A Summer to Remember by Erika Montgomery

Author:Erika Montgomery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

18

1988

It was May, and the warm tease of high season tickled the air, as playful as a whisper; Louise felt its flutter against her cheek as she and Glory crossed the street for Petite’s. Harpswich was about to enter into Glory’s favorite time of year—summer, when the tourists would roll off the ferries and into town like a tipped jar of marbles, bringing their fresh eyes and gushing admiration—and making up for too long a stretch of unimpressed locals who, after nearly a decade of sharing sidewalks and shorelines with Glory Cartwright, had long stopped being starstruck by Mitch Beckett’s glamorous wife. There would be blushing requests for autographs and pictures again. And those who loved Glory would release a collective sigh of relief that she’d survived another dark and lonely Harpswich winter, her already-tiny frame thinned further by poor sleep and a lack of appetite.

Summer also meant festival season. Four years after Glory had first suggested the event as a modest one-day gathering, the Stardust Film Festival had blossomed into a three-day celebration, casting Glory back into celebrity once again every June with film screenings and parties, newspaper articles and the occasional television interview. This year’s event promised to be their biggest yet. Cher, fresh off her Best Actress win for Moonstruck, had tentatively agreed to give the opening night toast, the biggest name they’d been able to feature.

Glory should have been beaming, but all morning while they’d worked, spread out on the cottage’s living room rug—their makeshift office for the past four years—Louise had observed her friend’s attention pulled repeatedly to the view of the water, Glory’s gaze strangely vacant when Louise had finally drawn her back to the conversation. When she’d blamed low blood sugar for her lack of focus, Louise had clapped their notebooks closed and decided on an early lunch.

But now as they took their seats in their usual window booth, the buttery smell of toasted bread fragrant, Louise worried it wasn’t just hunger that had distracted her dear friend. While Louise had slipped free of her twinset cardigan, Glory kept her denim blazer on. Despite the bright sun, the air was still crisp with spring frost. Louise could feel chilly breaths off the glass.

“Are you cold? Because we could take a table in the back today,” she offered. “It’s always colder by the window.”

“I’m fine.” But Glory’s smile was uncharacteristically tight. “I just need some coffee to warm me up.” She turned to scan the empty counter that divided the bistro’s kitchen from the rest of the narrow room. “I don’t see the girls.”

Louise twisted in her seat, not seeing either of the two waitresses who typically worked Monday’s lunch. After nine years of weekly lunch dates at Petite’s, she and Glory knew the waitstaff by name.

A heavy thud sounded, and a young woman with a leaning pile of auburn curls pushed through the swinging kitchen door, a pot of coffee in each hand.

“She must be new,” said Louise.

The woman scanned the restaurant floor, saw them, slowed a moment, then approached.

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