes closed and lay there motionless. Pretending.
Like I had been since the moment I left Luke’s.