Page 26 of The White Oak Lodge

Ralph said, “It’s a little house not far from Madequecham Beach. I only went to it the one time. Must have been ten or so years ago.”

Ralph looked introspective. Nina looked on the verge of demanding exact coordinates.

Ralph coughed, returning to himself, and asked, “So you saw this photograph and wanted to find Seth Green? You wanted it so desperately that you tracked me down?”

Nina laughed at herself and brought out an already worn excuse. “You know how anthropologists are. We can’t leave any stone unturned.”

Ralph clapped his hands. “Watch yourself, Amos. She’s a tricky one.”

Amos took a sip of beer and studied Nina’s face, wishing he could tune into what she was thinking. But all he said was, “Don’t I know it?”

He wished Ralph would leave them alone so he could talk to her. But he knew they had to get through the rest of the night.

Chapter Twelve

Nina

June 2025

Because the exotic and elusive multimillionaire Ralph thought Nina and Amos were a couple, after their time at the bar came to a close, he put them in what he called his “honeymoon suite” and told them to have a wonderful night to themselves. Nina was reeling. It was eleven thirty, and she felt she’d been living the millionaire lifestyle for enough hours at this point to question how any of them lived to be older than sixty. All that alcohol? All those greasy snacks? She collapsed on the bed like a starfish. Vaguely, she felt Amos in the room, moving around nervously. She patted the other end of the mattress and said, “Have a seat!”

Amos perched at the edge of the bed and looked down at her. “I can sleep on the sofa,” he said, gesturing to the long and glowing dark-green couch near the window.

Nina tried to remember the last time she’d been in a bedroom with a man who wasn’t her husband and came up dry.She shifted to her side and propped her head up with her elbow. How could she make Amos feel at ease?

“It’s a funny situation,” she said finally. “I’m sorry I didn’t correct him when he said, you know, that we were a couple.”

Amos laughed a little too long, and his cheeks turned cherry red. “I figure with these wealthy guys, you have to agree with whatever they say.”

“Those are my instincts, too. Although what do I know?” Nina got up and searched through the minifridge for a bottle of sparkling water. She handed one of them to Amos, who accepted it gratefully and drank.

“You’re a Whitmore,” Amos said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “And you married into the Plymouths, whoever they are.”

Nina grimaced. “But I always felt like I was on the perimeter of those families. I was so much younger than my siblings, and…” She trailed off. “I never felt my mother really liked me. Like she was done with mothering by the time I was born. And what kind of mother never reaches out to her daughter again after all that?”

Nina’s mood soured. She returned to the bed and leaned against the thick pillows with her legs extended in front of her. “I took Will and Fiona to summer camp, and I fight my instincts every day to go get them. I miss them so much. How did my mother let me go like that?”

Amos shifted up the bed a little bit, stretching out his legs like she did. Nina was surprised to see that there was a pattern on his socks. Because the bed was so massive, his face was still about three feet away from hers, a greater distance than they’d had at the bar. But still. They were sitting on a bed—alone—together.

“Do you think Seth Green is Jack?” Amos asked after a long pause.

Nina raised her shoulders. “There’s no way to know.”

“But what’s your hunch?”

Nina smiled. “My hunch is that I’m alone in the world, chasing a ghost.”

Amos reached across the bed and touched her hand. It was tender and soft and made Nina’s eyes flutter. She hadn’t expected it. But just as soon as it was there, it was gone, returned to Amos’s thigh as he said, “We have to go out to Madequecham Beach and see what we find.”

Nina wanted to remind him again that he didn’t need to help her and could return to his real life whenever he wanted to. But she didn’t want him to.

She kept her mouth shut.

Still on the bed and still in their clothes, Amos and Nina kept talking for a little while. They exchanged stories from their childhood on Nantucket. Amos told Nina about a time Jack had taken him out sailing and he’d felt the wind through his hair and felt fully free in a way he, at sixteen years old, hadn’t in a long time. Amos was responsible for making money for his mother and ensuring the bills were paid.

“I did think your brother was incredible,” he affirmed, his eyes cast to the mid-distance.

Nina wanted to point out that Amos had initially said he was sometimes close with Jack, but other times, not so much. But undermining Amos’s memories was something Daniel might have done, not Nina. Nina didn’t want to be like Daniel. She tried to listen. She wanted to be open to whatever Amos had on his mind.

---