Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze by Nancy Thayer Read Free Book Online Page B

phone, they offered her love and understanding, but they were just a little bit
I-told-you-so.
They’d never liked Gerry. She saw a couple of therapists, but their advice was what she expected: You have to go through this loss, you can’t go around it. The Japanese sign for “crisis” also means “opportunity.” Their words were not much help in the middle of the night. Cartons of ice cream and old black-and-white movies worked better.
    Christie saved her life.
    “You’ve got to get out of town,” Christie advised her. “Here, you’re just mired in misery like an old horse stuck in mud.”
    Marina had snorted out a laugh in the midst of her tears. “Thanks for the glamorous image. And where would I go?”
    “Where do you
want
to go?” Christie countered.
    Marina blew her nose and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    Christie bellowed at her sons, “I told you boys, not in the house!” She turned back to Marina. “Why not Nantucket? Summer’s coming up. We had so much fun those summers, remember?”
    Marina leaned back in her chair and thought about that. During college, she and Christie had gone east to work as waitresses in a huge swanky hotel. They didn’t make much money, but they had free lodging, free nights, and a few free afternoon hours. They swam, partied, worked a bit, and returned to Kansas City as brown as nuts and grinning at themselves.
    Marina protested, “Oh, Christie, we were
young
back then. I’m old and worn out and pathetic.”
    “You certainly will be if you don’t move your ass,” Christie insisted. “If you stay here indulging in self-pity. Think of it, Marina, the blue ocean, the salty air, the
freshness
of it all.”
    “I won’t know anyone,” Marina said.
    “Well, isn’t that the point?” Christie replied.
    Now Marina found herself smiling. It was good, just to think of Christie and her practical optimism.
    And Christie was right. Being here, away from
there
, was a kind of therapy. While out of sight was not completely out of mind, the reality of Gerry and Dara was not such an oppressive reality.
    But she ached with loneliness. Leisure did not come easily to her. She’d worked hard to learn her trade, and she and Gerry had labored diligently and ceaselessly to build their business. She was accustomed to the sound of phones ringing, people chatting, footsteps hurrying past her office; she was used to the pressure of presentations and the dozens of little victories of accounts won and money made. She’d been such an excellent multitasker, scanning reports while she ran on her treadmill, dictating memos while she drove to a meeting, flirting with new business contacts during the intermission at a symphony.
    Now, on this bright, airy island, she felt like a piece of flotsam lost at sea, without a compass or any way to communicate to others. The ocean expanded all around her. She was alone, as insignificant as a little cork bobbing on the surface.
    But she wouldn’t give up.
    She grabbed up the newspaper and a pen, and began to circle anything that caught her eye. Noonday concerts at the Unitarian church. A comedy presented in the evening by the Theatre Workshop. She hadn’t realized how many museums there were. The Nantucket Whaling Museum was right in town. So was the Maria Mitchell Science Library and Observatory. And the Coffin School. And someone was offering painting classes. Hm. She’d have to consider that. Gerry had always been the visual guy; but it might be fun to learn to do watercolors. She’d get a library card, too, and stock up on all the juicy novels she’d never had time to read.
    And maybe she’d get to know Jim and his daughters better. Anything could happen, right?

8

Lily
    Driving home from Carrie’s, Lily felt wistful. Carrie and her baby existed in their own sensual world of love and touch and cooing voices. Carrie had gotten slightly plump and she moved as if her limbs were heavy and when she held her baby in her arms, Lily could walk