underwater.
Before Willa can even think, Oops, I interrupted something, the man surfaces. It’s JP.
“Dad?” Willa says. “What are you doing here?”
“Came for a swim,” JP says. “Before the mad after-dinner rush at the shop.”
“Oh,” Willa says. She tries to process this. It makes sense, sort of. Savannah’s house is even closer to the Cone than it is to the Whaling Museum, and Willa knows that her father and Savannah have bonded since Vivi died. But this feels like a thing. Is this a thing?
“How are you?” Willa asks. “How’s Amy?”
“Amy and I broke up last week,” JP says. He clears his throat. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
“You…what do you mean, you broke up? Did she move out?”
“She did,” JP says. “She’s living at Lorna’s.”
Willa blinks. “Wow. Okay.”
“I apologize, honey. I honestly didn’t think you’d care.”
“I mean, I don’t care,” Willa says. “But also, it feels weird that we’re all living on this island and major things are happening and nobody is talking to one another and we’re supposed to be a family.”
“You’re right,” JP says. “I planned on killing three birds with one stone and telling you all at Grammy’s birthday dinner a week from Tuesday.”
Ugh! Willa thinks. August is moving way too fast, as it always does. She has completely spaced about Lucinda’s birthday dinner at the club. Now she’ll spend the next ten days dreading it.
“Did you stop by for a reason, Angel Bear?” Savannah asks. “Do you want to talk? Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“I’m all set, thanks,” Willa says. She has to decide if she wants to tell Savannah and her father about Brett Caspian together now or wait and tell only Savannah. She decides to just come out with it. “So, listen, this completely bizarre thing happened. I found that guy you were talking about on Mom’s memorial Facebook page, the one who said he was Mom’s boyfriend in high school.”
“Your mother didn’t have a boyfriend in high school,” JP says.
“Did you contact him?” Savannah asks.
“I did.” Willa should have told Savannah sooner, she realizes. She should have told her right away. “He’s legit.”
“He…what?” Savannah says.
“Your mother did not have a boyfriend in high school,” JP says. He lifts himself out of the pool and dries off. “You know there are crackpots out there, sweetie.”
“I invited him to come to Nantucket for the day,” Willa says. She swallows. “He had all these pictures of him and Mom back in Parma, hanging out at the mall and at the Christmas formal. He told me stories about her father…”
“What?” JP says.
“And he played me this song he wrote for Mom,” Willa says. “‘Golden Girl.’ It’s a really, really good song.” Willa stops there. She isn’t going to say a word about the fake pregnancy to anyone, not Savannah, not even Rip.
“What’s the guy’s name?” JP asks.
“Brett Caspian,” Willa says. “He’s going on Great Morning USA on Monday to play the song and talk about Mom. Tanya Price is interviewing him.”
“What?” Savannah and JP say together.
Nantucket
We’ve been keeping an eye on the New York Times bestseller list and the top two spots on Hardcover Fiction have remained the same: Satan’s Weekend by D. K. Bolt at number one and Golden Girl by Vivian Howe at number two. Number three has been something of a revolving door, though one of our favorite Low Country writers, Dorothea Benton Frank, camps out at number three for two weeks. Everyone loves Dottie!
A rumor goes around that a man from Vivian Howe’s past has emerged from the woodwork and will be appearing on Great Morning USA to play a song he wrote for Vivi. None of us want to miss that.
At precisely 8:40 on Monday morning, Tanya Price, our very favorite of all the morning-show hosts, introduces the segment.
“On Saturday, June nineteenth, at approximately seven fifteen a.m., bestselling novelist Vivian Howe was out for her morning run when she was struck by a car and killed. The identity of the driver is still unknown, and the island of Nantucket, located thirty miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, mourns one of its most celebrated locals. Vivian Howe leaves behind three children and thirteen novels about her island home, the most recent of which, Golden Girl, is presently at number two on the New York Times bestseller list.
“The novel begins with a high-school romance between characters Alison Revere and Stott Macklemore. I can’t say much else without spoilers, but what I can tell you is that Stott