There were words, spoken by Scott, but Margot couldn’t hear them over the strains of “Everybody Loves My Baby.” Then Nick said something, and Margot hoped he was pulling out the charms that had, heretofore in his life, kept him alive and out of prison. Finn said nothing; she barely blinked.
Scott took Finn by the other arm. For a second, both Nick and Scott had a hold of Finn like they were engaged in a tug-of-war, and Margot thought, Everybody loves my baby, indeed! She wanted to know why Finn had men fighting over her wimpy, lying, cheating ass. It was neither fair nor just. Then Nick let go, and Scott led Finn out of the tent and down by the dock, where they stood and talked. They were fifty yards away, but still in full view of everyone.
Jenna appeared at Margot’s side.
Margot said, “I cannot believe this is happening. Can you believe this is happening?”
Jenna said, “I called him.”
The foghorn sounded. The ferry pushed forward off the dock. Margot and Doug sat in the front seat of the Land Rover, and the three kids with their iDevices were in the back. Ellie was wearing her flower girl dress; she had spilled Hawaiian Punch down the front, and the back was covered with grass stains, but that hardly mattered now.
The wedding was over.
“Forget the Marriott in Stamford,” Doug said. “I’m going to pack up my things, deal with some issues at the office, and come back up here next weekend. In fact, I’m going to stay all summer.”
“All summer?” Margot said. “You’re kidding me.”
“Not kidding,” he said. “I’ll go to the beach. I’ll golf at Sankaty. Why not? Edge can take care of things at the office.”
Margot nodded once sharply, in a way that she hoped conveyed that she did not want to talk about Edge. She was, however, insanely jealous at the thought of her father spending the entire summer on Nantucket. Because despite how weird and difficult the weekend had been, she didn’t want to leave the island. It physically pained her. As the ferry lumbered toward Hyannis, her heart broke a third time.
Which reminded her.
“I’m going up,” Margot said. “Who’s coming with me? Ellie?”
Ellie shook her head.
“Come on, you said you would.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Boys?” Margot said.
“No!” In chorus.
She sighed and felt impending tears. Her mother had never had a problem getting Margot and her siblings to do her bidding when they were this age. Margot and Kevin and Nick hadn’t been allowed to rebel until they were teenagers.
But maybe that was revisionist history. Maybe Margot just liked to believe that she had been an obedient daughter now because her mother was dead and Margot couldn’t bear to imagine that she’d given her mother a moment of trouble. Any which way, she wasn’t going to fight with her children; she wasn’t going to force them upstairs.
She said, “Fine, then, I’ll go alone.”
Doug leaned back in his seat. “I’d go with you, honey, but I’m beat.”
Margot got out of the car and climbed to the upper deck. She felt better with the air and the horizon, although Nantucket Sound was as flat as a mirror and the ferry wasn’t rocking at all. Margot stood out in the sun, without SPF 90, without a hat. What did it matter if she weighed five hundred pounds, what did it matter if she detonated into five million freckles?
She pulled two pennies out of her wallet, and as the ferry passed Brant Point Lighthouse, she tossed them into the sea. Her throw was lame; the pennies barely cleared the bottom deck. If either of her brothers had been present, they would have told her she threw like a girl. Margot checked to make sure no one had seen her. She heard footsteps. Someone was coming up behind her.
Margot thought it was her father, who would forgive her a bad throw and a whole lot more.
He sidled up next to her and rested his arms on the railing. Margot turned.
White visor.
Not her father.
Griff said, “Do you happen to have two pennies I could borrow?”
Margot felt like her heart was dropping off the side of the boat. She fished two more pennies out of her wallet and handed them to Griffin Wheatley, Homecoming King.
Griff grinned. He said, “I figure you owe me at least that.” He took the pennies and threw them so far they nearly landed on shore.
Margot said, “Very impressive.”
Griff said, “So they gave the job to Nanette Kim. I met her, you know, at the Starbucks on the first floor of Tricom’s building. She approached me, actually. She went to college with the woman that Jasper ditched when he married my wife. Anyway, Nanette Kim was extremely cool and smart as hell. She deserved that job.”