Nantucket Sisters by Nancy Thayer

to add.
    When the heat invades the shed, they run out to the dock and fly into the water for a long swim. Later, they head up to the house,gobble the lunch Frances has made for them, and speed off on their bikes to their different destinations. At night they phone each other to discuss new plotlines and details.
    In some ways, it’s like it’s always been, the two of them together, Nantucket sisters, so attuned to one another they scarcely need words to communicate. Sometimes they collapse into laughing fits that last until they’re gasping for breath. Sometimes they discuss sad movies and dissolve into tears.
    Sometimes they don’t go to Shipwreck House but stay up in Maggie’s room, experimenting with eye shadow and blush, painting each other’s toenails, singing love songs along to Sirius Internet Radio.
    That summer, Emily realizes how much of a fantasy world Shipwreck House provides for her. Maggie wants to ignore all signs of impending adulthood, sex, and the difficult life choices streaming toward them in an unstoppable tide, but Emily can’t. As the golden season nears the end, each day with Maggie becomes more poignant, more bittersweet. Emily feels as if she’s playing games with a friend who’s stranded in a world Emily’s about to abandon.
    Maggie would absolutely scream if she had any idea how much Emily thinks of Ben. Emily seldom sees him—he’s always working or off with his friends, but when she does catch a look at him, she’s nearly paralyzed with a mixture of terror, awe, and, in the pit of her stomach, a melting sensation that she thinks might be love.
    More and more, Emily accepts Frances’s invitations to stay to dinner so she can get a glimpse of Ben. The Ramsdales don’t really sit down to dinner in the summer—Maggie’s always rushing off to babysit, or Thaddeus is gone till late bluefishing, or Frances and Thaddeus go off to someone’s house for a cookout—but somehow there’s always plenty of good food, fresh berry pies, a pot of chili,cold salmon covered with chives from the garden, and delicious fresh sliced tomatoes. Emily and Maggie pile plates high and carry them in to eat while they watch a video. Sometimes Ben passes through, sending a squall of testosterone through the air as he shouts hello, stomps up the stairs in his work boots to shower and change clothes, and rushes back out through the house to slam into his Jeep and roar off into the summer night.
    One day, toward the end of the summer, Maggie tells Emily, “I’ve got a treat in store for you. If you’re up for it.”
    They’re lying on the wood dock after a cooling swim in the harbor. The sun picks off, one by one, drops of water from their skin.
    Emily turns to look at Maggie, whose nose is peeling. “I’m up for anything.”
    Maggie’s dark eyes glitter with mischief. “Want to see Ben’s hideout?”
    “You’re kidding, right?” Ben could come home anytime, to fetch something he forgot or something for Thaddeus, and what would happen then, Emily can’t even imagine. As much as she wants Ben to notice her, she doesn’t want him to hate her.
    “Thaddeus and Ben went off island today to pick up some supplies. They’re taking the late boat back.”
    “What are we waiting for?” Emily cries.
    The girls spring up. Without stopping to pull on dry clothes or shoes, they race along the dirt path through the heathland back toward the house and barns. Small thorns scratch Emily’s ankles as she runs, and she couldn’t care less. She’s like a bullet, focused, aimed.
    Ben’s retreat is in the loft of the newest barn. No one’s in the house and all the cars are gone, so they slip through the barn door and stand for a moment, catching their breath. The air smells of straw and metal. An assortment of shovels, rakes, gas cans, buckets,and bags of fertilizer for the garden make a maze the girls slide through on their way to the ladder at the shadowy back of the barn.
    “You go first.” Maggie