Page 56 of April Flowers

Noah nodded sadly. “Margot, I’m so sorry.”

They held the silence, listening to the crash of waves.

“But why would Vic be reading the diary entries from that time?” Noah whispered.

Margot’s face crumpled. “I can only think of one explanation.”

Noah understood what she meant. It was almost unspeakably strange.

“You need to find Vic Rondell,” he said.

“I’m frightened of him,” she said. “He seemed so cruel. So strange. Like he blames me for whatever happened back then.”

“Maybe he is cruel. Maybe he does blame you,” Noah said, remembering Vic and his swanky suits and criminally handsome face.

It occurred to Noah now that Vic really did look a great deal like Frank Earnheart. Why hadn’t he thought of it before?

“I should have realized,” Margot whispered. “It just didn’t feel rational.”

“We don’t know anything for sure yet,” Noah reminded her.

Margot’s voice wavered. She turned to look hard in Noah’s eyes. Noah’s heart thumped.

“Will you come with me?”

Noah felt a jolt of joy. “Of course.”

There was nowhere in the world he’d rather be than by her side—through thick and thin.

Hadn’t he told her that after her father’s death? Hadn’t he said, let me go with you, let me help you, let me love you?

The door to the back terrace opened, and Estelle Coleman peered out. “Attention, folks! We’re gathering for dinner. You ready to eat?”

“We’re starving, Estelle,” Margot said, smiling.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Estelle said.

As soon as Estelle disappeared, clipping the door closed behind her, Noah pulled Margot to his chest and held her. Nantucket winds crashed against them, and their hair blew in all directions. Margot raised her chin so that it sat gently on his chest. She looked at him, her gaze penetrating. Noah had the feeling that he held the entire world in his arms.

He wanted to ask her if she still loved him or if she thought she could find a way back to the love they’d once shared.

But it was too soon for such grand statements. It was too soon to lay it all out.

Instead, Noah did something else. Closing his eyes, he bent his head and kissed her gently. The waves crashed along the shore. Margot’s lips were soft and smooth, and they parted for him. As they melted into one another, Noah thought,This is where I belong.

Margot shivered in his arms. But she didn’t let go.

Inside, Lillian, Margot, Noah, and Avery sat side by side at a dining table that seemed to be the length of Noah’s entire house. Most of the Coleman family was there: Sam, Charlie, and Hilary, their partners and children, save for Rachelle, who was still in Rome, plus Estelle, Roland, and Roland’s brother Grant and his family. Everyone talked over each other, updating their favorite people in the world on the small victories or failures of their previous weeks. The food was sensational—a buffet of roasted pork and salmon, buttery potatoes, roasted vegetables, homemade bread, platters of delectable and expensive cheeses, and what looked to be fifteen different desserts of cakes and pies and homemade chocolates.

Noah bent to whisper in Margot’s ear, “This is more food than I usually see at weddings, and it’s better, too.”

Margot muttered back, “Imagine how decadent Hilary’s wedding will be!”

She said it in a way that suggested Noah would be there, too.

Margot nudged him with her elbow and smiled. “Want to be my date?”

Noah was stunned with desire and joy. He could hardly eat. “I’d love to.”

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