Chapter 1 #2
Peter, Ada, Olivia, and Kade sat on the bleachers, removing their sandwiches and huddling together for warmth.
It was still light outside, but it would soon be dark.
Ada waved at a few other tennis mothers, many of whom were feeding their own children dinner.
Kade and Olivia ate quickly and scampered off to hang with other tennis siblings, uninterested in the sport.
It was time for Hannah to play.
“Here we go, Hannah!” Peter cried, cupping his mouth.
Ada squeezed Peter’s knee. “I’m so nervous,” she whispered.
“She’s got this,” Peter said.
Hannah and the girl from Martha’s Vineyard shook hands and separated. Hannah was serving first, a beautiful thing. In the first point, she served so hard that the other girl hardly flinched. Ada and Peter roared with happiness. “All right, Hannah! Keep it up!” Ada cried.
After that, Hannah and the girl fell into a sort of pattern. Hannah won her serves, and the girl won her own. It left Peter and Ada nervous but hopeful, muttering to one another under their breath as they watched.
“How’s your day going so far?”
Peter was an orthodontist and had had a fairly typical day: putting on braces, checking alignment, and dealing with angry parents. He was often bored with his career and spoke openly about making just enough money and retiring when he could.
“Pretty good. And how about yours?” Peter asked.
“Typical day,” Ada admitted, remembering Katrina and her other patients, people who’d come to her office emotionally bruised, hopeful for remedies.
Even now, sitting at the match, she could see several of her patients, other children’s parents and friends of their families, people who’d come to her for specific reasons and either graduated or remained.
She knew many of their secrets, having learned about their private anguishes, anger, fears, and hopes.
She would never tell anyone what they’d told her in confidence.
But it was bizarre, being the keeper of secrets on the island. Sometimes it felt overwhelming.
Ada went on, changing the subject. “Today, I couldn’t stop thinking about Hannah’s match. She gets so upset when she loses.”
“She’s got to learn how to deal with it, I guess,” Peter said.
Ada took a breath, remembering her own losses in life and how difficult it had been to carry them.
There had been old boyfriends, her old career, her old hopes.
Now, as a forty-three-year-old mother and therapist, she was pleased as punch about how it had all worked out.
But it had felt precarious many times. She wished Hannah didn’t have to go through that, but she knew it was a part of life. Soon, Hannah would be off to college.
Hannah’s opponent won the first set, and Hannah threw her racket on the ground.
Ada and Peter were on their feet. Ada’s heart pounded with fear and anger. “Come on, Hannah,” she said, clapping. She didn’t want Hannah to suffer a penalty for anger issues, and she certainly didn’t want Hannah to break her racket. Those things were expensive.
Hannah sat down, drank some water, and tied her hair into an even tighter ponytail. The Martha’s Vineyard girl looked incredibly pleased with herself and even ate half of a banana, as though she were enjoying her break. Ada had a sense that Hannah wouldn’t let her get away with that.
Ada was right.
Over the span of the next hour and forty-five minutes, Hannah did everything in her power to destroy the Martha’s Vineyard girl’s game.
The girl was all over the court, bouncing from right to left and back again, while Hannah kept herself calm and confident, mainly staying in the middle of the court.
Hannah won the second set 6–3 and the third set 6–2.
The other girl was exhausted and looked in shock, like she couldn’t believe she was letting Hannah win.
At the end of the game, when Hannah and the girl shook hands and walked off, Ada, Peter, Kade, and Olivia were on their feet, clapping wildly, waiting for their girl.
When Hannah reached them, Ada threw her arms around her.
“You did it. I knew you could,” she said.
Hannah grimaced. “I really messed up that first set.”
“You were just warming up!” Peter hugged her. “You were figuring out her game.”
Kade, who was fifteen, and Olivia, who was thirteen, came up and high-fived their older sister, then hurried to their father’s car, eager to get home.
It was already nearly nine. Hannah packed up her tennis racket, said goodbye to her teammates and coach, then walked with Peter and Ada back to the parking lot. She wore a look of ecstasy.
“I want to ride with Dad!” Hannah said.
“All right. But we’ll see you at home?” Peter said, checking Ada for signs of sadness.
“Of course!” Ada glanced at her phone to hide her emotions. To her surprise, there, on the screen, was a text message from someone she hadn’t heard from in years.
“What’s up?” Peter asked, hanging near Ada’s car as Hannah joined her other siblings by his. He’d noticed her change in emotions and looked worried.
“It’s Quinn,” Ada said.
“Wow. I haven’t heard that name in a while.”
“I know!” Ada laughed, showing him the text.
Quinn Hackney: Girl, it’s been ages. Come to the opening next Friday? There’s a party after! We need to catch up!
“Another life,” Peter said knowingly.
Ada’s heartbeat quickened. “You don’t think we could go, do you?”
Peter hesitated, his eyes falling into hers. It had been ages since they’d gone to the city together. Ages since they’d taken a trip just the two of them. It suddenly felt like a necessity, as if Ada needed a trip to Manhattan to make everything else feel worthwhile.
“Hannah doesn’t have a match, does she?” Peter asked.
Ada shook her head. “Not next weekend.”
“And we’d be gone, what? Two nights at the most?”
“Can you make it work?” Ada imagined Peter’s orthodontist schedule, all the braces and checkups he would have to undergo next week. But surely he could rearrange things.
“Let me talk to Fern,” Peter said, speaking of his sixty-two-year-old secretary, who wore bright pink cardigans every day and always sent the kids birthday presents. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”