Page 21

Summer 2000

It wasn’t till the next time Rose saw Nate that she agreed to go out with him properly. “Just as friends, right?” she asked, laughing as they stood in the dying light on the beach in front of the resort, Nate with a cigarette, looking so dangerous and handsome.

“As friends. I’m a man of my word,” Nate said. “And I know you just went through a breakup. I wouldn’t want to compete with someone you really loved.”

Rose was taken aback at the tenderness. It was true that since she’d broken up with Rhett (which she’d only done to ensure he didn’t break up with her first), she’d spent almost every night sobbing herself to sleep. Numerous times, she’d wanted to go to Rhett’s work or home, just to speak to him and figure out exactly what had gone wrong between them. But her pride had won out. And she was terrified that he’d already begun dating Heather.

That Thursday, she had the night off from the resort, and Nate arranged to pick her up at home. Rose carefully selected her outfit, conscious that she was going out with a much wealthier man. She chose a pair of blue jeans and a cute, lacy top. When he pulled up in his sports car, she saw he was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. She breathed a sigh of relief and jumped inside.

That night, instead of taking her to a swanky restaurant or a cool island bar, he drove her to a house in Siasconset, not far from the resort. The enormous house had tiled floors, a swimming pool much better than the one at the resort, two state-of-the-art kitchens, and plenty of wine in the wine cellar. Not wanting to appear too green, Rose didn’t comment on any of it, but she guessed that her expression gave her away. She was impressed.

As he opened a bottle of wine, Nate explained himself. “My dad is important, I guess. It’s hard to explain, but seeing me out and about on the island, doing whatever I want to do, doesn’t always make him and his businesses look good.”

“What kind of businesses?” Rose asked, taking a sip of her red.

“He’s in everything, just about. Importing. Exporting. It’s all boring, if you ask me.” Nate laughed that handsome laugh of his and eyed her as though she were far more important than his father’s businesses. “You should tell me about you, though. I want to know everything. You’re from the island?”

Rose said she was, that she had a mother, a father, and a brother, and that she hoped to go to college next year, but she didn’t know where. He asked if she was eighteen, and she said she was, although this was a lie. She wouldn’t be eighteen for another few months. Still, she felt eighteen, which was all that mattered, right? She felt old enough to be here with this beautiful man, a man of twenty-two, he said, who didn’t feel like an adult and had far too many responsibilities for his age. “I want to run away from it all,” he said, lacing his fingers through hers. “Like, I want to hide out here at this house with you for the next year or two, just until I can get my head on straight.”

“You deserve that,” Rose said.

“You can go to high school during the day, and when you come back, I’ll have dinner ready for you,” he said, playing with her hair.

“I don’t want to go to high school,” she said, pouting.

“All right. Well, you can drop out and spend all your time here, reading books and playing music with me,” Nate said.

On this first night at the house, Rose learned what a stunning musician Nate was. He sat down at the grand piano in the next room and played two different concertos, his fingers flying over the keys. “My dad refused to let me go to music school,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life. All I want is to practice the piano, all day, every day. And that’s really what these musicians do, you know. Professional pianists are at it for sometimes twelve hours a day. They hardly break to eat or sleep. They live music.”

“You don’t need to live music to be brilliant at it,” Rose pointed out, her heart thudding. “You’re the best pianist I’ve ever heard live.”

“I could be a thousand times better,” he said, his gaze dropping, as though this was truly the biggest sorrow of his life.

Maybe it was, Rose thought. At this age, Rose’s biggest sorrow was losing Rhett, and she was beginning to think that wasn’t so bad. Now, she had Nate.

That first night together, Nate and Rose ate a divine meal, drank wine, and laughed till their bellies ached. Rose really wanted to stay the night, but she knew her mother would freak out. Nate, too, said it was impossible, as he was hosting a business brunch here at the house the following morning. “But I’ll be back at the resort later this week,” Nate said, walking her out of the house, where a limo awaited her. “I’ll see you there, I hope.”

When Rose got home, she lay on her childhood bed, aching with lust for that handsome, charming, wealthy man. She thought this was it; the rest of her life was just beginning. And she imagined a year from now, when she’d stay at the beautiful house and help him host his business brunches. At night, she’d sit beside the piano and listen to him play.

They’d share a gorgeous life. She felt sure of it.

Rose saw Nate later that week, when she was finishing up at the resort. Casually, he asked her if she could help him with something, and they hurried around the corner, entered a hall closet, and kissed for the first time. Rose’s knees were like melted butter. When they broke apart, he placed his hands on both her cheeks, gazed into her eyes, and said, “I’m going to spend the rest of my life thinking about you.”

And then, he left the closet, leaving Rose to compose herself.

But Rose didn’t have time to second-guess what he’d said or think he didn’t want to see her again. The following evening, he arranged for her to return to the house, where they kissed on the sand, built a bonfire, ate junk food, and laughed. Rose began to think her relationship with Rhett had been only a warm-up to the real thing.

As June gave way to July and July gave way to August, Rose found herself falling deeper and deeper in love with Nate. The world they inhabited together existed only in the house he invited her to, and sometimes in various rooms at the resort. But Rose didn’t mind. She didn’t want to be seen around town with Nate, certainly not by Rhett, and she’d begun to drift away from her high school friends, if only because she felt they couldn’t understand her new love. Plus, since she’d kept working the resort parties, she’d made more money than she knew what to do with, which made her feel like her friends’ hangouts at diners and beaches were lame.

Years later, of course, she would reflect on this and realize how wrong she had been to abandon her friends, especially during this intense time, when she could have used their comfort. But she didn’t think she needed them.

Toward the end of August, as Rose and Nate sat on the beach in front of their deliriously beautiful lovers’ house, Nate told her that he had to leave the island for a while. “My father expects me to take over yet another business,” he explained. “He still doesn’t understand that I don’t have the mental agility he has. He doesn’t understand that I don’t want to rule the world—not with money or power, anyway.”

Rose’s heart dropped. “When?” she asked.

“Tomorrow,” Nate said, furrowing his brow.

Rose got up from the sand and brushed herself off. Tomorrow was tomorrow, and it seemed terribly soon. Why hadn’t Nate told her before now? She could have prepared herself.