Nantucket Nights by Elin Hilderbrand

live in New York. That’s where I grew up. I told Antoinette all this already over the phone.”
    “Of course,” Kayla said. “Well, anyway, the car’s out here. Have you eaten lunch?”
    “No,” Lindsey said. “I wanted to eat with Antoinette.”
    “That was thoughtful,” Kayla said. The longer she waited to tell Lindsey the news, the more Kayla felt like she was deceiving her. “Okay, look, my car is over here. The Trooper.” Kayla walked ahead of Lindsey and opened the back so she could load her luggage in, and wham —the stench of old lobsters. Even more alarming were Antoinette’s black Chuck Taylors sitting there like a ghost that only Kayla could see. Kayla climbed in the driver’s side and let down all the windows and turned on the air-conditioning. Lindsey got in the passenger side, backpack at her feet. Now what? Drive away? Explain things here in the smelly car, in the hot airport parking lot? Kayla sat tapping her palms against the steering wheel, letting the cool air blast the dampness between her breasts and under her arms.
    Lindsey cleared her throat. “Is everything okay?” she asked. “Where’s Antoinette?”
    I wish I knew, Kayla thought. The car had cooled down some, so she put up the windows. “Your mom...” She had to stop saying that!
    “Antoinette and I have been friends for twenty years, since just after you were born. It was just after you were born that your mother moved here.”
    Lindsey nodded. “She told me.”
    “I’m not sure how to put this,” Kayla said. “I have some bad news.”
    “She doesn’t want to see me.”
    “No, that’s not it. She does want to see you. But something’s happened. Last night, your mom and I and another friend of ours went swimming. We went swimming in the dark and Antoinette disappeared.” Kayla paused. This sounded ridiculous, even to her. “We called the police and the coast guard, and they had a helicopter searching, but they haven’t found her. As far as I know. I mean, there may be a message waiting for me at home. But when I left the house half an hour ago, they hadn’t found her yet. Your mom...” Stop it! Kayla told herself. “Antoinette is missing.”
    Lindsey made a noise like a hiccup; then she lit into Kayla. “That is such bullshit ! ” she said. “Disappeared while swimming? That’s the best you can do?” She pulled a small package of tissues from her bag. She was crying now, her smooth facade melting. “I know this is difficult. It was the hardest thing in the world to board the plane this morning.
I was the one who was abandoned. How do you think that feels? How long do you think it took me to summon the courage to even contact the agency? And then Antoinette tells me over the phone that the reason she gave me up was because my father cheated on her in this disgusting way and she developed suicidal tendencies. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.” Lindsey looked out the window at the car next to Kayla’s—a rusty red Wrangler with the top off. “Okay, well I guess I can’t make her want to see me. And if she doesn’t want to see me, I’m sure as hell not sticking around.” She reached for the door handle. “Thank you, Ms I’m sorry, I forgot your name.”
    “Kayla. Kayla Montero.” Kayla didn’t know what to do. What would be more painful: to think this was some kind of elaborate hoax, or to know the truth—that the day you were to meet your birth mother she actually did disappear? Drowned, possibly.
    Kayla touched Lindsey’s arm. Lindsey had goose bumps; the air-conditioner was going full-blast now, and Kayla turned it down.
    “I understand what you’re thinking,” Kayla said. “I wish this were all made up, Lindsey, but it’s not. I’m telling you the truth. Antoinette, we think, got lost in the water off Great Point. I say “we think’ because nobody’s sure. The coast guard seems convinced that if she had been swimming, they would have found her. Anyway, we checked her