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Eloise shook her head. “No. But I’m here now. I’m here with my sister, and I’m here with you, and I’m meeting the rest of your wonderful family. Maybe one day, I’ll even feel a part of that family.”
“You are a part of our family,” Anna insisted. “It was fate that we met one another the way we did. But you were always supposed to come to Nantucket. I know that in my bones.”
Suddenly, in the far distance came the sound of trumpets, trombones, and tubas. Eloise sat pin-straight and peered down the street as, far to the left, Greta called out, “Eloise! Remember, we used to love the marching band!”
Eloise did remember that. All those years ago, even five years younger than Greta, she and Greta had jumped up and down as the marching band had passed them by, screaming out the lyrics of the songs they played. Eloise had always dreamed of learning to play an instrument, but because she’d been sent away, it had never happened for her.
Together, Eloise and Anna walked back to the Copperfield Family. The others had joined, including Charlie, Julia’s boyfriend, and Catherine, Quentin’s wife. Catherine leaned down to whisper in Eloise’s ear to say, “This place is truly remarkable. You grew up here?”
Eloise smiled, feeling proud of her Nantucket birth. “I did. It’s so wonderful to be back.”
“Greta seems over the moon to have you here,” Catherine said.
But already, the marching band was closer, so close that Eloise could hardly make out what the rest of the Copperfields said around her. The drumsticks splattered across the skin of the drums, and the trumpets blared their song to the high heavens. And at that moment, Greta stepped up beside Eloise, strung her fingers through hers, and called out, “This is it, Eloise!”
With that, the marching band turned the corner and tore toward them, bringing Eloise’s heart into the twenty-first century of Nantucket life and love. She blinked several times, unable to suppress her tears. This was one of the happiest days of her life.
ChapterFifteen
The Nantucket Daffodil Festival Parade was forty-five minutes of non-stop excitement. Anna took several moments to watch Eloise enjoying it, feeling as though Eloise was a young woman on the brink of her life rather than a sixty-five-year-old woman making up for lost time. Still, the euphoria was the same.
After the vintage cars passed, followed by the Girl Scout troupe and the Boy Scout troupe, followed by the ballet dancers, the Nantucket Rotary Club, and so many other faces that Anna half-recognized from her times in Nantucket, the parade finally fizzled out. In its wake, Anna hurried up beside Eloise and hugged her, watching as Eloise’s smile widened.
“What did you think of that?” Anna asked.
Eloise seemed wordless. She took a handkerchief from the pocket of her overalls and tidied her cheeks, which were wet with tears. “I don’t think I’ve been that excited since I was a girl.”
“Hi, Anna!” Scarlet waved from behind Grandma Greta and Eloise, where she stood in conversation with a group of guys in their twenties. It seemed clear from their stances that the men were at least sort of interested in Scarlet, and they peered through the crowd at Anna with similar interest. Anna wanted to roll her eyes.
“There’s a tradition on the island,” Eloise said suddenly. “Young men and women always celebrate on the beach after the Daffodil Parade. I remember that well.”
“I do, too,” Greta said, her eyes heavy with nostalgia. “Anna, you really should go. It’s a wonderful time to meet others around your age here on the island.”
Anna bristled, caught between her desire to run home and hide under her covers and her desire to live, really live, in a way that would make Dean proud. As she paused, thinking, the crowd of parade-goers began to walk past, headed back home or to the numerous restaurants that stretched along the coast or were clustered downtown.
“Of course, we’ll have to grab something to eat first,” Grandma Greta said. “As a family.” She then turned toward Scarlet to remind her of this, and Scarlet nodded and said, “I know, Grandma. I’ll go to the party after. Anna, you up for it?”
Anna raised her shoulders, deciding that she would make up her mind about whether or not she went to the party after she got some food in her. Grandma Greta then laced her arm through Bernard’s and gestured to the entire clan as she said, “I made a reservation for us at Uncle Andy’s Brasserie.”
“For all of us?” Julia asked with a laugh. “I wasn’t sure any restaurant on this island could accommodate all of us.”
“They had better accommodate us,” Greta joked.
Anna fell behind many of the Copperfields, stepping in line with Scarlet, Ivy, and Danny, who spoke excitedly about the upcoming party on the beach. It seemed that, after an entire lifetime in New York City, Scarlet, Ivy, and Danny had all taken to the island easily. Anna, who’d been raised in the suburbs of Chicago, prayed that Nantucket would fit like a glove soon.
As they walked toward Uncle Andy’s Brasserie, an older man in a pair of jeans and a green button-down bucked out from the crowd and beelined for Eloise. He moved so quickly that he interrupted the stream of the rest of the Copperfields, all of whom struggled to keep up with Greta, who seemed eager to get to dinner.
“Eloise?” The man sounded incredulous.
Eloise stopped short, and the Copperfields walked around her, leaving her to stare at this strange man. Anna stalled slightly, watching them. Further up, Greta, too, stopped, turned back, and stared at the two of them, clearly intrigued.
“Gosh, it’s been how many years?” The man continued to stare at Eloise as though she wasn’t real.
Eloise switched her weight from foot to foot. “Fifty years, I suppose.”
It had come time for Anna to walk around Eloise, to go up ahead and leave her with this man alone. Anna hurried past, trying her best to deduce what the situation was. Further up, she locked eyes with her grandmother, then muttered under her breath, “Grandma, who is that?”
Grandma Greta’s eyes were dark. Very quietly, she said, “Eloise used to date him back in high school before she went away.”
