Page 71 of Swan Song

“I might stay on the boat too,” Leslee says.

“Are the boys going?” Coco asks. “Javier and Esteban?”

“They can’t get away overnight, unfortunately,” Leslee says. “They’re breakfast servers at Black-Eyed Susan’s and can’t miss a shift on short notice.”

Behind her, Lamont shakes his head. The expression on his face is one of abject misery, but Coco doesn’t care.

“You two have fun!” she says, then she marches out of Triple Eight and over to her apartment. She opens the window in the second bedroom, the one that looks down on the future circular garden but that is still just furrows of dug-up earth, hillocks of pea gravel, and pale slabs of granite awaiting placement. Coco holds the roses out the window, but she can’t bring herself to dump them.

She ducks back inside, closes the window, sets the roses in the sink, and texts Kacy: We’re going out tonight.

25. Single Ladies

After nearly three weeks of radio silence, Kacy receives a text from Isla: There’s something going on with Dave.

Dave is Rondo; Kacy sometimes forgets he has a first name.

Something going on? Kacy thinks. What does that mean? She realizes the text is being used as bait; Isla wants her to ask. Kacy clicks on Rondo’s Instagram—nothing new. His last post was on the Fourth of July, the picture of him and Isla and Dr. Dunne and the wife, Totally Tami, with her centerfold breasts and caterpillar eyebrows.

There’s something going on with Dave. Kacy considers the options: Rondo has gotten cold feet. Rondo is having professional trouble; he lost a patient; he has a staffing issue; he’s butting heads with the hospital administration. (Kacy can’t imagine Rondo butting heads with anybody; he’s not a butter.) Maybe Rondo is sick. Does he have terminal cancer? Although Kacy wants him to disappear, she doesn’t wish for this.

While Kacy’s deciding if she should text back—part of her wants to know; part of her doesn’t care; part of her wants to engage with Isla; part of her thinks it’s better to ignore Isla—a text comes in from Coco: We’re going out tonight.

Yes, Kacy thinks. Where do you want to go? she asks.

Everywhere, Coco says.

When Kacy pulls into the driveway at Triple Eight and sees Coco waiting, she whoops. Coco is wearing the white eyelet dress from the Lovely and a pair of sandals that lace up her slim calves. She’s grown her hair out to chin length and she tucks it behind her ears. She’s gotten some sun on her face, which makes her ice-blue eyes even more arresting.

“You’re a total smoke-show,” Kacy says when Coco climbs into the car.

“I’m so happy to be out of my uniform,” Coco says. She points ahead. “I know this is the most overused phrase of our generation but… let’s do this.”

Kacy doesn’t need to be told twice; she peels out of the Richardsons’ driveway so fast that white shells fly into the air like confetti.

Their first stop is the Oystercatcher for buck-a-shuck. This is, in Kacy’s opinion, the best way to spend the golden hour. They order two glasses of rosé and a dozen fifth points from their bartender Carson Quinboro (a legendary Nantucket badass), who directs them to two stools overlooking the scene on Jetties Beach—striped umbrellas and sandcastles, mothers chasing after little kids with bottles of sunscreen. A cover band called Cranberry Alarm Clock plays an acoustic version of “Single Ladies,” which is a little weird but also sort of charming. And, in their case, it’s appropriate. Kacy raises her glass. “To all the single ladies.”

After the first sip of her rosé, Coco explains her get-out-of-jail-free card: Bull is away on a business trip and Leslee and Lamont have sailed to Martha’s Vineyard overnight.

“Overnight?” Kacy says. She doctors an oyster with mignonette and tosses it back. “They’re sleeping together, right? There’s no way they aren’t.”

Behind her sunglasses, Coco squints in the direction of the lifeguard stand.

“You saw them on the Fourth of July?” Kacy says. “She was practically lying on top of him. And at the Pink and White Party, they were skinny-dipping, remember? She was naked on the boat and he swam out there, Coco.”

Coco sips her rosé, though she would like to chug the glass. “They’re not,” she says. “Leslee just flirts.”

Um… okay? Coco sounds defensive, and Kacy wonders if she still has a thing for Lamont. She hopes not—Lamont is definitely getting with the boss lady.

“What are the sleeping arrangements for this overnight trip?” Kacy says.

“Lamont is staying on the boat,” Coco says. “Leslee is staying at the Charlotte Inn.”

Gah! Kacy is dying to stay at the Charlotte Inn. Back when Kacy and Isla used to talk about coming to Nantucket on vacation, Kacy imagined a weekend trip to the Vineyard—staying at the Charlotte Inn, hanging out at clothing-optional Lucy Vincent Beach, drinks at Nancy’s, dinner at the Red Cat, dancing at the Ritz, breakfast at Morning Glory Farm. “How much is that place per night?”

“I have no idea,” Coco says.

“Didn’t you make the reservation?”

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