The Sixth Wedding (28 Summers #1.5)(24)

When Cooper wakes up, the sun is setting in a blaze of pink on the horizon. Link’s room, which has a window onto the beach, is suffused with rose-gold light.

Coop finds Jake in the living room drinking a beer in front of the Clemson–Ole Miss game.

“Hey,” Coop says. “Should we order a pizza?”

“There’s something I forgot to tell you earlier,” Jake says. “Do you remember that woman Brooke from last night?”

“Yeah?” Coop says. “The teacher who was friends with Apple?” He’s having a hard time coming up with Brooke’s face, though he recalls thinking she was pretty.

“I bumped into her this morning on my run,” Jake says. “She was walking her dog.”

“Wow, small island,” Coop says, then he wonders if maybe Jake found Brooke attractive too. That would be great. Jake needs to get back in the game after losing Mallory and splitting from Ursula. And it would be so fitting, him dating the woman who replaced Mallory. Or would it be weird?

“She gave me her number,” Jake says. “And she told me to tell you to call her.”

“Me?” Coop says, laughing. This is unexpected. Or is it—now that he thinks of it, he was dancing with her pretty exclusively.

“Do you remember that they invited us to that beach picnic tomorrow?”

“That’s right!” Coop says. He forgot about the beach picnic. But they were definitely invited. “Send me her number now. I’ll text her and find out what time.”



Coop marvels at how well Sunday’s schedule works out. At eight o’clock, Coop, Jake, and Fray play nine holes of golf at Miacomet while Leland bikes to a hot yoga class. They all meet back at the cottage for bagels and fruit salad and coffee (of course) and after a swim and a nap in the sun, they get ready for their respective afternoons. Fray and Leland are biking out to Sconset for a late lunch in the garden at the Chanticleer. Cooper and Jake put on polo shirts and swim trunks and drive out to a beach called Fortieth Pole, stopping at Cisco Brewery on the way for beer so they don’t show up empty-handed.

It’s been an A+ day so far—Coop shot a 45 in golf, he was sharp and clear-headed, and he loved hanging out with his two best friends for three hours. He feels even more excited about this picnic and the chance to reconnect with Brooke. They had a flirty text conversation the evening before. Brooke was making a blueberry pie to bring to the picnic and she would be wearing a blue bikini.

They drive the Jeep up over the soft sand road that cuts between the dunes until they come down onto a flat curve of beach.

“Jake!” a woman calls out. “Coop!” The woman is blond and wearing a blue bikini, so Coop figures it must be Brooke. She’s with a group of people camped off to the right. She shows them where to park and when Cooper climbs out of the Jeep, she throws her arms around his neck and gives him a big hug.

Okay? he thinks. When they separate, he studies her face. She’s pretty, smiling, and he does vaguely remember her from the other night. Vaguely.

Apple is at the picnic with her husband, Hugo, and their twin boys, Caleb and Lucas, who are going to be seniors at the high school, and a bunch of other people whose names Coop tries to retain but loses after ten seconds. He knows he doesn’t have to worry about Jake; the guy raises money for a living and can talk to anyone about anything.

Coop throws their case of beer into the tub of ice and cracks one open for him and one for Jake.

This is the life, he thinks. “Upside Down,” by Jack Johnson, is playing on the portable speaker, the grills are smoking, and there’s a table laden with food, including a blueberry pie with a lattice crust. Apple holds out a platter of oysters sitting in rapidly melting crushed ice.

“Hugo just shucked these,” she says. “Please, have one.”

“Then you two come play some bocce,” Hugo says. “Jake, you’re on my team.”

“No wonder my sister loved it here so much,” Coop says to Apple.

“You know something funny I remember about Mallory?” Apple says. “She never once came to our Labor Day picnic. She always claimed she was busy. Every year.”

“Oh, she was busy all right,” Coop says.

“Bocce,” Jake says.



Coop hopes that he will be as impressive at bocce as he was at golf that morning—but he’s the weak link, probably because he’s distracted by Brooke, who is waving her drink around, chanting his name, “Coo-per! Coo-per!” He wonders how much she’s had to drink and then reminds himself not to judge. She’s a teacher, this is her last full day of freedom, she’s allowed to be enthusiastic.

The tenth-grade history teacher whose name Cooper thinks is Nancy comes around with a tray of pink cocktails in plastic cups.

“Madaket Mysteries,” she says. “A Labor Day tradition.”

Coop tastes one—it’s strong and goes down way too easily. The Spanish teacher, Jill, comes by with Buffalo chicken dip and Fritos, and Cooper is a sucker for Fritos. Then the ribs and jumbo shrimp come off the grill. This is the best day he’s had in a long time—even though he loses, badly, at bocce.



“Want to go for a walk, handsome?” Brooke asks. She has pulled on a diaphanous white cover-up and she hands him another Madaket Mystery.