The Identicals(64)

She takes a sip of coffee, then abandons the cup on the counter. When he sees it, he’ll be forced to think of her. She’s tempted to leave her number, but that feels too forward, and she doesn’t want to spend the next few days wondering if he’s going to call.

It’s a small island, she reasons. If he wants to see her, he’ll find a way.



When she gets back to Billy’s house, she realizes she never heard from either Ainsley or Harper. It’s only twenty after nine, and the boutique doesn’t open until ten, so no one will be at the store just yet. Tabitha doesn’t quite trust either Harper or Ainsley to tell her the truth about exactly what’s going on, so Tabitha calls Meghan’s cell phone.

Meghan answers after five rings, sounding very, very groggy. “Hello?”

“Meghan?” Tabitha says. “It’s me. Are you okay?” It seems like she might have woken Meghan up—but today is Saturday, the first of July. The store is open, and Meghan needs to be there.

“I’m fine,” Meghan says. She pauses. “I’m a mommy.”

“A what?” Tabitha says. Then she gets it. “Oh, my goodness! Did you have the baby?”

“Last night at eight o’clock,” Meghan says. “A little boy. We named him David Wayne Mitzak. He weighed nine pounds two ounces and measured twenty-three inches long.”

Tears unexpectedly gather in Tabitha’s eyes. She’s so, so happy for Meghan, but she’s also thinking of Julian. “I’m thrilled for you, Meghan. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Meghan says. Another pause. “So I assume you heard about the party, then?”

“Party?” Tabitha says. Both her joyous and bittersweet feelings pop like soap bubbles. “What party?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought… I mean, since you didn’t know I’d had the baby I figured you were calling because you were upset about the party at the store.”

Tabitha blows a breath out through her nose. Her head aches, and she desperately needs a shower, although she doesn’t want to wash Franklin’s scent off. Has she ever felt that way about a man before? Nope: never. But even her afterglow seems inconsequential when compared to the phrase party at the store.

“What party at the store?” she says evenly.

“For the record, I knew you wouldn’t approve,” Meghan says. “I told them it was a terrible idea, but I got outvoted.”

“Outvoted by whom?” Tabitha says. “Harper, Ainsley, and Mary Jo?”

“Mary Jo left the island,” Meghan says. “Didn’t Harper tell you? Marissa and Scott moved her down to Maryland finally.”

Finally, Tabitha thinks. However, this small piece of good news does little to assuage the sense of dread mounting inside her. “Tell me about the party, Meghan.”

“The good news is that the party brought a lot of foot traffic into the store,” Meghan says. “Like, a lot of foot traffic. I rang up over six thousand dollars in sales before my water broke.”

“Your water broke at the party?” Tabitha says. “Your water broke in the store?”

“On the carpet,” Meghan says. “I’m so sorry, Tabitha. Harper said she was calling the carpet cleaners today. Not only because my water broke but also because of spillage.”

“Spillage?” Tabitha says. This is, quite possibly, her least favorite word in the English language.

“There was punch,” Meghan says. “It was called the Foxy Roxie punch. It had cranberry juice in it.”

“Cranberry juice!” Tabitha says. She lowers her voice, remembering that Meghan is in the hospital with an hours-old baby. She doesn’t want to upset Meghan and be responsible for souring the woman’s breast milk. Tabitha staggers over to Billy’s recliner. Despite being as ugly as a hairless rat, it’s very comfortable. Tabitha would like the recliner to swallow her up.

“And there was popcorn,” Meghan says. Her voice becomes livelier, and Tabitha can tell she’s starting to relish her role as tattletale—either that or the hormones are kicking in. Or possibly Meghan has been waiting for the last seven years to deliver this kind of devastating news to Tabitha as payback for any and all of the ways Tabitha and Eleanor might have mistreated her. “And Harper made these avocado toasts with different toppings. They were delicious. And there was music. Loud music. People were dancing. To Beyoncé and Prince.”

Tabitha closes her eyes and imagines Ainsley’s Snapchat: Harper and Ainsley toasting with cranberry punch before spilling it all over the freakishly expensive carpet, Meghan cramming pieces of avocado toast into her mouth until her water breaks all over the aforementioned carpet, couples doing God knows what in the dressing rooms. Women dancing to “Little Red Corvette” and grinding popcorn into the now ruined carpet with their stiletto heels. Tabitha isn’t sure why she’s so shocked that Harper saw fit to throw a rave in the most hallowed, elegant retail space on Nantucket, among dresses that cost anywhere between seven and fourteen hundred dollars apiece, but she is. It demonstrates an appalling lack of judgment, even for Harper.

Tabitha pushes herself up and out of Billy’s recliner. She’s so livid she’s calm. She scares herself with how calm she is. Her next step is obvious: she needs to hop on the ferry back to Nantucket. She won’t tell Meghan this, however, because Meghan might warn Harper, and Tabitha wants to catch Harper by surprise.