Winter Storms Read Free

you out.”
    Ava stares down at her plate of fruit. Her face is most likely the color of the papaya.
    â€œNice to meet you,” she says. She leads her mother across the restaurant to the table farthest from Potter and Gibby.
    â€œI think he likes you!” Margaret whispers.
    No,
Ava thinks.
He likes you.
    They bump into Potter and Gibby again at lunchtime at a place down the beach called Blanchards. Blanchards is a beach shack, and at first Ava is thrilled with the find. She and Margaret walk up to the counter in their bare feet and ask for one grilled mahimahi BLT with smoked-tomato tartar sauce, one order of shrimp tacos, and two sides of coleslaw. And while they’re at it—two passion-fruit daiquiris.
    Ava is so in love with the beach shack that she takes a picture of the menu and texts it to Kevin, saying,
You could do this at home! Quinns’ on the Beach!
Kevin and Isabelle are running the inn, but Kevin has been looking for a second business opportunity.
This is it!
Ava thinks. Isabelle is a fantastic cook; she will be able to figure out the smoked-tomato tartar sauce, no problem.
    Ava’s reverie is interrupted by Potter and Gibby. “You’ve discovered our secret,” Potter says. “We’ve eaten here six days straight.”
    â€œJonum, phtzplz,” Margaret says. Ava puts a hand on her mother’s arm. The last thing Margaret needs is to be photographed with her mouth full of shrimp taco. She’ll end up front and center in
Us Weekly
’s “Stars—They’re Just Like Us!” (They talk with their mouths full!) Besides, Ava fears Margaret was trying to say
Join us, please.
    â€œWe’re almost done,” Ava says, though she’s taken only two bites of her heavenly sandwich.
    â€œHey, do you want to go for that sail later?” Potter asks.
    Ava looks up at him. He’s wearing orange board shorts and a white polo shirt. He has a little bit of gray in his dark hair, and his eyes seem very blue, probably thanks to his tan. He’s way too handsome for her. He must be pursuing her because she’s Margaret Quinn’s daughter.
    â€œLet me see how I feel later,” she says.
    The blue eyes light up. “Great!” he says.
    When he and Gibby walk away, Margaret says, “You’d be a fool not to go.”
    â€œMom,” Ava says. “I have too many men in my life as it is.”
    â€œSometimes what you need is a fresh perspective,” Margaret says. “Go for a sail. It’s not like you’re marrying the guy.”
    Ava decides to ignore the fact that Potter is so good-looking and go for the sail. The first thing that happens is that the wind whips Potter’s Cisco Brewers hat right off his head, and before either of them can react, it’s dancing off toward the horizon.
    â€œMy favorite hat!” Potter says.
    â€œDon’t worry,” Ava says. “I’ll get you another one.”
    Potter Lyons is thirty-six years old. He’s divorced and has a five-year-old son, also named Potter Lyons (though he goes by PJ), who lives with his mother in Palo Alto, California. Potter has a doctorate in American literature and teaches English at Columbia University. He wrote his dissertation on Jules Verne,
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,
and he teaches the most popular class in the department, which is entitled the Nautical Novel: From the
Odyssey
to
Spartina
. He lives in a three-bedroom condo on the Upper West Side, only ten blocks north of Margaret, and he owns a sailboat,
Cassandra,
which he docks on the Hudson.
    â€œWas Cassandra your wife?” Ava asks.
    â€œMy grandmother,” he says.
    Potter then tells her that his parents were killed in a car accident when he was in high school, and his grandparents—Gibby and Cassandra—took over raising him.
    â€œMy grandmother died a few months ago,” Potter says. “So I planned this trip for Gibby. He needed