His mouth twitched; she’d almost made him laugh. But Joy had no more patience for this. Why had she opened her soul, her home, her bed to this man, who wasn’t who he said he was? She should have known it was too good to be true. Everything was. Joy walked back to the wildlife refuge sign and un-leaned her bike.

DANGEROUS RIPTIDES! said the sign. No kidding, thought Joy.

Anthony followed and opened the door of his car.

“Joy—” he said.

“No,” said Joy. Her heart was breaking into a thousand little pieces. “No, Anthony. No more. We’re all done here. Forever.” She turned her back while he got in the car, and when the Le Baron pulled out of its parking spot she gave no indication that she knew the car was there at all.

If Anthony said anything out the window, she didn’t let herself hear.

She did hear one sound, though. The sound of her foot crunching on something—what? A phone. Anthony’s phone, which must have fallen out of his pocket. Well, served him right. She picked it up and put it in her own pocket. She buckled the strap of her helmet under her chin. And then she pedaled away, with the Sound on one side of her and the Atlantic on the other, and the long, sometimes hilly Corn Neck Road ahead of her.

Chapter 34

LU

THE BLOCK ISLAND Airport was a pretty gray building that made Lu think of a fancy highway rest stop. She’d heard the restaurant there was very good, with prizewinning chowder and fantastic omelets, but she knew Nancy wanted to take the boys there for the first time, so she abstained, even though they were driving right by and they were all hungry. Maggie had to help her mother out at the shop, so Lu and the boys had gone to West Beach to hunt for sea glass. They hadn’t found any, which made Lu feel like a loser. Maggie had told her a person could always find sea glass at West Beach.

Lu was hoping to stick the boys in front of a nice long movie when they got home so she could get some work done. She’d try to get them not to tell Jeremy. He wasn’t a fan of daytime movies; he’d want them learning a foreign language or taking a stab at pre-algebra. If she put on a movie Chase might even nap; even now he was doing the head-jerking, almost-sleeping of the overtired child. She was tired too, but she wasn’t allowed to do the head jerk while she was driving. Obviously.

She heard her phone ping in the console next to her—the text sound she’d set for Jeremy. She resisted the urge to check it. The boys were all over her about looking at her phone while she was driving.

When they were younger, and first dating, before they lived together, Jeremy called Lu at the end of every shift, no matter the time, and Lu lived for those phone calls, no matter how disruptive. Now there were times when a call from Jeremy felt like an intrusion or a reproach. She felt like he was checking up on her.