After dinner, Link asks if he can walk Bess home and she says yes, and they stroll the streets of Washington, holding hands. When they reach the Sedgewick, Link escorts her to the door and Bess says, “Thank you for saving me from the lobbyist.”

Link lays a gentle hand on the side of her face and then he leans in and kisses her. It’s the best kiss Bess has ever received—sweet, warm, just enough to leave her aching for more.

“Oh,” she whispers.

Link kisses her again. He pulls her to him and soon they are making out while moths beat around the light over their heads.

Bess pulls away. “Would you like to come up?”

Link takes a breath, and Bess wonders: Does he not want to come up? Was something wrong with her kissing?

Link says, “I feel like I should let you know something.”

“Okay?” Bess says.

“Seeing you once a year isn’t going to be enough for me,” he says. “So if we’re following in our parents’ footsteps or fulfilling their thwarted destiny or whatever, that part has to change.”

Bess pulls out her key. She can’t hide her smile. “Deal,” she says.

Cooper

On Saturday, Cooper wakes up at noon. Noon! When is the last time he’s done that? College? High school? He’s an up-at-the-crack-of-dawn, seize-the-day kind of guy. A morning person. But when he finally unsticks his eyelids, he can’t deny he lacks any motivation to get up off the wide, comfortable sofa.

Except that he’s the host here.

Ever so gently he lifts his head from the cushion and gazes around the room. Nobody is in the cottage, though he hears voices on the beach. Coop swings his feet to the floor and stands up. He overdid it—drank too much, stayed out too late. Deep inside him, like a coin dropped in a well, rests a small sense of accomplishment: He closed the Chicken Box!

The person he would like to tell this to is Stacey.

He pours himself a giant glass of ice water and heads out to the beach where Jake, Leland, and Fray are enjoying the sun. Jake is in his trunks sitting in a chair with a book open on his chest; his hair is wet. Fray and Leland are lying side by side on a blanket. Leland is in a black tank suit and a straw hat and Fray is beside her. Something is funny about that. Cooper squints, it’s bright outside, and he goes inside for his sunglasses. When he comes back out, he sees that Fray and Leland’s legs are intertwined in a way that looks more than friendly.

“Hello, all,” Coop says, collapsing in an empty chair.

“How you feeling, old man?” Fray asks. Coop can see that Fray is also stroking Leland’s shoulder. Ohhhhkay.

Jake says, “Want me to make you an omelet? You must be starving.”