Margaret adds chips, Nantucket Nectars, and four huge chocolate chip cookies to the order.
“I’ve had a rough twenty-four hours,” Patrick says.
“The kids?” Margaret asks.
“The wife,” Patrick says.
“Jennifer?” Margaret says.
“She’s the only wife I have,” Patrick says. “Although there were some guys in prison who wanted the job.” He smiles wanly. “I’m kidding. It wasn’t that kind of prison. And if it were, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Margaret is surprised to hear that there’s a problem with Jennifer. She single-handedly ran the family for a year and a half, and, as far as Margaret could tell, she did it beautifully. She cared for the boys, kept their routines, loved and nurtured them. She stayed true to Patrick, visiting him at every chance, calling every week, sending letters and noncontraband care packages. She ran her business and held her head high in the community—and that couldn’t have been easy. Patrick married Jennifer Barrett because she was strong and an achiever like him, but as Margaret has learned, it’s easy to be strong when life unspools as it should—kids, house, cars, vacations, money—and another thing when the man you love lies to you and everyone else, loses his job, and disgraces his name by going to prison for fraud.
Fraud. Margaret loathes the word now. It chills her.
Margaret can’t imagine Jennifer giving Patrick a rough time but if she has, she should be forgiven.
“Let’s sit,” she says.
The four of them settle—they unwrap their sandwiches, open chips, pop the tops off their Nectars and read the factoids on the caps.
Margaret’s says: The body of water between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket is the Muskeget Channel.
“I did not know that,” she says. She hoists the bottle in a toast. “Thank you for indulging me in this one wish. I really want to catch up with the three of you before I go on my honeymoon.”
They all clink bottles. Cheers.
“I want to know what’s going on in your lives,” Margaret says. “Little stuff, big stuff.”
“Let’s start with the overlooked, underappreciated middle child,” Kevin says. “Isabelle and I have set a date for our wedding.”
“Hold on,” Ava says. “I thought you were going to wait until Bart got home.”
“Yeah,” Patrick says. “You should wait, man.”
“I can’t wait,” Kevin says. “It’s not fair to Isabelle. Or to Genevieve.”
“But…” Ava says.
“Ava,” Kevin says. “We don’t know when Bart is coming home.” He stares at his turkey sandwich. “We don’t know if Bart is coming home.”
They all sit in silence with that for a second and Margaret thinks about how incredibly gracious it was for Kelley and Mitzi to host her and Drake’s wedding when their son is still missing. Back in December, with the news that William Burke was still alive, the family’s optimism peaked, but Burke still isn’t far enough along in his recovery to shed any light on the location of the other soldiers.
“When is the date?” Margaret asks, laying a hand on Kevin’s arm.
“Christmas Eve,” Kevin says. “Isabelle’s parents will fly in from France.”
“A Christmas wedding,” Margaret says. “It’s a beautiful idea. Have you told your father?”
“Not yet,” Kevin says.
“He’s not going to like it,” Ava says. “He’ll probably think you’re giving up on Bart. Mitzi most definitely will.”
“I’m sorry, Ava,” Kevin says. “I mean no disrespect to Bart, but I have to consider the women in my life.”
“Drake and I will plan to come for Christmas, then,” Margaret says. She takes a bite of her sandwich, then wipes her mouth and says, “And who knows? Bart might be home before that.”
Ava looks like she’s teetering on the knife-edge of tears. “Another wedding,” she says.
Margaret says, “Potter certainly was a lot of fun.”
Ava shrugs.
Kevin nudges her. “Yeah, maybe Potter’s the one.”
“I’m taking some time alone,” Ava says. “No Nathaniel, no Scott, no Potter. No wedding on the horizon for me. Everyone is just going to have to love me for who I am.”
“Oh, honey,” Margaret says. “We do love you for who you are. We always have and we always will.”
“Speaking of Scott,” Patrick says, “Jenny said he tried to talk to you at the Bar the other night.”
“Yeah,” Ava says.
“Scott was at the Bar?” Margaret says. “Was he with Roxanne? Was she drinking? That seems pretty risky for a pregnant woman.”
“He was alone,” Ava says. “I refused to talk to him. But Shelby called me this morning to tell me that Roxanne miscarried.”
“Oh no!” Margaret says. “I’m so sorry for her.”
“Are you sorry for her?” Kevin asks Ava.
“Of course I’m sorry for her!” Ava says. “I’m sure Scott is crushed. He was put on this earth to be a father. And now he and Roxanne have broken things off.”
Margaret takes a bite of her sandwich. She wonders if that means Ava and Scott will start seeing each other again, but she knows better than to ask. In the former matchup between Nathaniel and Scott, Margaret was on Team Scott. Scott is responsible, solid, steady, and clearly besotted with Ava, whereas Nathaniel seems a little more like Peter Pan and a little more cavalier with Ava’s affections. Margaret had frankly been shocked when Scott started dating the hot-to-trot English teacher.
Patrick says, “Well, I have some news, but it’s not very good.”
Kevin says, “Paddy, man, this is neither the time nor the place.”
Patrick shrugs. He lifts his sunglasses to the top of his head so Margaret can see his whole face. There are crow’s-feet around his eyes; he looks old. And if her child looks old, what does that mean for Margaret? Nothing good, she’s sure.
“What is it, honey?” she says.
“Jennifer is addicted to pills,” Patrick says. “Oxy and Ativan.”
“Oh, Paddy,” Margaret says. Immediately, Margaret flashes back to this past December, Stroll weekend, the lunch at the Sea Grille after Genevieve’s baptism. Jennifer had become completely unhinged, and Margaret had thought—hadn’t she?—that Jennifer seemed like she was on something. Her behavior had reminded Margaret of Kelley back in the late eighties when he was snorting cocaine night and day.
“You’re kidding!” Ava says. “Jennifer? I always thought Jennifer was… I don’t know… perfect.”
“That’s the problem,” Patrick says. “Everyone always thought both of us were perfect. Then I proved I wasn’t, and Jennifer—well, she’s human too. She needed something to help her cope. Her friend Megan, the one who had breast cancer, gave her a couple of Ativan to take the edge off, then a couple of oxy to pep her up. And when those were gone, Jennifer found a dealer.”
“A dealer?” Ava says. “I can’t believe you just used the words Jennifer and dealer in the same sentence.”
Margaret noticed Kevin bow his head.
“It gets worse,” Patrick says.
Margaret finishes the first half of her sandwich. She’s not sure she wants to hear about worse.
“Her dealer is Norah.”
“Norah?” Ava says. “Norah Vale?”
Good God, Margaret thinks. She closes her eyes and wishes she were back on the porch of her and Drake’s romantic, rose-covered cottage in Sconset, enjoying blissful ignorance.
FALL
KELLEY
Columbus Day marks the end of the busy season and Kelley plans a leaf-peeping trip for Mitzi to take her mind off the fact that ten months have passed and not only has there been no new information about Bart but the doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are reporting that Private William Burke is suffering from memory loss. Kelley would like to quiz the doctors himself. How much memory loss? Can he answer the most basic of questions: Are the other soldiers alive? Will his memory ever come back? Has he handed over any intelligence about where he was being held? Hasn’t modern medicine advanced enough that the doctors can tease information from Private Burke’s mind? Isn’t there some kind of sophisticated, secret mind-reading software?