Page 46 of The Price of Protection

Rose’s eyes were enormous. Willow almost laughed, though she knew it was deathly serious.

“Your own people wronged you,” Rose said.

“It will not happen again,” Eleanor said, her nostrils flared.

“Do you know where she went?” Rose asked.

“No,” Eleanor said, her left hand drawn tightly into a fist. “But we’ll find her.”

Willow knew, as clear as day, that the Legacy Club would do that very thing and make her pay. Willow shivered and promised herself that she’d never darken Eleanor Pike’s door again, not for any favor, not for all the money in the world.

20

The first week of November was the Boston mayoral elections. Try as they might not to speak about them, Rose and Maxine eventually admitted to one another, in the empty bakery over a platter of madeleines as the ovens cooled in the kitchen, that they couldn’t stop reading about them. Excitedly, as though they spoke about a family member or a very close friend, they talked about Nathaniel, about what he’d worn to his various speeches, about the things he’d recently said and done.

“Doesn’t he seem presidential?” Rose said, shaking her head as she pulled up a recent photograph on her phone.

Willow beamed with pride, but then her smile dropped. “I really do think he’s going to be a great mayor,” Willow said. “I really think he’s got a good heart. I can’t say why.”

“He does,” Rose said delicately. She thought back to that day when he’d come to Nantucket, when he’d launched himself into the bakery and asked to take a walk. Now, for the first time, she forced herself to tell Willow about that encounter, realizing that she’d nearly convinced herself it hadn’t happened. “I think he knew something was going on,” she said. “I think he knew someone was trying to get the best of him, to blackmail him, to diminish his standing for the election. I knew about that sniveling Harry Orlett, but I didn’t know anything else. I still didn’t know you were on the island. That’s hard to believe now.”

Willow was quiet for a moment. She stood, put her hands on her hips, then gazed out the window. It had begun to snow, big, feathery flakes.

“It’s hard to believe nothing is standing in our way now,” Willow said finally.

Rose was quiet for a long time before she said, “We’re a family.”

That evening, Maxine was staying with her father, so Rose invited Willow and Rhett over for dinner. Rhett cracked a beer and set to work on prepping the onions and garlic, while Willow and Rose sat in the living room with a glass of wine and watched as the final mayoral votes were calculated. Nathaniel’s rival, Peter, had about half as many votes as Nathaniel. By eight p.m., with dinner nearly ready, Nathaniel Hawkins took the stage at the convention hall in Boston to announce his acceptance.

Rose’s heart churned, watching him. Both of his hands were raised as he peered out across the frothing crowd, all these people here to celebrate him and all they believed he could do for their happiness, for their futures.

“Thank you!” Nathaniel Hawkins said into the microphone. “I can’t thank you all enough for what you’ve helped me do here in Boston today. When I quit my father’s companies, when I tried to step out on my own for the first time, all I had were my dreams.”

“And millions upon millions of dollars,” Willow said, laughing.

Rose cackled. “I’m sure the money never occurs to him. He’s always had it.”

“I guess I won’t hold it against him,” Willow said.

“Not if he really changes Boston,” Rose said. “Not if he really fights for those who need him.”

They watched Nathaniel’s speech all the way through, breathless and leaning forward on the sofa. Rhett came out halfway through and watched from the doorway, hands on his hips. It was hard for Rose to gauge Rhett’s feelings about Nathaniel, especially given all they’d been through during the summer of 2000. But now that it was twenty-six years later, she wasn’t sure any of it mattered.

It wasn’t for a few more days after that, when Nantucket got its first few inches of snow of the year, that Rhett asked Rose to go on a real date with him. They were on the boardwalk, gazing out across the frigid water, eyeing Rhett’s sailboat, which looked terrifyingly lonely, tied up as it was.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Rhett said. “We can pretend that I never asked. I’ll get back in my sailboat and be on my way.”

Rose tilted her head and laced her fingers through his. Although he’d only been back in Nantucket a few weeks, it was suddenly hard to imagine her life without Rhett. His handsome, craggy face, his crooked smile, the way he reasoned things through, the way he made her laugh: it had all become so essential to her day-to-day.

“Where did you have in mind?” she asked him.

Rhett suggested they get “gussied” up for a fancy fish dinner.

“That isn’t like us,” Rose said, laughing.

“I know. But we used to be broke teenagers,” Rhett pointed out. “I figure that we can take things to the next level. We can prove to ourselves that we’re beyond that.”

The night Rhett planned to pick her up and take her out, Rose fell into a tizzy, trying on more than fifteen dresses she had lodged in her closet before deciding on something black and simple. Throughout this, Maxine and Minnie sat with her, laughed, ate snacks, and gave their opinions.