Friends with Boats

PRAISE FORFRIENDS WITH BOATS “Fun, addictive and indulgent. Everything you’d want in a beach read.” —KAREN ALPERT, New York Times Best-Sellingauthor of I Heart My Little A-Holes “The absolutely perfect beach read! Friends with Boats has everything—sex, intrigue, violence, summer fun in the sun, girl-fights, tennis, country club parties, and about a gallon of pricey Chardonnay. Not to mention those monied friends, with boats. Author Alexandra Slater takes the trope of the Cape Cod novel, turns it on its head, and then gives it a good spanking. Think Heathers meets Richard Russo’s Old Cape Magic. Friends with Boats is the ultimate guilty pleasure!” —JAMIE CAT CALLAN, Author of Parisian Charm School “Friends with Boats is the perfect sexy, summer beach read. I read it from start to finish in one sitting!” —LAURA WINTERS, Publisher of Hingham Anchor This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Published by River Grove BooksAustin, TXwww.rivergrovebooks.com Copyright © 2023 Alexandra Slater All rights reserved. Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright law. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder. Distributed by River Grove Books Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group and Brian PhillipsCover design by Greenleaf Book Group and Brian PhillipsCover images copyright Marish. Used under license from Shutterstock.com Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. Print ISBN: 978-1-63299-676-3 eBook ISBN: 978-1-63299-677-0 First Edition For L.T., James, Caroline, London, & FarahandMy parents, Bill and Phoebe PROLOGUE Falmouth, MassachusettsSeptember 2019 When the text came in early that morning, Sadie 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 pickup truck had hit a telephone pole on Route 151 and Currier Road in the early morning hours and rolled over. The truck was totaled, and an ambulance had taken him to Falmouth Hospital. Details to follow. Sadie panicked. She had caused that accident. Not directly, but she had wished him dead at the Farewell to Summer Fling at the golf club the night before. In fact, all three of them—Sadie, Charlotte, and 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. Ever since Mack arrived back home on Cape Cod, the summer had been an absolute disaster for the four of them. 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 ten-piece swing band, Stage Door Canteen, played. Charlotte Chapter One MEMORIAL DAY Four Months EarlierMemorial Day Weekend, 2019 SADIE Sadie Cooper loved organization, to-do lists, and her family, but this weekend on Cape Cod, she was unhappy with all three. Winter clothes had to be packed in bins, the deck furniture needed a power wash, and the boat had to be moved to the mooring before friends and family arrived. It was the beginning of the roller-coaster ride called summer on the Cape, bookended by Memorial Day and Labor Day. It was both exciting, as the restaurants and ice cream shops opened for the season, as well as daunting because life as Sadie knew it year-round was over. For the next few months, it would be beach days, traffic, boating, barbecues, and summer people. Prepping for this was draining—mentally and physically. The kids would soon be out of school, up in her grill all day, and she hadn’t taken one minute for self-care. Her mousy brown hairline was smattered with wiry grays, and her nails were jagged without polish. At 45, Sadie didn’t recognize her shape anymore. The thought of wearing a bathing suit was cringey, and she’d fallen off her diet every weekend. She would start the week with good intentions, logging her food into the Weight Watchers app, drinking eight glasses of water, and eating no carbs. But by the weekend, her plans all went to pot, and she failed to log in that third glass of chardonnay (3 points) and the bagel (9 points). Thankfully, her husband, Chip, never body-shamed her and would still initiate having sex several times