Page 1 of Summer Light on Nantucket

it all begins with a kiss

Blythe and her best friend Jill were having lunch together at Legal Sea Foods in Boston’s elegant Copley Place mall and they were laughing so hard Blythe worried that the manager would ask them to leave.

Blythe’s oldest child, Miranda, was almost seventeen, and would be a junior at Arlington High. Jill’s oldest son, Zander, was also a rising junior. When their children were babies and toddlers, Blythe and Jill pretend-planned their wedding, but as they grew, Miranda and Zander liked each other fine but showed no romantic interest at all.

“The end of a dream,” Jill said with a sigh.

“It’s a good thing,” Blythe told Jill as they finished their healthy salmon salads. “If our children really were going to marry, I wouldn’t be able to complain about Miranda’s insolence to you and you wouldn’t want to tell me about stuff like that boy gym smell Zander had ever since he turned fourteen.”

“He doesn’t anymore,” Jill said quickly, defensively. “Smell like a boys’ gym.”

“I know, I know. He’s perfect, Jill, I mean it. An Adonis. Plus, his girlfriend is a real sweetheart.”

Jill tipped back her glass to drink the last of her iced tea. “I love Carrie. But they’re still kids. They need to date other people, break a few hearts, get their hearts broken, before they marry.Ifthey marry. This is just high school love.”

“Hey, Taylor Swift is all about high school love,” Blythe reminded her friend, and then she sat there silently, her mind and her heart full of memories.

“Oh, no, there you go, thinking about Aaden again,” Jill said.

“No, I’m not.” Blythe changed the subject. “Listen, Krebs offered me full-time seventh-grade English next year.”

“Well, that’s great, isn’t it? You taught eighth grade when you were first married, and you’ve been subbing in middle school for years, right?”

“True. But full-time teaching is much more work. And seventh grade is more difficult to teach. Eighth graders have learned how to deal with themselves. Seventh graders are hormonal, insecure bullies.”

“Not all of them, surely. Teddy sailed through seventh grade.”

“True. But that’s another concern. What would happen tomykids if I teach in their school?”

“The question is, what will happen toyouif you teach full-time?”

“The answer is,” Blythe said, “since Bob and I divorced, he and Teri have been great about their days with the kids. I’ll have free time to do lesson plans.”

Jill thought about this for a moment, then said, “You like Teri.”

Blythe speared one last piece of lettuce and waved it like a pointer. “I do. I don’tloveher. The kids say she clings to Bob like a barnacle, and she always gives them way too much sugar, which makes them like her. And I’m really glad the kids like her, even though I admit she makes me jealous. She’s in such good shape, she can wear crop tops and low riders and show off her belly button ring like Miranda.”

“Not a good mother image.”

“True. But she doesn’t have to be a mother.I’mthe mother. She’s like the cool babysitter. Plus, Bob spends much more time with the kids than he did when we were married. They do things. Go to plays, ballets, the aquarium. Skiing.”

The waitress appeared. “Would you like dessert?”

“No, thanks. Just the bill.” Blythe reached into her purse for her wallet.

Jill brought out her credit card. They always split the bill half and half.

“Blythe, it sounds like you want to teach full-time.”

“Krebs gave me a few weeks to think about it. It will be a good time for me to reevaluate everything. We leave for Nantucket in two days.”

Jill said, “We’ll be up at our cottage in Maine. I’ll float you a message in a bottle.”

“Ha!” Blythe stirred her iced coffee. “Another thing. Jill, you’re right. Iwasthinking about Aaden. I’ve been thinking about him a lot. You know he was one of the reasons Bob and I divorced, and the funny thing is that I haven’t seen him in years. Decades. I was simply mooning over old photographs.”

The waitress took the little leather folder holding the bill and their credit cards.

Jill leaned forward, speaking softly. “I think Aaden was the love of your life.”

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