Page 20 of Hearts on the Line

“When I come back in my next lifetime, I’m going to be a weatherperson. Get paid to be wrong every day, yet those suckers still keep coming back, always needing to know when the next best beach day will be, or when that big nor’easter is going to hit.”

June’s seat belt clicks into place as I back out of the driveway, trying to stifle a laugh.

“I met Donna’s granddaughter today, June.” Nana attempts to turn around but can’t, so she flips down the visor mirror and tilts it toward the back seat. “I think Ethan should take her on a date. Nice girl. She’s a lawyer.”

“Donna! Oh, I didn’t know she was back for the summer. Hope she had a good stay in Florida.”

“Fell and broke her hip. Finally up and about. Told Ethan, it’s really hard getting old.”

“Well, I’m dating,” June says smugly.

I peek in the rearview mirror, and she adjusts her bucket hat. “Met Harry a few weeks back at the deli. Nice man, and a great kisser.”

“June Harrington!” my grandmother exclaims, all fake shock.

“Listen, I’m old, not dead. And Fred only has that yoga mat trick. My hips can’t take it.” June unzips her purse in the back seat. “Would anyone like a pear?”

Chapter 7

Sloane

Tires crunch over the stone driveway.

I glance out the kitchen window. Annie’s yelling at Brooks and Ethan on the dock. I grab my bag and race down the stairs.

Sarah waits in a black Prius.

“Did you rob a bank?” she asks with a big belly laugh as I rip open the door and toss my bag into the back. It bounces off the car seats.

I’m leaving before I can make a mistake I can’t take back. Namely, spending any more time with Ethan.

“I have a confession,” I brush aside the pile of empty fruit pouches and granola bar wrappers from the passenger seat. “I haven’t been traveling. I turned to a life of crime.”

“I knew it!” She grins, slides her sunglasses down from on top of her head, then quickly pulls out of the driveway, back onto Main Street.

Suddenly, I’m seventeen again.

Windows down at the end of school, ocean air making my skin sticky, like some strange time warp. There’s something about being back here. I love it, and I’m starting to think that after my car is fixed, maybe I should stay for the summer if I can find a place of my own. It’ll be a good spot to hide out while the news of the wedding being canceled dies down before I head to New York.

“So are we gonna talk about it?” Sarah says, glancing over to me. “Oh, wait.” She reaches down and hands me another iced coffee from the console between us. “Figured you could use a pick-me-up.”

The gesture is so perfectly Sarah. It’s like no time has passed, except everything has.

I clutch onto it, thankful and a little guilty.

“Which ‘it,’ Sarah? There are a lot.”

“We can catch up on the rest later. But you’re back in Merritt Point, you didn’t get married to your famous and rich fiancé, and you ended up at the one person’s house you were secretly dating in high school.”

I rub my fingers against my brow, trying my best to smooth away the tension. It doesn’t budge.

“Just a coincidence.”

“There are no coincidences in life.”

“It could have been anyone,” I say. “Anyone could have come around that corner and helped. I was just sitting there on my hood like an idiot eating a taco when it started raining, and I couldn’t breathe. I don’t even remember driving from Newport. I just left and was in some trance.”

“I think they call that shock.”