Hannah’s restaurant was a five-minute walk from the harbor and on the way to the burger joint. Ada watched Hannah’s face as Hannah gazed at the servers working that night and raised a hand to wave. When she spotted Quintin, Hannah’s face lit up like a firecracker.
Quintin raised his chin and said, “You all right, Bushner?”
Hannah grinned and said, “You good?” Although the conversation had very little meaning, the air sizzled between them.
Ada bit her tongue to keep from smiling too hard. Did people ever get more sophisticated than that? After studying numerouspatients over the years and delving into the human psyche in various ways, she didn’t think so.
After grabbing a table outside the burger restaurant, they ordered: Kade with his double-bacon and cheddar cheeseburger, Olivia with her veggie burger with extra caramelized onions, and Hannah with her tuna burger and sweet potato fries. Ada opted for the black bean burger and ordered plenty of fries and onion rings for the table. She drew the line at soda. It was a Monday, and she didn’t want her kids to think soda was an everyday treat.
After their food arrived, Ada went inside to get more napkins. The restaurant was bustling with tourists and locals, sipping milkshakes and laughing. Journey was playing on the speakers. Ada paused for a moment, watching her children through the window as they took their first bites of burgers. Peter hadn’t written back, presumably because he was still in surgery. But she was grateful to have her kids to herself.
As Ada left the restaurant, she noticed a woman on the sidewalk waving to her.
It took a moment for Ada to realize it was Katrina Petri. She almost dropped the stack of napkins.
“Hi!” Katrina said that because she was so close to Ada, it would have been awkward not to say hello. Beside her were three women in their forties, studying the burger menu. It looked like they weren’t convinced of this as their dinner.
“Oh. Hello!” Ada smiled and side-stepped over to her children, eager to get back to her black bean burger. When Katrina didn’t look away, Ada asked, “How is your evening going?”
Katrina smiled beautifully and gestured at the woman beside her. “We’re just looking for something to eat. We went on a long hike, and we’re starving!”
“We went sailing,” Ada said. “We’re starving, too.”
“How lovely.” Katrina continued to smile serenely. She looked as though she wanted to continue the conversation and maybe even invite Ada along with her and her Salt Sisters.
Ada prepared to get out of it, raising a hand as she sat back down. “Well, I’ll see you soon!”
Katrina looked vaguely disappointed. “Sure thing. Have a wonderful evening!”
Awkwardness rang through the air. Ada hoped Katrina didn’t sense it, that it was one-sided awkwardness. Soon, Katrina and the Salt Sisters moved along, eager to find a less greasy dinner. Women in their forties didn’t often go out for burgers together. Ada never would have chosen burgers if left to her own devices.
Ada’s thoughts whirred. As she bit down on her burger, she caught herself thinking, Well, at least I know that Peter’s not with Katrina when he says he’s in surgery.But she cursed herself for giving any power to her conspiracies.
Kade and Olivia were talking about Shakespeare, with Kade telling Olivia that he “hated” Old English. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Thee and thou and all that?”
“Yes, it does. You’re just ignorant,” Olivia said.
“Hey! Nobody’s ignorant,” Ada said, snapping back into family time. “Why don’t you explain to us what all these Shakespearean words really mean?”
But it was when she reached for a french fry that she realized Hannah was watching her like a hawk. “What’s up, honey?” she asked.
“How do you know that woman?” Hannah asked.
Ada knew better than to tell her children that Katrina was a patient of hers because that was private. “You know that everyone on the island knows each other,” she said. “It’s teeny-tiny.”
Kade and Olivia hardly heard her. They were still talking about Shakespeare.
Hannah took a bite of a fry and asked, “She’s Dad’s friend, right?”
Chapter Thirteen
It wasn’t like Ada to drive so quietly. Ordinarily, when she had the kids in the car with her, she blared the radio, sang songs (in this now messy, rugged voice of hers, so unlike her opera voice), asked them questions, and created a version of “motherhood” that had nothing to do with her own mother and the darkness that had permeated her childhood and teenager-era. But in the wake of what Hannah had said at the burger place—She’s Dad’s friend, right?—Ada was so out of her mind that she couldn’t remember how to act.
Kade and Olivia were still arguing about Shakespeare, and Hannah was on her phone. Everyone was ignoring each other. Ada wanted to punch something, but she couldn’t imagine what.
When they got home, Kade and Olivia leaped out, surely headed for their video games, eager to pick up in their competition where they’d left off. Hannah remained in the front seat, looking at Ada curiously over the screen of her phone. “Mom?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
Ada raised her eyebrows and clutched the steering wheel. “What? Of course! It was a wonderful day.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and made a deal with herself not to cry. “Ihave to run to the grocery store. Why don’t you head in? Dad will be home from surgery soon.”
