Page 101 of The Identicals
Franklin,she thinks. She will try to find Franklin to say good-bye. She owes him that. She owes herself that.
Eleanor isn’t happy that Tabitha and Harper are leaving, but she has Flossie for one more day, and she has Ainsley. Besides, she was the one who orchestrated the reunion. She really has no right to complain.
As the ferry pulls into Oak Bluffs, Harper and Tabitha sit side by side in the front seat of Harper’s Bronco, and Fish is asleep in the back.
“Are you nervous?” Tabitha asks her sister. She told Harper that she had gone to see Reed. She admitted that it had been her plan to pull a secret twister and seduce the doctor under false pretenses, but she hadn’t been able to go through with it. She also told Harper how in love Reed had seemed—with the person he believed to be Harper. She then gave Harper the address.
You need to go see him,she said.Especially now.
“Nervous doesn’t begin to cover it,” Harper says. “How about you?”
“Why would I be nervous?” Tabitha asks.
Harper shrugs. A little while later, she says, “Was it real between you and Franklin? I mean, it happened really fast.”
“Harper,” Tabitha says. “It was real.”
They don’t say much on the ride to the house. Tabitha has been gone less than a full day, but she’s relieved to be back on the same island as Franklin. She wants so badly to believe that he’ll come to his senses and live his life for himself.
She and Harper walk in the back door of Billy’s house into the kitchen. Tad is on his hands and knees in front of the refrigerator. He’s putting in the last of the new floorboards. When he looks up, his eyes dart back and forth between the twins.
“Whoa,” he says.
“Hi, Tad,” Harper says. “Freaked out by the twin thing?”
Tabitha doesn’t care if he is or isn’t. “Is Franklin here?” she asks. “Have you seen him?”
Tad gets to his feet and wipes his hands off on his Carhartts. “He was here earlier today, actually.”
Tabitha’s heart feels like a bird smacking against a window. “He was?”
“He was. He asked for you. I told him you left.”
“You told him… did you tell him where I went?”
“I didn’t know where you went,” Tad says. “You bolted out of here without a word. He could see, obviously, that you’d left your car behind.”
“So then what happened?”
“Then he left,” Tad says.
“How long ago was that?” Tabitha asks.
“Hours ago,” Tad says. “And no, he didn’t tell me where he was going or when he’d be back.” He turns his attention to Harper. “How have you been?” he asks.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Harper says.
HARPER
She has a harder time leaving Nantucket than she thought she would. It doesn’t take her long to pack, and with one hour in town, she’s able to say her good-byes. At the boutique she hugged Meghan and gave baby David Wayne a kiss on the forehead.
Then she held out her arms to Caylee. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You saved the store.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Caylee said.
“Tabitha was angry when she found out you were working at the store,” Harper said. “But even she can’t argue with a five-hundred-percent increase in sales.”
“Is she going to let me stay?” Caylee asked.
