The Summer Sail Read online

  Praise for Wendy Francis

  The Summer of Good Intentions

  InStyle Magazine’s 7 New Page-Turners to Read in July

  Woman’s World Book Club Pick

  PopSugar’s 23 Perfect Poolside Reads

  “The Summer of Good Intentions is a tender and vivid portrait of a family by the sea, of three unforgettable sisters and the tidal pull of their love and secrets. Wendy Francis is a wonderful writer. She made me feel the salt air.”

  —Luanne Rice, author of The Lemon Orchard

  “There is much to like in Wendy Francis’s The Summer of Good Intentions. Love in all of its messiness is written with convincing thoughtfulness and insight, each flawed character beautifully and realistically portrayed. Feel the sand between your toes as you explore the special bonds of sisterhood and family in what promises to be one of the best books of summer.”

  —Karen White, author of Flight Patterns

  “I was immediately engrossed by this story of three adult sisters who share their own bonds, heartbreak, and challenges. So much more than a beach read, this very real, poignant, and funny novel will make you look at your own family in fresh, new ways.”

  —Lee Woodruff, author of Those We Love Most

  “A lovely summer read. Wendy Francis deftly explores the bonds of sisterhood and the complexity of family relationships.”

  —Wendy Wax, USA Today bestselling author

  “Wendy Francis has created both a family and a story I did not want to leave. These three sisters on a summer vacation display the strong ties that can both hurt and heal a family. Filled with the sweet briny air of Cape Cod, this extraordinary tale shows that, together, we can weather all the seasons of life.”

  —Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Bookshop at Water’s End

  “Wendy Francis’s book thrilled me like a ride in a race car along the coast with the top down. It is everything a summer read should be.”

  —Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Identicals

  “A compassionate and warm family drama filled to the brim with characters who feel like old friends.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “An effective and smoothly written summer novel. . . . Skillful writing and realistic dialogue. Maybe this is what’s meant by an ‘addictive’ summer read. We read on to find out whether, or if, these folks will re-order their lives and begin to pay closer attention to each other. Yep. Life is short. Summer only comes once a year. And some of the best parts are to be found in the little Book of Summer in that quaint Cape Cod house, lovingly added to each year.”

  —Barnstable Patriot

  “Touching. . . . An especially memorable, enjoyable read about family ties and the highs and lows of relationships between couples.”

  —Edge Media Network

  “You are headed to Cape Cod even if you don’t leave your front porch. . . . Watch as the family drama unfolds with lots of laughter, heartache and healing.”

  —Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA)

  “A tale of love, loss, and repair, offering comforting themes and lessons about avoiding the mistakes of our parents.”

  —Improper Bostonian

  “What do you get when you mix family, secrets and a mysterious accident? A messy and engrossing scorcher of a story that we couldn’t walk away from even after the sun went down.”

  —Booktrib.com

  “A must on any summer reading list.”

  —A Southern Girl’s Bookshelf

  “This book will be deservedly popular in the beach bags of Edgartown and Truro this summer.”

  —Open Letters Monthly

  “A poignant and heartwarming novel. . . . Wendy Francis brings the seaside retreat vibrantly to life and the idyllic setting perfectly balances the characters’ weightier issues. . . . A warm and inviting story with a close-knit family whose bonds are strengthened by crisis.”

  —Book Reviews & More by Kathy

  “A wonderful summer read full of changing family dynamics, The Summer of Good Intentions is one you’ll want to tuck into your tote bag . . . everything you could want for a perfect beach read.”

  —Sunshine State Tourist

  “The perfect escape!”

  —Liz & Lisa, “Best Books of July”

  “A riveting novel of life and the unknown we all must eventually face.”

  —The Romance Reader’s Connection

  Three Good Things

  “A toothsome tale . . . a debut as light, sweet, and fluffy as Danish pastry dough. Culinary romance lovers—fans of Sharon Boorstein, Susan Mallery, and Deirdre Martin—will devour it.”

  —Library Journal

  “Like gossip over morning coffee in the kitchen . . . warm and comforting.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Three Good Things is a flavorful tale of sisters and second chances, fresh starts and sweet surprises. Wendy Francis has written a rich debut, sure to delight the lucky readers who discover her here.”

  —Barbara O’Neal, author of The All You Can Dream Buffet

  “There are so many good things to say about Three Good Things. It’s a warm, witty, and wise story of sisters on their journey through love and life. Wendy Francis’s new novel is as delicious as the kringles made in Ellen’s bakeshop.”

  —Susan Wiggs, author of Family Tree

  “Wendy Francis’s Three Good Things is as sweet, rich, and comforting as a Danish kringle, spiced with lots of good surprises.”

  —Nancy Thayer, author of Secrets in Summer

  “A lovely story about people you wish were your next-door neighbors. I wish, too, the kringle shop were next door, because I loved the mouthwatering descriptions of its treats. Curl up with this book, along with a cup of tea and a kringle (what else?), and lose yourself in a world you won’t want to leave after you turn the last page.”

  —Eileen Goudge, author of The Replacement Wife

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  For my forever sisters, near and far

  And for Mike, my rock

  Prologue

  Abby slid the invitation into the envelope. It was a lovely invitation, on sturdy cream card stock with blue script and a jaunty little boat sailing across the top. She knew it was silly to have ordered special cards in this day and age when everything got sent electronically, but a twentieth wedding anniversary seemed to demand a certain amount of decorum. And it was the perfect reason to celebrate. Every year, she and her two college roommates tried to meet up for a reunion somewhere in the States, but this year, she wanted to propose something different: a cruise, an island getaway to Bermuda. What could be more idyllic?

  She sealed the envelopes, affixed the stamps, and addressed them in her loopy handwriting, one to Ms. Lee Minor in Charleston, South Carolina, and the other to Ms. Caroline Canton in New York. Abby smiled at the thought of her roommates’ spotting the invitation in a sea of advertisements and magazines in their mailboxes. It was good to try something different every so often, and as she’d said to her husband, Sam, when first pitching the idea, If not now, then when?

  Frankly, she was desperate for a proper getaway, one where she would be among friends, plied with good food and drink, and tasked with nothing more than a decision on where to dine that night (the ship had five elegant restaurants on board). Abby had barely surviv
ed the homestretch of her boys’ sophomore year—both twins seemed intent on growing up too quickly—and she was counting on the cruise to entertain them with its endless loop of activities. Meanwhile, she could lounge by the pool in peace.

  It was, as Sam liked to say, a win-win.

  Now if she could just twist Caroline’s arm to take a full week off from work and Lee to treat herself and her daughter to a vacation, all would be well. Abby would call them later, once they’d had time to consider the idea. The sales pitch was easy—Caroline needed a break from her stressful editor’s job at Glossy magazine, and Lee and Lacey could use some uninterrupted time together to smooth things out between them (Lee, a teacher, would be on summer vacation in June). Abby needn’t mention any other reason—beyond her anniversary, of course—why it was so pressing that they come. They would find that out soon enough.

  She licked the final envelope and addressed it to Sam’s office on campus. He’d get a kick out of that, being invited to his own anniversary party. Somehow the formal invitation made the whole idea of a cruise—up to this point a dreamy mirage—crystallize into reality. Abby could almost smell the sea breeze, taste the margaritas, feel the sand between her toes.

  She decided she would walk the letters over to the post office herself, only a few blocks from home. No point in worrying whether the invitations had actually made it into the mail. She headed out the door, envelopes in hand, and was flooded with a newfound sense of anticipation. A sail away to a tropical island. Yes, it was just the thing she needed.

  She hoped her roommates would say yes.

  The honor of your presence is requested at

  A Renewal of Vows

  On the 20th Wedding Anniversary of

  Abigail and Samuel Bingham

  The Bermuda Breeze, Aequor Cruise Lines

  Departs from Boston Harbor

  June 15–23

  1

  When the invitation arrived in her mailbox, Caroline didn’t know what to think. She recognized Abby’s handwriting immediately. Had she forgotten a birthday? Why was Abby sending her a formal note? She tore open the envelope and read. The honor of your presence is requested at a Renewal of Vows. Oh, she thought, Abby and Sam’s anniversary, of course. The invitation was so old-fashioned, so pretty. So Abby. Caroline ran her finger over the swirling blue font. A twentieth anniversary celebration. It took her a moment to register the cruise part. Oh, she thought again. Weren’t cruises for old people? Surely, their gang wasn’t part of the senior set yet, ready to ring the bell on their last sunset. Why not a trip to Vegas—or someplace remote, like Iceland, to mark the occasion?

  The last time Caroline, Lee, and Abby had all gotten together, it had been for their annual girls’ weekend in Aspen. Each year, the three of them left their messy lives behind for a few days and pretended it was like old times. Which it kind of was, because every time they gathered, the years fell away and they might as well have been sitting on the frayed chenille couch in their dorm room and watching Jeopardy! Except the hotel rooms they stayed in these days had four-hundred-thread-count sheets, Wi-Fi, and room service.

  On the bottom of the invitation, Abby had written: “Please come! It will be fun! You, me, Sam and Javier, Lee and Lacey. All expenses paid. Pretty please?” Caroline wondered if Lee’s daughter, Lacey, would actually agree to join them or, now that she was a freshman in college, if she was too cool to spend a week with her “aunts.” Still, a vacation was a vacation, and Abby and Sam were offering to pay. Caroline gazed out her apartment window at the Manhattan skyline.

  A cruise?

  As much as Caroline loved to travel, she had a thing about boats. She’d much rather be suspended forty thousand feet above land in an airplane than floating on a bottomless sea. The one time she’d gone sailing—years ago, on a yacht with the dashing editor of Milan’s fashion magazine—she’d vomited over the side and ruined what might have been a promising evening. She supposed, though, that there were things like Dramamine and those little acupressure bracelets she could wear now. Did people even get seasick on big cruisers?

  Her mind darted to Javier. She checked the invitation again. You, me, Sam and Javier. Of course, Abby had thought to include Javier, even if Caroline’s three-year-old relationship with him was nothing like her friend’s sturdy, stalwart marriage of twenty years. And if she were being completely honest, Caroline occasionally had her own smidgen of doubt about her boyfriend, like an old back injury that resurfaced from time to time. But maybe a cruise, an anniversary cruise, would spark something in him. The idea that it was time to take whatever it was they were doing to the next level.

  Whenever the roommates got together, Abby and Lee would press her for news. Any ring yet? And Caroline would wave it off, pretending not to care. The first year she and Javier had dated, she really hadn’t cared. She was content to find someone so kind, so smart, someone who tolerated her insane work schedule now that she was a senior editor at Glossy magazine. Javier traveled almost as much as she did, jetting from vineyard to vineyard and sampling wines for his boutique stores back in New York. Her boyfriend was a sommelier. It had an appealing ring to it—plus, he was the most amazing lover she’d ever had. She didn’t need someone to settle down with, had never felt the maternal tug.

  But lately she’d been thinking more about having a permanent place they could call home, a dwelling beyond their loft apartment on the Lower West Side. A little house, maybe, in Connecticut, or across the way in New Jersey. Caroline wasn’t getting any younger, and though Javier rightly pointed out that she’d always be younger than he (seven years to be exact), she was beginning to register that desire her girlfriends had described: a longing for a commitment with heft, a solemn oath that he’d spend the rest of his life with her, in sickness and in health. Javier had promised her all of these things, but Caroline was feeling the need to make it official. Was that so crazy of her? Abby, at least, told her no.

  Caroline was happy for Abby, truly, genuinely glad that her friend had had the good fortune to be married to a solid guy like Sam for twenty years. She loved Abby like a sister. But, if she was being completely honest, she was also a tiny bit jealous. Because if Sam and Abby were celebrating their twentieth, what was Caroline celebrating? Fifteen years in the publishing industry? As if that deserved a candle! She, Lee, and Abby had all started out of the same proverbial running blocks at their small New England college, yet Caroline felt outpaced by both her best friends.

  She wandered over to her desk and flipped ahead in her calendar to June. Ever since she’d jettisoned the world of wedding planning and neurotic brides fifteen years ago, Glossy had become her home away from home. Most nights found her in the office till eight or nine, but, aside from a few meetings she could pass along to her assistant, the week of the cruise looked wide open. Could she afford to take an entire week off from work? She was about to pencil it in with a question mark when her phone rang. Abby. Caroline picked up.

  “Did you get the invitation? Are you coming?”

  “Hello to you, too,” Caroline said with a laugh. “Perfect timing—I just opened it. Wow, twenty years. Can that be right? We must be getting old.” She settled onto her sofa and watched as the sidewalks below began to fill with purposeful New Yorkers striding out in the brightening Saturday afternoon.

  “Twenty years is right. But since we were all in our early twenties when Sam and I tied the knot, I consider us still young.”

  “I’m happy to go along with that reasoning,” said Caroline.

  “So, you’re coming, right?” Abby pressed again. “I realize it’s short notice, but the cruise line has a great deal going, and Sam and I have been wanting to do something special to celebrate our anniversary. And, well, I haven’t seen you in a year, and did I mention we can drink cocktails on the lido deck?”

  Caroline smiled despite herself. Abby had always been a gifted saleswoman. A cocktail poolside sounded pretty appealing at the moment.

  “Please tell me I don’t hav
e to wear that awful seafoam dress again.” Abby had put Lee and Caroline in ridiculous ruffled bridesmaids’ dresses for her big day—an unfortunate fact that they would never let her forget. The wedding itself, however, had been gorgeous, set in a quaint seaside town on the Cape.

  “Ha! As if any of us could fit into our old dresses. I gave away my wedding gown as soon as the twins were born.”

  Caroline laughed. Abby’s twin boys, Chris and Ryan, were now sixteen. “I think I donated my dress to Goodwill the day after your wedding,” she kidded. “Let me check with work and Javier and get back to you? You know I’d love to go.”

  “Fine, but even if Javier can’t come, your presence is mandatory. You were my wedding coordinator after all.” And with that, her friend buzzed off.

  Caroline thought back to Abby’s wedding day. One of her first jobs as a wedding coordinator, it had been all she could do to keep things running smoothly, what with the flowers nearly forgotten and then Sam fainting from the heat. But the day had been a success because Sam and Abby had gotten married. Finally! After three years of dating in college and four after that.

  Of course, Abby would be the first of the roommates to get married. People were always drawn to her, the way she exuded an air of calmness and a certainty that everything would turn out all right. She’d easily assumed the role of den mother of their little college pack. Caroline was the driven one, the studious roommate who made sure everyone turned their papers in on time. And Lee, with her long golden hair and southern accent, was the kind of girl for whom college seemed tailor-made (Caroline remembered one boy actually dropping his tray in the dining hall when Lee walked in). If Lee weren’t so nice and funny, if the three of them hadn’t been assigned as roommates, Caroline would probably have hated her.

  The summer before freshman year, they’d all filled out a questionnaire meant to pair them with compatible roommates. But when they’d shown up that first day—Lee from Charleston, funny, to the point, and with a predilection for saying “y’all”; sweet, down-to-earth Abby from the Cape; and Caroline from Long Island with a toughness that neither of her roommates seemed to possess—none of them could understand why they’d been thrown together. Aside from the fact that they’d all checked off Impressionist painting as their favorite art, they didn’t appear to have much in common. They’d spent that first afternoon taking the measure of one another.