But there is a certain amount of wonder once the arched wrought-iron gate opens and Coco steps inside. The boxwood hedges enclosing the garden are eight feet tall and too dense to see through; she feels like she’s entering a room. A low stone wall topped with granite benching runs around the base of the boxwoods. There’s a maze of cinder paths that wind around hydrangeas, rosebushes, a bed of cosmos and zinnias, a bed of snapdragons, pansies, and foxgloves; there’s a gazing ball on a pedestal amid cool green hostas. The flowers are in full bloom, buzzing with fat bumblebees, aflutter with butterflies. In the center is an eight-sided mahogany hot tub with elegant copper ladders hanging off each side. The bottom of the tub is tiled cobalt blue. It’s the bougiest hot tub Coco has ever seen.
Coco feels weirdly proud of Leslee for imagining such a lovely space. Leslee saw this in her mind’s eye and now they’re standing in it. “It’s like something out of a storybook,” Coco says. “Did you read The Secret Garden as a child?”
Leslee gives Coco a blank look. “It’s a party space,” she says. “We’re having a party.” Later that morning, she gives Coco six ivy-green envelopes to deliver.
Only six? Coco thinks. She wonders if Leslee made a mistake, because a lot of people are missing. But Leslee doesn’t make mistakes.
Heads, Coco thinks, will roll.
Please join us for a garden party on Tuesday, August 13,
at 6:00 p.m.
Cocktails and light bites
Suggested dress: Vintage Lilly Pulitzer
(Bring a swimsuit!)
When Sharon sees the baby-blue Land Rover pull into the driveway and Coco emerge holding an envelope, she hurries to her bedroom to hide. Robert, who is playing his video game in the family room, answers the door. (Poor kid; he probably thinks it’s Romeo—if only!)
A second later, Robert shouts, “Mom, you got something!”
Sharon is tempted to throw the envelope away without opening it, but curiosity gets the best of her. A garden party? she thinks. Vintage Lilly Pulitzer?
“Vintage Lilly Pulitzer?” Grace says. “I have an entire closet filled with new Lilly Pulitzer. Is that not good enough?”
“Wear what you have,” Eddie says. “The last thing we need to do is spend money on new clothes for the Richardsons’ party.”
“Not new clothes, Eddie. New old clothes. And yes, we do need to. Leslee will be able to spot the difference between vintage Lilly and new Lilly from In the Pink.”
“What if we skipped this one?” Eddie says.
“Skipped it?” Grace says. “You can skip it, but I want to see Benton’s work and use that hot tub.”
Eddie thinks, You are not going to a hot-tub party in a Benton Coe garden without me. “See if you can find me some vintage Lilly too.”
Delilah and Andrea are floating in Phoebe’s pool when Phoebe comes out onto the deck waving a green envelope. “Hand-delivered by Coco,” she says. “Leslee never stops.”
“I’m sure I didn’t get invited,” Delilah says. “Hell, even I wouldn’t invite me.”
Phoebe says, “Didn’t you apologize?”
Yes, Delilah apologized via text. She’d said she was upset about losing Leslee’s support for the food pantry and that she’d been drinking. I acted like a freaking child, she wrote. Please forgive me. Then she Venmoed four hundred dollars for the car detailing and sent a bouquet of sunflowers from the farm.
Leslee texted back: Don’t worry about it, lol.
Delilah thinks about telling Andrea and Phoebe that she let Coco put Leslee’s charges on the farm’s house account when Leslee’s credit card was declined, but she’s afraid it will sound like she’s patting herself on the back or like she’s hinting that the Richardsons have money problems, which is absurd.
Phoebe opens the envelope. “It’s a garden party,” she says. “Oooh, vintage Lilly Pulitzer.”
“Oooh,” Delilah and Andrea tease.
Phoebe laughs. “We mock what we don’t understand.”
The next day, when the Chief gets home from work—it was the first day of training for Nantucket’s new police chief, Zara Washington, which means Ed can officially start the countdown: thirteen days to go—Andrea shows him the invitation from the Richardsons and says, “I’m staying home but you should go.”
“What are you talking about?” The Chief studies his wife. She is still as beautiful to him as she was the first time he saw her—at the police station, standing in line to get a beach sticker for her Jeep. That day, she was wearing a white tank top, jean shorts, and flip-flops, and her hair was in a high ponytail. Ed had noticed her shoulders. He would later find out that she was a swimmer (and that she had just broken up with Jeffrey Drake, the farmer who is now one of their closest friends). Ed had introduced himself—he did this often back then because he was new—and when she smiled at him, Ed experienced a moment of recognition: You are the one for me. He’d offered to waive the fee for her sticker, and she said, “I’m not going to let you do that. I’ll go out with you for free.”
“Are you okay?” he asks now.
Andrea sighs. “Delilah and Jeffrey didn’t get invited. There’s a whole mess between Leslee and Delilah that you don’t want to know about, trust me.”
“I trust you,” the Chief says. He kisses Andrea; she has long been the one protecting him. “But I’m not going without you.”
“Will you please, Ed? Just make an appearance for an hour? I don’t think it’s wise to completely alienate the Richardsons.”
Ed gathers her up in his arms. “If you come upstairs with me, I’ll do whatever you ask.”
Andrea nuzzles against his neck. “What has gotten into you?”
“I got my first taste of freedom. Zara started today.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but Kacy’s home.”
Ed laughs. “I didn’t picture still having kids at home during my retirement.”
“Let’s go upstairs anyway,” Andrea says, “and pick your outfit.”
