“Hey, you can sleep in Link’s room tonight,” Fray says. “I’ve been upgraded.”
Leland kisses Fray’s cheek. “Damn straight.”
Coop laughs and shakes his head. He loves them both. If they’re happy, he’s happy.
After they leave, Coop thinks maybe he will go into Link’s room and lie down—but he stops in front of the bookshelves, which hold not only Mallory’s impressive library but also a bunch of framed photographs. Many of them are of Link growing up and of Mallory and Link together, though there are also some wonderful photos of Mallory and Cooper as children, which Mallory must have taken when they cleared out the house on Deepdene Road after Senior and Kitty were killed.
There’s a shot of Cooper, Mallory, Senior, and Kitty taken during brunch in the Green Room at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware. The Blessings would always go the Saturday after Thanksgiving, because that was the first day the hotel was decorated for Christmas. Kitty used to go to the Green Room with her own parents, so the brunch tradition was very important to her. Coop recalls suffering through it his junior and senior years in high school following the epic Friday-after-Thanksgiving parties he used to attend. That’s definitely the case in this picture—Cooper’s eyes are bloodshot, his hair is uncombed and his tie crooked—but what makes him laugh out loud is Mallory in her kelly-green monogrammed sweater and kilt (a kilt!) and knee socks. She must be fourteen and she’s wearing knee socks.
Tears burn his eyes as he laughs. She was such a nerd! Before she had braces, she used to have buck teeth and Cooper would tease her relentlessly. He also teased her about her adoration of Rick Springfield, her addiction to General Hospital, and the stubborn cowlick in her hair that she would spend the moments before leaving for school fruitlessly trying to tame.
Coop knows that Mallory resented him growing up. Things came easily to him—good grades, sports, charming all the adults in his life so that he got pretty much whatever he wanted. Mallory was shyer, a bit socially awkward; she preferred to stay in her room, lounging on her fuzzy purple beanbag chair, reading. Oh, and she ate saltines with butter. Coop closes his eyes. He hasn’t thought of her saltine and butter addiction in decades.
He picks up another picture where Coop is maybe ten and Mallory eight. It’s Easter. Coop is in a navy blazer, Mallory in a pink dress and headband (buck teeth protruding from her smile). They’re standing in front of the fireplace at their grandparents’ house, holding baskets filled with candy. Coop can practically smell his grandfather’s pipe smoke. The next picture he picks up moves him even further back in time. Coop is maybe seven, Mallory five, and they’re wearing the lederhosen that their grandparents brought back from a trip to Munich. This picture is…serious blackmail material. They look ridiculous! Coop laughs until he cries and then he’s bawling like a baby because Mallory was his kid sister and he misses her. He sets the lederhosen picture next to a picture of his Aunt Greta and Uncle Bo, who were the original owners of this cottage. Cooper remembers when Mallory was “sent to Nantucket” for the summer as a kid; he thought she was being punished. Little did he know.
There are no pictures of Mallory with Jake, obviously, since their relationship was like a state secret, and no pictures of Mallory with any other men. Coop wonders then, as he often has, if there was something wrong with him and his sister. Mallory had a child but never married; Coop has been married five times but none of the unions lasted and he never had children. Was it random luck that things ended up that way or had they been defective somehow? Kitty and Senior, although they each had their faults, set a wonderful example. They were devoted and attentive and respectful of each other. Cooper Senior could be impenetrable emotionally but he had a soft spot for his wife. There had always been romance in the house—long-stemmed roses “just because” and evenings spent on the couch in front of the fire, Kitty lying with her head in Senior’s lap. Maybe they set an example that was too hard to live up to.
Cooper thinks of Dr. Robb’s point that he has suffered a lot of loss. It was all weighing on his shoulders now. He missed his family. He would give everything he owned to be back in the Green Room at the Hotel DuPont.
He’s overtired and growing very emotional. He needs a nap. Coop slinks into Link’s room and crashes facedown on the bed.
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.