The Identicals(112)

“So you’re both going to the Vineyard?” Ainsley says. “You’re going together?”

“In Harper’s car,” Tabitha says. “And I’m bringing our car back.” She feels heinously guilty leaving her daughter again, but she has to tie up loose ends.

Franklin, she thinks. She will try to find Franklin to say good-bye. She owes him that. She owes herself that.

Eleanor isn’t happy that Tabitha and Harper are leaving, but she has Flossie for one more day, and she has Ainsley. Besides, she was the one who orchestrated the reunion. She really has no right to complain.



As the ferry pulls into Oak Bluffs, Harper and Tabitha sit side by side in the front seat of Harper’s Bronco, and Fish is asleep in the back.

“Are you nervous?” Tabitha asks her sister. She told Harper that she had gone to see Reed. She admitted that it had been her plan to pull a secret twister and seduce the doctor under false pretenses, but she hadn’t been able to go through with it. She also told Harper how in love Reed had seemed—with the person he believed to be Harper. She then gave Harper the address.

You need to go see him, she said. Especially now.

“Nervous doesn’t begin to cover it,” Harper says. “How about you?”

“Why would I be nervous?” Tabitha asks.

Harper shrugs. A little while later, she says, “Was it real between you and Franklin? I mean, it happened really fast.”

“Harper,” Tabitha says. “It was real.”



They don’t say much on the ride to the house. Tabitha has been gone less than a full day, but she’s relieved to be back on the same island as Franklin. She wants so badly to believe that he’ll come to his senses and live his life for himself.

She and Harper walk in the back door of Billy’s house into the kitchen. Tad is on his hands and knees in front of the refrigerator. He’s putting in the last of the new floorboards. When he looks up, his eyes dart back and forth between the twins.

“Whoa,” he says.

“Hi, Tad,” Harper says. “Freaked out by the twin thing?”

Tabitha doesn’t care if he is or isn’t. “Is Franklin here?” she asks. “Have you seen him?”

Tad gets to his feet and wipes his hands off on his Carhartts. “He was here earlier today, actually.”

Tabitha’s heart feels like a bird smacking against a window. “He was?”

“He was. He asked for you. I told him you left.”

“You told him… did you tell him where I went?”

“I didn’t know where you went,” Tad says. “You bolted out of here without a word. He could see, obviously, that you’d left your car behind.”

“So then what happened?”

“Then he left,” Tad says.

“How long ago was that?” Tabitha asks.

“Hours ago,” Tad says. “And no, he didn’t tell me where he was going or when he’d be back.” He turns his attention to Harper. “How have you been?” he asks.

“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Harper says.





HARPER


She has a harder time leaving Nantucket than she thought she would. It doesn’t take her long to pack, and with one hour in town, she’s able to say her good-byes. At the boutique she hugged Meghan and gave baby David Wayne a kiss on the forehead.

Then she held out her arms to Caylee. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You saved the store.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Caylee said.

“Tabitha was angry when she found out you were working at the store,” Harper said. “But even she can’t argue with a five-hundred-percent increase in sales.”

“Is she going to let me stay?” Caylee asked.

“Absolutely,” Harper said. “I bet you’ll even grow to like her.”

“You think?” Caylee said.

“But not as much as you like me, of course,” Harper said.



Harper walked up Main Street to the offices of Striker & McClain. The receptionist, Bonnie, narrowed her eyes at Harper.

“Which one are you?” she asked.

“Harper,” Harper said.

“I only ask because I heard Tabitha is coming back,” Bonnie said.

Wow, Harper thought. Nantucket gossip moves even faster than Vineyard gossip. That must be because it has a shorter distance to travel… and less traffic to deal with.

“That’s right,” Harper said.

At that moment, Ramsay appeared to save her.

“If you’re leaving, then I assume your sister is coming back,” Ramsay said.

“She is,” Harper said. She considered informing Ramsay that Tabitha had fallen in love over on the other island, but she bit her tongue. For all she knew, Tabitha was planning to get back together with Ramsay—and wouldn’t it be just like Harper to ruin that, too? Harper gave Ramsay a hug. “The Vineyard is only eleven miles away, you know. You’re welcome anytime.”

“I’ll come in the fall,” Ramsay said. “How about that?”

“Great,” Harper said. She figured he was just being polite. People on the Vineyard always vow to do things “in the fall,” when the hectic pace of summer is over, but then the fall becomes busier than anyone could have predicted, and the holidays loom on the horizon. Harper had offered the Vineyard up to Meghan and her husband as well, but she doubted they’d ever come. Those eleven miles might as well be eleven hundred; the Vineyard might as well be Vegas or Venus.