“All the more reason for you to stay right here where you now belong because so many people have grown to care about you a whole lot and want you to be happy whether you know it or not.” She briefly wondered if she were talking to Kevin or to Jonas.

“I’m no writer, sister, but I’d say that was a run-on sentence.”

She laughed as they went inside. “You drive me crazy, brother. Now get back to work. While Mom is getting ready, I have to call someone back. And I need to do it alone.” As she climbed the stairs up to her room, Annie wondered how many times that morning she’d referred to Donna as Mom. It was, she realized, getting easier to do.

* * *

That time, Larry Hendricks answered.

She might not have recognized his voice if she hadn’t known whom she was calling. She cleared her throat and wished that she could clear her mind as easily. “Larry? It’s Annie. Sutton.”

“Okay,” he said instead of something friendly like, “Hi, Annie. How are you?”

A long pause followed, as if they both were actors who’d forgotten their lines. Annie looked around the room—a reminder that the Inn was important, more important than the drivel of the past. Besides, whatever anxiety she might have about Larry was nothing compared with what Kevin understandably had felt when hearing Gina’s name.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Fine. But I don’t expect that’s why you called.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, glad he wasn’t there to watch her body language. “No,” she said. “Not really.” She sucked in a small breath. “I live on the Vineyard now.”

“Oh?”

Maybe he didn’t read the best-seller list. Or maybe he was playing an attorney’s game of cat and mouse. “Yes,” she replied. “And you? Are you . . .” She almost mentioned his wife, Suzanne, whom Annie had been friendly with in a trophy-wife kind of way, but she had no idea if they were still together. “. . . Are you still in Brookline?”

He laughed. “Yes. And my boys are both at Phillips.” He said it with arrogance, purposefully, she knew, omitting the word “Academy” because people who traveled in his lifestyle circle would know what he’d meant. “But I hardly think that’s why you called, either. What’s up?”

His attitude reminded her of Mark, whose penchant for being haughty always escalated after he’d been with Larry. Already regretting having called him, Annie inhaled another long breath, knowing if she didn’t dive right in, she’d hang up instead. Her eyes moved to the new stone terrace that spanned the full width of the Inn and promised congenial gatherings. Then she closed her eyes.

“I’m part of a new venture here. An Inn on Chappaquiddick.”

“Chappaquiddick? As in Chappaquiddick Island?”