Chapter Twenty-Five Lily #2
“We won’t worry!” Rose calls out to him. She turns to me and squeals again. “What time is your date? Because I promised William that I’d pick him up, but if you need the car, we’ll figure something else out.”
She has considerably calmed down some since her freak-out about Thomas, and she is now sitting at the kitchen table, tugging open a sugar packet to pour into her coffee.
“It’s at seven. Galley Beach.”
“Well…” Rose chuckles and stirs her coffee. I watch as the sugar dissolves. “That’s a funny coincidence because mine is at Galley, as well.”
“Excuse me, sorry,” Theo says as he scoots into the back seat of Lottie’s Jeep several hours later. “I must have opened the wrong door.”
William moves across the seat, making room. The friction of his Nantucket reds against the leather makes a long squeaking sound. “No problem, boy. Lovely to meet you. I’m William.”
He extends a hand for him to shake, but Theo is busy trying to enter the car and misses the gesture entirely. William’s mouth screws up in a taut, sour expression.
I’m driving and my mom is in the passenger seat.
“Hi, Theo!” Rose calls out. “How’s my favorite coach doing?”
“Good,” Theo responds, pulling the seat belt across his chest. “I get to see both of you tonight, so I can’t complain.”
He’s wearing a wrinkled button-down shirt and patchwork shorts that look at least two sizes too big on him.
It’s clear he borrowed the outfit from someone at the club.
I’m wearing my best outfit, too: a long yellow sundress.
When I warned Theo that we’d be sharing a car tonight, he took it characteristically in stride.
No way! he texted back. A double date? Let’s go!
I explained that it was just about sharing a ride.
At the restaurant, we’ll go our separate ways.
It’s an economical, eco-friendly move. The added benefit being that I finally get to interrogate William, who has been making uncomfortable throat-clearing noises ever since he first entered the back seat.
“Just a warning, I don’t believe you’re allowed to wear shorts here,” he says to Theo now.
“Oh, shoot!” Theo exclaims, slapping his palm against his forehead. The noise is shocking. “I borrowed these from my friend, too. I thought they’d be fancy enough.”
“You’re fine,” I jump in to quickly assure him. “You look great. There’s no formal dress code. This is Nantucket. The restaurant is literally on a beach.” I try to mask my annoyance but know I’m failing. William stays silent, but I see his jaw flex in the rearview mirror.
“So.” Rose claps her hands together to break the tension. “How about some music?”
My mom turns on the island radio station. “Love Grows” is playing. I catch Theo’s eyes in the mirror and we both smile.
“We have to invite them to join us,” Theo says twenty minutes later when we are at the restaurant. “Come on, it’s weird.”
“No!” I whisper. “It’s already weird.” We’re sitting at a table in the sand while Rose and William wait for a spot to open up.
“But there’s not even seats at the bar and your mom is wearing heels, and they look sad.”
I turn around to glance at them. Rose is politely smiling, tottering from foot to foot, holding a full glass of Chardonnay, while William moodily sips a martini and scans the crowd. His eyebrows are pulled together like they’re magnets.
William never made a reservation. “They know me here,” he said confidently as he walked up to the hostess stand, flexing his white blazer. “We don’t need to call ahead of time.”
Well, it turns out you do need a reservation, even if your family is rich. It’s late July on Nantucket. Everywhere is packed. Just getting down here took twenty minutes due to traffic. And almost everyone—perhaps with the grand exception of the three of us and the waitstaff—is rich.
“If we invite them to sit with us, we’ll have to listen to William drone on about his yacht all dinner.”
“Hey, he’s not so bad. Might be nice to have a stepdad with a yacht. There are worse things, Lil.”
My nickname in his mouth is thrilling. “Please do not call him my stepdad. For all he talks about sailing, I’m surprised he hasn’t started calling you ‘old sport’ yet. Besides, it’s not like he’s even the one sailing. He has a crew of like twenty, apparently.”
“Well, I feel bad,” says Theo. A thought seems to occur to him. “Hey! Wait, do you think he’ll pay for our dinner if we invite him over?”
“You’re shameless,” I laugh, but he’s already waving them over.
Rose and William walk through the tables to where we are sitting on the beach. A waitress pulls over two additional seats and place settings.
“Care to join us?” I ask.
“Oh, yay!” says Rose, immediately pulling out a chair from the soft sand and sitting down. “Thank you! This is so much fun, it’s like a double date!”
William’s frown deepens while he examines the table. Rose pats the cushion of the chair until he too sits down.
“Thank you for letting us join you,” he says. “Although, I usually prefer to sit inside on the porch, where the wind is blocked.”
“But the sun is just about to set!” I point out, nodding to the ocean. “This is the best view on island.” Behind us the sky is orange sherbet, melting into the impossibly smooth, flat beach.
“I have to politely disagree. My slip downtown has the best view on island.”
It takes every inch of willpower I have to keep my eyeballs fixed in their sockets.
“So, Theo.” William shifts in his seat and changes the topic. “What do you do?”
“I’m a tennis instructor at Great Harbor and I bartend at the Summer House. But I’m going back to school to become a history teacher.”
“You’re going back to school to become a teacher? Isn’t that a little ironic. I’m going to give you a bit of advice: Don’t waste your time. You’ll be up to your knees in debt, and you’ll be lucky if you make eighty grand by the time you’re forty. That’s no income to support a family.”
I open my mouth to retort, but before I can speak, a sharp pain in my shin gives me pause. I look up to see Rose staring at me, wide-eyed, an imperceptible shake to her head.
“No,” my mom mouths to me silently. “Don’t.”
“You make some interesting points, William. I appreciate the advice, but I think I’ll be okay. It’s what I love,” says Theo. “And isn’t that enough?”
Rose interrupts him before the conversation can continue. “That’s lovely, Theo. Anyhoo,” she says. “I have that gala the last weekend of July, and as the honoree, I get a few extra tickets! Theo, you should come and join our table.”
“I’d love to. If that’s okay with you, Lily?”
I nod so vigorously my earrings shake. It’ll be nice to have a friend there.
“I’m excited to hear this big speech,” says William. “I’m sure you’ll look stunning up there.”
“People will be too blinded by the beauty of her words to evaluate her looks,” I say. Rose gives me another kick. “But yes, you will, Mom.”
William adjusts the cuff of his jacket. “I’m sure that’s true. But I wish she didn’t have to work so hard.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “She’s opening her own practice. Soon, she’ll be busier than ever. Mom, how did it go with the offer on the office space?”
I should’ve asked about it sooner, I realize, but everything has been so hectic.
“I didn’t place it,” Rose answers. “It’s a long story.”
“What? Why?”
Before my mom can respond, William is saying: “Therapists and teachers. I’m with a bunch of bleeding hearts here.”
He lets out an exaggerated chuckle and slaps his knee, like he’s auditioning for the role of a villain in an old Western. No one else laughs.
“Don’t worry, Lily, if my Rosebud sticks around long enough with me, she won’t have to work anymore at all. I’m thinking Palm Beach all winter. Your mom’s too good to be here full-time. She’s not really a ‘local.’ Time to cash in, sell the house, and get on with it,” he continues.
Sell the house? We’ve discussed the idea as a general concept over the years, so it shouldn’t come as a terrible surprise, but never before did my mom act on it.
The cottage is Lottie. Saying goodbye to it would be like laying her to rest once and for all.
And what would my mom do if she quit her job? She loves her career.
“Sounds like trading a job for a way shittier job,” I mumble.
“Lily!” Rose’s voice is sharp. “I have to go use the ladies’ room. Will you join me?”
The waitress has appeared to Theo’s left, a short woman with a choppy pixie cut. I recognize her as someone who comes back every season. “Hi, I’m Maddy and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get you started with any drinks?”
“Yes,” all four of us say in complete synchronicity.
After we have ordered, Mom and I excuse ourselves, placing folded napkins in our seats.
In the back of the restaurant, Rose drags me into a single-person bathroom with seagrass wallpaper.
A noise machine hums in the corner, imitating what is surely supposed to be the soothing sounds of an artificial beach—waves, a seagull cawing—but it’s too loud, unnatural.
Everything smells of lavender soap and rosemary.
The seagull on tape is squawking, the waves crashing like the sound of a tambourine.
“What the hell was that?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, a little too innocently.
Rose’s neck is red, the way it always gets when she’s either angry or embarrassed. “Why are you being so rude to William?”
“Did you hear what he said out there, insulting ‘locals’? He’s being a jerk.”
“You’re being childish and dramatic.”
“You’re being classist and spineless.” We are silent for a few long seconds. “Are you going to pee or not?” I ask after enough time has passed.
“You know that was just a ruse to get you alone,” Rose says, but she’s glancing at the white porcelain toilet. “Okay, fine. When in Rome, I suppose. Can you run some water for me?”
I turn on the faucet and look into the seashell-lined mirror, examining my reflection. My hair has grown slightly frizzy in the ocean air, and my gloss could use a retouch. “Hey, can I borrow your new lipstick? I love the shade you chose.”