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Andrew parked in the makeshift lot behind the Oak Bluffs bar and grill, a place that certainly hadn’t changed its décor on the outside and seemed committed to boisterous holiday drinkers, fried food, and good loud music. As they walked toward the front door, Andrew’s fingers flickered against Beth’s, and her eyes sparkled. Maybe if he’d been a teenager again, he would have pressed her against the side of the brick building and kissed her right there beneath the moon and stars.
The bar was pure chaos. Fryers sizzled in the back; women giggled; men grunted over a pool table; and gossip and chatter seemed to be the ever-present. Andrew knelt to ask Beth what kind of drink she wanted. Just before she answered, his eyes found three familiar faces toward the corner of the bar. There sat the Sheridan sisters: Christine, Susan, and Lola. Although he had only seen Christine during his brief trek back to the island, the other two were so reminiscent of his Aunt Anna, the connection was obvious.
“Do you mind if we say hi to my cousins?” he asked Beth.
Beth shook her head so that her hair danced beneath her hat. “Not at all.”
Overcome with some sense of hope, Andrew strung his fingers through Beth’s as he led her to the Sheridan sisters table. When they neared them, Susan, Christine, and Lola turned to deliver their sterling smiles. Susan’s hair was still short, apparently from the chemo, but her eyes were as bright as ever.
“Andrew Montgomery!” Susan cried. “I never thought I would see you again. And I guess I haven’t since you were, what? Seven? Eight?”
Andrew fell into a warm hug. Part of his body tricked him into the belief that this hug was one straight from Anna Sheridan herself. As he drew back, he forced himself back to reality.
“You were off on a great adventure if I recall correctly,” he said.
“The adventure is over and done with, I’m afraid,” Susan said.
“That’s not true,” Lola interjected. “We’ve all created new adventures here, remember?”
“Maybe you’re on one of your own,” Christine said as their eyes shifted toward Beth.
“I guess you guys probably know Beth Leopold,” Andrew said, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the speaker system.
“Of course we do!” Susan called. “Hey, there, Beth!”
Beth waved and said something nobody could hear. Everyone nodded and smiled as though they’d heard, which made Beth and Andrew laugh all the more. Although he loved his cousins and so wanted to catch up with them sometime, these moments were meant only for him and Beth.
“I’ll see you ladies, at Christmas, right?” Andrew asked.
“Actually, we wanted to talk to you about that,” Susan said. She gripped his elbow as though she knew he was on the run. “We thought we could have it at the Sunrise Cove. We could clear all the tables from the bistro and set up cozy couches. There’s also the fireplace and that whole area out by the water, where we could set up a fire pit and a BBQ.”
“I don’t think I’m the one in charge of Christmas,” Andrew said. “Although I might be able to put in a good word.”
“Just think about it,” Christine said. “Our family has jumped to a monstrous size these days. The Sunrise Cove is about as empty as a haunted house right now. We might as well fill it with love and both families.”
Andrew nodded in agreement with his elder cousin, Susan. He really liked the idea of a Christmas dinner with both families. He told the girls he would let Kerry know and someone would get back to them about it.
Andrew grabbed two pints from the bartender, and they headed to a circular table toward the opposite corner of his cousins, beneath an array of Christmas trees that had been hung the slightest bit crooked. Andrew lifted his glass of beer and said, “To you, Beth. Thank you for all you’re doing for my dad.”
Beth clinked his glass and studied his eyes for a moment.
“What?” Andrew asked, wearing a sheepish grin on his face.
“It’s only that; I think you’ve done a lot more for your dad’s health than I ever could have,” Beth admitted.
Andrew sipped the top foam of his beer. “I have to admit. The man seems to have lost all his hard edges over the years.”
“That tends to happen to people, don’t you think? You have to learn empathy sometime, even if it happens a little late in life,” Beth said.
“All those years I spent overseas and in those tiny apartments in Boston, I never thought the man had it in him,” Andrew said. “I guess it’s just another example of me being wrong.”
Beth swept her hand across his wrist and held it tenderly. “No. It’s not you. It just gives you two a chance to really come together and make that true father and son connection that you both lost over the last seventeen years.”
Andrew studied her beautiful face, the way the twinkling Christmas lights reflected across her high cheekbones and highlighted the darkness of her hair. He wanted to tell her that he really hadn’t wanted to leave her; he just hadn’t known what to do next, and Boston had seemed like the best possible option.
“I was so young and stupid when you first knew me,” he tried.
“Weren’t we all?” Beth returned.
Andrew shrugged. “You probably remember it, right? That first crummy apartment that Kurt and I had.”
Beth scrunched her nose as she chuckled. “It was a hole in the wall, that’s for sure.”
“We loved it, though. We thought it was the solution to all of our problems,” Andrew continued. “But when I watched you walk out the door and head back to Martha’s Vineyard, I had this funny urge to run after you. I wanted to throw my arms around you and tell you not to go without us. You were headed back to the life that we were running from, and we completely cut ourselves off from anything associated with this island.”
The conversation held onto Kurt for another full beer. Andrew hadn’t really talked about his best friend since right after his death, and it was cathartic and soothing, discussing old memories with Beth, even hearing the little ways that her laugh resembled Kurt’s. After a while, it was almost like Kurt sat at the bar table with them, sharing in the beers and the banter. Only almost, though.
Beth explained a bit more about Will: about the stranger she’d had an affair with, about the pregnancy she only found out about after the stranger had left the island for good. Obviously, because Beth was Beth, she hadn’t thought about anything but raising the baby herself.
“The diagnosis was, of course, hard on me,” she said. “I worried that he would never be able to live his life like the other kids. But you know what? He has a heart of pure gold. I think, in some ways, his life is even more of a blessing than it might have been otherwise. Not that I could ever know.”
“Did you ever try to have a—” Andrew faltered. He recognized that his question was a little forward, and he didn’t want to make Beth uncomfortable.
“A relationship? Like a father figure for Will?” Beth asked.
“You’re too good. You knew where I was headed.”
Beth chuckled good-naturedly. “Honestly, it’s mostly been me and Will, Will and me. It’s been enough for a long time.”
Andrew couldn’t tell if this was some kind of hint that she wanted more of him or proof that he needed to back off. Still, he was captivated by her, with her laugh and her smile. As they continued their light banter of various topics, Andrew found himself leaning forward into the conversation toward her face, almost mesmerized by her smile and the way her lips moved when she spoke. He wanted more of her. They needed to make up for lost time.
What seemed like a blink later, the bartender announced that he would be closing up in ten.
“What?” Andrew and Beth said in near-unison.
“It feels like we’ve only been here like forty minutes or something,” Andrew said. He grabbed his phone to check. It revealed 11:50.
“Oh, my gosh,” Beth cried. “Ellen is going to kill me.” She grabbed her own phone to check for missed messages. “Huh. Nothing.”
“Maybe she fell asleep at your place,” Andrew suggested.
“Maybe.” Beth sounded doubtful. “Can you drop me off at my house? I can have Ellen pick me up for work tomorrow.”
As Andrew stood and grabbed his coat, his tongue felt like a weighted blanket across the bottom of his mouth. He needed to say something—something that translated exactly what he felt about her. Something that told her how much she’d mattered to him through the previous years.
That moment, however, had other plans for him.
His phone buzzed. In the days since his arrival, he had gotten all his siblings’ numbers. The caller ID said: Kelli. His stomach soured as he lifted it to his ear. He felt sure that something was wrong.
“Kelli?”
“Andy, hey.” Sure enough, her voice was strained. She sounded like she was trying to hide and not breathe or speak too loudly. “Andy, can you come pick me up? He—he hid my keys. I can’t find my keys.”