Page 23 of Love Conquers All

Sylvie eyed him, wondering if seeing her again had rebooted his idealism. Idealism was a dangerous thing. She wanted to point out that Graham had been arrested just the other day. She guessed that after he’d been taken away in the cop car, construction had barreled on as though he’d never been there. She wanted to ask him what the point of any of this was?

“We don’t have to make any plans right now,” Graham assured her.

Sylvie hung her head. She wasn’t sure she was up for any of it: The House on Nantucket, Graham, environmental protests, love, death. Her biggest problem was only recently that her boyfriend had fallen in love with someone else. Mike! He seemed like a stranger now.

“What about you?” Graham asked, turning to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you ever get married?” Graham asked. “Did you ever fall in love?”

Sylvie suddenly felt as though she was majorly flawed. “I’ve been in love. I’m just falling out of love with someone, actually. The breakup took me off guard.” She bit her lip. “Everything right now is catching me off guard.”

Graham touched his chest. “Let’s take it one day at a time.”

The intensity in Graham’s eyes made Sylvie look away.

Moments of silence passed. Sylvie listened to the creak of the old inn as the wind rushed against it. Abstractly, she thought about her upcoming trip to Alabama, the award ceremony in Washington, DC, and all the events from her “normal” life that now seemed impossible.

Everything felt too heavy. Too hard.

She had to get out of there.

“I’d better go back to my hotel.” She got up and turned to look over at the house where her father had raised her—another beast she’d have to enter soon.

Graham looked surprised but fixed his face soon after. “I get it,” he said. “It’s been a crazy day. Can I walk you?”

Sylvie wanted to say no. But the hotel wasn’t far, and it was a gorgeous night to walk alongside the first man she’d ever loved—even if it broke her heart. So that was what they did. They locked up the hotel and wandered through the darkness until they reached her hotel foyer, where they gazed into each other’s eyes and said, “Wow. What a night.” Sylvie thought it perhaps best if she called the whole thing off immediately.

But before she could, Graham said, “Should I pick you up for our dinner with Hilary Salt?”

Sylvie hesitated. Was the dinner with Hilary really worth it to her?

But Graham urged, “I think she could really help us.”

Something in his eyes pushed Sylvie to say yes.

Chapter Eleven

To Sylvie’s surprise, she ran into Hilary Salt on the boardwalk the following morning. They were out in spandex and sports bras and tennis shoes, cranking out long and arduous miles before the sun got too high and the day got away from them. Ordinarily, Sylvie ignored other runners, eager to fall into her own runner’s high, but Hilary refused to be ignored. (After all, she was the mother and daughter of two of the most famous people alive.) She waved both arms and stopped short. “This is a surprise!” Hilary said. “I love to meet a fellow runner.”

Caught off guard, Sylvie said, “Oh, hi!” She put her hands on her hips, nervous under the spell of Hilary’s smile. “How was the rest of your night?”

“Your father knew how to throw a party,” Hilary said. “The entire island ended up coming out. Even my fiancé came, and he hates crowds.”

My father threw the party of a lifetime.Did he do it to spite me?Sylvie wondered.

“I saw you with some of your girlfriends,” Sylvie remembered.

“Ah! My Salt Sisters,” Hilary said. “It’s what we call ourselves.”

Sylvie couldn’t imagine having as many friends as that, keeping track of their stories, their opinions, and their heartaches. Was Sylvie capable of loving that many people at once? How was Hilary so capable? Was she a superhuman?

“Actually, I was thinking of inviting you out with us tonight,” Hilary said.

“Oh. Um.” Sylvie turned to look at the ocean, her head spinning.

“We’re just going to that little wine bar by the harbor,” Hilary said. “Tiff’s? It’s so cute. We’re only going out for one or two, and we always share the most divine cheese plate while we’re there.” Hilary shifted her weight and continued to look at Sylvie. “The thing about the Salt Sisters is, we’ve all lost someone. We’ve all encountered incredible sorrow. We’re there to support each other. We’re there to lift each other up.”

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