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Lola and Tommy parted ways that early-afternoon. Lola admitted she had to send a few follow-up emails for potential clients, and Tommy both wanted to check on Stan and head to his boat for a few hours, to clear his head. At this, Lola’s mind raced. Did he want to clear his head of her? Of what they had done? Of what they were maybe on the verge of becoming? But in the strange silence, Tommy gripped her hand and said, “It’s just my form of meditation. That’s all.”
This calmed her immediately: both the fact that he wanted this and the fact that it seemed like he could actually read her mind enough to ease it.
Lola took the car she’d left at Chuck’s place back to the main house. She had that once familiar feeling about her—as though she had just spent a whole night partying and was now strung-out, exhausted, yet thrilled with the memories. Naturally, she was no longer that wild, maniac partier.
This was better, anyway.
It was warmer by this time of the day, and the thick door between the porch that overlooked the Sound and the inside living area had been opened once more. Christine, Audrey, and Susan’s voices chirped like birds. Lola crept toward the sound, listening, not wanting them to know she was there yet.
“I never imagined her to be a vintage wedding dress person,” Susan stated. “But she said she stumbled into this boutique she says she needs to show me when I come back to Newark. You can tell she’s ready to pick a dress. All this waiting is killing her.”
“Whatever, Aunt Susie. All she wants is for you to get better,” Audrey said. “She would wear a tarp over her body if it meant you were there beside her.”
“That’s right. When Amanda broke the news to Richard that I would walk her down the aisle instead of him, he apparently didn’t take it so well,” Susan said. “Poor guy.”
“Poor guy? I won’t hear of that,” Lola interjected, bolting out onto the porch and beaming at her sisters and daughter.
Just as Audrey had done with Christine, she now play-acted as though she couldn’t believe how late in the day it already was or how scandalous it was that Lola had slept over at a man’s place.
“We were worried, sick!” Audrey cried. “You went out to say goodbye to him and then? It was like he kidnapped you out of thin air. Nowhere to be found. I was sick over it.”
“I think you might have been sick over those potato chips you inhaled last night. Not me going home with a guy,” Lola said.
Christine grinned. She hustled toward the picnic table and poured Lola a glass of wine and then gestured for her to join them. “Tell us everything. We’re dying here.”
“Ha.” Lola accepted the glass and then sat on the floor in front of her sisters and Audrey, as though they were the grand committee and she had come to get their approval. “All I can say is... I’m falling for him. Hard.”
“My gosh,” Susan said. She splayed her hand over her heart and beamed. “I never thought you would try to settle down again. Not after Timothy.”
“Timothy is about half the man that Tommy is,” Lola clarified.
“Hey! That’s my father you’re talking about,” Audrey said playfully, before inhaling the rest of her orange juice and smacking her lips.
“Right. I know how you treasure his memory,” Lola said with a laugh.
“He looks at you like you’re the first woman he’s ever seen,” Christine said. “He’s amazed by you.”
“I always thought he was a huge introvert, but you could tell he loved being with our family last night,” Susan said.
Lola tipped her wine glass ever-so-slightly and considered this, how to approach the topic at hand.
“That’s not really the only thing I have to tell you about, though,” Lola said, not making eye contact with her sisters just yet.
“Ah! Now it gets explicit,” Audrey joked.
“No! Audrey. Gosh. No. Okay, so. The reason Tommy had to go back to Chuck’s last night is that he’s in the middle of caring for Stan. He had minor surgery, and Tommy is watching over him until he can stay by himself again,” Lola finally said. She stole a quick glance at each of her sisters.
Immediately, the mood on the porch shifted completely. It was like the clouds had formed overhead. Christine, in particular, looked stormy.
“You must have avoided him, right?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Was he asleep the whole time?”
Lola fumbled over her words. “He woke up this morning. And I cooked him breakfast. And then we talked for a bit.”
Susan stood slowly from the porch swing. She placed her hand on her stomach and stepped out toward the railing, gazing out across the water. Nobody spoke for a long time.
“Wow. Stan Ellis,” Susan marveled finally.
Lola couldn’t read the tone in her voice. Was it volatile, on the verge of an explosion? Was it disappointment, as though Lola had taken everything three stages too far?
Christine shifted and sipped her wine. Everyone’s eyes seemed to gaze into an impossible distance, despite them all sitting on the same porch.
Finally, Christine said, “What did he seem like?”
Lola bit down on her lower lip. How could she say this without giving a disservice to her dad, to the accident, to any of it?
“He seemed lovely,” Lola whispered. “I hate to say this, but. I understood. Not all of it—no way could I ever fully comprehend what Mom did or how it all ended, but I understood why she wanted to be with him.”
“Huh.” Susan lifted her hand to her wig, as though she wanted to check to make sure it was still there.
“I don’t know how we’ll find a way through this,” Lola said. “The only thing I know for sure is this. We’ve all made countless mistakes. Mom’s mistakes still lurk amongst us, even though she’s been dead since 1993.”
“My mistake still has about six months to germinate,” Audrey interjected.
“Thank you, Audrey,” Lola said. “Stan wants to have the three of us over for dinner when he’s well enough. I know it might be a difficult thing to grapple with. But would you please think about it? If not for him, then for me and for Tommy. I think this really is my next love. Maybe the forever one, this time.”
They were silent again for a long time. Suddenly, there was a torrential downpour of footsteps from the upstairs to the downstairs. The screen door erupted to reveal a youthful-looking Wes, a bucket hat on his head and binoculars flapping at his chest.
“Who’s ready to go?” he called.
Apparently, the girls had given a half-hearted “yes” to the call of bird-watching in the boat along the edge of the Vineyard. Christine grabbed a bottle of white from the fridge and stabbed her feet into her flip flops. Her eyes finally met with Lola’s, and she gave a slight shrug.
“Just let me think about it, okay? It’s a huge request and I’m not sure that I’m ready just yet.”
“You’re the one who wanted to accost him a few months ago,” Lola said.
“Yeah? Well. Now, I’m in love, and I have the best job I’ve ever had, and I’m going to be a stand-in mother,” Christine said, her voice hushed so that Wes didn’t hear. “I don’t have to yell at Stan Ellis at a bar anymore.”
“Then let’s just have dinner with him. Please,” Lola said under her breath. “I swear this is the last thing I’ll ask you to do.”
Down at the boat, Wes spoke excitedly about the birds he wanted to point out to Audrey, while Lola unhooked the rope. Christine sat at the steering wheel and cranked the engine, while Audrey opened another bag of chips. As she ate, she carefully put a slice of avocado on each and gestured to Lola.
“Look. I’m thinking about what you told me. Nutrients.”
“Very good,” Lola said absently. “I know your baby will thank you later on in life.”
“If she’s anything like me, she’ll be like—what are these nutrients? Why aren’t we eating chips exclusively?” Audrey returned. “Ah, but actually, Amanda has me going on a fancy diet with her. Obviously, she wants to be cut for the wedding, and I need to gain. But it’s got loads of colors in it. I had no idea they made orange peppers, did you?”
“You’re making me look like a really responsible mother,” Lola said. “Thanks for that.”
Christine eased the boat west and south, along the coast, close enough that Wes could point out the various water birds along the way—the storks and the bank swallow birds. He whipped off his binoculars in a hurry and gave them to Audrey throughout, telling her details about each of the birds. The facts were actually fascinating, and Christine, Susan, and Lola soon took the binoculars for themselves for better inspection.
Christine docked the boat, and the family got out to sit on the sand for a while. Audrey and Wes sat together and spoke with excitement about the birds that were more interesting to spot during winter. Wes promised to show Audrey as many as he could, come wind, snow, or rain. Audrey thanked him and said, “Maybe not as much snow as you’re talking about, but I can handle a little wind and rain.”
Christine sat beside Lola and stripped off her dress to reveal a two-piece beneath. Lola smirked and said, “New suit? I thought you said you would never wear a two-piece after forty.”
Christine shrugged. “Things change. I decided a super-flat belly isn’t my number one priority these days. Would you pass those chips?”
“If I can take them from Audrey,” Lola said. She lurched forward, grabbed the bag, and placed them between herself and Christine.
“Thank you.” Christine tipped her teeth against the edge of the chip and gazed out across the waves. “Zach brought something up with me last night. I guess while you and Tommy were out on your car chase.”
“Ha. What was that?”
“He thinks we should consider moving in together by the end of the year,” she said. “I’ve moved in with people quickly before, back in New York, but it was usually because I had nowhere else to stay or couldn’t afford my rent.”
“What did it feel like when he suggested it?” Susan, who sat on the other side of Christine, asked.
“I was surprised at my mix of feelings,” Christine offered. “On the one hand, I was so excited that he wanted to start a life with me in that way. But on the other hand, I have absolutely loved living at our old place. Every day when I return from the bistro, I know one of you rascals is going to be around to chat with, to gossip with. It makes me remember how much I missed you all over the years.”
Christine’s eyes sparkled with the images, as though she was on the brink of tears. Lola wrapped her arm around her and said, “We’re going to be on the island for good. All of us.”
Susan nodded. “No matter who ends up in the house, in the end, we’re all welcome there, all the time. It’s the heartbeat within all of us.”
The three sisters held onto one another after that, huddled close, listening to the waves and the laughter from Wes and Audrey, who had fallen into a level of banter that seemed rare between grandfathers and their granddaughters.
“I don’t want the summer to end,” Lola whispered.
“I’m afraid it basically already has,” Susan said with a laugh.
“School’s already started,” Christine added.
“And the air is different. You can feel it. The island is ready for something else.”
“Autumn.”
They said the word as though it was pure poetry. They said it as though it offered them everything they needed. Renewal. Rest. A deep breath after what had been one of the biggest seasons of their lives.