We heard that Zoe Butler-Grayworkedat Blue Inn and Tyler had given her a ride one day—they were old family friends.
We heard that Blue Inn was closing.
And also that it was expanding.
And that Alexa, with her Silk Stockings money, was one day going to buy Blue Inn outright.
After that, when Alexa wasn’t with Cam Hartwell she was often spotted around town with her little sister, Morgan, and Katie Griffin.
Speaking of Cam Hartwell. We did seek out Cam’s checkout line when he was working at Market Basket that summer. He was incredibly efficient with the scanner, and managed to make a little conversation at the same time, which wasn’t easy. It was a real shame, what he got caught up in later in the summer.
August
49.
Rebecca
“There are way too many people using plastic straws around here,” said Morgan severely. “Don’t they know that the Pacific garbage patch is now the size of Russia?”
Rebecca, who had been planning on indulging in a cold brew at Commune, respectfully reconsidered. After shopping they were planning to go for poke bowls at Lolo Poke. Rebecca understood the folly of this endeavor—Morgan would get a build-your-own bowl but would build it with only rice and cucumber—but she herself wanted the signature Kai bowl. She’d noticed that since she’d begun dating Daniel her appetite had begun to return, tiptoeing in quietly like a teenager home past curfew.
They were on Pleasant Street, coming out of Pretty Poppy, where Morgan wanted to look at earrings and scrunchies. She was clutching her wallet but in the end had decided against parting with any of her allowance—she was actually rather tightfisted. They had parked Bernice outside, her leash looped around a pole.
“Can we get Bernice one of those dog cones from Harbor Creamery?” asked Morgan. “Just as a little treat?”
“Honey, no,” said Rebecca. “You know we have to be careful with her caloric intake. It’s not good for her heart or her joints to be overweight.”
“Also it’s bathing suit season,” agreed Morgan. To Bernice shesaid, “I’m sorry,” and rubbed the top of her head. “I know, the struggle is real.”
Rebecca was only half listening, because she had caught sight of a calendar item on her phone: first tuition payment for Colby due on the fifteenth of August. She hadn’t gotten a bill, though. It must have been sent through the student portal—she’d heard another parent complaining recently about how colleges communicated with students more than parents even though parents were obviously the ones paying. It was ironic, since the complaint about this generation of parents was that they did too much for their children.
When she looked up she saw a figure with a familiar stride moving toward them on the other side of the street.Daniel.She tried to catch his eye and shake her head warningly, but he was smiling broadly and had his hand lifted in a wave.No,she thought.No, no, no.Then she realized he wasn’t looking at her at all. “Hello, Ms. Thornhill!” she heard him say in his teacher voice, and he moved on down the street without so much as a glance their way. (Even as she was relieved, Rebecca was also just the teeniest bit insulted.)
“It’s Alexa,” said Morgan. “Look, Alexa’s over there. Let’s go over.”
“Let’s stay here.” Rebecca didn’t want to risk Bernice recognizing Daniel; Bernice could be capricious and occasionally standoffish, but she and Daniel walked together in Maudslay often enough that she thought Bernice might greet Daniel with a telltale tail thump. A telltailthump.
“She’s with a boy,” reported Morgan. “She’s holding hands with a boywho isn’t Tyler.She’s holding hands with the boy we went to Canobie Lake with.”
“She broke up with Tyler,” said Rebecca. Alexa had told Rebecca the story—@silvergurl, the argument in the parking lot of the Cottage—but apparently she hadn’t told Morgan. She turned. It was all true. Alexa was holding hands with a boy who wasn’t Tyler.
“Over here!” Morgan called. “Alexa, come over here!”
Alexa crossed the street, dropping hands with the boy, who followed one step behind. The boy had blond hair. He wore khaki shorts and a golf shirt. In Rebecca’s day he would have been called preppy, but she didn’t know if that was a term anyone used any longer. Probably not. Most of the terms and phrases she had once used had sailed away on a stiff breeze. Cheesy. Dweeb. Nobody puts baby in a corner.
“Hey, Mom,” said Alexa. “Hi, Morgs.” She knelt down and greeted Bernice. “This is Cam,” she said, gesturing to the boy. She shot Rebecca a look that said,Not now, no questions,so Rebecca just smiled and shook the hand Cam held out. Cam looked directly at Rebecca when he greeted her, which she appreciated. Tyler had always looked down.
“Morgan and I are acquainted,” Cam says. “Nice to see you again, Morgan.”
“We’re going to get poke bowls,” said Morgan. “If you want to come.”
“We just had smoothies,” said Cam. “But I love the Kai bowl.”
“Did you get straws with your smoothies?” asked Morgan.
“Compostable,” said Alexa, and Morgan looked relieved.
“I’m trying to get this one to go to the driving range with me,” Cam said, pointing to Alexa. “But so far she’s resisting.”
