The Caribbean, anticipated Anthony.

“The Caribbean!” finished Dorothy. “And, Anthony, when I stopped in for our coffees there was the sweetest young girl working behind the counter, she must have been twelve or so.”

“Thirteen,” said Anthony softly.

“She had the funniest T-shirt, Anthony, you would have loved it. You always did love a pun. It said— Now, let me see, let me get it exactly right. It had a picture of a bear, and then a picture of a deer, and the bear was saying, ‘Oh dear.’ No, wait, that can’t be right. That’s not funny at all!”

Maggie was wearing the shirt he’d bought her! The knowledge made him immeasurably happy and enormously sad at the very same time. He felt the weight of his fight with Joy, of all of their almosts, anew.

“‘I’ll fight you with my bear hands,’” said Anthony morosely. “And the deer says, ‘Oh deer!’”

“That’s it!” said Dorothy. “How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess.”

His regrets about deceiving Joy, and about the fight, were fierce, palpable. He wanted them to meet Max, and he wanted to show Max the island with Joy and Maggie. But Joy’s final words sat there, like a boulder he couldn’t move. No more. We’re all done here. Forever.

Chapter 45

MAGGIE

MAGGIE IS ALLOWED to go back and forth to Lu’s to work, because Maggie’s mother values commitments and remembers what it was like when she was the mother of a young child and occasionally dependent on other people for help, and she’s allowed to help in the shop, but other than that, she is stuck at home. No beach, no clamming, no nothing. No recreational phone use, although her mother hasn’t been very good about enforcing that one. She keeps forgetting to take the phone.

But tonight Joy comes home from the shop and disappears into the bathroom and then into her bedroom and comes out wearing a turquoise sundress Maggie has never seen before; she announces that she and Holly are going to dinner. “Holly?” says Maggie. “Not Anthony?” She is still hoping, despite her earlier nastiness, that he and her mother will get back together. She liked Anthony: he was funny and interesting and curious. It was fun to show him around. He let Maggie teach him to clam; he seemed to enjoy her mother’s weird and occasionally lame sense of humor; he even bought Maggie a T-shirt that was not half bad.

Her mother sighs and says, “Not Anthony. You know that, Mags. No more Anthony.” She says that Holly and Riley’s father, Brent, had a reservation and at the last minute Brent couldn’t go. Her mouth droops in a sad way and Maggie almost feels bad for her until she remembers that her mother is the reason she is grounded. She steels herself and says, “Okay.”

Maggie watches out the window as her mother’s turquoise dress disappears into the summer evening foot traffic. Left to her own devices, Maggie wanders through the house, switches on the TV, turns it off when she realizes there is nothing she wants to watch. It is day four of the grounding. There is no way she is staying in this house, alone, all night. She checks her phone: no texts, nothing. Even the “Videos You Might Like” on Instagram are videos she definitely does not like. She considers taking Pickles on an adventure but decides that her mother loves Pickles more than she loves Maggie right now, so should Joy come home to find Pickles missing Maggie would probably be charged with dognapping, and that is a headache she does not need.