Page 17 of Waves of Time

“I might have some Zyrtec in my purse,” Sophie said.

“I already took some,” Hilary lied again. “Thanks, though.”

As Hilary tried to blink away the white spots, Sophie and Sam spoke about people Hilary didn’t know, and Hilary tuned into Aria, Darcy, and Rachelle’s conversation on the other side of the porch.

“I looked at Rachelle during the show and said, ‘Oh my gosh. The guitarist won’t stop staring at Aria!’” Darcy said. “And then, what do you know, after the show, he came up to you!”

Aria’s cheeks were beet red. Timidly, she tucked her hair behind her ears and said, “We’re just friends. He comes into the restaurant sometimes.”

“I don’t think he wants to be just friends,” Rachelle said.

Hilary no longer noticed the white spots in her vision, as she was newly distracted with this— a boy in a band, one her daughter was clearly enamored with.Why hadn’t Aria mentioned him before?Hilary had thought she and Aria were the kind of mother-daughter team to talk about things like that.

Then again, Hilary was hush-hush about her romance with Marc, about the past that had ultimately led to Aria’s birth. Maybe Aria was just taking a clue from Hilary. All romance topics were off the table.

Charlie loaded a big platter of barbecue chicken and placed it on the picnic table as Estelle called out, “Everyone who wants the first round of chicken, come and get it!” She handed a plate to Hilary, who thanked her and grabbed a piece of succulent chicken for herself, along with a scoop of potato salad and some watermelon. As she stabbed a fork through her watermelon, her father, Roland, approached, with Jax hot on his heels.

“There she is! Hilary’s back from the west!”

“Hi, Dad.” Hilary stood to hug her bear of a father, whose bad moods had once been storm fronts on the rest of the family, so much so that they’d lived in fear. But Roland had balanced out in his older age. He’d softened.

“Tell me everything,” Roland said as he sat beside her. “Is San Francisco in sorry shape ever since that Marc Halton moved out there?”

Hilary laughed. “Marc seems to have only made it better. He’s a success in nearly every way.”

“Isn’t that a shame,” Roland said, his eyes dancing with memory. He hadn’t been pleased in the slightest when Marc had “abandoned them,” his words. If memory served Hilary correctly, Roland had screamed at Marc at the last family party Marc had ever attended, which was probably why Marc had avoided her family every other time he’d come out to visit (which wasn’t often).

“Aria loves seeing him,” Hilary warned quietly, trying to remind her father that he couldn’t speak ill of Marc so close to her daughter. “He took her out for cocktails and showed her a side of the city I was a little too tired for.”

Again, the white flecks had returned with a vengeance, and as her father launched into a story about his recent building project along the coast, Hilary again blinked wildly, trying to get the specks out of her vision.

“Are you okay, honey?” Roland asked, interrupting himself mid-sentence.

“She has allergies,” Sophie said on the other side of Hilary.

“We have eyedrops inside,” Roland said, pointing toward the back door.

“I’ll be fine,” Hilary assured him and herself. “It’s really not a big deal. Now, tell me. How did the building of that big front porch go? As far as I’m concerned, that might be the best stretch of beach in Nantucket.”

“Except for right here, Hilary Coleman,” Roland said, gesturing toward the wide expanse of beach before them. “As far as I’m concerned, this is all anyone would ever need.”

ChapterSeven

By mid-August, Aria and Hilary were called back to San Francisco to oversee the initial steps of Rodrick’s redesign. Aria, who was stuck at work when she got the call, did a little dance in the kitchen of Robby’s Crab Cabin. It felt as though her life was on the verge of really getting started. Perhaps soon, she would find a way to forget the horrific things Callie had said to her at that San Francisco club, and perhaps she wouldn’t belittle herself or her choices.

“What are you doing?” Violet asked as she passed the kitchen doorway.

Aria stopped dancing and laughed at herself. “I’m going back to California in a couple of days.”

Violet’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding. It must have gone really well last time?”

Aria returned to the main dining area, where only two families remained after a frantic four-hour dinner rush, and began to sweep under the chairs and by the bar. She sizzled with adrenaline. “My mom and I have always worked well together. I think the client had already fallen in love with Mom’s work before we got there, so it was probably an easy sell. But still! This is the biggest job I’ve ever helped her with.”

After the two remaining families paid up and Aria and Violet put their music through the speakers and cleaned the tables, a familiar face popped into the restaurant to say hello.

“Hi, Thaddeus!” Violet greeted him with a wave from behind the counter. “How are you doing?”

Thaddeus strode toward them, his eyes never wavering from Aria. “Just fine. How was the dinner rush? I walked past earlier and saw both of you running around.”

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