The Hotel Nantucket

Alessandra is giving her number to a guest, Dr. Romano, when she realizes that her high-school friend, Duffy Beecham—the daughter of the first man she seduced—is there with her husband and baby. Duffy instantly recognizes Alessandra and moves to pick up the acquaintance, although it is evident that their friendship has declined. Duffy’s husband, Jamie, jokes that Alessandra is the reason why his wife cannot drink tequila; however, Alessandra knows that on a fateful night in their teens, she was the one who held Duffy’s hair while she vomited.

Alessandra recalls how she always idolized Duffy’s father, Drew, a Stanford professor with a rich, intellectual life. The Beecham parents liked and pitied Alessandra in equal measure; however, the night she called them when Duffy had passed out drunk, the mother, Mary Lou, blamed Alessandra. Mary Lou ordered Drew to get Alessandra out of her sight. That was the night when Alessandra and Drew’s affair began.

Now, Alessandra finds herself allowing Jamie to talk her into giving them a room upgrade. She avoids Duffy and sleeps with Dr. Romano. Edie intuits that Alessandra wants to avoid Duffy, so she allows her to take long lunch breaks to minimize the chance of collisions. The next day, Raoul catches Alessandra sneaking out late after a tryst with Dr. Romano. He tells her that Duffy and Jamie had a fight that required police intervention. Raoul also divulges that Jamie told him that Duffy is not supposed to drink as she is nursing, but she was “triggered” by bumping into an “old friend” (196).

When Duffy leaves the next day, Alessandra thinks her blast from the past is over. However, Richie announces that Alessandra must pay the $645 rate for the upgraded suite for the first night. When Alessandra points out that Edie did the same with the Marshes, Richie reluctantly lets it go and tells them not to repeat the experience.

Grace sees Kimber stumble across Richie, who is locked in Lizbet’s office at 1:15 in the morning. She complains that she cannot sleep and that she wants to show him a copy of Wanda’s article titled “The Mystery of the Haunted Hotel.” Kimber tries to tempt Richie upstairs to check out the fourth floor and see if the ghost is there. He says that he does not want to lose his job, although he takes her hand. Grace watches them make out and hopes they do not forget about her article.

On Friday night, Chad is expecting an email from a guy called Paddy. When he gets to work, there is no ferry service, so it will be just him and Magda cleaning the rooms. While the rooms are disgusting, Chad is satisfied when he finally gets to cleaning. He thinks that Paddy would understand this satisfied feeling, as he ran a lawn-mowing business in North Carolina. He wonders if Paddy “is healed enough” from his injuries to return to lawn mowing (208). Chad drives around town to avoid meeting his father. He spots Magda entering house number 133 and meeting a posh-looking man who shakes her hand. He wonders if she is cleaning there as a side hustle.

At home, his venture-capitalist father is acting as though everything is back to normal after the incident in May. Paul cannot see why Chad is not taking the summer off to enjoy himself. Chad asks if Paul has heard about what happened to Paddy. Paul replies that the surgery Paddy had did not work, and now he will lose his eyesight permanently. While Chad feels heartbroken over what happened to his college best friend, Paul goes on about paying medical bills in addition to compensation for Paddy’s injured eye. Chad wants to contribute his paycheck so that Paddy knows he worked hard for it. Despite Paul’s protestations, Chad refuses to quit his job.

Xavier sends another email announcing that Alessandra has won employee of the week. Meanwhile, Edie is enjoying spending time with Zeke, a boy she had a crush on during high school. Zeke comments that Alessandra winning the money seems like “a setup” (216). They agree to spy on Alessandra. When Zeke enters his number in Edie’s phone, he tells her that a man called Graydon has requested a $500 Venmo payment. She calculates that Graydon has made such a request every three weeks and starts deleting the request. Graydon then responds with a message containing her mother’s contact details. Edie automatically sends him the money.

This chapter is written in the voice of the village gossip. Edie presents Wanda’s article about the ghost to Jordan Randolph, publisher of the Nantucket Standard. The article, which appears on July 21st, is a hit, garnering curiosity about the hotel and even inspiring copy-cat articles, which gives it wider fame across the country.

However, the article is eclipsed by the gossip that Michael Bick and Lyric Layton had an affair that resulted in her pregnancy, following Heidi finding Lyric’s shoes, eyeshadow, and pregnancy test. Ari Layton, who previously spotted Michael checking out his wife, is now worried that Lyric’s child might not be his own. While both accused parties deny the charge, Michael keeps coming up with conspiracy theories of how the stuff was planted in his house and is “generally acting like a man with a guilty conscience” (221).

Meanwhile, there is a disaster at the Deck; a heartbroken Christina quit and seems to have left the island permanently. JJ ruminates that he has thrown his luck away by cheating on Lizbet.

Grace is the reason for the hotel’s sudden success, and she makes cheeky appearances to delight the guests. When a 17-year-old girl is nervous about coming out to her parents, Grace tries to make her feel warm and supported, and when her parents hesitate to respond, Grace nudges them toward her to remind them that they love her. Lizbet is thrilled because Wanda’s article gives a massive boost to The Hotel Nantucket’s popularity. She is certain that Shelly Carpenter will pick this time to visit. Meanwhile, Kimber and Richie consummate their relationship, and with Lizbet’s permission, Richie is allowed to sleep in Kimber’s suite.

Lizbet and Mario enter a dreamy stage in their relationship, where she goes to his cottage at lunch every day, and he cooks for her after they make love. However, at a softball game, she watches Yolanda creep over to Mario and kiss him on the lips. Lizbet then becomes super-vigilant of Yolanda and Mario’s relationship, especially as Yolanda often emerges from his kitchen with tasty, off-menu treats. Then, while Lizbet is at Mario’s, she sees a flirty text from Yolanda about helping her out with a thing later. Lizbet tries to stifle her fears and tell herself that she is imagining things. She feels that she cannot demand to know whether he is seeing other people because they never said they were exclusive. She feels so afraid of getting hurt again after what happened with JJ that she needs to put the brakes on falling in love.

Grace has strange vibes about Bone Williams, a guest Alessandra is entertaining, as she watches them enter his room. Once inside, he pushes Alessandra roughly and thinks she owes him sex for ordering a $500 bottle of Barolo at dinner. When Alessandra is alarmed and rejects him, he attempts to pin her down. Grace comes to the rescue and hits Bone Williams hard in the jaw, allowing Alessandra the opportunity to escape with a shredded dress and red marks on her wrists.

Lizbet can feel Shelly Carpenter getting closer when she reviews a Cape Cod, Massachusetts bed and breakfast. Carpenter is as fussy as ever.