"Do you know if Cordelia is coming to the island?" Grayson asked Andrew, assuming he would know the whereabouts of the oldest Thorpe sister. Last he knew, Cordelia moved to London as well. But maybe he was wrong.
Andrew's brow puckered in confusion...
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"Mom, I don't need a haircut. This is not some special occasion!" For the seven thousandth time, Grayson swatted away his mother's curious hands from his relaxed summer hairstyle.
"Yes, you do. And you will go. Because this is a momentous occasion. The Thorpe family is coming to the island after they disappeared like ghosts," she explained while digging through her oversized designer purse that perched on a marble table in the foyer. She slapped a fifty dollar bill in his palm.
"I'm not going. It's summer, and I can wear my hair how I want," he argued. During the school year when he attended his prestigious New York academy, the school board required clean cut hairstyles and shaven faces for the boys along with pristine uniforms and ugly loafers. Summer presented the only opportunity for Grayson to express himself, and he was living it up.
With college on the horizon, it shouldn't matter that much. In college, he could do and wear whatever he wanted. But he needed his freedom now.
He got the haircut.
Because his mother, Layne Mitchell, proved to be a force of nature.
And admittedly, his mind was in other places.
Before coming to the island, Grayson thought he had his entire summer planned out with loads of beach time to work on his tan, college preparation and planning, late night ice cream downtown, and picking up chicks at the shopping centers where vacationers and travelers came and went faster than the ocean tides. He planned to stay in the gym in the absence of high school sports. He wanted to spend some time with his younger sister, Delilah, despite the fact that she drove him up a wall. There was a special week in the summer that all of his friends from school were planning to visit and stay with him. He was most looking forward to that after his mother and father agreed with a little shameless sucking up.
The summer of '19. The summer before college.
Until his mother dropped the bomb on him that the island was receiving a special guest this summer - the Thorpe family. Who up and disappeared from their lives three years ago. Who left not only New York but their summer vacation destination, Martha's Vineyard. Who collected their things, flew across the pond to England, and never said goodbye. Who ripped his best friend away from him when they were just fifteen years old and the world lay in their hands, ready to be explored and conquered.
Though those statements should have affected him, Grayson strangely pondered the fact that he recalled the Thorpe family convincing his own parents to build their summer home in Martha's Vineyard, not Nantucket or the Cape. The Thorpe family set their eyes on Martha's Vineyard and no opinion would sway them from their goal - to make the island the place to be in the summer. The Mitchell and Thorpe family did everything together. They vacationed together for years before either of them made babies or settled down. It seemed natural to find a permanent vacation spot to spend their luxurious summers in the sun. Though he was young, Grayson remembered his mother's hesitation because she loved Nantucket especially. But the Thorpes romanced Layne with big wondrous dreams and promises of ever after on the island.
