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It was pretty clear what Colin’s intentions were the second he stepped off that boat.
He looked handsome: clean-cut, jeans that suited his taut and muscular frame, a bright-toothed smile that immediately exploded the second he spotted Lola on the dock. He carried only a light backpack since he planned to only stay one night, and he strutted so casually toward her, like a football player on his way from practice. Lola should know. She had dated quite a bit of the football team, mostly as a joke to herself. She had always been too artistic for them.
“What a gorgeous day,” Colin said as a greeting. He beamed at her. For a split second, Lola thought he might drop down and give her a kiss.
She was grateful he didn’t.
“Did you have a good trip?” she asked.
“Yes. I haven’t been on a boat in ages,” Colin said. “I can’t believe you grew up here. Right in this town?”
“Yep, here in Oak Bluffs,” Lola said. They turned away from the ferry and joined the swarm of tourists. “I thought maybe we would head to my family’s Inn for some breakfast before we do some hiking and sight-seeing. What do you think?”
“I think my day is in your hands, and I wouldn’t want it anywhere else,” Colin said.
Lola had the funniest feeling that her smile was false, that it was made of plastic and about to stretch too far. She forced herself to fall into familiar banter. They spoke about the piece she had just submitted the day before, which Colin adored.
“I think it’s one of the best things you’ve ever written, period,” Colin told her. He placed his hands on the tablecloth at the Sunrise Cove Inn bistro and studied her contemplatively. “I honestly think it could win a few awards if we submit it. But beyond that...”
Suddenly, Christine appeared at the table. She beamed at both of them, then placed a basket of croissants in front of them. “Good morning!”
“Good morning,” Colin began. “I’m afraid I haven’t looked at the menu yet.”
“This is actually my sister, Colin. Christine.”
“Ah! The middle one,” Colin said. “What a delight to meet you.” He stretched out his hand and shook hers.
“You as well! I guess you’ve spent the better part of ten years with my little sister, so I’m sure you have a lot of stories,” Christine said. “Oh. And regardless of the menu, I have to say, the new pineapple mimosa we have on special right now is to die for. If you’re looking to drink at ten in the morning, that is.”
“I’m on vacation,” Colin said, chuckling. “And a mimosa sounds like a dream. Lola?”
“You know I’m always down,” Lola said.
Christine disappeared behind the kitchen door again. Lola blinked up again at Colin, who’d never forgotten when he was interrupted and always returned exactly to the subject he’d left off on.
“Where was I? Oh, yes. Your article. It pains me to say this, but I really think you should embark to other, more prosperous publications after this,” he continued. “You have such a stunning resume after all this, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be writing for the New York Times or even submitting to travel magazines about life on Martha’s Vineyard.”
“Ha. National Geographic—life on a bougie island,” Lola teased.
Colin laughed good-naturedly. “Something like that. I know it must be complicated for you right now, rejoining your family on the island and figuring out what’s next. But if you need help finding another publication, sending resumes and cover letters, know that I will help you with it all. Every step of the way.”
Lola studied his eager face. On the one hand, it was very attractive to have someone so interested in her or, as Audrey and Christine said, “in love.” On the other, there was something she didn’t trust about it. They had been friends for ten years after deciding they weren’t a good fit. Why, then, had he changed his tune?
“Thank you, Colin. I appreciate that,” she told him, her nostrils flared.
They ordered mimosas from the server. Colin bit into the crunchy exterior of Christine’s gift to the earth, considered it for a moment, and then said, “They’re great. Almost as good as that bakery in East Boston. The one by your old apartment. Remember, we used to get them around ten years ago? Smeared them with butter and added cheese? Man, I miss my late-twenties metabolism.”
Lola appreciated the memory, but she resented his saying that Christine’s was second to anyone. She remembered her manners and played along, saying, “That place, unfortunately, closed down, I think around four years ago. I liked it, too. The owner was sweet. It was a little old lady whose husband had just died, so she opened a bakery. It was her life’s dream.”
“You always find the story, don’t you?” Colin said.
“I guess it’s my job,” Lola said with a shrug.
Again, he beamed at her. There was a kernel of doubt that seemed to grow stronger in Lola’s stomach. He’ll only be here one day, she told herself. She could make it one day.
After a breakfast of eggs benedict and two pineapple mimosas, Lola led Colin into the Sunrise Cove Inn lobby to greet Natalie and Wes, who now manned the lobby desk together. This was to allow Wes to feel involved in everyday operations at the Inn, despite his occasional bouts of confusion.
“Hello, Lola!” her father said brightly.
“Hey, Dad,” Lola said. “This is my friend, Colin, from Boston. We’ve known each other for a long time. Colin, this is my dad.”
Colin and Wes shook hands. Wes studied him for a moment, maintaining a smile that, to Lola’s eyes, seemed a bit plastic, like hers.
“Welcome to Martha’s Vineyard!” he said. “It’s good you came now, at the end of August. We’re all squeezing the last bit of summer out of it.”
“Does every door slam shut on September first?” Colin asked.
“Just about,” Lola affirmed. “We’re going to go hiking and swimming for a bit. See you later? Oh, and Natalie. You reserved Colin’s single room for him, didn’t you? The one with the ocean view?”
Natalie blinked at the little ledge before her and nodded briskly. “Yep! Here it is. I can take your backpack up to the room if you like?”
“That’s okay. I didn’t pack much,” Colin said. “Just the key, I guess.”
Natalie placed the key on the counter between them. Colin gave Lola a strange glance. She suspected the look was confusion, above everything else. He had come all this way, and she didn’t plan to stay with him? He’d come all this way, and she had gotten him a single room?
Still, it wasn’t like she owed him anything. She had to stay true to that.
Whatever awkwardness that had formed between them dissipated quickly, Lola grabbed one of the Inn cars and hopped into the front seat, watching as Colin boarded and clicked his seatbelt into place.
“I read a little bit about that Flying Horses Carousel,” Colin said, as Lola cranked the engine. “I had no idea it was first located in New York City before moving to Martha’s Vineyard in the 1890s.”
“Actually, it was the 1880s. Close, though,” Lola said.
“Ha. Thanks for the correction. But it’s the oldest operating platform carousel in America? And it still has those old brass rings that you can try to grab as you ride around,” Colin continued.
“Sure does,” Lola affirmed, wondering why this guy felt it was necessary to mansplain something that literally existed in the town she had grown up in, something she’d ridden probably four thousand times before the age of ten. “Cool that you looked it up.”
“Oh! And Oak Bluffs used to be called Cottage City,” Colin continued.
“Yep...”
“Sorry. Ha. I went down a pretty deep Wikipedia hole last night,” Colin said. “You know how I get excited about facts.”
“I get it,” Lola said, choosing to laugh.
Despite her annoyance at him, Lola still wanted to impress him. She drove them westward, all the way to the Aquinnah Cliffs Overlook. Once they had parked, he walked, dumbstruck, toward the edge of the cliffs and blinked out across the gorgeous crystal waters. After a long pause, he said, “I don’t have any facts about this.”
Finally, Lola felt herself muster a genuine laugh for maybe the first time that day.
“Naw. It’s extraordinary,” Colin said. He spread his arms out on either side of him, letting the wind rustle through his clean shirt.
At this moment, Lola couldn’t help but think of Tommy—shirtless and a tiny bit dirty on board the sailboat. What a contrast they were. Colin was the kind of man who wanted the life she did; Tommy was the kind of man she wanted.
They walked down the coast a bit until they got to the beach. They both walked away in separate bushes and changed into their swimsuits, then rushed into the waves. Lola screeched like a child at the chilly water, while Colin laughed wildly and swept toward her, making his knees pop up out of the water as he splashed. Lola splashed him back and, for a split-second, again, she thought—maybe? Maybe him? But within a few moments, he had explained to her the history of whaling on the island, and again, she found herself rolling her eyes.
Of course, she knew about the island’s history of whaling.
“Have you ever seen a whale?” she asked him.
He shook his head, despondently. “You know that I grew up in Ohio, right? We don’t have much going on there. Cornfields and soybean fields and... Hmm.”
“Come on. We went there together. It was beautiful,” Lola said. “It was so green!”
“Sure. But it’s no Martha’s Vineyard.”
“Well, fortunately, not everything is,” Lola agreed.
After they went for a swim, Lola and Colin hiked around the area for a bit then plopped down by the water to enjoy a bit of wine. Colin told her more about some of the events back in the city—friends she missed, the fact that the construction had finally cleared, that sort of thing.
“The city really is different without you, Lola,” Colin said. He gave her that look again—that glow-eyed, hopeful look. “Maybe for a while you could consider doing half-time? The city for a week, the island for a week. That sort of thing?”
“Maybe,” Lola said doubtfully. “Although, I think I told you, Audrey is pregnant, and I want to be around for as much of it as I can.”
“Audrey is literally from Boston,” Colin said with a laugh. “I can’t imagine she wouldn’t want to come back with you.”
“And my father. He has dementia. And Christine, she’s just started at the bakery, and...”
Colin raised a flat palm. “Just think about it. Maybe you would be happier with the best of both worlds.”
Lola resented being told that she wasn’t happy already. The moment she opened her lips to tell him, however, a large seagull squawked overhead, and Colin was suddenly ripe with seagull facts.
Lola was very close to calling it a day, faking a headache. Maybe stumbling on a rock and feigning a major injury. Anything. But when she thought really hard about it, she forced herself to stop. Colin was a friend; he would understand when the time came and she told him the truth. At least, she hoped he would.
Colin and Lola grabbed dinner in Edgartown, so he could see that side of the island and then drove back toward the Sunrise Cove Inn that evening as the sun set. As the Inn turned into view, Lola’s heart thudded with fear. She hoped and prayed that Colin wouldn’t make some sort of pass and ask her to come upstairs with him.
As they parked out front, Colin nodded toward the side of the Inn and said, “Hey. Isn’t that your sailor?”
Lola felt like all the wind had been knocked out of her. Tommy stood alongside the Inn with Scott, as Scott pointed up to a few spare boards that had come undone from the side of the building. Tommy held a hammer in one of his large hands, and he wore a white undershirt that highlighted his muscles incredibly. He looked like a painting of the first man.
“Um. Yep,” Lola said, totally confused.
“I didn’t think I’d get to meet him! You said in the article that he was always on the move, so I assumed he would be gone,” Colin said.
“Me too, I guess,” Lola returned.
“Come on. Introduce me,” Colin said.
“He looks pretty busy.”
“We’re giving him loads of publicity. I think he owes it to me,” Colin said.
“He didn’t even want publicity,” Lola offered, all the while remembering that she had only agreed to go on that trip, to write the piece, because she had wanted to get closer to him. She had wanted to get as close to her subject as possible.
Now, he seemed like a stranger.
Colin strode across the grass toward Tommy and Scott. Lola stalled behind him. It was like watching a car crash. As they approached, Scott turned around. His eyes scanned over toward Lola.
“Hey there!” he said, all smiles. “Susan said you had a friend in town? I guess this must be him.”
Tommy looked moody and stoic as Lola gestured and said, “Yeah, this is my editor and good friend, Colin. Colin, this is Scott, my sister’s boyfriend—both in high school and now—and Tommy, um, the sailor I went on that trip with.”
Tommy’s eyes were just as stormy as they had been that last day on the boat.
“Good to meet you, man,” Colin said, sticking out his hand toward Tommy.
Tommy gripped it and shook exactly once. He dropped Colin’s hand like it was a toy. “Hello,” he said.
“A man of few words,” Colin said. He looked jittery. “I just read Lola’s article about you. I’m about to press publish. You know what? I think it’s one of her best.”
“I assume that she did a good job. She’s a professional journalist,” Tommy said. The words were flat, without a single scent of congratulations.
“Yes, true. Very true. I just think she brought a bit of color and life to the article that maybe another journalist wouldn’t have,” Colin said.
“Good to hear. Pleases me to know thousands of strangers might get a good sense of who I really am as a person,” Tommy returned.
The sarcasm was so palpable, Lola was surprised Colin didn’t choke on it.
“Cool, man. Really cool,” Colin said. “Well, I guess I’d better get up to my room. Lola, you want to see me inside?”
Lola nodded. “Sure thing. Good to see you both.”
Before Tommy or Scott could answer, Lola, followed Colin into the lobby. By the time they reached the interior, Colin had already said, “There’s just something about those guys who spend too much time alone, you know? They’re so lonely that they don’t even know how to make small talk. It irritates me.”
Lola said goodbye not long after that. Colin was clearly a bit frustrated with that, but also said he’d had a wonderful day. She suggested they have coffee and croissants before he had to catch the ferry the next morning, and he agreed whole-heartedly his smile widening. He then hugged her a little too tightly, then freed her like a bird from a cage.
By the time she got back outside, neither Scott nor Tommy was anywhere in sight. Her heart beat dully, as though she swam somewhere deep underwater.