Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend (20 page)

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with was Escargot Meek Rum. “Ford, what can I make these spell

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out?” I held him over the cupcakes, then set the iPad back down

and looked at him hopefully.

He furrowed his brow in thought, and then a moment later,

said triumphantly, “Marshy roll.”

“What?” I wrinkled my nose. “What does that even mean?”

He shrugged. “You’re the one who wrote it.”

“I didn’t,” I protested. “Before everyone started eating them,

it was supposed to say ‘I’m Sorry Hallie.’ ”

“Well, that makes more sense,” Ford acknowledged. “So what

did you do? To this Hallie person?”

I looked down at the granite countertop and wiped up some

crumbs. It would be really nice to tell someone what was going

on. But I knew I wouldn’t tell him for the same reason I’d never

told the story to Sophie— I didn’t want him to start looking at

me differently. Once I’d made amends and Hallie had forgiven

me, that would be the moment to tell the whole saga. But not

before. “It’s a long story,” I said, looking back at him. “You know.”

“So how’s the crusader?” Ford asked, and I knew he was talk-

ing about Teddy.

“Oh,” I said. “We kind of, um . . .” I took a breath. “Broke up.” I

braced myself for an onslaught of feeling, and though my heart

did constrict a little when I spoke the words, it wasn’t as bad as

I’d anticipated. Maybe it helped that I’d had to go through it the

day before with Josh.

Ford shook his head. “I never liked him.”

“You never met him,” I pointed out. I’d certainly talked about

Teddy a lot, but since Ford shuttled between California and

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Hawaii, he and Teddy had never come face to face.

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Ford shrugged this off. “Since when is that a requirement for

disliking someone?” I smiled at that, and when Ford spoke again,

his tone was softer. “I am sorry, though, Gem. You okay?” I nod-

ded and gave him a smile, and it didn’t feel quite so much like I

was faking it this time. I heard someone call Ford on his end, and

he looked away, then back at me. “I gotta go,” he said. “We’ll talk

soon?”

“Sure,” I said.
“Mahalo!”

Ford just frowned at me. “You know that means ‘thank you,’

right?”

“Right,” I said, trying to cover. I only knew about four Hawai-

ian words, and according to Gwyneth and Ford, always managed

to use them incorrectly. “That’s why I said it. To thank you for the

anagram.”

“Right,” Ford said, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. He

gave me a smile, one that still startled me a little with its cute-

ness. Ford had been in industrial- grade orthodontia for years—

they’d called him the Shredding Headgear— and I still wasn’t

quite used to its absence. “See you.”

“
Aloha!
” I called quickly before he signed off, glad that I’d

gotten at least that one right. He waved and then a moment later,

the screen went dark. I put Bruce’s monogrammed cover back

over the iPad and examined what was left of my cupcakes.

Not seeing any better options present themselves, I moved

the cupcakes around until they spelled MARSHY ROLL. I looked

down at them and sighed. It was better than nothing, and much

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better than throwing them out and starting over. I grabbed a

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Tupperware container and started to pack them up.

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O O O

The Bridges’ house looked even more impressive in the day-

light. I could see now, as I pulled into the driveway and put

the SUV in park, that the house was right on the ocean. I could

hear the waves crashing, and see a glimpse of the shimmering

water just past the side of the front deck.

I got out of the car, carefully holding the remaining cup-

cakes, and headed toward the front door. I’d called Hallie twice

before heading over, but she hadn’t answered either time. I fi g-

ured I’d just leave the cupcakes by the door with a note if nobody

seemed to be home, but now that I was there, I was questioning

the wisdom of this plan. What if Hamptons vermin got to the

cupcakes before Hallie did? I suddenly had visions of the house

overrun by sugar- crazed raccoons. I had just raised my hand to

knock when I heard someone call, “Hello?”

I turned around and saw Hallie, wearing shorts and a T-shirt,

walking up from the direction of the water. Her hair had been

straightened, and it looked even longer than it normally did, hit-

ting almost the small of her back. She was holding an iPod in one

hand and pulling her earbuds out of her ears. “Hi,” I called.

Hallie’s expression relaxed when she saw me. “Hey, Sophie,”

she said. She smiled and came to join me on the porch. She

tucked her iPod in her shorts pocket, but not before I caught a

glimpse of what she’d just been listening to—“Let’s Lute Port-

land,” Lenin and McCarthy’s latest, the one Sophie had insisted

on playing every time we drove anywhere together. “What’s

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going on?”

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“Sorry to drop in like this,” I said, very glad now that I hadn’t

just left the cupcakes and ran, and not only because of potential

raccoons. It was really warm out, something I hadn’t had to face

in either the air- conditioned house or car. But now, standing

outside, I was aware of how hot and humid it already was, and I

knew the cupcakes wouldn’t have lasted long outside before the

frosting would have started to melt.

“It’s fi ne,” she said, her eyes falling on the Tupperware. “Are

those cupcakes?” She frowned. “What’s marshy roll?”

“It’s . . . a Connecticut thing,” I said quickly. “It’s like, the tra-

ditional Connecticut hello. You know,” I said, making it all up on

the spot and wishing I’d come up with a better explanation in

the car. “Marshy roll to you!” I did a big, fancy wave, then imme-

diately regretted it and dropped my hand.

Hallie’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh,” she said, sounding a little

confused— and I didn’t blame her. “Well . . . cool. This is so nice

of you.”

She leaned forward for a better look, and as I watched her

sleek, heavy curtain of hair swing forward as well, I couldn’t help

but wince. “Aren’t you hot with your hair down?” I asked. “It’s

sweltering out here.”

Hallie shook her head. “I always wear my hair down,” she

said. She lowered her voice. “Want to know a secret?” She lifted

up her hair to reveal ears that stuck out a bit from the sides of

her head. “Elephant ears. They’re so embarrassing.”

“They’re fi ne,” I assured her. “Really.”

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“Said like someone with normal- sized ears,” Hallie said. She

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dropped the hair, shaking her head ruefully.

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I tried to remember if her ears had been anything she’d been

worried about when we were younger, but nothing came to mind.

They looked maybe a tiny bit large, but nothing to limit your

hairstyles over. But maybe this was like how Sophie was con-

vinced that her eyes were slightly uneven, something nobody else

had ever noticed or been able to see when it was pointed out.

“These look great,” Hallie said. “And . . .” She paused and

looked closer, her voice rising a bit. “Are these vanilla frosting

and strawberry?”

“Yes,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant, so she wouldn’t sus-

pect I’d known about her dessert preferences ahead of time.

“Made with fresh strawberries, too. Why?” I prepared myself

to look shocked but pleased when she told me that I’d made her

favorite cupcakes.

“I can’t eat those.” Hallie took a step away from the Tupper-

ware. “I’m allergic to strawberries.”

I opened my mouth.
No you’re not
was on the tip of my tongue,

but I stopped myself just in time. I wasn’t supposed to know,

after all, that she’d once even liked this dessert. But . . . what?

“Oh,” I said, pulling in the cupcakes a little closer to me. “I didn’t

know.”

“It’s okay,” Hallie said, her voice still a little high and stressed-

sounding. “I break out in terrible hives, my throat starts to close . . .

it’s pretty bad.”

“God,” I said, moving the Tupperware even farther away from

her. “That’s horrible.” I had read somewhere that you could de-

velop allergies at any time, but I had never before met anyone it

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had happened to. “Well, I’ll just . . . take these home, then.” I

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looked down at the rejected, already- starting- to- melt cupcakes

with their nonsensical phrasing and realized the whole thing

had been a bit of a washout. At least the cupcake- mooching crew

back home would be happy about my failure.

“By the way, there was something I wanted to talk to you

about,” Hallie said, her voice growing more serious, and I imme-

diately felt myself tense up. A second later, I told myself to relax.

Hallie didn’t know who I really was. Nobody did. Things were

fi ne.

“What’s that?” I asked, hoping my face didn’t betray what I’d

just been thinking, and trying to keep my expression neutral.

“This is kind of hard to talk about,” Hallie said, playing with

the ends of her hair and then looking out to the water before tak-

ing a deep breath. I could feel myself getting more ner vous with

every passing second. “It’s about Josh.”

“Oh.” I immediately relaxed. “What about him?”

“I just noticed that he stayed with you at the party the other

night . . . and then he mentioned that you guys talked when you

drove him home . . .” Hallie’s voice trailed off, and I wasn’t sure if

I should wait for a question to follow, or jump in and confi rm

these facts. But a moment later, she went on. “I don’t know if he

told you,” she continued. “But he had a pretty bad breakup

recently.”

“He mentioned it,” I said, still not sure where she was going

with this.

“I just don’t want him to get hurt again,” she said, and I no-

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ticed that her cheeks were fl ushed, like she was embarrassed to

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be having this conversation.

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“Of course not,” I started, and then the penny dropped. She

wasn’t just keeping me up to date with Josh’s romantic past— she

was telling me not to get involved with her brother. Not that

I had been planning on getting involved with him, but to be

warned away like this was a little jarring.

“I know I’m totally overstepping here,” Hallie said all in a

rush. “I mean, you said you just had a bad breakup as well. So you

probably weren’t interested in anything, anyway, and I might be

way off base. I just . . . wanted to mention it.”

“Right,” I said, still trying to pro cess this. “Of course.”

Hallie smiled, like we’d just agreed on something. “Great,”

she said. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

I nodded, wondering why it was that I felt vaguely insulted

and also a tiny bit disappointed. I mean, I had no intention of

dating Josh. He was still reeling from his own breakup and prob-

ably wasn’t interested in dating me. And Hallie didn’t know me—

that is, this version of me— well enough to have this be anything

personal. But I couldn’t help but remember that when Josh had

said he was going to stay, she looked kind of pleased about it. Had

something changed? Of course, I had seen her from the pool,

without the best visibility, and I might have imagined it. But

still . . .

“Oh, and I was going to call you about this,” Hallie said,

sounding much more cheerful, like she was happy to have that

part of the conversation over with. “But can I get my bathing suit

back?”

I was suddenly jerked out of the Josh fog and back to reality.

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How had I let the issue with the cupcakes themselves cloud what

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their original purpose was? They were
apology
cupcakes, no mat-

ter what they said now, and I should have just led with that.

“The thing is,” I said, taking a deep breath. I couldn’t help but