Page 22 of Summer Light on Nantucket

Before Blythe could speak, her daughter announced proudly, “My name is Holly Benedict and I am a graphic novelist, the fourth of four children and the third girl. My mother is divorced, but she owns our Nantucket house.”

Aaden answered, “I’m very pleased to meet you, Holly Benedict. I’m Aaden Sullivan. I was a good friend of your mother in high school.I have two daughters, but my wife and I are divorced and my daughters are traveling all around the world.”

Holly said, “Ooooooooooh.”

Quickly, before Holly hijacked the complete conversation, Blythe asked, “Do you have a house on the island, Aaden?”

“Unfortunately, I do not. Fortunately, I’m staying with a good friend.”

Immediately Blythe envisioned his friend, a sexy, dark-haired socialite with a wicked backhand, a short tennis skirt, a flat stomach, and an aristocratic overbite.

Blythe cocked her head perkily. “You’re staying for a month?”

“Yes. Arnie tells me I can stay as long as I want.”

The toothy aristocrat vanished into thin air. Blythe beamed. “We should meet for coffee sometime.”

“How about tomorrow?” Aaden still had black magic eyes.

“Um, I’m not sure…the kids have such complicated schedules—”

Holly interrupted, obviously trying to be helpful. “I’ll probably be with Grandmother tomorrow.”

“Why not come have lunch with us at our house?” Blythe knew she was being cowardly. If the children weren’t around, if she was alone with Aaden, she would probably kiss him. They were both divorced! She would definitely kiss him.

What was going on with her tonight? Only a few moments ago, she was practically drooling over Nick.

Aaden raked his hand carelessly through his thick dark hair.

Blythe remembered clutching that hair when they were together, kissing passionately.

Aaden grinned, as if he’d read her thoughts. “I’d like that. What time is good?”

“Oh, any time around noon,” Blythe told him.

“We live on India Street,” Holly told him. “Number thirty-four.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Aaden leaned forward and kissed Blythe’s cheek again. She felt hisbreath, his nearness, and she wanted to take his face between her two hands and move his mouth to her lips.

Instead, she forced herself to smile. “Okay, then, see you.” She took Holly’s hand and walked away, out of the club, into the sensible air, and through the lot to their minivan.

Holly swung Blythe’s hand. “He’s cute.”

“Oh, you think so?” Blythe winked at her daughter. A moment later, she wished she hadn’t winked. Quickly she changed the subject. “How’s Carolyn?”

“Oh, Mom, she has a puppy! One of those poodle doodles, she has photos on her phone, he’s all fat and curly and I’m going over to her house tomorrow to see him, his name’s Buddy, because he’s her very own buddy, and I told Grandmother I’d go to her house for lunch tomorrow and then we’ll work on the novel, andoh no! If I have lunch at Grandmother’s, I won’t get to see Aaden Sullivan! Is it all right for me to call him Aaden instead of Mr. Sullivan? He told me his first name…”

Blythe smiled as Holly babbled on and on. She always tried to let Holly talk all she wanted because when she was smaller, and probably now as well, her older sisters and brother spoke so loudly Holly could never get a word in. They referred to Holly as “the child.” If she’d told them the house was on fire, they wouldn’t have paid attention.

Only now was the light slipping away from the sky. Streetlights and house lights blinked on, and in the gentle dusk, the world magically became smaller, like a stage light shrinking the world down to a circle around the two of them, going home in the minivan, past lawns bordered by flowers whose perfume grew stronger with the arrival of darkness. Blythe remembered how it had been with Aaden, in his car, wrapped around each other, and nothing else in the world had mattered, all of the meaning of life had been right there, enclosing the two of them as they touched.

crushes

When Blythe woke the next morning, the children were all up, running through the house, talking on their phones, playing video games. It was their second day on Nantucket. It was June, with the normal pleasant temperature hovering around seventy-five, so Blythe put on her favorite shirt in all the world, a large cotton button-down in faded blue, and white shorts.

Aaden was coming for lunch today.

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