Hours after Alexander texted Janie to say he was on the island and wanted to see her, she miraculously texted him back.
JANIE: Hey. How did you know I was here?
Alexander’s heart pounded. It was clear she thought it was fishy. Maybe Alexander shouldn’t have worded his initial text like that. But his emotions were all over the place. He didn’t know which way was up.
He decided to explain himself.
ALEXANDER: You were on White Oak Lodge property and met someone? That man is my sister Nina’s new boyfriend. He’s working on the new construction.
It took Janie a little while to answer back. When she did, there was an air of relief in her words.
JANIE: Okay. I was worried you were having me followed.
Alexander snorted, then remembered that he’d literally sent a private detective out there to find his siblings, his father, and Tio Angelo. He wasn’t off the hook.
ALEXANDER: I wasn’t. But I really want to see you. Can we talk?
ALEXANDER: I know things haven’t been easy for us the past few years.
ALEXANDER: I know I haven’t been the best husband. I haven’t been around.
JANIE: Don’t. Not over text.
JANIE: Let’s meet for dinner. Tomorrow.
Alexander couldn’t believe it. He stood, sat back down, and stood again. He felt youthful and spry as he wandered down Madequecham Beach, thinking about seeing his wife again. It was hard to believe it had been so long since they’d slept in bed together, so long since they’d casually held hands with each other, so long since their love had been unquestioned, like the weather, like the moon.
Now, they were back on the island where everything had begun.
Alexander traipsed back to “Seth Green’s house,” where Charlotte and Nina were chopping vegetables for salads and drinking white wine. Alexander couldn’t stop smiling.
“What’s up?” Nina put down her knife.
“Janie’s agreed to go to dinner with me,” he announced.
Nina and Charlotte’s faces echoed his relief.
“That’s amazing,” Nina said. “I’ve missed her so much. I thought of her as one of my big sisters, sort of. I mean, she was around all the time back then.”
“Me too,” Charlotte agreed. “In retrospect, it’s sort of crazy how easily Mom let her into the family. Francesca can be cruel when she wants to be.”
“But that’s a testament to how great Janie is,” Nina said.
Alexander picked up a knife and a cutting board, sliced a green pepper, and thought back to the past few years of his marriage. He considered confessing to his sisters that he’d done everything in his power to travel more, fly more, and get away from his kids and wife more. He couldn’t fathom why any longer. Had he hated himself? Had he been so professionally driven?
He regretted it. But he certainly wasn’t the first man who’d given everything to his work, only to realize that he’d missed out on the important stuff. It was the central theme of so many works of fiction. It was the central theme of the past decade of his life.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Nina wiped her wet hands on a towel and hurried to answer it, calling back to say, “It’s both of them!”
Charlotte’s smile widened. She abandoned her vegetable chopping and reached for three additional glasses of wine: one for Nina’s boyfriend Amos, one for Charlotte’s boyfriend Vincent, and another for Alexander. When Vincent, the chef,entered the kitchen to kiss Charlotte hello, Alexander pretended to be busy for a second, assessing an onion, before glancing over and seeing the familiar face. It was bizarre. Vincent was older, as they all were, but Alexander remembered something youthful and charming about his eyes from those long-ago days at the White Oak Lodge. Charlotte had explained to Alexander that she’d left Vincent behind when she, Francesca, Allegra, and Lorelei had moved to Italy. But they’d rekindled their past romance and found new life together.
Alexander shook first Vincent’s hand, then Amos’s. Amos was more mystified by the gesture. Amos had, after all, been helping Tio Angelo and Jack circulate drugs through the Nantucket High School. He’d had a hand in the broiling that had ultimately led to the destruction of the Lodge. But that Amos had been a broke kid, willing to do anything to help his family out. This Amos wore a big smile, had shaggy hair and puppy dog eyes, and looked at little Nina as though she lit up his universe. After what Nina had told Alexander about her first husband, Alexander had to be grateful that she’d found someone who actually cared about her.
“I’d remember you anywhere,” Vincent said to Alexander. “You were the solemn, powerful older brother.”
“We all lived in fear of you,” Amos agreed.
Alexander’s cheeks reddened with surprise. “I never meant to be like that.”
