Page 77 of Seven Summer Weekends

“The babka was for your parents.”

“Who are in Italy.”

“Yes, Henry informed me.”

Seeing Nora, and now Juliette, was as close as he could get to being around a live version of his late wife. He hoisted himself up off the ground and gave his sister-in-law and nine-month-old baby niece a kiss.

“Should we worry that your parents are sitting on lounge chairs in the Mediterranean and we are still sitting in the cemetery?”

“That was kind of why I wrotego away—though in my heart I think Julia is happy that we both visit.”

“I think so too,” he said, changing the subject.

“How was your summer?”

“Not over yet,” she laughed, “but good, thanks, though Lars has been working a lot—he’s on a call in the car.”

“Better than not working, I guess.”

“True. He would be in the car, regardless. He’s not a fan of coming here really—thinks it’s weird. But he’s always good about stopping for me. How about your summer? Same old, same old?’

Nora always joked that every day on Fire Island, and therefore every summer there, was exactly the same, like the movieGroundhog Day. Ben was fine with her teasing. That kind of attitude kept out the riffraff—the riffraff being the fancier folks of the Hamptons. The same breed, Ben noted, that had been coming to Fire Island and building huge houses as of late. It was a generalization, of course, and Nora was really as down to earth as Julia had been.

“Good, good,” he replied with little enthusiasm to back it up.

Nora took a hard look at him.

“Really? ’Cause you don’t look so good.”

“I’m OK.”

“You left the beach on the weekend and missed your sacred ball game to have brunch with my parents—who are out of the country?”

“I met someone.”

“You met someone? That’s fantastic! Why don’t you look happy?”

“The question of the hour.”

Ben sat back down on the grass in front of Julia’s grave. Nora carefully kneeled down next to him. He opened up the babka, ripped off a piece, and handed it to her, before taking another piece for himself. They sat like that for a beat, thinking and chewing on the sweet braided bread, and putting little pieces into Juliette’s mouth, waiting for Ben to elaborate. He finally did.

“Hard as I try, I’m still married to your sister. And I’m notcomplaining about that. I want to still be married to your sister. But what if I fall in love and there is no room for her anymore?”

“It sounds like you’ve already fallen—and since you are sitting here with Julia, there seems to be room for both.”

“I wonder how the woman at the beach would feel about that?”

“It’s not about the woman at the beach, it’s about you.”

He looked skeptical. Nora placed a hand on Julia’s headstone.

“Look, Ben, here is my sister, Julia, and here is my baby, Juliette. One did not replace the other.”

Ben smiled down at the baby, who reached out for him with her chubby little baby fingers—tapping on his heart again.

“People thought I was crazy naming her Juliette—so close to Julia. My parents begged me to name her Jane or Jordyn or Jenna.”

She rubbed her hand over Ben’s back and smiled.

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