Alexander laughed. “I feel frozen in time, too.”
“Well, you don’t look it!” Chloe sipped her cocktail and grinned.
Chloe had worked at the White Oak Lodge about ten years ago. If Alexander remembered correctly, she’d worked at the front desk, mostly, although she’d often worked in the dining room and in the stables, wherever and whenever they’d needed her. She’d been young and bright and eager to learn, and Alexander had thought she’d work at the Lodge for a very long time. Seeing her now, Alexander felt as though he was seeing a long-lost cousin.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Alexander said to Chloe.
Chloe smiled. “I know! I’m back on the island for the first time in ages. Janie and I are working together at a restaurant in the Historic District.”
Janie was the woman in the red dress, Alexander guessed.
“Oh! Well, you should have talked to my mom,” Alexander said. “I’m sure you could have gotten a job here again. You were brilliant. I remember well.” He tapped his temple.
Chloe’s cheeks turned bright red, and she giggled and kicked a foot. “I don’t know about that. But it’s sweet of you to say.” She glanced at Janie. “But we love working together, minus the fishy smell in our clothes and hair.”
Janie swatted Chloe on the shoulder. “Chloe’s talked so much about this Lodge. I thought I’d better come see it for myself.”
“We heard about the party through friends,” Chloe said. “I hope it’s cool we’re crashing?”
“Of course,” Alexander said. “I’m sure Mom and Dad would love to see you. And my sisters. Maybe Jack was a little too young back then to remember you.” Alexander scanned the crowd for a second, then remembered. “Maybe you never met Nina? She must have been born around then. There she is, playing by herself on the other side of the fire.”
Chloe and Janie followed Alexander’s point to little Nina, who looked mysterious and alive, making two little toys talk to one another. It was as though nobody else at the party existed.
“She’s my favorite,” Alexander admitted.
“Does she make you want kids of your own one day?” Chloe asked. “You must be getting up there.”
“I’m almost twenty-two,” Alexander said. “But I have plans before I want to settle down and have kids.”
“What kind of plans?” Janie asked.
Alexander was taken aback, first by his openness with his “plans,” and second by Janie’s interest in them. He hesitated, listening to the string quintet grow into an incredible crescendo that made his heartbeat quicken.
“I’m going to head off and say hello to a few people,” Chloe said, suddenly distracted (or bored by Alexander’s silence). “I’ll be right back.”
But Janie’s eyes were still on Alexander, as though she wanted nothing more than to hear about his dreams and visions. Beyond her, Alexander spotted Belle in conversation with some other guy, whipping her hair around and occasionally glaring at him. He decided not to care.
“I’ve always wanted to be a pilot,” he said.
Janie’s eyes lit up. “Wow. Aren’t you afraid?”
“Not really,” Alexander said. “I’m so focused on the adventure of it all. You’d never have to be anywhere for longer than a day or two. You could travel all over the world.”
“And all those people would rely on you to get them there safely,” Janie said.
Alexander reached for another glass of wine, handed it to Janie, then took one for himself. This seemed to send Belle into an anger spiral, giving the grass a rogue stomp with the heel of her shoe. But at this distance, both physically and timewise, Alexander almost felt as though he’d never known Belle. He couldn’t imagine she still had feelings for him. It had been nearly three years since they’d broken up, which was a lifetime at twenty-one!
For a while, Alexander and Janie drank wine, strolled through the party, people watched, and talked. Alexander was impressed by how funny and open Janie was. She told him that she’d traveled to Nantucket from Florida earlier this spring and decided, “This is where I want to be. For now.” She seemed to be a sort of vagabond, going where the work was. Her accent was slightly Southern, which he thought was adorable.
About an hour later, Janie admitted she had to use the bathroom, and Alexander walked her to the front door. He pointed the way past the Lodge's front desk and down an additional hallway. Feeling bubbly and alive, he sat on the far end of the porch and watched the party at a distance, wondering if he’d just met someone who wanted to travel the world withhim. It figured she wasn’t originally from the island. Maybe that worked better for him.
That was when he heard Chloe, speaking in a rasping voice that sounded utterly tragic. Something was wrong. Alexander froze and crept as far to the edge of the porch as he could, where he saw the upper corner of Chloe’s head and nothing more. She was talking to someone, pleading with someone, fidgeting so that different parts of her head appeared to Alexander and disappeared again. But he couldn’t make out any of her words.
He wondered if he needed to go down there and make sure she was all right. But how could she have gotten involved in something so sinister so soon after arriving?
But suddenly, the person with whom she spoke burst out, “I told you! You need to get out of here! You already ruined my life once! Please, don’t do it again!”
Alexander would have recognized that voice anywhere. It was Benjamin. It was his father.
