Elin Hilderbrand - The Rumor

And then there was Madeline’s suspicion that Grace hadn’t actually finished reading her last book, Islandia. Madeline had seen it in Grace’s beach bag the previous summer when Grace had announced that she had “made it” to page 150. And then, months later, Madeline saw the book on Grace’s front hall table, and the bookmark remained at page 150. Had Grace simply stopped reading? Madeline had been too embarrassed to ask, but she had been pretty sure that her own best friend had never finished her book. This was maybe because… Grace’s intellect was too lofty, because she had been a French-literature major at precious Mount Holyoke and read only things she considered “important” and “worthy.”

Madeline couldn’t remember ever being this angry before.

“You’re right,” Grace said softly.

“I know I’m right!” Madeline screamed. “And I want my money back!”

With that, she slammed down the phone and for one second felt completely self-righteous! She thought of her novel B/G. Maybe she wouldn’t change any of the details! Maybe she would leave them all just as they were so Grace would know!

Trevor knocked on the door. “Honey, are you okay?” he asked. “Who were you talking to?”

“Grace,” Madeline spat out. Then she started to cry.

Officer Curren Brancato texted his sister, Hollis, the picture of Allegra Pancik and Ian Coburn sitting on the hood of Ian’s Camaro in their underwear. Underneath the photo, Curren wrote: Your BFF is in BIG TRUBS.

Hollis Brancato was no angel. Secretly, she had had her sights set on Ian Coburn. To learn that Allegra was hanging out with him at the same time that she was steadily dating Brick set her off like a fire alarm. She forwarded the photo to Kenzie and Bluto. Allegra is a two-timer, and here’s the proof. She didn’t use the phrase two-timer, however. She used other words, too profane to be repeated.

From Kenzie and Bluto, word spread to Hannah, and Hannah felt compelled to tell the person who would be most affected, Brick Llewellyn, and then Hannah told Calgary and Taylor Rook and Parker Marz, and the rest of Brick’s baseball team, so that he might have some brothers-in-arms.

By midafternoon on Friday, it was safe to say that every student at Nantucket High School had heard some version of what had happened to Allegra and Ian Coburn, and most of them had seen the photographic evidence. Some people said that Ian Coburn had been cuffed and thrown in jail; some said he was headed to Walpole. In truth, he had been given a slap on the wrist-the amount of cocaine found in his car was too small to charge him with intent to distribute-but his parents were concerned enough that they had already checked out several drug rehabilitation centers out West.

Worlds collided when Blond Sharon took her two ambiguously named children, Sterling and Colby, for their six-month cleaning appointment with Dr. Andy McMann. While other mothers sat in the waiting room and caught up, via People magazine, with Blake and Miranda and Kanye and Kim, Blond Sharon hung out in the exam room and chatted with Janice, the hygienist.

Janice said, “So, have you been out lately, Sharon?”

And Sharon said, “A few nights ago I went to the Sunset Soiree for the Nantucket Garden Club.”

Janice mentally tuned Sharon out as she scraped away at the plaque on Colby’s teeth with a vigor that made Colby wriggle. Colby was only seven. Janice had never seen so much plaque on a seven-year-old, and she was about to tell Sharon so when Sharon said, “Grace Pancik was there with Benton Coe, her gardener.”

“Really?” Janice said. “Were they together together?”

“Hard to say?” Sharon said. “I don’t think officially? But Jody Rouisse and I found them sitting alone by this little pond, and Grace was crying.”

Janice wondered if Grace had heard the rumor about Eddie and Madeline King. Maybe she was crying to Benton Coe about that? Janice almost asked Blond Sharon what she thought, but she wasn’t sure if Blond Sharon had heard about Eddie and Madeline. Janice sneaked a quick glance at Sharon. She knew a lot-she always seemed to be in the right place at the right time-but maybe not everything.

Sharon said, “And then later I heard that Jean Burton thinks Grace is pregnant.”

Whoa! This news startled Janice so badly that she accidentally poked poor Colby in the gum above her bicuspid, and Colby started to cry.

Janice said to Sharon, “Dr. Andy would kill me if he heard us gossiping about the Panciks. Eddie is our landlord.”

“Okay, well,” Blond Sharon said, “you didn’t hear it from me.”

The only person Janice felt safe repeating Blond Sharon’s news to was Dr. Andy himself. Grace and Benton Coe, out together at the Sunset Soiree, Grace crying because she’d discovered she was pregnant.

“What?” Dr. Andy said. So few things pierced Andrew McMann’s bubble of serenity-but this had done the trick. And what had Rachel told him recently about Madeline writing some sexy book, possibly based on her own experiences with Eddie Pancik?

On his lunch break, Dr. Andy called Rachel at the offices of Bayberry Properties. He said, “Janice told me Grace is having an affair with her gardener.”

“Oh yes,” Rachel said. “I’ve heard.”

“Oh,” Dr. Andy said. He felt a bit dejected. “Do you think maybe Madeline’s book is about Grace and the gardener and not herself and Eddie? I mean, didn’t you tell me the book was about a woman and her gardener?”

“Contractor,” Rachel said. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You just want to let Eddie off the hook because he’s your landlord.”

Dr. Andy admitted to himself that this might be true. He held a delusion that if he kept in Eddie’s good graces, Eddie would stop raising the rent; it had gone up twice in the last eighteen months. Dr. Andy had considered moving, but few people understood the logistical nightmare that moving a dental office entailed.

Rachel said, “The Pancik family is a mess. You do remember what I told you Calgary told me about Allegra?”

Dr. Andy made a noncommittal noise. When Rachel started talking about teenage drama, he tuned her out. His last memory of Allegra Pancik was as a pretty, friendly young woman with an impeccable smile and good flossing habits. And he preferred to keep it that way.

He was sinking.

The notice came from the bank, along with a stern phone call from Philip Meier, loan officer: numbers 9 and 11 Eagle Wing Lane were going to be repossessed unless Eddie could come up with the three months’ back mortgage that he owed on each.

He was going to lose them. The time had come (said the newfound angler in Eddie) to “cut bait.”

He went through the contacts on his phone once, twice, three times. Was there anybody else in his circle of acquaintances that he could ask? His buddy Lex from high school was now a slumlord in New Bedford. He was the only other person Eddie thought might have the cash and the interest (up his game a little, with two high-end projects on Nantucket)-but when Eddie called, an automated voice announced that Lex’s number was out of service.

And so, Glenn Daley it was. Eddie didn’t even bother with a phone call. The only way Glenn would realize that Eddie was dead-on balls serious was for Eddie to walk right into the office of Bayberry Properties.

This was exactly what Eddie did.

Rachel McMann, thankfully, was not at her desk. She was probably out trying to solicit clients off the tour buses.

Glenn tried not to show his surprise. “Edward!” he said, standing up. “To what do I owe this honor?”

The two men shook hands. Eddie nodded at the chair next to Glenn’s desk, which was, blessedly, separated from the rest of the floor by three cubicle walls.

“By all means,” Glenn said. “Sit.”

It was hard to explain why Eddie hated Glenn Daley so much. He was a rotund, affable guy who was losing his hair and who wore slip-on shoes. He had a loud, cheerful voice and always knew who had won what game the night before and where the stock market closed, and he’d always just seen the movie everyone was talking about or just finished the book everyone was reading. The best way for Eddie to describe it was that Glenn had always been Eddie’s rival, his adversary, the person he wanted to beat. This was probably borne out of their similarities-he and Eddie had started in the Nantucket real-estate business at the same time; they had started their own agencies at the same time-and the fact that Glenn was very good at what he did.

Glenn had been one of the cocaine abusers back in the nineties-rumor had it that an entire commission on a house on India Street had gone right up Glenn’s nose-and then Glenn went through a high-profile divorce, which had reportedly cost him three hundred thousand dollars. Lots of people liked to claim that their ex-wife was psycho, but in Glenn’s case, it was true. Ashland Daley had once chased Glenn through the Stop & Shop with a loaded pistol, and at the time, Eddie had remembered thinking it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

But Glenn had proved to be like one of those stupid Weeble toys from Eddie’s youth. Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. Glenn quit the drug habit, Ashland moved to California, and Glenn started selling houses left and right, thanks to his happy-go-lucky personality and his desire for self-improvement.

Eddie sat down in Glenn’s chair. And then, sotto voce, he explained: design and build on Eagle Wing Lane, bit off more than he could chew, and did Glenn want to score an incredible deal and help Eddie out in the process by buying numbers 9 and 11? A million dollars for both. A total steal.