Free Nantucket Sisters by Nancy Thayer Page B

no?”
    Emily gives her the eye. “Do you think he’ll say no?”
    Maggie blushes again and calls Shane.

CHAPTER NINE
    Wednesday evening Ben drives Emily over the rutted sand to a beach on Coskata at the head of Nantucket Harbor. No one else is there. The light is diffuse with moisture, like an Impressionist painting.
    Ben sits cross-legged on a blanket, eating the cold chicken, potato salad, and lemon meringue pie Emily bought at Petticoat Row Bakery. While they eat, they talk about the men Ben works with, and Emily tells him about the kids she showed around the aquarium.
    When they finish eating, Emily tidies things into the picnic hamper. Then Ben walks down to the water and stands staring out. Emily stands next to him.
    The tide is low, exposing all the sandbars. Channels of water ripple like clear silk over the pebbles. The sun sinks downward in the sky, casting long shadows. For a few moments they don’t speak. They walk around the white branches of a fallen tree, stripped smooth and polished to marble by the wind. Fiddler crabs scuttle to theirholes. On a distant sandbar, a pair of dark cormorants stand, two capital letter T’s, their wings extended to dry. It’s very still. The lights of town are far away.
    He picks up a flat rock and skims it over the water. “Okay. I’ll say it. What are we doing here?”
    Emily’s confused, and at the same time, she’s suddenly, ecstatically, aware. “Having a picnic?” she answers, her voice light.
    “Slumming it?” Ben suggests, not looking at her.
    “What?”
    “Come on, Emily. You’re rich. You’re a city girl. You’ve been everywhere. You’re out of my league.”
    Emily studies Ben’s face. In the fading light, his expression is almost impossible to read, but she feels an urgency and a gathering-up in him, like a swimmer about to dive.
    “That’s ridiculous, Ben.” She touches his hand. “Come on.”
    He doesn’t move away, but he seems to contract, somehow, to withdraw tighter in an invisible shell. She sees the pulse beating in his neck. His skin is hot, he’s like a crystal figure in a kiln. With a lightning bolt through her heart, she understands that her words could liberate him or break him.
    The magic of the night gives her courage. Breathing the air, she fills herself with its clarity. She knows exactly what she wants—and what it is that she can give.
    “Ben, don’t you know? I love you.”
    He stands as still as stone.
    “I’ve never said that before to anyone except my parents,” she confesses. “I’ve never felt this way before. It’s not just that I think you’re handsome, although of course I do think that. It’s that—I’m so full of admiration for you. I think you’ve become—wonderful. I always sensed that you were powerful, but now—well, now you’re powerful and good . I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone like you. I would never hurt you, never. I feel privileged that you showed methis island. That you shared your love for it with me. I love you for that.”
    At last Ben turns to her. His blue jay eyes are solemn.
    “Are you going to say anything?” Emily asks.
    He smiles. He says, “Emily.” He pulls her to him, he puts his mouth on hers.
    She’s wealthy. He’s not. She gives him all she has—she gives him her mouth, her body, her praise. She kisses him. They help one another take off their clothes, making a nest in the sand. When they’re both naked, Emily presses her lips against his chest, his belly, his groin, his eyes. She has heard about what girls can do to boys—it’s always seemed ludicrous—but caresses now come to her as if they’re all her own idea, the first time on this earth. Ben’s breathing hard, shuddering, beautiful in the moonlight, and his hands are on her breasts. He rolls her on her back and rises above her. The sand shifts beneath her as she opens her legs. He says her name.
    Like a diver on the cliff, he holds back. She moves her hips and then, to her surprise, she sees the