“Willa,” he says, and she feels bad for even asking.

Brett is scheduled to appear on Great Morning USA the following Monday at eight thirty. Willa realizes she has to tell her siblings, her father, and Savannah. She would prefer just not to mention it; Carson and Leo don’t watch TV, JP is busy at the Cone in the morning making ice cream, and Savannah is so busy running her nonprofit and caring for her parents that she has even less free time than JP. Brett could appear, sing his song, and tell the story about dating Vivi, and none of them would ever know.

Lucinda watches Great Morning USA. Penny Rosen too. Probably a lot more people watch than Willa realizes—ten million people. There’s no way to keep this quiet.

Willa sends a text to her siblings: FYI, turns out Mom had a boyfriend in high school back in Ohio named Brett Caspian and he’s going on Great Morning USA to play the song he wrote for Mom at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

There’s no response from either Carson or Leo—no surprise there. They’re absorbed in their jobs, their friends, plus Leo has Marissa, and Carson has her controlled substances. Willa thinks she should check on them tomorrow but then she reasons that they’re both adults, and if they need her, they’ll let her know.

She wonders if she should tell her father or Savannah next and easily decides on Savannah. Since Savannah’s house is only two blocks away from the Whaling Museum, Willa stops by after work.

She sees Savannah’s car in the driveway so she knows she’s home, but nobody answers when Willa knocks. Willa opens the door. “Hello? Savannah, it’s Willa!” She hears vague people noises coming from the back, so after a quick pit stop in the powder room (the walls are covered in photographs, including some of Willa, Carson, and Leo when they were growing up and some of Vivi and JP when they were still married), she heads to the kitchen. Through the window, she can see Savannah’s back. She’s sitting on the edge of the pool.

Willa pops outside. “Hey!”

Savannah whips around. “Willie! Willie, hi.” Her voice sounds strange, strained, and Willa realizes that Savannah has company. There’s a man in the pool; Willa can see his form underwater.

Before Willa can even think, Oops, I interrupted something, the man surfaces. It’s JP.

“Dad?” Willa says. “What are you doing here?”

“Came for a swim,” JP says. “Before the mad after-dinner rush at the shop.”

“Oh,” Willa says. She tries to process this. It makes sense, sort of. Savannah’s house is even closer to the Cone than it is to the Whaling Museum, and Willa knows that her father and Savannah have bonded since Vivi died. But this feels like a thing. Is this a thing?

“How are you?” Willa asks. “How’s Amy?”

“Amy and I broke up last week,” JP says. He clears his throat. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“You…what do you mean, you broke up? Did she move out?”

“She did,” JP says. “She’s living at Lorna’s.”

Willa blinks. “Wow. Okay.”

“I apologize, honey. I honestly didn’t think you’d care.”

“I mean, I don’t care,” Willa says. “But also, it feels weird that we’re all living on this island and major things are happening and nobody is talking to one another and we’re supposed to be a family.”

“You’re right,” JP says. “I planned on killing three birds with one stone and telling you all at Grammy’s birthday dinner a week from Tuesday.”

Ugh! Willa thinks. August is moving way too fast, as it always does. She has completely spaced about Lucinda’s birthday dinner at the club. Now she’ll spend the next ten days dreading it.

“Did you stop by for a reason, Angel Bear?” Savannah asks. “Do you want to talk? Can I get you a glass of wine?”

“I’m all set, thanks,” Willa says. She has to decide if she wants to tell Savannah and her father about Brett Caspian together now or wait and tell only Savannah. She decides to just come out with it. “So, listen, this completely bizarre thing happened. I found that guy you were talking about on Mom’s memorial Facebook page, the one who said he was Mom’s boyfriend in high school.”

“Your mother didn’t have a boyfriend in high school,” JP says.

“Did you contact him?” Savannah asks.

“I did.” Willa should have told Savannah sooner, she realizes. She should have told her right away. “He’s legit.”

“He…what?” Savannah says.

“Your mother did not have a boyfriend in high school,” JP says. He lifts himself out of the pool and dries off. “You know there are crackpots out there, sweetie.”

“I invited him to come to Nantucket for the day,” Willa says. She swallows. “He had all these pictures of him and Mom back in Parma, hanging out at the mall and at the Christmas formal. He told me stories about her father…”

“What?” JP says.

“And he played me this song he wrote for Mom,” Willa says. “‘Golden Girl.’ It’s a really, really good song.” Willa stops there. She isn’t going to say a word about the fake pregnancy to anyone, not Savannah, not even Rip.

“What’s the guy’s name?” JP asks.

“Brett Caspian,” Willa says. “He’s going on Great Morning USA on Monday to play the song and talk about Mom. Tanya Price is interviewing him.”

“What?” Savannah and JP say together.

Nantucket

We’ve been keeping an eye on the New York Times bestseller list and the top two spots on Hardcover Fiction have remained the same: Satan’s Weekend by D. K. Bolt at number one and Golden Girl by Vivian Howe at number two. Number three has been something of a revolving door, though one of our favorite Low Country writers, Dorothea Benton Frank, camps out at number three for two weeks. Everyone loves Dottie!

A rumor goes around that a man from Vivian Howe’s past has emerged from the woodwork and will be appearing on Great Morning USA to play a song he wrote for Vivi. None of us want to miss that.

At precisely 8:40 on Monday morning, Tanya Price, our very favorite of all the morning-show hosts, introduces the segment.

“On Saturday, June nineteenth, at approximately seven fifteen a.m., bestselling novelist Vivian Howe was out for her morning run when she was struck by a car and killed. The identity of the driver is still unknown, and the island of Nantucket, located thirty miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, mourns one of its most celebrated locals. Vivian Howe leaves behind three children and thirteen novels about her island home, the most recent of which, Golden Girl, is presently at number two on the New York Times bestseller list.

“The novel begins with a high-school romance between characters Alison Revere and Stott Macklemore. I can’t say much else without spoilers, but what I can tell you is that Stott Macklemore is a budding musician who, in the book, writes a song for Alison called ‘Golden Girl.’ Turns out, Vivian Howe enjoyed her own high-school romance with our next guest, Brett Caspian. He wrote a real song entitled ‘Golden Girl’ over thirty years ago. He’s here to play it for us now.”