“You know, I can work from anywhere,” Sam said. “If you ever did decide to try a whole summer here, Connor and I could come for a while. We could ask Mom to hold off for a year or two. I bet she’d do it.”
“Maybe,” said Sarah. She looked sad and remote. “I don’t know.” She slid the elastic off her ponytail, staring down at the water. “It feels like everything’s changing, you know? Everything, all at once.”
It was another near-perfect opening. But Sarah already looked so glum, Sam was reluctant to drop another bomb.
“Agh!” yelled Connor, running backward through the knee-deep water as fast as he could. “There’s a crab! A giant big one!”
“Did it pinch you?” asked Sam.
“No, but I can see it!”
Sam waded into the clear shallows, where he saw a large crab, waving both of its claws in the air as it attempted to scuttle away.
“It’s more afraid of you than you are of it,” Sam reassured his stepson. Together, they watched as the crab skittered sideways and buried itself in the sand.
“I like how they do that,” said Connor.
Sam put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Stick with me, kid,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll go out at low tide and I’ll teach you how to find clams with your feet.”
After an hour, Connor’s nose and cheeks were looking pink. Sam herded the boys up the beach stairs and into the outdoor shower to rinse off. When the kids went back to the pool, Sam took his own shower, changed into khaki shorts and a polo shirt, and went up to the kitchen. He helped his mother pick the meat out of the lobsters, while Ruby, her curls held back by a red bandana, sliced avocado, tiny heirloom tomatoes, crispy bacon, and hard-boiled eggs. Lobster Cobb salad was Ronnie’s signature summer dish, and she served it with ears of corn on the cob and homemade garlic bread. It was their usual welcome-to-the-Cape meal, and the taste of it had always signaled the beginning of summer to Sam.
The boys shucked the corn and set the table. Ruby whisked the dressing. Just before sunset, they all took their seats at the long wooden table that stretched between the kitchen counter and the living room’s couches. Ronnie and Sarah wore sundresses, and the boys were in T-shirts and shorts, with their faces flushed from the sun. Everyone’s feet were bare, and everyone looked relaxed and happy as Eli passed a bottle of white wine around the table and the boys pleaded to be allowed to drink soda instead of water （“It’s a special occasion!” said Dexter）。
Ronnie raised the blinds for the traditional exclaiming over the sunset. Once the sun had dipped below the horizon and the ritual was complete, the platters were passed the length of the table, and everyone began to eat.
Sam kept his eyes on Eli during the meal, watching as his brother-in-law picked at his food and ignored his daughter’s teasing remarks. Miles had to ask him twice to pass the water pitcher, and when Veronica asked if he’d prepared a toast, he’d looked like a kid who hadn’t done the reading and who’d just learned there’d be a pop quiz.
“I’m working on it,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry,” said Ari. “Eli’s Old Faithful. He’s never let anyone down.” Sam was almost positive he saw Eli glare at his brother and Ari smirk in return, as his mom asked, “Sam, what’s new with you?”
“Oh, the usual,” he said. “Nothing to report.”
Ronnie narrowed her eyes and looked him over, before giving a shrug so small that everyone else at the table probably missed it. Sam didn’t miss it. His mother, he realized, had figured out that something was going on. He wondered if she had any idea what that something was.
Ronnie looked at Sam, then at Sarah, then at Eli, before lifting her wineglass. “To family,” she said. “I’m so glad for Ruby, and so glad to have all of you here.”
“To family!” the boys repeated, in a noisy chorus, and knocked their plastic cups together.
“To family,” said Ruby, and clinked her glass against Ronnie’s. Sam looked at his step-niece, remembering her sitting at this very same table, when she’d been holding a plastic cup instead of a wineglass. Sunrise, sunset, he thought. There was a lump in his throat, and his eyes felt hot.
“To family,” said Ari.
“Family,” Eli said very softly.
“Family,” said Sarah, giving Eli a look that was both pointed and frightened.
“To family!” said Sam, and glanced discreetly at the time, thinking that in only a few hours, he’d slip away from all this and into the gaudy, spangled spectacle that was Provincetown after dark.