“Maggie?”

“Jesus! God! You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!” I squawk.

Malone leans against my door frame and smiles. I have to look away.

“Sorry,” he says. “I knocked. Must not have heard me.”

“Well. So. You’re here. That’s…” The animal magnetism he exudes shrouds my reasons for being mad. Oh, yeah. Chantal. Got it. “Okay, Malone, so what’s up? What’s new? Anything new?”

His smile fades. “Not really. Missed you last night.”

“Did you. Hmm. Well. Something came up.”

So he’s not going to admit anything. You’d think even Malone would acknowledge something…Hey, by the way, Chantal and I are having a baby. Wanna grab some dinner? Fine. If he’s not going to say anything, I’m sure as hell not going to admit I was lurking under his window the moment he learned of his impending fatherhood.

Swallowing bile, I feel so tired of having my relationships make me look like a fool. Skip, those other dweebs, Father Tim, and now Malone. I just can’t take it. I won’t be made an ass of again. I just can’t. I finish stuffing the contents of my drawer into the trash bag, willing myself not to feel anything but anger. However, the image of Malone lying on my bed the night after Colonel died shoves its way into my head. How could he be so—

“Everything okay, Maggie?” he asks, a slight frown between his eyes.

“You know what? No. Everything is not okay, Malone. Here. Come in the living room, okay?” I shove my way past him into the mess I’ve made in the next room. “Sit down. Have a seat.” I take a deep breath and sit on the other side of the coffee table, not wanting to be too close to him. He hasn’t shaved today, and the memory of what it feels like to be kissed by Malone, that scraping sweetness, makes my knees wobble. Disgusted with myself, I force an image of him with Chantal. In bed with Chantal, kissing her with the same intensity that he kissed me. There. Wobbling over.

“What’s wrong?” Malone asks quietly.

“You know, it’s good that you came over, Malone. It’s…look. You’re here. So. The thing is, Malone, I—” My throat tightens inexplicably. “Malone, this isn’t working for me. This thing you and I have going on. Whatever it is.”

Though his expression doesn’t change, his head jerks back a fraction, and for a tiny second, I feel bad for him. He’s surprised. Didn’t see it coming. Well, I know the feeling, don’t I?

I keep talking, taking a grim pleasure in the fact at least that I’m not on the dumped end of this breakup stick. “You know. I mean, you’re very…attractive, I guess…I mean, I think so, anyway. But aside from that…physical stuff…well, to tell you the truth, Malone, I’m looking for a little more.”

He just stares at me, not frowning exactly, but almost—concerned. “Did something happen, Maggie?” he asks, and the kindness in his rough voice causes fresh fury to slap my heart like a rogue wave.

“I don’t know, Malone,” I snap. “Did it?”

His black brows come together. “What’s going on?” he says, and now there’s a note of irritation.

“You tell me.” I stand in front of him, hands on my hips, daring him to admit what he’s done.

“Are we fighting here?” he asks, scowling. “Because I don’t remember us having anything to fight about.”

Fine. He’s being a coward. Fine. “I’ll make it simple for you, Malone. You’re really just not my type.”

Score a direct hit—his mouth closes abruptly, his face is fierce and dark. “And just who is your type, Maggie? Father Tim, maybe?” he growls.

I c**k my head. “Well, funny you should say that. Aside from the priest thing, yes, actually. He’s a true friend to me. We talk, we have fun, we laugh together. We tell each other things. That’s more of what I’m looking for. A friend and a lover. That’s not so surprising, is it?”

“A friend? By that, do you mean someone to wait on hand and foot? Someone you can feed and clean up after?”

“It’s called caring, Malone. When you care about someone, you do things for him. Hence the soup and pie I made for you the night you went for a swim in the forty-degree Atlantic! But you don’t want that, do you?” My voice rises in anger. “So yes, I want someone who’s not closed off from every human feeling, Malone. That’s what! Someone who can speak in full sentences. Someone who can actually answer a personal question when asked, someone who—”

“I get the point,” Malone says, standing. “Fine. Take care.”

He slams the door behind him, and I burst into tears once more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“BLESS ME, Father, for I have sinned,” I say. “It’s been twenty-two years since my last confession.” Funny, how the words come racing right back. “Can we get to it, Father Tim? I really need to talk.” So much so that I quick-stepped in front of Mrs. Jensen. I had tried calling Father Tim at the rectory, but he didn’t return my call. He’s been terribly busy lately.

“Well, Maggie, this is the sacrament of reconciliation. We probably shouldn’t rush it. Though of course, I’m very glad to see you in church.”

I take a ragged breath. “I’m sorry, Father Tim,” I say roughly. “The thing is, I’m just so—I can’t seem to—” My throat is gripped by all the misery of the past week. Colonel. My parents. Malone. Chantal. My own future stretches ahead of me, alone, childless, ankles swollen, no one to change my diapers in my dotage…Tears drip down my cheeks and I sniff wetly.

“What is it, Maggie?” Father Tim asks, his voice full of alarm and concern.

“My life is a joke,” I manage. “I know what I want, but I just can’t seem to get it, and I don’t understand why everything is so hard and confusing.”

Why do I miss Malone? Why have I analyzed every second we’ve ever spent in each other’s company? Why does my mother’s fear break my heart the way it does? Why can’t people just meet and get married and be happy like Christy and Will? And worst of all, why does it feel like my last chance will die with Malone, even knowing what I know?

“I broke up with Malone,” I blurt. “You were right. He’s churlish.”

“Ah, Maggie, I’m sorry. Sorry to be right.” He leans forward so I can see his face through the filigreed screen of the confessional. “There are times when life tests us,” he says gently. “Times that seem so lonely and bleak. It’s how we handle these difficult situations that really proves who we are.”

I swallow and wipe my eyes. “I’ve been so jealous of Christy lately,” I admit in a whisper. “She has everything, Father Tim. Everything I want.”

“And you’re happy for her, as well, Maggie,” he says. “You want those same things, there’s no shame in admitting that.”

“But it doesn’t seem fair,” I protest. “I don’t want to end up alone, Father Tim. I get so scared sometimes that I’ll be this weird aunt who’ll be passed around like a virus. Like, ‘It’s your turn to feed Aunt Maggie’—‘No, it was my turn last week! You do it!’”

Father Tim doesn’t laugh, bless him. He doesn’t say anything for a moment. “None of us wants to look into the future and see ourselves alone, Maggie,” he nearly whispers. “No one wants that.”

There it is again, that undercurrent of his own loneliness. Of sadness, maybe. Or am I reading into things? But there’s something. I raise my hand to the screen that separates us, pressing against the pretty scrollwork of the metal, and suddenly…suddenly my old fantasy of being with him doesn’t seem so ridiculous.

“Father Tim?” I whisper. Outside in the church proper, Mrs. Jensen coughs loudly.

“Maggie, you’re such a wonderful person,” he says, so softly I can barely hear him. “Don’t be sad. Something’s going to change, Maggie, and you won’t be alone forever. Have faith.”

I draw a shaky breath, dizzy at the thoughts that pour into my mind.

Mrs. Jensen hacks again, her cough bouncing off the stone walls of the church. Can’t the old bag take some Robitussin? But the moment is over. Father Tim sits back. “Let’s speak again soon,” he says. “God bless you, Maggie.”

FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, my thoughts keep me quiet, almost withdrawn. I go through the motions at Joe’s, calling out diner slang for Stuart, hugging Georgie, joking with Rolly and Ben, passing out ballots. Father Tim doesn’t come in, and the significance of his absence causes all kinds of ideas to flutter like birds against a window—unpleasant thoughts, really, that I don’t want to dwell on. But fragments of words float through my mind…Father Shea…You’re special, Maggie…Something’s going to change.

And yet, while those thoughts are concerning, they’re also just a reflex. When I look at the answering machine every afternoon when I come home, it’s Malone I think of. Did he call? Will he— Then I stop myself. Malone has other problems to take care of. He won’t be calling me. Besides, I don’t even want him to call, do I? Leave me out of it, Malone, I command. He obeys.

Chantal leaves a message, a brief one, asking me to call her when I get a chance, no hurry, but I can hear the solemnity in her tone. There’s a call I’m not eager to return. Slutty Chantal. Slutty Malone, too. Who needs ’em?

On Sunday, the Beaumont children are summoned for dinner as usual. Mom and Dad are painfully civil to each other, Dad carving the roast, Mom setting the side dishes on the table with terrible care. Jonah, Christy and I are very well-behaved and helpful, no jokes, no teasing. It’s freakish and agonizing. Will is covering at the hospital, so there’s no one to ease the tension, just us kids and Violet. Dinner takes an eternity, and even the baby’s cheerful babble can’t break the pall of gloom that hangs over the table. When Jonah actually volunteers to wash the dishes afterward, it’s proof positive that something is dreadfully wrong.

“So what happens next?” he asks, his back to the rest of us as he runs the water. “Is one of you moving out?”

Mom and Dad’s eyes meet across the table, perhaps for the first time today. Christy’s eyes fill, and she lowers her nose to Violet’s silky hair to hide the fact.

“Well, actually, yes,” Mom says carefully. “Not just yet, but I’m thinking of moving to Bar Harbor.”

“Wow!” I exclaim. “That’s quite a change from—”

“You’re moving?” Christy shrieks. “You can’t move, Mom! Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?” Jonah and I exchange a startled glance, but Christy keeps going. “No! You can’t! It’s—It’s—Bar Harbor is so far!”

“Not really,” Mom says. “It’s just an—”

“It’s an hour and a half, Mom!” Christy yells. “Don’t you care about Violet? What about your only grandchild? And your children! Don’t you want to see us more than once a month?”

“Christy,” I begin, but she cuts me off.

“No, Maggie. It’s selfish. You’re being unbelievably selfish, Mom.” She smacks her hand down on the table.

Our mother looks down at the tablecloth without comment. Dad is pulling his silent routine, and I feel a sudden tug of annoyance with him. Staying on the sidelines only gets you so far in life, and in a flash, I can see how hard it must have been for my mother—married to a man who never dissented, never voiced his unhappiness, just bobbed along with the tide until he was so miserable that he had to leave or drown.

“Is that what you want, Mom? To live in Bar Harbor?” I ask.

She sighs. “Well, in some ways, yes. I think it would be nice to be in a bigger place. Spread my horizons, expand my wings, so to speak. So Bar Harbor would be a step in the right direction.”

“Then what?” Christy demands, shifting Violet. “Move to Paris? London?”

“Australia, I was thinking,” Mom mutters, and I smile.

“Australia!” Christy yelps. It’s almost funny to see—the former social worker acting like a spoiled twelve-year-old. Violet grabs a handful of tablecloth and stuffs it in her mouth.

Mom sighs. “I’m kidding, Christy. Okay? Just relax.”

“My family is falling apart, Mom. I can’t relax. And I can’t believe you guys aren’t going to even try to work on things! Get some counseling, for God’s sake. Go see Father Tim! But moving is absolutely ridiculous.”

“Jesus, Christy, shut up,” Jonah says. “They’re adults. They can make their own choices.”

“What do you know about being an adult, Jonah?” my sister snaps. I haven’t seen her so riled since Skip dumped me.

“He’s right, Christy,” I say quietly. “Mom and Dad have been married for a long time. If they want something different now, well, they’re in a position to know. We’re not. If Mom wants to live somewhere other than Gideon’s Cove, she can. It’s her life.”

“Well, nothing’s going to happen for at least a few weeks,” my mother says. “Your father and I aren’t getting divorced right away, just separated. And we’ll see how things are after that.”

“Dad’s gonna be my sternman,” Jonah informs us. Dad offers a tentative smile.

“What? Dad! Are you crazy?” Christy says. “A sternman? What do you know about lobstering?”