Summer love, p.29
Summer Love,
p.29
She walked across the sand to a trio of women with their feet in the water and beach towels around their shoulders.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” Sheila said, “but could I ask one of you to come take a photo of me and my three friends? We’ve worked here all summer and we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Sure.” One of the women stood up and followed Sheila back to the pack.
The four of them squeezed together, said “cheese,” and the woman snapped several shots. Everyone thanked her, and the woman strode away to her friends.
Ariel whispered, “You guys! Do you know who that was? Jane Curtin!”
“Right,” Nick agreed. “She was on Saturday Night Live forever.”
“Oh, and she was in that comedy series Kate and Allie,” Sheila said. “Wow!”
“Never heard of her,” Wyatt said.
The other three laughed.
“You don’t see anything unless it’s under a microscope,” Nick said.
“Look at the boat with the red sail!” Ariel cried, pointing.
The four went quiet as they watched a very beautiful schooner glide out of the harbor.
“We should all meet again here someday,” Nick said.
Wyatt snorted. “Don’t count on that happening soon. I’ve got a lot of significant work to do.”
“Maybe in ten years,” Ariel suggested.
“Maybe in twenty,” Sheila said.
“Maybe we’ll all come back here the day I own a hotel on the island, and you’ll be my guests,” Nick said.
Ariel laughed. “What a wonderful idea, Nick!”
“You’re such a dreamer, Nick,” Wyatt said, shaking his head.
“Yes,” Nick agreed. “Yes, I am.”
twenty-four
This Summer
At the bistro, most of the group were seated around the table, eating. Francine prepared a dark coffee for herself and sat down next to her husband.
“Good morning, everyone,” she said.
A chorus of replies came toward her.
“My darling,” Francine said to Nick, “what are your plans for us today?”
Before Nick could respond, Sheila said, “I think I’ll go home. I miss my boys, and I have so much to do.”
Ariel touched her husband’s hand. “Actually, Wyatt and I are considering going home today, as well. As you might have noticed, Wyatt becomes slightly neurotic when he’s away from his work, and you haven’t seen Wyatt when he really gets lonely for his core samples and computers.”
Nick glanced around the table, shocked. “Oh, I don’t think you all need to scatter this morning. We’re scheduled for a round of golf at the Nantucket Golf Club. That’s the one Bill Clinton played on. And—”
“Dad!” Jade-Marie hurried into the bistro. Penny was right behind. “You know how Karla was having trouble with her computer spreadsheets? Penny fixed it!”
The two young women stood beaming at the table and they almost seemed like twins, one with red hair in a pale green dress and one with dark hair in a pale blue dress. The women were young, fresh, crisp, and absolutely glowing. They were obviously pleased with themselves; they were like angels announcing a miracle.
And wasn’t it a miracle, Sheila thought, that her daughter was so brilliant and competent that she could fix a hotel computer? Wasn’t it a miracle that Penny was even here on the earth, in all her youth and beauty and hope for the day?
Nick studied Penny. “What was your degree in?”
Penny folded her hands in front of her and lifted her chin. “Business administration and IT.”
Nick said, “I’d like to offer you a job.”
Penny asked, “Do you mean for the summer? Here? Temporary?”
“I’ll start you here, Penny,” Nick said. “And yes, here for the summer for a paid internship. In the fall we’ll evaluate whether you should stay here and work, or transfer to another of my hotels.”
Penny held her breath and looked at her mother.
Sheila clenched her hands beneath the table and calmly said, “What a wonderful idea, Penny. What a wonderful opportunity.”
“That means all three of you kids are staying on the island,” Nick said. “I’m glad.”
Wyatt glared at his coffee cup. Ariel put her hand on his arm. “One word of advice, Jason,” Ariel said. “Don’t let Penny and Jade-Marie share a place with you.”
Penny and Jade-Marie shrieked with laughter.
Jason said, “Don’t worry, Mom. Cabot’s renting me a place above his shop. It’s a complete pit. Penny and Jade-Marie wouldn’t want to enter it, and there’s not enough room for two people.”
“Penny can stay with me,” Jade-Marie said. She looked at Penny. “Hotel rooms go for five hundred a night in the summer, so we can’t give you your own room. I know I told you the room is small, but we can trade the queen bed for two twins.”
Penny’s face went pink with pleasure. “Wow. Thanks, Jade-Marie!”
Sheila smiled at her daughter. “Well, you have your adventure at last!”
“I want to see your apartment!” Jade-Marie told Jason.
“Sure,” Jason said. “Sometime.”
“Now,” Jade-Marie insisted. “It’s not far, right? It’s above the shop?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Okay. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Could I go, too?” Penny asked.
“Sure!” Jade-Marie and Jason spoke at the same time.
“Use the hotel bikes,” Nick suggested.
“Good idea!” Jade-Marie said. She kissed her father’s cheek as she headed for the door.
“I’ll be back before you go, Mom,” Penny told her mother.
“Yeah, me, too,” Jason called to his parents as he followed the girls out the door.
The air of the room was suddenly silent.
Sheila broke the tension. “I remember, the first day I was here, I was frantically worried about biking in my bathing suit.”
The others laughed. Nick said, “And that was only the beginning of the summer.”
Ariel said, “When I try to remember those months on Nantucket, it’s all a blur.”
“I have more—” Sheila began, and then stopped, her face red. “I brought my photographs of that summer with me. They’re not good photos. I only had one of those throwaway cameras. I guess I was trying to be artsy.”
Francine frowned at Sheila. “Should we be worried?”
“Absolutely not.” Sheila took a deep breath. “These are pictures of the beach, hydrangeas, ferries. Like that.” She took a thick envelope from her purse and handed the photos around.
Ariel and Wyatt, Francine and Nick, studied the photos. Their faces lit up.
“The Atlantic Café!” Nick yelled. “Nachos and brews!”
“Remember when we drove out to the Great Point lighthouse?” Ariel asked. “I almost touched a seal.”
“Look at the four of us.” Sheila pointed to the photo of the group standing near the base of the lighthouse.
“We were so young,” Nick said.
“We were so thin,” Sheila added. She slipped another photo on top.
“Sharon Waters, still the hotel manager!” Wyatt said. “She’s actually smiling. You should show her this picture.”
“What a dump this place was,” Nick said. “You’ve got to admit I’ve turned it into a palace.”
Ariel pulled Wyatt close and they both stared down at a photo of the four of them at the beach. “We were babies.”
“We were full of hope,” Nick said.
“I wish the kids were here to see these,” Sheila said.
“They’ve got better things to do,” Nick reminded her. “They’re heading into their own Nantucket summer.”
“I envy them,” Ariel said.
Sheila nodded. “Me, too.”
They sat smiling, together again, gazing down at photos of the summer when they were young.
For Charley,
a love for all seasons
Acknowledgments
Hello, everyone! I hope you made it safely and happily through the unsettling year of 2021. It was a little better than 2020, right? I survived by reading, writing, and watching way too much television. And this summer, I was able to spend time with my grandchildren, with summer friends, and even enjoy a few dinners out with island friends.
I also had lots of time to write. During the past two years, my mind has been crowded with ideas about summer love. Some people come to Nantucket for the summer months, fall in love, and in September, return to their normal lives. Sometimes their love lasts. Often, it doesn’t. And that got me thinking about, and writing about, people who came to Nantucket as young adults in 1995, and what they were like twenty-five years later. Because people do change…or do they?
My editor, Shauna Summers, helped in so many ways to sort through the possibilities of my characters’ adventures. She was astute and precise and absolutely brilliant, and I owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you, Shauna.
People say that words are living things, and anyone who writes knows that it’s true. Time after time, when I’m asleep, words that have been banished to an old draft in the computer will creep over, antlike, and insert themselves into the final draft, without my knowledge. Please forgive them.
Madeline Hopkins, who was the copyeditor for Summer Love, has an eagle eye for those pesky errors, and I’m grateful. And in this book, I discovered that Madeline and I have a special bond. I’m glad, and I’m especially glad for Madeline’s awesome work as my copy editor. Much gratitude to my production editor, Jennifer Rodriguez, and special thanks to Belina Huey for the gorgeous cover!
I’ve been delighted to work with the Ballantine team who have managed to make the magic happen during unusual and often frustrating times. Allison Schuster, Karen Fink—thanks for all you do, and for making it fun. Much love and gratitude to Kim Hovey, and enormous thanks to Kara Welsh.
My agent, Meg Ruley, has kept me on track for many years now. I don’t know what I’d do without her. I certainly wouldn’t laugh as much! Thanks to all those who work for the Jane Rotrosen Agency, especially Jessica Errera, Christina Hogrebe, Sabrina Prestia, Hannah Strouth, and Julianne Tinari.
This was the year that my Christmas novel Let It Snow was made into a Hallmark Christmas movie called Nantucket Noel. It was a delight to watch, even though it wasn’t filmed in Nantucket! I want to send enormous thanks to Josh Gray and Nantucket Dreamland for streaming the premiere showing of Nantucket Noel on the Dreamland’s big screen. I’m so grateful to the wonderful audience who filled the theater with cheers and boos! Nantucket Noel might show up in Hallmark’s Christmas in July special.
In 2020 and 2021, more than ever, writers reached out to one another, with fabulous results. I hope all readers have discovered the brilliant online group called Friends and Fiction, created by Mary Kay Andrews, Mary Alice Monroe, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry, and Kristin Harmel. Their own books will touch your heart and knock your socks off, and every week they interview other writers talking about their newest books. Check it out on Facebook or YouTube. It’s a reader’s goldmine.
The really lovely Brenda Novak not only writes wonderful books, but also has a monthly book club. Beloved Debbie Macomber also has a book club, and so does glamorous Elin Hilderbrand. We’re all so lucky to have their books to read and their suggestions on what else would delight us. Viola Shipman has become a special friend and her heartwarming novels give us hope and good cheer whatever the season. Viola, whose grandson Wade Rouse writes in his grandmother’s name, also interviews other writers on social media.
It’s been a special pleasure to continue to work with the charming, ingenious Tim Ehrenberg, who performs his magic at Nantucket Book Partners. Mitchell’s Book Corner is my hometown bookstore and their staff are dynamite at helping readers get the right book. Thanks to Christina Antonioni, Dick Burns, Wendy Hudson, and way over three blocks away, Suzanne Bennett of Bookworks.
My virtual assistant, Christina Higgins, has been great help in this wildly complicated virtual world. Chris Mason of Novation Media continues to be a technical champion, and Martha Sargent at Computer Solutions is miraculously calm and efficient when I have a fit of computer hysterics.
Tricia Patterson, I just love you. So does Charley. So does Callie. Tricia is a star in so many ways, especially when it comes to putting a twist in a plot or removing an unwanted twist elsewhere.
My blue-eyed, blond-haired, nine-years-younger baby sister, Martha, was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring, and she went through what she calls a “journey”—I would use other words! Now she’s growing her hair back and getting a pedicure, and I want to send my special thanks to everyone at Sarah Cannon, the cancer center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. They took such good care of her and even had her laughing. Their optimism and skill were a godsend. Martha’s husband, Chuck, and her sons, Andrew and Chase, were stars, and Josh Thayer and David Gillum helped from afar.
It’s amazing to me that an entire book can be kept on a small flash drive, but even more amazing is how a nice long telephone conversation can make the world seem like a better place. Jill Hunter Burrill, Deborah and Mark Beale, Sofiya Popova, Dinah Fulton, Mary and John West, Antonia Massie, Gussy Manville, Curlette Anglin, Tanieca Hosang: They say that laughter is the best medicine, and your laughter is magic. And facetiming with my grandchildren? OMG! Heart heart heart heart! Special thanks and huge boxes of chips and chocolate go to Ellias, Fabulous, Emmett, Annie, Winnie, and especially my daughter, Sam, and her partner, Tom, who do all the hard work and still make me laugh.
Once again, electronic bouquets of flowers to my Facebook and Instagram friends and to all my readers. I love all of your posts of dogs, cats, grandchildren, children, food, more food, puns, flowers, and generally messy, wonderful lives. Jose Luis Borges said he imagines that Paradise will be a kind of library. May we all meet in Heaven someday and have an eternally glorious book club!
by nancy thayer
Summer Love
Family Reunion
Girls of Summer
Let It Snow
Surfside Sisters
A Nantucket Wedding
Secrets in Summer
The Island House
A Very Nantucket Christmas
The Guest Cottage
An Island Christmas
Nantucket Sisters
A Nantucket Christmas
Island Girls
Summer Breeze
Heat Wave
Beachcombers
Summer House
Moon Shell Beach
The Hot Flash Club Chills Out
Hot Flash Holidays
The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again
The Hot Flash Club
Custody
Between Husbands and Friends
An Act of Love
Belonging
Family Secrets
Everlasting
My Dearest Friend
Spirit Lost
Morning
Nell
Bodies and Souls
Three Women at the Water’s Edge
Stepping
About the Author
Nancy Thayer is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including Summer Love, Family Reunion, Girls of Summer, Let It Snow, Surfside Sisters, A Nantucket Wedding, Secrets in Summer, The Island House, The Guest Cottage, An Island Christmas, Nantucket Sisters, and Island Girls. Born in Kansas, Thayer has been a resident of Nantucket for nearly forty years, where she currently lives with her husband, Charley, and a precocious rescue cat named Callie.
nancythayer.com
Facebook.com/NancyThayerBooks
Instagram: @nancythayerbooks
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Nancy Thayer, Summer Love
