When Trisha came out to ask about the steaks, Tommy excused himself to check on Rhonda. Out on the back porch, Ryan wrapped his wife in a hug and kissed her hairline.
“It isn’t going too bad, huh?” Trisha breathed into his shirt.
“It’s going wonderfully.”
“The kids like them!” Trisha exclaimed.
“It’s like a dream,” Ryan affirmed, adjusting his head so that he gazed down at Trisha. His heart was bursting. “I love you.”
Trisha smiled. “I love you, too.”
Ryan wanted to say,I can’t believe we spent any time ignoring each other. I can’t believe we stopped communicating. I can’t believe we flirted with the idea of not being in love anymore.
But before he had the chance, Willa opened the door and called, “It’s time for dinner, or what?”
Trisha and Ryan laughed. It was time for dinner. They would sit together and engage with one another and never take for granted the art of loving one another fully.
Never again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
July 2025 - Nantucket Island
Closing the doors to the Sutton Real Estate office was a unique pleasure for Jackie Sutton Lewis—one she documented with thirty-five photographs and not just a few tears. “I’ve sold hundreds and hundreds of properties over the years,” she said to Josh as they drove away, her eyes to the rearview as it drifted out of sight. “It’s hard to believe that chapter is over.”
Josh reached over to squeeze her hand. “The thing I’m finding hard to believe is that you told Trisha and Ryan you could work today.”
Jackie shook with laughter. “They haven’t been able to get away for a night to themselves since we opened the B and B! Their anniversary came and went. Fifteen years!”
Josh chuckled, turning them out toward the Sutton Bed-and-Breakfast. With the rooms full and the newly poured parking lot glinting with strange vehicles, the Sutton Bed-and-Breakfast was certainly a different universe than it had been during thedays of Dana Sutton. Jackie knew that her mother would not have approved of the situation. But what Dana Sutton didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
I do love you, Mom, Jackie thought of her mother as they parked out front.But I don’t want to be like you. That’s okay, isn’t it?
It had to be.
As soon as the engine cut, the front door opened, and Willa burst through it. “Grandma! Grandpa!”
Jackie hurried up to hug her granddaughter, who guided her inside to meet a new family of visitors—all the way from Michigan. Jackie found herself sitting with them for over an hour, hearing about their family history and the grand islands of Michigan. Ever since they’d opened, Jackie had been mesmerized by the stories she’d heard. Sitting with anyone new was a little like opening up a brand-new book and reading on. Everyone had a story.
In turn, Jackie told the guests her stories, too. She told them that these were the happiest days of her life. She told them that, because of her own selfishness and insecurity, she’d been instrumental in chasing her son and his family away.
“But they came back,” she always said, her voice shaking. “Sometimes I don’t know what I did to deserve it.”
As Willa, Gavin, and Rudy played along the beach, racing in and out of the waves, Jackie watched from the front desk as she checked in a new couple in their fifties who’d traveled from New Hampshire. Ryan and Trisha sent a selfie from the restaurant with a text, sending their love and saying they couldn’t have done this without her.
After Jackie checked in the new couple and showed them to their rooms, she paused in front of the bedroom door that had once been hers. What felt like a thousand years ago, she’d slept in that room, dreaming up a beautiful future for herself. She’dwritten in her diary,Please, let me marry Josh Lewis. Please, it’s all I want in the world.
She’d gotten her wish. She’d gotten so much more than that.
Tenderly, she touched the wooden frame of the door and closed her eyes, thinking about the dramatic history of the house and how happy she was that it remained in the Sutton family.
She hadn’t failed after all. She’d just changed the story. Now, it was all the more beautiful and uniquely their own.
