Elin Hilderbrand - The Castaways

“Besides,” the Chief said to Jeffrey, “it’s not every day that someone on Nantucket gets shot.”

Jeffrey took an instant dislike to the guy, not only because of that comment but because he realized that this guy, Ed Kapenash, was Andrea’s boyfriend.

Jeffrey said, “You’re Andrea’s boyfriend?”

“Fiancé,” he said. “I asked her to marry me two weeks ago.” He took a small notebook out of his breast pocket, eager to get down to business. “Do you know Andrea?”

“I’m Jeffrey Drake,” Jeffrey said, though he would have figured the Chief already knew his name.

The Chief lowered his notebook and said in a tone of voice that could only be described as warily interested, “Oh, I see.”

The two men took stock of each other in the deadly silent moment that followed. Jeffrey lamented how unfair it was that he was lying prostrate in bed with a gunshot wound while the Chief stood by the bed in his starched uniform with his gleaming badge.

“Well, anyway, congratulations. Andrea is a wonderful girl.”

“Yes,” the Chief said. “She sure is.”

Another moment of silence followed, during which Jeffrey thought, You’d better take good care of her.

The Chief said, “So! Tell me what happened.”

The ferry sluiced through the green water of Nantucket Harbor. It was a beautiful, bright, still afternoon and Jeffrey had to squint, but he picked out Delilah and the kids on the foredeck. His heart settled. Thank God.

When Delilah had called from her cell phone at eight-thirty that morning, Jeffrey had barely been able to contain his rage. “Where are you?” he said.

“Cobleskill, New York.”

He ground his back molars together to keep from shouting. He said, “What are you doing in Cobleskill, New York?”

She said, “We took a little detour. But don’t worry, we’re coming home.”

This does not mean I don’t love you, I do, that’s forever.

He said, “When?”

She said, “We’ll be on the three o’clock ferry.”

“The ferry?” he said. “Why don’t you just fly home?”

She proceeded to tell him about the time she ran away in high school. It was a story he’d heard numerous times before-she realized this, right?-and he was about to interrupt her when she said, “The one thing I think about, even now, is how I wished back then that someone were standing on the dock waiting for me.”

Delilah and the kids waved from the bow of the boat. Jeffrey waved back. Delilah always said that people were predictable, that they could be counted on to act exactly like themselves. She wanted someone standing on the dock waiting for her.

And here he was.

He waited a few weeks to let the dust settle, and then he called a meeting.

Everyone agreed: they had things to talk through. Strange, difficult, secret things.

Where to meet? The Chief wanted them all to meet in the conference room at the station, but Andrea said, “Good God, Ed, no.”

Addison suggested the opposite end of the spectrum-the Begonia-but that was shot down immediately.

Delilah offered to have everyone over to her house after the kids were asleep. They agreed on ten o’clock. Delilah lit candles and set out hummus and olives and Marcona almonds and fresh figs and soft cheese. All of them sat around the table as they would have to play Scrabble. The house was silent except for the sound of their breathing.

The Chief said, “Okay, then.”

And it all came out, like stuffing from a pillow.

Addison in love with Tess. Are you going to tell him? Are you going to tell him you love me?

Greg’s continuing relationship with April Peck. I was with him the night before he died.

Delilah seeing Greg parked at Cisco Beach with April Peck but not telling Tess.

Phoebe giving Tess a black market opiate.

Andrea and Jeffrey meeting in the farm attic.

Tess leaving a letter for Addison. I’m going back to Greg and the kids.

The Chief meeting with April Peck. He said he loved his wife. He wrote her a song.

“Beyond Beyond.” The song’s title was taken from a poem, apparently.

And then, seemingly apropos of nothing, Andrea said, “And I didn’t become a nun.”

The Chief covered her hand with his own. “Thank God,” he said.

“We all blame ourselves,” the Chief said. Even he, the chief of police, held himself accountable; he could have confronted the Greg and April Peck situation back in February but had chosen to turn a blind eye. “If you look at what we know, it went like this. Greg was going back to Tess, Tess was going back to Greg. Greg had written her a song, Tess had agreed to a sail. They drank champagne, they ate their picnic lunch, and Tess took the pill-because it was windy on the water that afternoon, the seas were rough, and she was scared. The Coast Guard report, corroborated by evidence from the medical examiner, is calling this an accident. Tess and Greg were drinking, Tess was loopy from the pill, Greg was not a good enough sailor to be out on the water under those conditions, the boat capsized, and they drowned. From the injuries sustained, it looks like they were trying to save each other.”

The candlelight flickered. Delilah placed her index fingers along the sides of her nose. “They were trying to save each other,” she said.

“They were trying to save each other,” Addison said.

“It was an accident,” the Chief said. “It was nobody’s fault.”

“It was nobody’s fault,” Andrea said.

“Forgiveness is a powerful thing,” the Chief said. “I forgive myself, and I forgive each of you. I forgive Tess and Greg. But we have a job ahead of us. We have two kids to raise. Chloe and Finn are going to live with Andrea and me, but it’s going to take all of us to help turn them into healthy, productive adults. It’s going to take all of us to love them the way their parents would have. Okay?”

“Okay,” the table echoed.

Jeffrey said, “I think we should have a moment of silence.”

“Agreed,” the Chief said. And for a long time they were quiet. Andrea and Phoebe had their heads bowed; Delilah stared out the dark window. Addison took off his glasses and pressed his eyes.

Then Jeffrey cleared his throat. “Thank you,” he said.

The Chief nodded, and reached for a chip. Delilah turned on music: Stevie Wonder singing “I Believe.” Andrea said, “Can I please have a glass of chardonnay?”

And then Phoebe stood up. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Wait a minute! ”

They all stopped.

Phoebe said, “Addison and I have something to tell you.”

She paid the money, she okayed the landscape architect and the signage, she monitored the progress, tramping out to the savannah even on brutally cold winter days, and she picked the day of the ribbon-cutting. June 20: the one-year anniversary of Greg and Tess’s death, the anniversary of their anniversary.

Chloe and Finn were going to cut the ribbon, and all of them-the Chief, Andrea, Kacy and Eric, Jeffrey, Delilah, Drew and Barney, Addison, Phoebe, and their baby, Reed Gregory Wheeler, age four weeks, two days, confined to a Baby Bjorn-were going to walk the trail for a ceremonial first time.

It happened exactly as Phoebe had imagined it. Chloe and Finn cut a yellow satin ribbon at the head of the trail (which meant that Chloe cut and Finn stretched out his hand to make it look like he was cutting), and the forty-seven Nantucket citizens present clapped politely (and yes, some cried).

Phoebe stood with baby Reed asleep against her chest and watched as Andrea, the Chief, Addison, Jeffrey, and Delilah read the sign.