The attitude at the Barroses’ was always the more, the merrier. Dinner groups had been known to swell to as large as a dozen, depending on how many members of the extended Barros family were in town. Typically, they were seven: the two couples; plus Jack’s cousin Tito; and Lidia and Manny’s son, Marco, and his wife, Olivia. Tonight, Celeste was relieved to find it was just the four of them.

“So, we ended up with a full house after all,” Lidia was saying. “Tito’s in Marco’s room, and we’ve got our first tenant of the season in Jaci’s room.”

Every summer brought the Provincetown housing shuffle; locals rented spare bedrooms for extra income or moved out of their homes entirely to rent them for the season. For a lot of people, three months of summer could make their entire year. Lidia and Manny had successfully rented out their daughter Jaci’s room for the summer. She was staying at school, and they were able to get a last-minute tenant from New York.

“It’s been lonely with Jaci away, but at least we’re making it productive,” Lidia said with a sigh.

“I didn’t know Tito was renting out his place this summer,” Celeste said, refilling her glass of merlot.

Manny nodded. “Clifford Henry told him what he could get for it, and that was that. He didn’t even ask us about moving in—he told us.”

“I hope you gave him a good rate,” Jack joked.

“Don’t think Manny didn’t try to charge him,” Lidia said.

“We have a guest under our roof tonight, too,” Jack said, giving her a wink.

“Oh?” Lidia said, standing up to clear the dishes.

Celeste hadn’t even mentioned to Lidia that her sister showed up in town, never mind her niece. It had been years since she’d talked about her own family.

There had been a summer night, not long after Lidia and Manny got married, when a party at the house had lasted until the earliest hours of the morning. The dozen or so revelers still hanging around all gathered on the beach to watch the sunrise, and Celeste and Lidia had ended up talking for hours over way too many bottles of wine. Celeste told her about the younger sister she’d lost, and that she was barely on speaking terms with the one who remained.

“You should invite her to visit you,” Lidia said. Everyone in Provincetown believed that a visit to the place could cure anything.

“I never want my family visiting me here,” she’d said. “Never.”

Now Lidia and Manny looked at her expectantly.

“Yes. My youngest sister’s daughter. It’s just for one night,” she said.

“I didn’t know you had a niece,” Manny said. Was that a touch of judgment she detected in his voice?

“She grew up with the other side of her family,” Celeste said.