Read Online Summer Harbor by Susan Wilson - Free Book Online

the chances that she’d recognize him anyway? The last time she’d set eyes on Grainger Egan was nineteen summers ago—a lifetime. Will’s whole lifetime. Then she was equally afraid that he might be here and she wouldn’t know him. Men changed more than women. Her fifteenth high school reunion had proven that. The handsome boys had run to fat and most were balding. Their necks had thickened and their voices were too loud.
    What would she do if she saw him? What if he was here and she did recognize him? Could she withstand the possibility that he would look at her with the same hatred he’d looked at her that last time? There had been no healing between them. And what would he do if he knew about Will? How was she ever going to deal with Grainger about her father’s boat, when she was so afraid to encounter him at all?
    Kiley shivered in the faint air-conditioning. Someone walked over your grave. That’s what they said when you got inexplicable goose bumps.
    The bell over the door clanged, and Will came in. Kiley shivered again, relieved to see him, happy to see his smile.

Eight
    Will knew he was late; his mother’s worried face was a pure indicator. He hadn’t meant to be so late, although a little late would have been typical. He knew he was getting too old to use the “lost track of time” excuse, especially with the new watch his grandparents had given him for graduation. Maybe this would be a good time to suggest again that if he had a cell phone, she’d never need to worry about him. He flopped down in the seat to the left of his mother, breathless with his rush to park the car and get to the restaurant.
    “Where have you been?”
    “Ummm, I got lost. There’s that other road before you get to the bridge. I went right instead of left at the fork.”
    “Will, you can read signs. Don’t play with me.”
    “Well, maybe I did spend a little more time at the mall than I should have. It’s pretty small, but they’ve got a great music store.” Will opened his backpack and pulled out five new CDs. “I sort of got carried away.”
    Will’s eclectic tastes were fanned out on the square table: Alicia Keys, No Doubt, Coldplay, and India. Arie, mixed in with a bargain-bin copy of the early Beatles.
    The waitress returned to take their order. Kiley ordered her glass of wine.
    “I hope you bought batteries. There’s no CD player in the house.”
    “I know. I did.”
    Will was glad that his mom forbore to mention the amount of money he had spent on the five CDs, even though he had every right to spend his money the way he saw fit. When he actually took off for Cornell, then he’d bow to economy. Right now he was still warm from his grandparents’ largesse. They’d been so happy Kiley had agreed to go to Hawke’s Cove that they’d handed Will a nice “allowance” to make up for his losing a month’s work at the burger place.
    If Grainger agreed to keep teaching him after his first lesson, he’d use the rest of that money for that. Maybe there was something to heredity. His grandfather had been a competitive sailor. The waitress placed their dinners in front of them. An idea niggled at the back of his mind, prompted by the photo of his mother and the two boys leaning against the little boat, now tucked into his back pocket.
    “Mom, who taught you how to sail?”
    The question seemed to surprise his mother; she studied her plate for a moment. “Pop did. Although I was never that good at it, and he never let me race with him.”
    “Did you sail with anyone else? Or did you only sail with him?”
    “The Yacht Club sponsored races for kids.” She pushed her meat loaf around on her plate, then looked up at Will. “Why?”
    “I was thinking about taking sailing lessons.” If she would just smile and say, I have a friend who could teach you, he could avoid pretending. “I mean, while I’m here and all.”
    “If you’re serious, we can look into lessons at the club. And maybe we could charter a day