With the dog days of summer passing quickly, McAdams began folding up shop. By mid-August, he was ready to roll. His injuries had healed and he felt better than ever, spending more time in the local gym. He still retained his Upper East Side superior attitude, but it was tempered with humor. The week before he started law school, he decided to go to the Hamptons to visit his father and mother—separate houses—for a few days.

On McAdams’s last day in Greenbury, he went to say good-bye to the Deckers. It was on a Saturday afternoon and the Loo and his wife were in the backyard on the patio, lazing in a couple of lounge chairs. Decker was in shorts and a T-shirt, Rina was in a polo shirt and a denim skort with her hair tied up and covered with a kerchief. On the tabletop were lemonade and beer, potato chips and crackers, and of course, Rina’s homemade cookies. McAdams pulled up a chair, popped a cold one, and nibbled on a cracker.

Decker was swigging from a longneck. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow. We’d be happy to drive you down . . . we just can’t do it on Shabbos.”

“No, I think I’d rather take the train,” McAdams said. “Unless you want to visit the Hamptons. But it comes with my crazy relatives.”

Rina said, “I like Nina.”

“She’s in Florence, Italy, for the summer.”

“Well, then I’ll pass.” Rina took a potato chip. “Are you excited about law school, Tyler?”

“I am resigned about law school.”

“It won’t be so bad.”

“I’m sure it’ll be better than getting shot.”

Decker said, “You’ll sail through it, Harvard.”

“I’m not worried . . . more like annoyed. But there are worse positions to be in. So I won’t complain . . . unless I feel like it . . . which is often.” He turned to Decker. “How happy will you be not to hear my bitching.”

“Very happy.”

“You’ll miss him,” Rina said.

“No, I won’t,” Decker said. “But I might miss your iPad.”

“I’ll send you one.”

“It’s not the iPad, it’s the brain,” Rina said.

“I will concede that you had promise,” Decker said. “But it would probably all go to waste anyway. Not much has happened in the last four months other than a lot of drunk and disorderlies around graduation time.”

“And the OD at Kennedy’s Pub,” Rina said. “That was pretty exciting.”

“Not so much,” McAdams said. “The kid made it.”

Rina laughed. “You’re terrible.”

McAdams smiled. He set the empty beer bottle down on the tabletop. “I spoke to Radar this morning. He said I can come back anytime. Unusually nice of him. Maybe he’s hoping for a donation.”

“Maybe he means it as a sincere offer,” Rina said.

“Technically I do have summers off.”