Nantucket Sisters by Nancy Thayer Read Free Book Online Page B

looks fantastic,” Emily says.
    “I know. She’s really happy.”
    They’re getting to know one another again, their friendship is like a tapestry tucked away in a drawer. Today is the iron passing over the cloth, smoothing out the wrinkles, bringing out the pattern that makes it unique and beautiful.
    “What about you? How’s Thaddeus?”
    “He’s really nice. Mom’s happy, and Thaddeus continues to teach Ben all the manly skills.”
    “The manly skills?” Emily arches her eyebrows suggestively.
    “That’s not what I mean!” Maggie pokes Emily’s arm. “I mean about wrenches and hammers, not how to seduce women.”
    Emily widens her eyes innocently. “Why, Maggie, that’s what I meant, too,” she teases.
    Maggie slumps. “I hate growing up.”
    “Oh, get over yourself. Enjoy it.” Emily leans back on her arms in a sensual pose.
    “You’ve had sex!”
    “Not yet,” Emily confesses smugly. “But almost. Karl? This dreamy foreign exchange student from Germany? We had a few dates …” Emily’s eyes glaze with memory. “But everybody was having sex with him and I didn’t want to be everybody. Still, we came close. And I’m glad.”
    Maggie feels her mouth primp like her mother’s when Frances is miffed. “I suppose you just want to hang out at the yacht club this summer, playing tennis and sailing with guys.”
    “Maggie, you brat, is that what I did last summer, or any of the past twelve, shall I count them, twelve summers?” Emily demands. Maggie grins, abashed, and Emily answers her own question. “I was here almost every day. Perhaps not for the entire day, but most of it. Right? Right ?”
    “Right,” Maggie concedes. “Want to go to Shipwreck House?” She holds her breath. Any day now, any moment, Emily will think she’s too old for such childish stuff.
    Emily jumps off the bed. “Let’s go!”
    The grasses are a sweet lush green. The harbor water winks blue and turquoise as a summer breeze sweeps over it. Shipwreck House looks slightly the worse for the winter, more paint missing from the door and window frames, a few shingles hanging sideways, but Maggie has already opened the door to let the sunshine warm the room.
    “Ahhh,” Emily sighs, dropping onto an old sofa. “I’ve missed this.” She scans the room. “I know I didn’t email much, Mags, butsenior year was a killer. My parents had me taking so many APs I barely slept. And now I’ve got to get ready for Smith.”
    “I know,” Maggie agrees. “I was worried all year about getting the grades I needed for those scholarships. Plus I babysat five days a week for George and Mimi West. I’ll be babysitting for them this summer, too. Their kids are cute, but I don’t know when I’ll have time to work on Siren Song …” She keeps her back to Emily as she fusses with an old curtain, tying it back to let in more sun. The novel they’ve worked on for the past six years seems really good when she reads it by herself, but she’s worried about Emily’s more sophisticated New Yorker’s opinion.
    “I don’t know when I’ll have time, either,” Emily says. Lifting a leg, she scratches a bug bite. “I’ve been talking to Jascin about volunteering at the Maria Mitchell aquarium.”
    “You have? I know how you love that place. What do they say?”
    “They’ve been checking their schedules, and they need someone in the afternoon at the Touch Tank, showing things to the tourists. So I think I’m going to do it.”
    “Awesome! But what about sailing and tennis?”
    “I’ll have time in the late afternoon for sailing. I don’t care much about tennis. You babysit in the afternoons, right? We’ll still have the mornings to write.”
    Five mornings a week, while the day turns from cool blue to a sultry gold, they write Siren Song , really Maggie’s book, with Emily’s advice and recommendations. Emily is learning so much by volunteering at the aquarium that she has all sorts of cool information about sea creatures