Page 84 of Summer After Summer

“Happy birthday, Olivia,” he says, his eyes still on my wrist.

“Yes,” Lucy says. “Happy birthday!”

“Thanks.”

Lucy grabs a bottle of champagne from the bucket in front of us. “We have to toast to Olivia!”

Charlotte and Ann smile. They’re holding hands under the table and giving each other these adorable looks, and I’m both happy for her and sad. The empty seat next to me is like a symbol of my failure. Thirty-six, separated, soon to be divorced.

It sounds like the beginning of a Bob Dylan song.

Lucy pours the champagne and everyone raises a glass. We drink and then the subject turns away from me, and for that I’m grateful. I ask Charlotte about the visit to the retirement community, and she tells me that William says he’ll be happy to move there. Though it’s farther away from Southampton than he’d like, he thinks it might be best to live somewhere else, likely because he doesn’t want all his old friends to see his reduced circumstances.

I can feel Fred listening to our conversation, his head angled toward us, though he’s talking to Lucy, and I wonder if he’s uncomfortable. But when I sneak a peek, he averts his eyes.

“Any idea where you’re going to live, Charlotte?” I ask.

“I’ve been thinking of Sag Harbor.”

“I know some great properties there,” Lucy says. “In fact, I have the perfect place for you.”

Charlotte leans forward. “Where?”

She mentions an address. “I helped do the interiors a couple of years ago, and I heard they want to sell. It isn’t officially on the market yet, but it’s near the water and totally your taste.”

“Can you get me in before it goes on the market?”

“I think so.”

Lucy turns to Fred. “Weren’t you saying you wanted to check out a winery in Sag Harbor?”

“Oh, um, yes, my friend James bought it a year ago. I haven’t had a chance to go. The Benedict Winery.”

“Oh!” Sophie says. “I’ve heard their wine is wonderful. We should all go.” She turns to Colin, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet all night. “Shouldn’t we, Colin? Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

“Yes, it does.”

“So, we’ll make a day of it? Next week, or the week after? We can check out this house for Charlotte and then go to the winery … if you don’t mind us tagging along, that is?”

Everyone looks at Fred. “I’ll have to check in with James about the date, but yes, I’m sure he’d love to have all of you.”

“You’ll come too, Olivia?”

“Can I think about it?”

“What’s to think about?” Sophie says. “Wine, Sag Harbor. Sounds perfect.”

“I agree,” a voice says above me as two hands rest heavily on the top of my chair. “Room for one more?”

My heart freezes, and the smiles around the table fall like dominoes as they take in who’s standing behind me.

Wes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

August 2008

The rest of my twenty-first summer passes in a love haze.

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