Page 4 of Summer on Lilac Island

Kentwood were a few years older, I’d keep him for myself. I have Fred, of course,” she added dutifully. “You know men like

older women now. I read about it in one of the magazines in the checkout aisle. I wasn’t trying to read that tabloid trash;

it’s just that the fudgies were clogging up Doud’s, so I had to keep myself occupied in line. Dr. Kentwood has the most divine

shoulders, by the way. So broad, so brown. I get glimpses of him through the guesthouse window. Only from the waist up, nothing

scandalous.” She sounded disappointed. “I’m not spying—he just doesn’t close the blinds.”

Deirdre and Fred were housing Dr. Kentwood at their guesthouse, given its proximity to the medical clinic.

“You act like I don’t know your ways,” Eloise said. “We’ve been best friends for half a century.” Eloise and Deirdre were

both born and raised on the island. Their fathers were drinking buddies, their mothers euchre partners (euchre was a wilder,

simpler version of bridge and very popular on Mackinac). “You intentionally broke the blinds before he moved in.”

Deirdre colored. “I didn’t break them. I just didn’t have Fred fix them. There’s a difference. So when does Georgiana get

in? I’ll assemble the troops to greet her at the ferry.”

“Sometime tomorrow,” Eloise said. “I asked for her flight itinerary but she hasn’t sent it yet. She knows how nervous I get

when she’s flying. And all the way from California.”

The only time she herself had stepped onto a plane was for her honeymoon in the Florida Keys. It was all the turbulence she’d needed for a lifetime. Never had she prayed so fiercely, just about crushing the bones in Gus’s hands with her grip.

“Planes are safer than cars, though,” Deirdre said. “I’m a wreck when Joshua and Kimberly drive down to see her parents in

Grosse Pointe. Especially with the twins now. It’s a relief not to have to deal with lunatic drivers here. Though we do have

that infestation of motorized scooters, thanks to the fudgies. The mayor’s not enforcing the law; it’s an accident waiting

to happen. Someone’s going to die one of these days.” She sounded as eager as she did irate.

“I have a bad feeling Georgiana will get her hands on one of those scooters,” Eloise said. “Given how she inherited Gus’s

adrenaline junkie genes.”

“You’ve got some rebel in you too,” Deirdre said. “Remember when you played hooky senior year to go jet-skiing with Gus?”

“Yes, and I turned myself in the next day and begged for detention.” Eloise recalled the perplexed look on Principal Anderson’s

face when she’d told him why she deserved to be punished. “I’ve never been good at breaking the rules.”

They slipped off Main and headed up to Market Street. City Hall, the police department, and the courthouse were all within

a stone’s throw. The island had one police car, two fire trucks, and an ambulance as the only exceptions to the “no motor

vehicles” law. The medical center and Deirdre’s house were on Market Street too, along with the Lucky Bean, where Eloise and

Deirdre always ended their walks. Their salted caramel lattes were Eloise’s one vice—not including Gus, that is.

“Well, you’re breaking the rules now,” Deirdre said. “It’s heresy to set up your child on a blind date. Remember how angry

you were when Alice tried to fix you up with that visiting pastor? The conniver doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“That was different,” Eloise said. “I’m not interested in dating. My mother knows that. Georgiana is interested; she just

has abysmal taste. This intervention is for her own good.”

“Of course it is,” Deirdre agreed. “We don’t want her running off to Australia with some vegan yogi astrologist, do we?”

Eloise winced. Deirdre’s scenario didn’t seem too far-fetched. “This plan might push Georgiana further away from me,” Eloise

said. “But I can’t sit by and watch the train wreck that has become her life.”

Eloise felt very firmly that it was her motherly duty to help Georgiana get her life back on track. Georgiana was clearly

burned out from the string of shoddy jobs. For all her flaws, her work ethic was deceptively strong. She’d been supporting

herself since she was eighteen. Gus told Eloise he chipped in here or there, but Eloise believed her daughter’s reports that

the help had been minimal.

What Georgiana needed was to rest and reset. That was why Eloise had offered to let her stay rent-free for the summer. Give

her a break from work, a breather from the toxic influences of urban life. Remind her that there were other ways to live than

scrounging by in dangerous, overpopulated cities.

Eloise had been surprised when Georgiana agreed to the offer. That, more than anything, was how Eloise knew how bad things

must have been for her daughter. Georgiana had no tolerance for Mackinac Island. The feeling had been so strong that Georgiana

had run away at eighteen and never looked back. The Great Scandal of Mackinac Island. Though Eloise wondered if Georgiana

had been running away from Eloise or the island... Probably some combination of the two.

Either way, coming home for the summer felt like a cry for help, and therefore Eloise felt justified to intervene. Part of

that intervention was showing Georgiana that other types of men existed beyond the slick-talking, moral-bereft, commitment-phobic

boys whom big cities wrongly labeled men. Not that Eloise really knew much about Georgiana’s past relationships, if they could

even be called that. Georgiana offered only scraps when Eloise asked.

Their less-than-close relationship wasn’t for lack of effort on Eloise’s part.

She called every Sunday, but it nearly always went to voicemail—except that Georgiana didn’t believe in voicemails (“Why wouldn’t people just text?

”), so the line promptly disconnected and Eloise had to make do with a lone thumbs-up or smiley face emoji when she texted to check in.

Eloise detested emojis and was looking forward to a summer free of them.

A summer when, for the first time in a decade, she would get to spend quality time with her daughter.

Assuming Georgiana didn’t bolt off the island the moment she found out about the matchmaking.

“The suitor scheme will be good for us too,” Deirdre said, plucking Eloise from her inner world. “Splash a bit of vicarious

romance into our lives.”

It was true enough but made Eloise feel old and shriveled. Gus hadn’t visited in two years, though he said he was planning

to come for a while this summer. Eloise knew she shouldn’t still want the man who left her, but she did. They had history

together; they had children together. And besides, it wasn’t like she was going to meet anyone else on the island. Mackinac

kept her safe that way. Though there were some days that the safety felt a little stifling. Eloise had to concede that Georgiana

had a point with that critique, not that she would admit it to her daughter.

“Now believe me when I say I’m not rooting for Georgiana to murder you for what you’re about to do,” Deirdre went on. “But

if she does, we just might get one of those true crime shows to come here. The island is such an idyllic setting for the cameras.”

Eloise opened the coffee shop door, mocha aromas wafting out. She tried to keep some humor as her nerves churned. “Try to

get my corpse a cameo, won’t you?”