Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze (140 page)

Charlotte lounged at the stern of Coop’s catboat, her face lifted to the sky as she watched the light dwindle and the stars, one by one, twinkle on, as if someone up there were walking through the heavens, lighting them like candles. In the soft evening air, the harbor waters spread around them in a gleaming quilt of indigo, while fishing boats and sailboats sped toward the distant shore, stitching ivory lines through the water with their wakes.

It had been two weeks since Oliver’s wedding, and for all that time the family had existed in peace. Their father had relented, giving Teddy another chance. Teddy had stayed sane and sober, driving off to work every morning, showered, shaved, and whistling, returning immediately after work for a swim or sail or to accompany Suzette as she waddled off for what Nona called “a constitutional” after dinner. When their father and the Bank Boys came down for a long weekend, Teddy remained respectful and polite, although on Sundays, his day off, he disappeared, driving Suzette around to show her the island and keeping out of his father’s radar. Their mother also seemed
to be avoiding Worth, but perhaps it only seemed that way. Helen was so busy with committee work.

“You look relaxed,” Coop said. He was lazily steering them back to his dock. He wore only swim trunks and an ancient pair of deck shoes that flopped open where the toes had worn through. The summer sun had bleached silver streaks in his blond hair, and Charlotte smiled, thinking how much a woman would have to pay a hair salon to get just that perfect effect. He was very tan, and his green eyes flashed like bright gems in his face.

“I am relaxed,” Charlotte agreed. She wore her old one-piece black Speedo and flip-flops, and she’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail to get it off her face and out of the wind. This was the third time she’d sailed with Coop, and she knew by now that like most men he preferred to be in complete control of his boat. Sometimes people liked it if she moved to do something—change sides to balance the boat if it was heeling too much, or adjust the centerboard—of her own accord. But she had quickly seen that if Coop wanted her to help, he’d tell her. Her father was like that. She jokingly called him Captain Bligh.

As they glided toward Coop’s house, Nona’s house also came into view, with its ridiculous Ionic columns and unused front door. Lights were on in the living room and in some rooms on the second floor, and the light was on in Suzette and Teddy’s room in the attic. From here, floating gently on the safe and increasingly shallow harbor waters, Nona’s house looked blessed. Radiant.

Coop followed Charlotte’s gaze. “How many of your relatives are there right now?”

Charlotte laughed. “The truth? I don’t even know. The Bank Boys come and go all the time, and so does Mee.”

“Man, I wish that woman would grow up and use her real name. I can’t stand calling her
Mee.
Makes me think of a cartoon mouse. Or a little kid. It’s not cute anymore, it’s just embarrassing.”

Charlotte chuckled. “Well, Coop, if you ask her out, I’m sure she’ll change her name to anything you like.”

Coop turned his glance to Charlotte and let his gaze linger on her. “It’s not Mee I want to be with.”

Charlotte felt herself flush, and she was grateful for the evening darkness that covered her. She supposed this could be considered their third date. Certainly it was the third time she’d spent an evening sailing with him, and now, as before, she was languorous with pleasure—although the icy gin and tonics Coop had brought in a cooler for their sail around the inner and outer harbor no doubt deepened her easy mood.

She stretched her arms wide. “Look at this night. Isn’t this the most perfect night in the world? A soft breeze. Warm air. Calm water.”

Coop dropped the mainsail and pulled up the centerboard. Jumping up, he walked carefully along the deck to the bow. He reached out, grabbed the buoy, and fastened the rope around it. His feet made solid thuds as he strode back to her side at the stern. “We can stay out here. But it’s more comfortable inside.”

Charlotte knew exactly what he meant by that, and she wanted to go inside with him. She wanted to press up against him, she wanted his mouth on hers.

Her heart knocked rapidly in her chest. “Coop, tell me about Miranda.”

His body tensed. He looked toward the outer harbor, and took a deep breath. He hadn’t yet spoken to Charlotte about Miranda. The first two times they’d gone sailing they had both behaved in an easy old-buddies friendship, but tonight something different was in the air.

“There’s nothing to say about Miranda,” Coop told her. “We dated, and now we’re not together anymore. And we won’t be together again.”

“Why not?”

Coop shrugged. “We were never serious. She’s a beautiful, fascinating woman, but we just don’t have that much in common. I want to live full-time on Nantucket, and she doesn’t. So I broke up with her.”

Charlotte frowned as his words conflicted with her memory of the conversation she’d overheard.
I thought Miranda broke it off
, she almost said.
I heard you two arguing one day, and Miranda was in a fury because you’d slept with someone else during the winter.
Oh, don’t be
such a nitpicking priss, Charlotte ordered herself. After all, she had overheard only part of what was obviously an ongoing and complicated disagreement.

“Come on.” Coop held out his hand. “Let’s go ashore.”

Charlotte took his hand. He steadied her as she dropped over the side of the boat into the cool thigh-high water. He grabbed the cooler, jumped over the side, and together they waded to dry land. They walked up the sandy beach, through the low wild bushes, across his lawn, and onto his patio. He set the cooler on a low table and turned to Charlotte.

“Will you come in tonight?”

He was standing very close to her, his arms at his side. He wasn’t touching her, but the attraction between them was intense. The last two times he’d taken her sailing, she had gone right home after the sail, but tonight she wanted to enter his house.

“Coop.” Her voice was shaking. “I’m not—I haven’t been with a man for a long time.
Months.
Okay, three years. I’m kind of old-fashioned, I guess. I’m not asking for a commitment or anything, I just want you to know.…”

Coop lifted his hand and gently touched her cheek. “We’ll go as slow as you want, Charlotte.”

“But I mean—” How did people talk about this? It was so awkward! Moving away from him, she leaned on the back of a lawn chair, feeling a bit more in charge with the chair between her and Coop’s extraordinary magnetism. “I heard you were—seeing—someone else, too. This winter.”
A slut, actually
, she wanted to say.
Miranda called her a slut, and that kind of scares me.
But she didn’t want to let him know she’d overheard their argument.

Coop grinned. “Well, Charlotte, I did
see
another woman this winter. Saw several, in fact. But I’m not seeing her anymore. I’m not seeing anyone else. And I’m capable of being monogamous, if that’s what you’re asking. For the right woman, I could be monogamous. And if you’re worried about STDs, I’ve got a report in the house. I usually get tested every six months. Want to see it?”

“Oh, dear.” Charlotte tried to laugh, but her voice was shaking.
“Here we are on this beautiful soft night with the moon and stars, and I’m asking about STDs. I’m sorry, Coop. This is so un-romantic.”

“Come inside, Charlotte,” Coop said. “I think I can get you in a romantic mood pretty fast.”

Charlotte sat up with a gasp, her heart pounding as if she were in danger. Looking around, she realized she was in a strange room, and then she heard Coop’s rumbling snore and fell back against her pillows, smiling at herself. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table: 4:29. Good for you, she told her brain. She was glad she was so used to waking at this time that she did it without an alarm clock, but she wasn’t very pleased about waking in a fright. It had been three years since she’d slept anywhere except her bed in her parents’ home in Boston or her sweet private attic room at Nona’s, but that was no reason to get neurotic.

She’d certainly fallen asleep easily enough.

She and Coop had made love—he was slow and gentle with her as he’d promised. Afterward, he’d served her pancakes and bacon, they’d gone back to bed and made love again, and sometime around midnight they’d fallen asleep. Coop was still sleeping, lying on his stomach, spread-eagled over the mattress, his pillow pulled over his head. Maybe she snored, too, Charlotte thought with a grin, and that wasn’t a habit but a way to shut out sounds.

Morning light was beginning to illuminate the room. She had to get up, get dressed, and get out to her garden. She could tell it was going to be another hot day, and she didn’t want to have to labor in the afternoon blaze. She scanned the floor, searching for her Speedo. Rex and Regina, his fat old labs, lay on their sides, snuffling and grunting, deeply asleep. Discarded clothing lay in heaps and mounds all around the room, and she remembered from last night how gritty the floor was with sand, and the sheets, as well. He had a cleaning woman in once a week, Coop told her, and she dealt with the laundry,
putting clean sheets on the bed, and so on. Sandy sheets didn’t bother him. Not much bothered him, Charlotte decided. The kitchen counters were piled with dishes and pots and pans waiting to be washed, and his living room was littered with CDs, DVDs, and video games, newspapers, and magazines.

Stepping quietly, Charlotte slipped from the bed, grabbed up her Speedo, and with a look over her shoulder, left the room. Coop continued to snore. She pulled on her bathing suit in the kitchen and looked around for a paper and pen. She settled for the side of a brown grocery bag and a fat marker.

She wrote:
I had a wonderful time.
She thought of adding:
I’ll be in my garden
, but he knew that. He’d find her if he wanted to. She put the note on the table, weighted it down with the salt and pepper shakers, opened the sliding glass door to the patio, and stepped out into the morning.

She took a moment just to be in the day. Her body felt well used and content, like a racehorse that had been corralled for too long and finally allowed to run free. She wasn’t tired, even though she’d gotten so little sleep.

A small forest of evergreens and brush divided Coop’s land from Nona’s, giving them both privacy. Charlotte walked down to the beach, across to Nona’s beach, and up to her house. The mudroom door was unlocked. Doors were never locked on the island, there was no need. As quietly as she could, she hurried up to the attic, showered and shampooed her hair, and dressed. She went back down to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of orange juice, and drank it down, savoring the sweet brightness. Then she went out to her garden to make bouquets.

All around her, the world glowed with the freshness of morning. With each passing day, she understood that her self-imposed exile had turned into a kind of blessing. She loved her garden; she loved the work of it. As for romance—
love
—whatever she had going on with Coop was only lighthearted, nothing serious. She believed she could allow herself this much pleasure.

By eight o’clock, she was starving. The farm stand was always busy in July so she left Jorge in charge and ran back to the house to grab a bite of nourishment. Jorge was a hard worker, but his English was difficult to understand and he often replied to any statement by smiling, nodding his head, and saying, lispily “Yes.” She decided to fill a thermos with orange juice and grab some of the oatmeal cookies Glorious had made.

She didn’t bother to stop to unlace her boots. She was in a hurry, and the ground was dry today, she wouldn’t track in mud. The only person in the kitchen was Suzette, just sitting at the table, her feet propped up on a chair.

“Good morning!” Charlotte pealed brightly.

“Morning.” Suzette risked a quick glance at her.

“I saw Teddy drive off to work,” Charlotte observed, as she leaned into the refrigerator. “And I guess Mom and Aunt Grace and Mandy are taking the little ones to the yacht club for swimming and sailing. Are you going with them?”