If for Any Reason (Nantucket Love Story #1) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,16
a dumbfounded expression that didn’t become either one of them.
“Emily.” The word escaped from his mother as a whisper, as if it had slipped out without her permission. It was like being catapulted through time, he supposed. He’d had a similar reaction when he’d first seen her.
In fact, he still wasn’t sure he’d recovered.
“Emily!” Dad walked over to her and pulled her into a tight hug, so tight, in fact, Hollis was concerned he might crush her.
Then he took a step back and looked her straight in the eye. “You are absolutely gorgeous, young lady, and you’re the spitting image of your mom.”
Emily’s face fell, but she uttered a quiet “Thank you.” Dad mistook her response for shyness and barreled on. “We weren’t sure we’d ever see you again. What brings you back to the island?”
Emily shifted. Hollis wished he could take her out back for a deep cleansing breath and maybe a shot of whiskey, though he had a feeling she wasn’t a whiskey kind of girl. Still, she needed something to take the edge off, he could tell.
“My grandfather passed away,” she said.
The room hushed. Hollis hadn’t heard. He remembered Alan and Eliza Ackerman as the king and queen of Nantucket. When their daughter died, the whole island was in shock. Suddenly everyone was on edge. If something so terrible could happen to the Ackerman family, it could happen to anyone. Even the wealthiest and most prominent members of society weren’t exempt.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dad said. “He was a good man.”
Hollis thought that was mostly true, but he also thought Emily’s grandfather was a jerk for taking her away the way he did.
“Are you back for the summer?” Mom asked.
“He left me the house,” Emily said.
“Whoa.” Hayes popped another grape in his mouth. “That house is on prime real estate. You could make a fortune.”
Emily met Hollis’s eyes. Even after all this time, he knew she didn’t want to make a fortune on that old house. She wanted something she could never have—she wanted things to go back to the way they’d been before that terrible night.
He knew how that felt. He’d spent the whole last year wishing for things to be different. But time was funny that way. It marched on whether you wanted it to or not.
“Are you going to sell it?” Hayes had their father’s boisterous personality. He asked whatever question came to mind whether it was his business or not.
“Definitely,” Emily said. “But it needs a ton of work.”
Definitely? Why was she so matter-of-fact? Had she considered that she could keep it? Spend her summers here like old times?
“How’s the inside look?” Hollis asked.
She looked away. “I don’t know.”
“You haven’t been inside?” Hayes stopped chewing.
“Not yet.” Her smile looked weak. “I ran into Jolie and Hollis on the beach just a few minutes after I got here, and then Hollis invited me over, so I haven’t gone in yet.”
An awkward silence fell on the room.
“Can we eat?” Jolie called out from her spot on the sofa.
Hollis’s gaze lingered on Emily for a few long seconds, and while he wasn’t satisfied that she was okay, he knew it wasn’t a conversation they could have now, in front of everyone else. Not that he’d know how to have that conversation even if they were the only two people in the room.
“I’ll get the burgers going,” he called out, finally breaking eye contact with her.
“All right.” Mom moved to the other side of the island and washed her hands. “Let’s get to work. Emily, you can help me cut the vegetables and tell me all your latest news. We’ve seen you on a few television shows over the years, and of course there’s all those reruns of Dottie’s World. Do people still recognize you from that?”
Hollis stole a glimpse of their guest, whose blush softened into that same sweet smile he remembered from all those years ago, though there was something different about her now.
It was funny how you could miss something so much and not know you missed it until it was back in your life again.
When you don’t feel like you belong
Dear Emily,
I can’t lie—I’ve never really felt like I fit in with Alan and Eliza. One day you’ll discover they view life in a very specific way, and I’m not sure how my views became so different, but they did. I don’t think I’m owed anything. I don’t think people are better or worse depending on what clothes they wear or what