Page 41 of Willow in the Wind

One of them called out, “Hey! J! Look over here!”

J. They know it’s me.

James put his hand in front of his face and sighed. Stella glanced across the street. She looked confused, as though the idea that people were so fascinated with her life was still preposterous to her. She’d always been so modest. That hadn’t changed.

“Listen,” James said. “I better get going.”

Stella’s eyes returned to his. Her gaze felt like a lightning bolt.

As discreetly as he could, James removed his business card from his wallet and stuck it into her hand as they shook goodbye. “Give me a call when you can,” he said. “I’m in the city.”

Stella nodded and tucked the card into her front pocket. There was nothing else to say.

James turned and walked as quickly as he could around the corner. A few photographers followed him, but he got into his rental car and sped away. He decided not to grab the very next ferry and instead circled the island for a while, listening to music as loud as he could and screaming at the top of his lungs.

He’d seen Stella Sutton again.

He’d braved her book launch.

Maybe it meant he was still himself.

He was still that twentysomething with nothing to lose.

It felt good to know that. It felt good to feel like himself again.

Chapter Fifteen

Athens - July 2001

The sailboat was rickety and apt to toss if you stood too quickly. Despite having sailed quite a bit as a child and teenager on Nantucket, Stella was uneasy, clutching the side of the boat as James adjusted the sails and took them out into the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea. As he worked, the sun pulled itself into the pink sky around them, and Athens rose ceremonially before them, ancient and made of stone. Stella blinked back another wave of fatigue. She’d only slept a couple of hours on the plane from Boston to Athens yesterday.Had that really been yesterday?And then she and James had stayed up all night like frantic children.I thought this trip abroad would help me grow up, but it’s doing the opposite.

James was a capable sailor. Stella wondered where he’d learned. A coastline of England? Another adventure elsewhere with another woman? She swallowed a wave of jealousy and settled in as he took them down the coastline, whistling to himself as the sun rose. Prior to launching off, they’d bought groceries at a little market near the harbor: peaches and beerand nuts and olives. Stella nibbled on an olive and considered cracking a beer because time had no meaning to her anymore, and she wanted to live as freely as she could.

Eventually, James dropped anchor in a beautiful cove and sat beside her, throwing his arm around her shoulders. Stella felt delirious with expectation. She couldn’t believe they hadn’t kissed yet. They’d lived an entire life together, it felt like.

“Stella, Stella, Stella,” James sang as he cracked a beer. “Let’s get more comfortable, shall we?”

They set themselves up on life jackets for cushion and lay back as the boat shifted gently in the waves. It was maybe nine in the morning, Stella thought. Athens would be fully awake by now. But her eyelids were heavy. She sipped James’s beer and then felt herself crash into slumber. Darkness was the only thing she knew.

Hours later, she woke up abruptly. Drool was caked to her chin, and the sun was high overhead. James was asleep, too, his mouth open wide and his hair thrown back. Stella felt a spasm of love for him, followed by a shot of pain.

The sun!

Already, she could feel a sunburn across her shoulders, on her face, and on her legs. Her skin was blotchy and red.

How could they have been so stupid? Especially Stella. She’d been raised at the shore. She knew what the sun could do. And poor James! He was a pale Englishman. He was going to be crisp.

Stella checked her watch. It was nearly two in the afternoon, which meant they’d slept for five hours in direct sunlight. She felt a pang of self-resentment. She was supposed to be at the airport to check on her suitcase! She was supposed to see the Acropolis! Annoyed, she touched James’s shoulder to wake him. He coughed with surprise and looked at her with big eyes asthough he’d never seen her before. In a way, they were still strangers.

“What’s happened?” James asked. His voice was clogged up in his throat.

Stella explained. “We need to get to shore. We have horrible sunburns.”

James rubbed his eyes and grimaced. He was starting to feel it, too.

James sailed them back to the docks. Stella had the strange suspicion that they weren’t going to make it, that they were going to get lost. But James knew the way.

Stella imagined what her mother would say back in Nantucket.Pull yourself together, Stella Sutton. You’re better than this.

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