Island Girls: A Novel by Nancy Thayer

Author:Nancy Thayer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Sagas, General, Contemporary Women, Fiction
ISBN: 0345528735
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2013-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

At the end of July, Meg planned a picnic dinner for the three Lily Street women. When Arden and Jenny were ready in the sandals and swimsuits Meg had insisted they wear, she popped into the driver’s seat of the Jeep and drove them all down to Jetties Beach.

It was six o’clock. The children had been taken home for baths and dinner and bed, leaving the long swath of golden beach relatively peaceful. The evening was still, with drowsy waves sliding against the shore and a few sailboats becalmed in the harbor.

Meg spread the blanket, planting the coolers on two corners, and knelt to open one while she used the top of the other as a table. Shaking a thermos, she poured daiquiris into tall plastic cups and handed them around. She laid out a platter of finger foods—salty wrinkled olives, Brie on crackers, little tomatoes and carrots, marinated artichoke hearts, bluefish pâté.

“What’s this all about?” Jenny asked, slightly suspicious.

“Nothing,” Meg told her. “Everything.” She gestured toward the ocean. “This.”

A ferry was gliding toward the island, as stately as a grand white castle on the calm blue water. In the harbor, golden lights beamed from sailboats and laughter drifted toward the shore. High in the blue sky, a few puffs of cloud drowsed unmoving, as if they, too, were stilled by the heat. At the edge of the waves, a yellow bucket and a red shovel sat lonely and abandoned.

“Someone will come back for them tomorrow,” Arden said, reading Meg’s mind.

“We could use them. We could build a sand castle,” Meg suggested. “A really enormous one, with lots of turrets and battlements and a moat.”

“Then Arden could simplify it,” Jenny joked.

Meg rose on her knees. “We should do it. Build a fantastic castle for kids to discover when they arrive tomorrow morning.”

Arden snorted. “Please, don’t make me move. This is too blissful.”

Meg sank back down. “You’re right.”

“And you’re high,” Arden told Meg.

“Kind of,” Meg agreed. “My work has been going so well. I’ve gotten a lot done. This place is great for working. I’m cut off from so many distractions.”

“It’s turning out to be helpful to my work, too,” Arden said after taking another sip of her daiquiri. “My contact list is crammed with new names. I’ve got my camera crew coming down in August to do a few shoots. Except for Ariadne Silverstone, the homeowners are young. So take that, Zero Zoey.”

Meg clapped her hands like a girl. “Arden, I just remembered! Your career in journalism started here on this island.”

Arden lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Arden. Remember when you were ten? You wrote the Lily Street News.”

Arden chuckled. “I’d forgotten all about that.”

“What was the Lily Street News?” Jenny asked.

“A newspaper Arden wrote on Dad’s computer,” Meg said. “Arden went up and down the street, interviewing people, asking them if they were summer residents, where they were from, if they had kids or dogs or cats, and what new things they were doing to their houses or yards.”

“Then I’d print off copies and take them around to the houses.

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