The Hotel Nantucket (59)

Drew drove Alessandra home. She was numb from Mary Lou’s words; she felt like she’d been slapped—until that moment, she had been something of a pet to Mary Lou. Drew tried to apologize; he thanked Alessandra for being a good friend. “You’re a special young woman, Ali,” he said. “You have a savageness to you—I mean that as a compliment. You’ll get what you want out of this life.” The street in front of Alessandra’s building was dark and quiet. Drew shut off the car, which Alessandra found strange.

“Don’t you want to get back to the dinner party?” she asked.

Drew leaned his head back against the seat. “God, those people are so dull!” he said. “Barry Wilson was talking about annuities.” He turned to Alessandra. “When did I become such an…adult?”

“Are you worried about Duff?” Alessandra asked.

“She’ll be fine,” Drew said. “Tequila is its own punishment.”

Alessandra was about to reach for the car door and say, Okay, thanks for the ride, but something about Drew was different. He was staring at her front door. “Your mom’s at work?” he asked.

They both knew the answer was yes. Alessandra nodded.

“Will you be okay by yourself?”

Alessandra had been staying by herself since she was seven years old. She got the crazy idea that he wanted her to invite him inside. She leaned over, rested her hand lightly on his (upper) thigh, and kissed him. The kiss lingered; it was, to this day, the most romantic kiss of Alessandra’s life.

“This is a bad idea,” Drew said, but the next second he was opening his car door and they were heading into her house.



As much as Alessandra wants to dislike Jamie for shaming her into giving them a room upgrade, she has to admit that he seems to be an excellent father, husband, and guest. Zeke let it be known that Jamie tipped him a hundred bucks for babyproofing the suite, and early on their first morning, Jamie comes down to the lobby with the baby so that Duffy can sleep in. Alessandra watches him chat with the other guests; Cabot falls asleep in his arms while Jamie plays Louie in chess. (Louie wins.)

Alessandra is on high alert every time the elevator dings, and the instant she sees Duffy step off, she beelines for the break room. She feeds a dollar to the jukebox and chooses Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, and Metallica and then takes her angst—she can’t believe Duffy Beecham is here, haunting her!—out on the pinball machine. She plays one game, then a second, then a third (high score)—and then she hears Adam’s voice sing out. “Alessannnnnnndra, are you in here?”

“Hello?” Alessandra says, tearing herself away from the machine, though she has already dropped a fourth quarter in.

“Girl, get back out there! Edie is three-deep.”

Alessandra hurries back out, and sure enough, Edie has a line at the desk, the first ever since the hotel opened.

“Sorry about that,” Alessandra says.

“It’s fine,” Edie says. “I understand.”

You don’t, though, Alessandra thinks.



Duffy stops by the desk a while later with Cabot, who’s wearing a tiny bucket hat and a little bathing suit printed with sharks. “We’re taking him to the family pool,” Duffy says. “I’ll put him down for a nap around one and then I’ll come chat.”

“Whatever works!” Alessandra says. She doesn’t want to chat with Duffy. She doesn’t want to talk about high school or hear about Drew and Mary Lou (from Duffy’s Facebook, Alessandra knows that they’ve both put on forty pounds and turned gray) and she doesn’t want to learn about Duffy’s fabulous San Francisco life with her successful husband and adorable baby. But what she really doesn’t want is to be asked questions about herself. What were her years abroad like? Well, some of them were better than others. Alessandra held a string of jobs in beautiful hotels and she’d dated different men, all of them wealthy, most of them married, one of them—the one Alessandra thought would be her husband—a financial criminal, none of them appropriate. And what is her life like here on Nantucket? Last night, she slipped into Dr. Romano’s room; they ordered room service (Alessandra hid in the bathroom while it was delivered) and had (completely mediocre) sex, and Alessandra left at two in the morning, emotionally numb.

When Duffy swings by on her way back up to her room, she says, “I’ll be back down in a little while. Jamie will stay in the room with Cabot so that we can talk.”

“Great!” Alessandra says.

Once Duffy is on the elevator, Alessandra releases a low moan and Edie says, “Why don’t you take lunch now? You can go for as long as you want, it’s okay with me.”

Alessandra blinks. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“I grew up on this island,” she says. “I check the cars in the parking lot of the Stop and Shop before I go inside. There are old friends I would do anything to avoid.”

Oh my God, Alessandra thinks. Edie does understand.

She takes one of the hotel bikes, goes to Something Natural, and sits at a picnic table for two hours, reading the new Elena Ferrante novel. When she arrives back at the hotel, Edie says, “You’re safe. They went to the Oystercatcher for a late lunch and they’re staying through sunset.”

“Thank you,” Alessandra says.