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“I can’t even imagine.”
Anna closed her eyes. “I’m coming to Nantucket.”
“I know. I can’t wait,” Julia said. “Just let me know when, and I’ll book the flight for you.”
Because Anna had taken an unpaid leave of absence at the travel magazine, Julia had gladly stepped in to assist with cashflow. Her father had offered to help, as well, but Anna had texted him back to say: “No, thank you.”
“I’m actually driving east with a friend,” Anna explained. “I had too many panic attacks on the plane.”
“Oh, honey.” Julia’s voice was raspy with worry. “Who is driving you out?”
“You don’t know her,” Anna said simply. “Her name is Eloise. We stopped at a hotel tonight, but we’ll be on the road tomorrow. I’m hoping we’ll arrive by the day after that.”
“Just be safe,” Julia breathed. “I need you here.”
Anna closed her eyes, awash with the understanding that Dean’s death had reminded her mother of how possible it was that one of her own children could die. Death was always at your door, waiting to happen— to ruin your plans, to destroy your peace of mind.
Anna struggled to sleep that night. Since the accident, it had been non-stop night terrors or else non-stop insomnia, with nothing in between. When six a.m. hit, she showered and made her way to the continental breakfast downstairs to find Eloise already showered and dressed in fresh clothes with a mug of coffee in her hand.
“Wow! You’re an early riser,” Eloise said.
Anna laughed and poured herself a mug of coffee.
“Ah. I see. You’re like me. You’re not very good at sleeping,” Eloise realized and nodded.
Anna sat beside Eloise, who nibbled through a muffin and watched the televised news.
“How long can you take me?” Anna asked suddenly.
Eloise tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, where are you going out east?”
“I can take you all the way there,” Eloise said simply. “I haven’t been to Nantucket in years.”
Anna’s eyes widened. “So, you’ve been to Nantucket before?”
Eloise seemed to weigh something in her mind, as though she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to say. “I was born on Nantucket.”
Anna’s jaw dropped. “What are the odds!”
Eloise grimaced and sipped her coffee.
“But you’ve been living in Indiana?” Anna tried to put the pieces of Eloise’s life together based on very brief conversations from yesterday.
“I met Liam out east,” Eloise explained. “And he was from Muncie, where his family’s farm was. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You met Liam in Nantucket?”
“No.” Eloise shook her head. “I left Nantucket when I was sixteen.”
“That must have been a terrible time to move,” Anna said. “Leaving all your friends at sixteen? In the middle of high school?”
Eloise sighed and gave Anna a strange look. “My father was very strict with me. He needed everything to be ‘just so.’ And when I was sixteen, I messed up very badly in his eyes, and I was sent away.”
Anna’s jaw dropped. “You were sent away from your family at the age of sixteen?”
Eloise looked unable to finish the story. Her cheeks were the color of paper.
