“I want you and Sally up there,” he said firmly. “Let’s see what you got.”
10
Present Day
Candice couldn’t believe it, but she was in the passenger side of Lindsey’s car, speeding down the black road, headed for a bar in Oak Bluffs. Lindsey’s radio spat out R&B tracks from the early 2000s as she chatted happily about the night ahead. Somehow, she’d reconnected with Marie from high school. Marie had married an islander and kept in touch with all the other islanders from their past. “And yeah, apparently Frank still hangs out with them,” Lindsey said. “At least he got back together with them when he got back from wherever he was. He had some other life. But I don’t know any details.” Lindsey laughed. “Maybe those are your details to discover tonight!”
“I barely remember who that person is,” Candice lied.
“I’m sure,” Lindsey said.
It was true that Candice’s interest was piqued, but she didn’t want her sister to see. She rubbed her knees and wondered what Frank Delaware might look like, so many years after she’d last seen him. He’d been a teenager, gangly and funny and whip-smart. She wasn’t sure how his features could have transformed into a man’s. Candice had never gotten social media, as she saw it as a direct assault against her ability to write well. It meant that nobody from her past knew what she looked like, nor what she was up to, and she didn’t know what they looked like, either. It was for the best, she thought. It was how things used to be, back before screens ruled our lives.
“Have you ever thought about deleting social media, Linds?” she asked her sister now.
Lindsey laughed. “Why on earth would I do that? That’s how I got back together with these people! That’s why we’re going out tonight.”
Candice guessed her sister had a point there.
The bar in Oak Bluffs was packed with islanders. As soon as Candice and Lindsey walked in, a table in the back leaped up and called their name. Marie was the first to come over and hug Lindsey, then Candice. Candice couldn’t believe it, but Marie—whom she remembered as the pimply girl who’d run around with Lindsey—was a beautiful woman in her early forties, a full-on adult, just as she was. Marie’s husband had been in Candice’s class, a guy named Rod who shook her hand and welcomed her back to the Vineyard. Around the table were others from high school: Tyler, Audrey, Bethany, and Stephen. And beside Stephen sat Frank Delaware, his hair frothy and thick and black, his eyes penetrating and filled with humor. It didn’t feel like so long ago that she’d “fallen in love with him,” if that was what you called something that happened in high school.
Frank came over to shake their hands and welcome them. Candice was grateful that he hadn’t gone in for a hug. They were strangers, after all. Sort of.
“We were so sorry to hear about your mom,” Frank said, reaching for his beer, which he raised. “To the iconic Stella.”
“To Stella!” Marie echoed. “Nobody ever did it better than her.”
Candice smiled nervously, then grabbed a seat next to Lindsey, praying that Lindsey would talk enough for both of them. It had been ages since Candice had socialized with anyone in the city who wasn’t her MFA students. She was beginning to realize how pathetic that was.
After a period of painful conversations about the city, about the Vineyard, and about how strange it was that they were all together again, Candice got up, thinking that maybe she would call a taxi to take her back to the Harbor House. She went to the bathroom to regroup, but Lindsey snuck in after her and begged her not to go.
“I’m trying to flirt with Stephen,” Lindsey said. “But it’ll look weird if you leave. It’ll make me look desperate.”
“Stephen?” Candice was surprised.
“He is so much cuter than he was in high school,” Lindsey said mischievously. “I should have had more patience for him back then! He was in love with me, and I hardly gave him the time of day.”
Candice laughed. “And now he’s ignoring you?”
“Not really. I mean, I don’t know.” Lindsey pouted. “I really want this summer to be special, Candice. What if it’s our last summer on the Vineyard?”
Candice sighed and agreed to stay out with her for one more hour. “But after that, I’m in a cab. I promise you that.”
Lindsey thanked her, then hurried back out to order herself another drink. Candice took a moment at the mirror, fixing her makeup and wondering what Nathan was up to in the city. What if he was out with Janie? What if he was out with another girl, another of Candice’s MFA students? Candice hated how pathetic she felt. She wasn’t sure if she could ever trust him again.
When Candice returned to the bar, it felt as though they’d turned up the speakers, and everyone had to scream at each other to communicate. She felt a migraine coming on. Rather than stay at the table, she decided to step outside with her drink, where she leaned against the cool wall and looked up at the stars. She couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
The door opened, bringing Frank into the moonlight. She took a breath, frightened that he’d followed her out there, until she saw that he’d answered the phone. He hadn’t followed her after all. He raised his finger toward her, as though to say,I’m so sorry. This is rude. And then he said, “I get it. Really. You don’t need to worry about it.” He paused. “We’ll take care of it. Talk soon.”
He hung up, then pocketed his phone and looked at her. “Too loud to talk in there.”
Candice smiled. “I thought I was going to get a headache. I guess we’re really not teenagers anymore.”
“They’re saying that forty-five is the new thirty,” Frank said.
“Tell that to any part of my body,” Candice said. “Tell that to my knees and my hair.”
Frank laughed and came closer. Candice ached to ask him who he’d been talking to. Was it his wife? But he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Maybe a girlfriend then?
