Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
The first week of summer was exhilarating.
Bright blue skies towered overhead, and tourists streamed onto the island from all over, suntanned or sunburned, eating ice cream cones and crowding up the sidewalks and restaurants.
Ada and her family celebrated the weather and freedom from school responsibilities with gorgeous barbecues on the back porch, swims in the sea, movie nights with the projector flashing against the side of their house, and plenty of frozen desserts.
But by the time Friday arrived, Ada and Peter had announced what needed to happen: Hannah was to get a job, any job; Olivia was to attend day camp; and Kade was to attend sports camp.
Their kids flourished with summertime activities, which helped both Ada and Peter know they had something to do during the day while they were at work.
(Always, they harbored fears around what was coming onto the island, drugs or other forms of chaos brought in with the tourists, and how their children might be affected, but they didn’t ever say this aloud, not even to one another.)
Hannah got a job the very next day as a server at a fish restaurant near the harbor.
Olivia opted for theater camp on the opposite end of the island, which required her to memorize Shakespearean plays and learn how to make her own costumes.
Kade threw himself into basketball and running, shooting hoops in the driveway as the sunlight dimmed.
The following weekend, after a week of camp and Hannah’s new gig, Peter and Ada sat on the back porch with a bottle of wine.
Olivia was upstairs, performing Shakespeare to her mirror, and Kade was running sprints up and down the beach.
Hannah was at work, where, Ada was pretty sure, she already had a crush on one of the other servers, a nineteen-year-old boy who’d come to the island for the summertime.
“Summer romance!” Peter said, his eyes illuminated. “Our little girl’s all grown up.”
Ada’s chest heaved. “I hope he doesn’t hurt her when he leaves.”
“I’m sure he will,” Peter said with a sigh. “But by then, Hannah will be off to Vassar, and she’ll forget all about him.”
Ada smiled and watched the sunlight play across her glass of wine.
“How’s life in the teeth business these days?” she asked, when she realized too many moments of silence had passed.
“Life in the teeth business is lucrative,” Peter said with a wink. “I think we’d better plan a family vacation for later this summer. Something to make Hannah miss us.”
Ada laughed. “Where should we go?”
“Maybe we could go to Alaska,” he said. “Or Europe!”
Ada laced her fingers through Peter’s and thanked her lucky stars for him.
The following Monday, Katrina was back at the office, bubbling with excitement about her upcoming trip with her boyfriend.
But Ada deftly steered the conversation back to Katrina’s mother and childhood problems, eager to avoid talk about the salesperson who was definitely not Peter.
Couldn’t be Peter. When the session was over, she checked her calendar and realized that she had most of the afternoon off, just in time to pick Olivia up from theater camp. She left right away.
By five that late afternoon, Ada, Hannah, Kade, and Olivia were aboard the family sailboat, whipping across turquoise waves.
Peter was still in surgery, wrapped up in a face mask and a hairnet and gloves, fingers-deep in someone’s mouth.
But when Ada had returned home with Olivia and Kade to find Hannah watching television, with the day off from the restaurant, she’d insisted on a family hang.
“We have to work hard and play hard,” she’d said.
When they reached their favorite swimming spot, they dropped anchor and swam around the boat, laughing and racing one another. Ada was grateful for how strong her limbs felt and how open her ears were to her children’s joy.
Back on board, Ada opened a bag of trail mix and handed it to Hannah. Kade and Olivia were still splashing around, unable to resist the allure of the waves.
“How’s the job?” Ada asked.
Hannah crunched on a peanut. Her nose popped with freckles.
“You know, don’t you?” Hannah said then, her eyes flashing. “You always know.”
Ada’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean?”
“You know about Quintin,” Hannah said, rolling her head so that her wet hair dropped down her back. “I know you know because I mentioned him a few times, by accident, and now you’ve put two and two together. I’m in love with him.”
Ada barked with laughter. Her daughter’s eyes were bright and alive.
“I don’t know anything, honey. I only know what you’ve told me, which is nothing,” she said.
Hannah groaned and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I met him a week ago! And he’s all I can think about!”
Ada smiled and touched her daughter’s shoulder. She wanted to say, “You aren’t in love with him. It’s hormones. You’re just smitten.” But she knew how intense these teenage emotions could be. All encompassing. It was difficult to see anything else.
And she was grateful that Hannah wanted to open up to her.
“What do you like about him?” Ada asked.
Hannah groaned. “I like everything about him. He’s going to Yale, so he’s crazy smart. And he’s studying literature, which means he’s really poetic, and he, like, reads, which nobody does anymore. He’s also cute, sure. Yes. I’m not blind.”
“Of course you’re not. Does his family have a connection to Nantucket?”
“They spend summers here,” Hannah said. “We figured out we met last year at a bonfire thing. I didn’t stay long because, back then, I felt like I had no friends, and I felt uncomfortable. But yeah. We met.”
“And he remembers,” Ada said, her chest warm at the fact that her daughter had friends now. (It was true that last summer, Ada had been frightened about her daughter’s social life, but she hadn’t mentioned it.)
“He asked me to hang out soon,” Hannah said. “Maybe we’ll get food, or something.”
“You should go out with him,” Ada said. “What do you have to lose?”
Hannah’s eyes flickered. “I figured you’d tell me not to bother. To focus on work and prepare for school.”
“Why would I say that?” Ada asked. “Is that what mothers are supposed to say?”
Hannah shrugged and groaned again, dropping her forehead onto her thighs. “I just really like him!”
“Oh, honey.” Ada slid over and wrapped her daughter in a hug. “I know.”
“You’re going to like so many people in your life,” she didn’t say because maybe it wasn’t true.
There was no way to tell what would happen next.
There was no way to tell where your heart would lead you.
Ada had thought she’d be an opera star without a husband or a family, but now, look at her.
She was a full-on wife and mother. Opera was deep in the past.
By the time they pulled into the harbor at eight that night, the four sailing Bushners were starving.
After Ada and Kade finished securing the boat with the final knots, Ada checked her phone to alert Peter about their plans to eat out, while her kids squabbled over which restaurant to go to.
It was clear that Hannah wanted to go to the restaurant where she worked, presumably to check on Quintin, but Olivia and Kade insisted on burgers and fries.
“We can walk past your restaurant and see how busy it is,” Ada said to Hannah as they breezed down the dock. “But you don’t want to eat a swanky fish meal right now, do you?”
Hannah admitted she didn’t. “Burgers will be fine.”
Hannah’s restaurant was a five-minute walk from the harbor and on the way to the burger joint. Ada watched Hannah’s face as Hannah gazed at the servers working that night and raised a hand to wave. When she spotted Quintin, Hannah’s face lit up like a firecracker.
Quintin raised his chin and said, “You all right, Bushner?”
Hannah grinned and said, “You good?” Although the conversation had very little meaning, the air sizzled between them.
Ada bit her tongue to keep from smiling too hard. Did people ever get more sophisticated than that? After studying numerous patients over the years and delving into the human psyche in various ways, she didn’t think so.
After grabbing a table outside the burger restaurant, they ordered: Kade with his double-bacon and cheddar cheeseburger, Olivia with her veggie burger with extra caramelized onions, and Hannah with her tuna burger and sweet potato fries.
Ada opted for the black bean burger and ordered plenty of fries and onion rings for the table.
She drew the line at soda. It was a Monday, and she didn’t want her kids to think soda was an everyday treat.
After their food arrived, Ada went inside to get more napkins.
The restaurant was bustling with tourists and locals, sipping milkshakes and laughing.
Journey was playing on the speakers. Ada paused for a moment, watching her children through the window as they took their first bites of burgers.
Peter hadn’t written back, presumably because he was still in surgery.
But she was grateful to have her kids to herself.
As Ada left the restaurant, she noticed a woman on the sidewalk waving to her.
It took a moment for Ada to realize it was Katrina Petri. She almost dropped the stack of napkins.
“Hi!” Katrina said that because she was so close to Ada, it would have been awkward not to say hello. Beside her were three women in their forties, studying the burger menu. It looked like they weren’t convinced of this as their dinner.
“Oh. Hello!” Ada smiled and side-stepped over to her children, eager to get back to her black bean burger. When Katrina didn’t look away, Ada asked, “How is your evening going?”
Katrina smiled beautifully and gestured at the woman beside her. “We’re just looking for something to eat. We went on a long hike, and we’re starving!”
“We went sailing,” Ada said. “We’re starving, too.”
“How lovely.” Katrina continued to smile serenely. She looked as though she wanted to continue the conversation and maybe even invite Ada along with her and her Salt Sisters.
Ada prepared to get out of it, raising a hand as she sat back down. “Well, I’ll see you soon!”
Katrina looked vaguely disappointed. “Sure thing. Have a wonderful evening!”
Awkwardness rang through the air. Ada hoped Katrina didn’t sense it, that it was one-sided awkwardness.
Soon, Katrina and the Salt Sisters moved along, eager to find a less greasy dinner.
Women in their forties didn’t often go out for burgers together.
Ada never would have chosen burgers if left to her own devices.
Ada’s thoughts whirred. As she bit down on her burger, she caught herself thinking, Well, at least I know that Peter’s not with Katrina when he says he’s in surgery. But she cursed herself for giving any power to her conspiracies.
Kade and Olivia were talking about Shakespeare, with Kade telling Olivia that he “hated” Old English. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Thee and thou and all that?”
“Yes, it does. You’re just ignorant,” Olivia said.
“Hey! Nobody’s ignorant,” Ada said, snapping back into family time. “Why don’t you explain to us what all these Shakespearean words really mean?”
But it was when she reached for a french fry that she realized Hannah was watching her like a hawk. “What’s up, honey?” she asked.
“How do you know that woman?” Hannah asked.
Ada knew better than to tell her children that Katrina was a patient of hers because that was private. “You know that everyone on the island knows each other,” she said. “It’s teeny-tiny.”
Kade and Olivia hardly heard her. They were still talking about Shakespeare.
Hannah took a bite of a fry and asked, “She’s Dad’s friend, right?”