Friends with Boats, Publishing 5/23

Yes, you read that correctly. Greenleaf Book Group and River Grove Press will publish my novel, Friends with Boats, in May 2023, just in time for your summer beach read! Stay tuned for more, but here is a sneak peek:

Prologue

September 2019

            When the text came in early that morning, Sadie immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. She rolled over in bed, fumbled for her cell phone, put on her glasses, and felt an immediate sense of dread: Mack Taylor’s pick-up truck hit a telephone pole on Route 151 and Currier Road in the early morning hours and had rolled over. The truck was totaled, and an ambulance had take him to Falmouth Hospital. Details to follow.

Sadie felt the need to throw up. She had caused that accident. Not directly, but she had wished him dead at the Farewell to Summer Fling at Woods Hole Golf Club the night before. In fact, all three of them — Sadie, Charlotte, Ada — had wished Mack dead. Through the early morning brain fog, Sadie thought about how she had gone up to the bar to get her third glass of Whispering Angel. This was when Mack approached her from behind. She could feel the warmth of his muscular body behind her, as she slowly inhaled the familiar smell of salt air mixed with pine.

But there was nothing left to say. The summer had been an absolute disaster for all four of them, ever since Mack arrived back home on Cape Cod.

He reached over Sadie’s shoulder to grab his Moscow Mule in the chilled, copper mug. She sensed Mack was desperate to engage, as he kept turning his head toward her, but she avoided eye contact, especially with her husband, Chip, there. She slowly backed up and headed to the ballroom where the 10-piece swing band, Stage Door Canteen, played. Charlotte flailed her arms about and above her head on the dance floor, along with Caroline Wall and the other ladies from tennis. She had just returned to the Cape for the weekend. Ada, on the other hand, sat at a table with four empty chairs around her. She was picking at the bouquet of peonies and hydrangeas while her husband Ben was very animated telling a story to Chip by the window.

            But, when Mack entered the room, Sadie felt the tension escalate. All three women glanced at him. He surveyed each one of them. Mack took a final swig of his drink, steadying the cup on table, and made his way bombastically to the center of the dance floor. Since she knew he hated dancing with a passion, (he was her date at prom and at her older sister Mimi’s wedding), Sadie guessed the night was not going to end well. Mack was clearly on another bender, verifying the rumors circulating around town about his fall from grace. It was a fall that was a long time coming and one that he had brought on himself. 

But getting into a deadly car crash? He didn’t deserve that.  Or did he?