“Is he really that jealous?” Nolan asked.
“Actually, he’s not.” I caught myself almost sounding disappointed.
“Then you should’ve just told him before we went. Instead, now you have to pretend you didn’t experience one of the greatest pepper farms in the world, and there’s nine dollars’ worth of chocolate in the dumpster.”
I didn’t really have any reason to think Luke would fly off in a jealous rage at the thought of me going to the farm with Nolan. Would he have wondered why I was doing it on a morning when I’d told George I’d work overtime? Maybe. Probably. But I can’t imagine Luke thinking it was that big of a deal. If I was honest, part of me knew that all along. If I really thought about it, I didn’t keep it from Luke because I was afraid of his reaction. I kept it from him because I didn’t want to share the only thing I’d done all summer that didn’t include Luke or Lucy or Josie. I wanted to keep something for myself, the way he got to keep what he did on the Vineyard without me. Driving to Woods Hole to buy salsa and hot sauce before work wasn’t exactly a romantic date, but it was the first time in months I did something without worrying about what anyone else would think.
Looking back, I wished I’d told Luke, even if I did save him from an experience that could have turned him off of chocolate for the rest of his life. Now it felt like keeping it from him made it more important than it should have been, like a secret. And we’d sworn, no secrets.
• • •
For the next two hours Nolan and I read George’s fishing magazines and waited for someone, anyone, to show up and take a boat out. Nobody did.
I tried not to count the minutes, but it was hard when the second had on the clock over the door ticked in the background. At this rate I’d read a year’s worth of fishing knowledge and still never have baited a hook.
Nolan glanced at the clock. 9:05, which meant is was really 9:00. “You can take off if you want,” he offered. “Nobody’s going out on a day like today.”
The rain was still filling the puddles outside the front door, where my bike would normally have been parked. “I don’t have my bike.”
“I can drive you home, if you want. George won’t care. It’s not like we’re going to sell anything here.”
I took out my phone and tapped a quick text message. Josie was already back in bed, but I thought there might be a chance Luke was up.
“Actually, can you drop me off at the Falmouth ferry?”
“You know it’s pouring out, right?”
“Yeah.” I glanced around the office, but didn’t find what I was looking for. “Anything that could help with that?”
Nolan raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “There is something, but you have to promise me you’ll bring it back in perfect condition, or George would kill me. And don’t tell him I let you use it.”
Obviously, Nolan was not giving me a fishing magazine.
“Promise.” I held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
Nolan shook his head and grinned. “You can’t fool me. I know you were never a model Girl Scout.”
I replaced my two fingers with a pinky. “Pinky swear. I’ll return whatever it is you’re about to give me in perfect condition. He’ll never know.”
Nolan slapped a baseball hat on his head and stood up. “That will have to do. I’ll be right back.”
That was one pretty powerful pinky.
Long-Distance Relationship Tip #35:
It takes two to tango.
It also takes two to have a long-distance relationship.
Unless one of you has a multiple-personality disorder.
And then you don’t need long-distance relationship advice,
you need a medical professional.
I texted Emily that I’d meet her at the wharf, but she replied that she’d walk to the house instead. I hoped the rain would stop by the time she arrived, or at least let up long enough so she wouldn’t have to stomp through the streets of Edgartown in ankle-deep puddles. The rain had turned to a drizzle, but the sky was so dark it looked like it was about to crack open any minute and downpour.
Hopefully this visit would go better than the last two, even if I had a physical therapy session this afternoon, so we wouldn’t have a lot of time together. When I told Emily, though, she didn’t seem to mind, and it made me think maybe that’s been the problem this summer—all the planning and anticipation leading up to her visits put too much pressure on us. Our expectations were so high, there was no way the reality could live up to the hype. There was something to be said for unexpected, spur-of-the-moment decisions. The good ones, I mean, and Emily’s was a good one.
They say the third time’s the charm, and I sure hoped that was true, because the last two times Emily came to the island were weird to say the least. The whole thing with Sam, and then having her friends here and the bizarre situation with Charlie and Josie. After they left, I’d asked Charlie what happened to freak Josie out, but he insisted he didn’t do anything. According to Charlie, one minute they were in the kitchen with their hands stuffed into a bag of Goldfish, and the next Josie was looking at her phone saying it was time to go. Even I couldn’t imagine Charlie doing anything stupid like making a move on Josie while she was eating a snack food made for four-year-olds, but then again, it was Charlie.
Obviously, Josie got over whatever happened, because Emily never mentioned it again, which was good. The last thing we needed was another reason for us to get sideways.
When it was time for Emily’s ferry to arrive, I went out to the porch to wait for her. It was Sam’s day off, so she was sleeping in, and Charlie usually didn’t roll out of bed until Melanie was pounding on his bedroom door and threatening to physically remove him with a shovel. I figured I had the rain on my side, and if I played my cards right, we could avoid both of them until Emily had to go back.
The wicker chairs on the porch were protected from the drops sliding off the roof, but I could see the rain dimpling the puddles on the front walk as it continued to fall. I sure hoped Emily had an umbrella.
The tapping of the rain as it landed on the roof was the only sound on the entire street. No birds in the trees, no lawn mowers in the neighbors’ yards, and no kids riding their bikes down the sidewalk. When I’d decided to stay on the Vineyard, I knew it would be different than home, but I didn’t think it would be so calm. That was the only word I could come up with to describe the quiet—the lack of activity anywhere but in the heart of downtown. It’s why I seriously considered leaving weeks ago, and even talked to Charlie about it. He listed a ton of reasons I should stay, but all he rattled off were things he was doing. Not things I could do with a busted knee. There were plenty of places I could do my physical therapy at home, and my therapist said he would pass my records along if I decided to leave. There was really nothing keeping me here. Just someone.
I couldn’t drive a car with my brace, and Emily didn’t have a car on the Cape. If I went home, we wouldn’t see each other at all. I considered bringing it up to Emily to see what she thought, but then I talked to Sam about it, and she offered to include me when she went out with her friends. I decided to not tell Emily I was thinking of leaving and hoped Sam meant what she said. She did, which was why I spent most of my time hanging out with lifeguards when I hadn’t even touched sand since Sam dragged me out of the water at Jaws bridge.
I spotted a bright yellow dot turn the corner and start down the street in my direction. As it grew closer, I heard whistling and then singing, and, finally, under the saucer-like brim of a school bus yellow rain hat with a chin strap, I saw Emily’s face.
“What are you wearing?” I asked as Emily pirouetted up the walkway and a gigantic yellow raincoat billowed out around her. It was twice as big as she was and fell well below her knees, which was almost good, because the only part of her that could possibly get wet were her shins. And her feet, which might as well have been bare, because her flip-flops weren’t exactly keeping them dry.
?
??You like it? The latest in foul weather gear for hardcore fishermen.” Emily struck a pose. “We have welded seams for waterproof protection, flap pockets”—she swept her hand along the front of the jacket, directing my attention to the appropriate spots—“and silver reflective tape so you can’t miss me in the dark.”
“Nice hat,” I observed, and Emily smiled.
“This is actually cool, check it out.” She turned around. “The rim is lower in the back, so rain doesn’t get down your neck. Brilliant, right?”
“Brilliant,” I agreed. “But none of it fits you.”
Emily came up onto the porch and stood in front of me. “Yeah, it’s George’s.”
“He didn’t have an umbrella?”
She shook her head, and water sprayed out of the waterlogged clumps of hair sagging against her shoulders. “Apparently umbrellas are not seaworthy.”
“Let’s hang all that in the mudroom so it can dry.”
“Sounds good, but first things first.” Emily bent down and wrapped two yellow, waterproof arms around me. Even though I wasn’t wearing foul weather gear, and the rain on her hat’s brim ran down my neck, I held her tight.
We hung George’s jacket and hat on hooks in the mudroom off the kitchen, and then I led Emily upstairs to my room. “Everyone’s still sleeping,” I whispered as we passed the closed doors leading to Charlie and Sam’s rooms.
“Maybe we should go to the boathouse so we don’t wake anyone,” Emily quietly suggested. I couldn’t help wondering if she was trying to be considerate or if she didn’t want to be in the house when Sam and Charlie woke up.
“We can do that,” I told her and turned around. “Melanie keeps umbrellas in the mudroom. No foul weather gear required.”
Obviously I couldn’t keep us dry and use my crutches at the same time, so Emily held the umbrella over our heads on our way to the boathouse. It was still drizzling out, but I could see patches of blue fighting their way out between the ragged edges of the clouds. The day wasn’t going to be so bad after all. Maybe we could go into town before I had to head to PT. Even Emily seemed happier than she had the last time she was here. I didn’t know what had changed, but it felt like the Emily I remembered was back.
“Been playing a lot of pool?” Emily asked, nodding toward the chalkboard on the wall where we kept score.
“It’s not like I have much else to do.” I set my crutches next to the door and limped over to the couch.
Emily stared at the chalkboard a little longer, probably trying to add up the number of games I’d won. Beside my initials, we’d scrawled seventeen hatch marks. Beside Sam’s initials, S.N., there were eleven. Charlie had three. “You think PT is helping?”
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but yeah, I do.”
Emily came over and sank down on the cushion next to me. “Josie convinced Mr. Holden to give me back my job at the Shack now that Lucy’s gone.”
I hadn’t even considered that working at the Scoop Shack was still an option. Even with PT two afternoons a week, Emily and I would be able to see each other more often. We wouldn’t have to plan weeks in advance or put so much pressure on making every single minute some earth-shattering experience.
“That’s awesome, and actually really nice of her,” I added, because Josie did deserve some props for that. “Makes me glad I decided not to go home.”
“You were thinking of leaving?” Emily was surprised.
“I thought about it. I mean, once you had to take the job at the marina, it wasn’t like I had much reason to stay.”
Emily shifted uncomfortably, even though the sofa was so old, it was like sitting on a marshmallow. “So what happens when I tell you I didn’t take Mr. Holden up on his offer?”
“You didn’t take it? Why?”
“I’ve gotten the hang of things at the marina.”
“But you could work with Josie. And have all day free so you could come over here more.”
“I was talking to Nolan about it, and—”
“Nolan? What’s he have to do with this?”
“Nothing, I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do.”
“And he convinced you to stay?” This didn’t make any sense. I knew Emily felt bad for me when I’d told her about my knee, but she didn’t do a very good job of hiding the fact that she was glad I’d be staying on the Vineyard. She’d kept telling me how lucky it was that she only had to work nights. There’s no way she would’ve taken a job at the marina if it wasn’t her only hope of staying on the Cape, so why was she suddenly so hell-bent on keeping a job she didn’t want in the first place?
“He didn’t have anything to do with my decision,” she insisted. “It just didn’t feel right, leaving George stuck when the summer is almost over and it would be too late for him to replace me.”
“Let me get this straight,” I told her, trying to be as logical as possible even though the whole thing seemed completely illogical to me. “The job you wanted in the first place because you could work with your friends and have your days free to do whatever you want—including hanging out with yours truly—is offered to you, and you turn it down?”
“You’re making it sound like I’m doing something wrong, but it’s different now. Even my mom and Mr. Holden think it’s the right thing to do.”
“Well, as long as you’ve consulted everyone who matters.” I knew I sounded like a dick, but I couldn’t help it.
Emily’s face crumpled for a second, and I felt bad about giving her such a hard time. I was being a little harsh, but compared to all the shit I put up with this summer—my knee, living on an island without any way to get around, going to physical therapy instead of working to make some money before I headed to school—the least she could do was take the job she was supposed to have and make our last few weeks good ones.
“Is that what you were doing when Josie and I went out with Lucy for her last night? Thinking about how much I mattered?” Emily asked, her eyes cast down as if she was studying her hands and seeing them for the first time. She kept her voice low and level, choosing each word carefully. “You pocket dialed me and I could hear you talking to someone. When I called back, it went straight to voicemail.”
How was this conversation turning on me now? I hadn’t done anything wrong. “I have no idea what night you’re talking about or who I was talking to, Emily.”
“Do you remember when we promised no more secrets?” she asked, looking up at me. Her eyes were wide and hopeful as she waited for my answer. “Did you mean it?”
I took a deep breath. “I did.”
“So did I, which is why I want to tell you that yesterday morning, I didn’t go to work early. I went to a pepper farm with Nolan. And then I went to work.”
A pepper farm? “Are you talking about vegetables?”
“Yeah, but they’re crazy hot peppers.”
This conversation had taken a strange turn. How did we go from Emily telling me she wasn’t going to take the job at the Holdens’ ice cream stand to talking about peppers? “You don’t even like spicy food.”
“I know. But George and Nolan said I just had to experience it. I should have told you and I didn’t, but I am now.” Emily propped her foot up on the cushion and hugged her leg tight to her chest. She rested her chin on her knee and turned to face me. “Is there anything you want to tell me about the night I heard you on the phone?”
If I was in court and had sworn to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, my answer would’ve been just that. The truth. I wasn’t hiding anything about the night I accidently pocket dialed her. But even though Emily phrased her question that way, I didn’t think that was what she was asking. What she really wanted to know was, had I been keeping any secrets.
I shook my head and Emily’s body relaxed.
“I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose,” I told her, which was the truth.
She sat up and let her knee flop over on top of mine. “Do you remember when—”
&nb
sp; “Why do you do that?” I interrupted, not letting her finish.
“Do what?”
“Ask if I remember things that happened between us. If I was there, Em, why wouldn’t I remember?”
Emily shrugged and chewed at her fingernail. “I guess I’m afraid you don’t. Or, if you do, it’s different from how I remember things.”
“So it’s not a test?” I clarified, trying to understand.
She shook her head and gave me a weak smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the pepper farm. And I hope you understand why I can’t quit on George with just a few weeks to go.”
I could handle Emily going to a pepper farm with Nolan, partly because I knew it wasn’t her idea and partly because it didn’t exactly seem like something you’d ask a girl to do if you were trying to win her over—least of all Emily. While I wasn’t a fan of her decision to stay at the marina, I did get it. And I wasn’t surprised her mother thought she was doing the right thing. She probably wrote a book on the topic and knew all the dos and don’ts of accepting and declining offers of employment. “I get it. In a few weeks, we’ll be back home anyway.”
Emily brightened up. “Josie keeps talking about this end of summer bash we’re going to. It’s my last night on the Cape before I leave.”
I’d heard Charlie and a few of Sam’s lifeguard friends talking about it. “It’s supposed to be a big deal.”
“If you ask Josie, it’s going to be the most amazing going away party I could ever ask for, even if I won’t know most of the people there.” Emily shifted onto her hip and rested her elbow against my thigh. “I’m really glad I came over today.”
Now she was smiling for real, and that made me grin. If there was one thing I wasn’t immune to, it was Emily’s infectious enthusiasm. “Me, too. You should surprise me more often.”
“What time is your PT?” she asked.
“Two o’clock,” I told her.
“So we have a few hours.” Emily tapped her finger playfully against her chin and stared at the ceiling as if she was trying very hard to think of something. “Let’s see, what can we do?”