Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand

“What can I get you?”
    â€œI’ll have the fish BLT,” she says. “Extra mayo. Side of coleslaw. And a coffee frappe. Please.”
    Kevin scribbles the order down. Where is Ava? He’s so flustered by Norah’s presence that he can barely do the math. It’s only two fifteen, which is right in the middle of Genevieve’s nap time, so there’s no chance Isabelle will show up and see Kevin talking to Norah. But still.
    â€œHow’s your family?” Norah asks.
    â€œThat’ll be twenty-one dollars and sixty cents,” Kevin says.
    Norah pulls out her wallet and makes a show of flipping through a wad of cash. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars, it seems. So the drug-dealing part is probably true.
    â€œHey, Kev, I’ll take over here.” Ava is back, thank God! She squeezes his arm. “Hello, Norah.”
    â€œAva,” Norah says. “I was just asking after your family. Everyone good?”
    â€œGood,” Ava confirms. She takes twenty-five dollars from Norah and gives her change, which Norah stuffs into the tip jar.
    â€œThat’ll be eight to ten minutes,” Ava says.
    â€œHow’s Jennifer?” Norah asks.
    Kevin freezes.
    â€œJennifer?” Ava says.
    â€œNorah,” Kevin says. “Come on, we’re busy.”
    Norah shrugs. “I was just wondering,” she says.
    Â 
AVA
    N athaniel has been away on Block Island since July 5, and quite frankly, Ava is too busy with her new job at Quinns’ on the Beach to miss him too much. And she certainly doesn’t wish she’d gone with him. Block Island is one-tenth the size of Nantucket; it wouldn’t have provided Ava with the stimulation she requires. If things with her family ever settle down to where Ava feels like she can leave Nantucket, she will go someplace bigger, not smaller. She was right to let Nathaniel go. She had had the world’s shortest engagement.
    When Scott got back from Tuscany, he called Ava almost immediately. “When can I see you?”
    Apparently, a week in Tuscany with Roxanne hadn’t been as romantic as Ava had feared.
    â€œI was sick of her before the plane landed in Florence,” Scott said. “It was a very long week. I missed you like crazy. Did you miss me?”
    â€œNathaniel proposed to me on the
Endeavor,
” Ava said.
    Silence from Scott, which Ava savored.
    â€œWhat did you say?” Scott asked.
    â€œI said yes,” Ava said.
    Silence from Scott. The silence was delicious—like vanilla ice cream with hot caramel sauce, like the feel of silk sheets on her skin, like the first ocean swim of the year.
    â€œSo you’re getting married?” Scott said. “Really?”
    â€œNo,” Ava said. “He asked me to move to Block Island with him because he accepted a long-term job there. I said no. We broke up.”
    â€œWow,” Scott said. “For a second there, I thought I’d lost you forever.”
    Is Ava any closer to solving her quandary? Yes, much. She and Scott see each other nearly every night, although Ava is aware that when Scott isn’t with her, he’s with Roxanne. Roxanne is fragile, Scott says. And especially lately. He can’t break it off completely; he’s afraid of what she’ll do.
    Ava rolls her eyes.
    She has created her finest playlist yet: a new 1980s mix—“Modern Love,” by Bowie, “Tainted Love,” “Life in a Northern Town.” She and Kevin dance and sing into imaginary microphones as they feed the masses. Men at Work, Wham!, Loverboy. It’s a good day, a very good day.
    It’s made even better when Ava sees Shelby in line with her baby, Xavier, strapped to her chest in a BabyBjörn. Shelby gives Ava wide eyes and she mouths something, but Ava is bopping around to Cyndi Lauper and can’t make out what Shelby is saying. When it’s her turn to order, Shelby says, “I have to talk to