Apple is at the picnic with her husband, Hugo, and their twin boys, Caleb and Lucas, who are going to be seniors at the high school, and a bunch of other people whose names Coop tries to retain but loses after ten seconds. He knows he doesn’t have to worry about Jake; the guy raises money for a living and can talk to anyone about anything.

Coop throws their case of beer into the tub of ice and cracks one open for him and one for Jake.

This is the life, he thinks. “Upside Down,” by Jack Johnson, is playing on the portable speaker, the grills are smoking, and there’s a table laden with food, including a blueberry pie with a lattice crust. Apple holds out a platter of oysters sitting in rapidly melting crushed ice.

“Hugo just shucked these,” she says. “Please, have one.”

“Then you two come play some bocce,” Hugo says. “Jake, you’re on my team.”

“No wonder my sister loved it here so much,” Coop says to Apple.

“You know something funny I remember about Mallory?” Apple says. “She never once came to our Labor Day picnic. She always claimed she was busy. Every year.”

“Oh, she was busy all right,” Coop says.

“Bocce,” Jake says.

Coop hopes that he will be as impressive at bocce as he was at golf that morning—but he’s the weak link, probably because he’s distracted by Brooke, who is waving her drink around, chanting his name, “Coo-per! Coo-per!” He wonders how much she’s had to drink and then reminds himself not to judge. She’s a teacher, this is her last full day of freedom, she’s allowed to be enthusiastic.

The tenth-grade history teacher whose name Cooper thinks is Nancy comes around with a tray of pink cocktails in plastic cups.

“Madaket Mysteries,” she says. “A Labor Day tradition.”

Coop tastes one—it’s strong and goes down way too easily. The Spanish teacher, Jill, comes by with Buffalo chicken dip and Fritos, and Cooper is a sucker for Fritos. Then the ribs and jumbo shrimp come off the grill. This is the best day he’s had in a long time—even though he loses, badly, at bocce.

“Want to go for a walk, handsome?” Brooke asks. She has pulled on a diaphanous white cover-up and she hands him another Madaket Mystery.

“Sure,” he says. He checks on Jake, who is deep in conversation with the biology teacher over by the deviled eggs. He catches Jake’s eye, waves, and points to Brooke.

They head down the beach, walking past kids building sandcastles and collecting shells and a teenager on a skim board who looks at Brooke and says, “What’s up, Ms. Schuster?”

Without missing a beat, she says, “See you Tuesday, Liam.”

“I love it,” Cooper says. “You see your students at the beach.”

“I see my students everywhere,” Brooke says. “It’s a small island.”