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“I’ll call you every night,” Nicky said “And everyAnd in the daytime, too”

“Anytime you want,” Ethan said “Lucy, can you take Nicky down to the car?”

“You bet” Lucy hugged Parker “Love you” She lowered her voice to a whisper “Fling”

“Sure,” Parker said “You guys have fun, okay? It’s the trip of a lifetime”

“Bye, Mom! Elephant says bye, too!”

“Bye, Elephant! Bye, Nicky! I love you!”

Then Lucy took Nicky by the hand and led hi hall Don’t worry, Parker, chimed the Holy Rollers No one can replace you! You’re the mom!

“Parker” Ethan took the shirt she was folding—and folding and folding, apparently—and put it on the bed “I know this hasn’t been easy And you’ve been a rock But I know it’s been…a lot”

His eyes were so kind and nice that Parker could feel her own filling Dang it “It’s a little overwhel,” she whispered

“I know But you’re not alone in this I love you, Lucy loves you, you gave randchild, and they think you walk on water You have all of us” He kissed her forehead “Especially me”

Not for the first tis had been different with her and Ethan The guy was damn near perfect “I do know that, Ethan And I appreciate it Things aren’t that bad, really It’s just been…fast But I’ll flip the house up there and we’ll be fine”

He looked at her another o “I’ll call you e land”

“Thanks”

“Have fun in Maine”

“I will I really will It’ll build character”

“You have plenty of character” With that, he hugged her again and left Athud of the front door closing

Alone in an eight-thousand-square-foot house

Once, when she was seven, she’d roller-skated down the big hallways and into the vast kitchen, where Bess, the cook, had given her a slice of rhubarb pie Most of the year, the Welles family—Althea, Harry and Parker—had lived in New York, in an apartment on the Upper East Side, but Grayhurst had always felt randfather had still been alive, and she had some cherished reen Life Savers For a few ether, Harry around for dinner, Althea irls, would corown-ups, and ht her to sail, and she and Althea played tennis after dinner

But when she was ten, her parents divorced, and suer, and Althea married Clay, the first of Parker’s stepfathers, less than a year afterward Per court order, she’d visit Rhode Island for a week or two in the su a torturous few days alone with Harry, who’d work ra that year—a summer at sea, another at the Sorbonne, one in Scotland with other daughters of rich people And don’t get her wrong She’d had soreat times, seen some beautiful places

But those summers here, at Grayhurst, before she realized what kind of man her father was, before her mother had become a serial trophy wife…those summers had been the best Her fifth birthday party had been here, and there’d been a white pony When she was nine or so, she’d had a sleepover, and the gardener had rigged up a screen in front of the indoor pool, and Parker and five friends had bobbed around on inner tubes and watched Jaws

And this here she’d brought Nicky horandmother’s Morelock chair and looked out at the sea How could she not love the place where she learned how to be a mother?

Now Nicky’s beautiful roo room where they’d once tied a rope and played Tarzan, the topiary in the back where they’d had so many lunches, the back parlor where she and Lucy had spentuntil they cried…all someone else’s

Well Self-pity wasn’t going to get her car packed up Theto take her clothes andwhite sofa she had in her office, the collection of Holy Rollers books in their many translations The photo albums and framed pictures of Nicky’s artwork

All her life, Parker knew, she’d had the cushion of not just a trust fund, but the security of being a Welles of the Rhode Island Welleses John Kennedy had once sailed his boat here and stayed for dinner, as he and her grandmother were childhood friends E B White had played tennis on Grayhurst’s courts with her grandfather

Now, for the first time, Parker was truly on her own

It was oddly thrilling

She’d use what she needed to spiff up the house in Maine and turn a cushy profit—what, rand? Not bad for a woman as broke

And you knohat else? Maybe Lucy was right Lady Land had been long ignored Maybe a little su Heck yeah! She had twenty-three days on her own Might as well live a little

But now, she’d go downstairs, uncork a bottle of her father’s cheapest She’d take it out onto the back terrace and enjoy Grayhurst’s view for the last tiood cry And skate down the halls one more time

CHAPTER FOUR