The Five-Star Weekend


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
 Copyright © 2023 by Elin Hilderbrand
 Cover design by Lauren Harms
 Cover photograph by Getty Images
 Cover © 2023 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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 ISBN 978-0-316-25938-5
 E3-20230405-JV-NF-ORI
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Prologue: Nantucket
 1. Accident Report I
 2. The Invitation
 3. Chink in the Armor
 4. First Light I
 5. Errands
 6. The Phantom
 7. Poet’s Corner
 8. The Third Margarita
 9. The Itinerary
 10. Night Changes I
 11. Provisions
 12. Blowout
 13. Happy Hour I
 14. On-Time Arrivals
 15. Airport Drinking
 16. Happy Hour II
 17. Fake It to Make It
 18. First Light II
 19. Child’s Pose
 20. Shotgun I
 21. Stone Alley
 22. Under the Influence I
 23. Rye Toast
 24. Shotgun II
 25. Maybe: Sofia
 26. Book in Hand, Feet in Sand
 27. Calm and Present
 28. Pardon the Interruption I
 29. Pardon the Interruption II
 30. The Drop I
 31. Heart-to-Heart
 32. The Shot
 33. Intermezzo
 34. My Little Cabbage
 35. Happy Hour III
 36. Captain’s Table
 37. Night Changes II
 38. What Happens at the Box
 39. Slice
 40. Should I Stay or Should I Go?
 41. All Rise
 42. The Drop II
 43. Table 20
 44. The Friendship Sloop
 45. Hiding in Plain Sight
 46. The Hot Seat
 47. Under the Influence II
 48. Accident Report II
 49. The Twist
 50. The Grand Finale
 51. Happily Ever After
 Epilogue: Nantucket
 Acknowledgments
 Discover More
 About the Author
 Also by Elin Hilderbrand
 
 
 
 
 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 ALSO BY ELIN HILDERBRAND
 
 The Beach Club
 Nantucket Nights
 Summer People
 The Blue Bistro
 The Love Season
 Barefoot
 A Summer Affair
 The Castaways
 The Island
 Silver Girl
 Summerland
 Beautiful Day
 The Matchmaker
 Winter Street
 The Rumor
 Winter Stroll
 Here’s to Us
 Winter Storms
 The Identicals
 Winter Solstice
 The Perfect Couple
 Winter in Paradise
 Summer of ’69
 What Happens in Paradise
 28 Summers
 Troubles in Paradise
 Golden Girl
 The Hotel Nantucket
 Endless Summer
 
 
 
 
 To Michael Carlisle and David Forrer, with love and eternal gratitude
 Five stars aren’t enough.
 
 
 
 
 Prologue: Nantucket
 Another summer on the island is upon us and, as usual, we have a lot to talk about. Chef Mario Subiaco proposed to Lizbet Keaton on the widow’s walk of the Hotel Nantucket; there’s a camera crew filming out in Monomoy (Blond Sharon has it “on good authority” that it’s a limited series for Netflix); police chief Ed Kapenash has been admitted to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital after complaining of chest pain—and there’s a steamy debate about whether or not Nantucket should allow topless beaches. (We think of ourselves as progressive and sophisticated, but let’s face it—we’re not France.)
 Then we hear a rumor that Hollis Shaw is hosting something she’s calling the “Five-Star Weekend” at her house in Squam.
 This, of course, captures our full attention.
 Hollis Shaw is something of a unicorn.
 She started out life as one of us. She was the daughter of Tom Shaw, Nantucket’s busiest plumbing contractor, and Charlotte Shaw, a kindergarten teacher. When Hollis was a toddler, not quite two years old, Charlotte Shaw died of an aneurysm in the shower, and Tom Shaw was left to raise his daughter alone. But on this island, we pitch in—it takes a village!—and we all offered moral support as Hollis grew up. We watched her dance in ballet recitals, shoot free throws at the Boys and Girls Club, and cheer for her boyfriend Jack Finigan in the stands at the Nantucket Whalers football games. Hollis was a good student, an outstanding softball pitcher (the team won the state championship Hollis’s junior year and came in second her senior year), and a hard worker. The cottage out in Squam where she lived with her father was modest (though the land it sat on was worth a fortune), and as soon as Hollis was old enough, she kept house and cooked every night. She got a job opening scallops on Old North Wharf after school, and in the summers, she and her best friend, Tatum, waited tables at the Rope Walk.
 In her senior year of high school, Hollis wrote what her English teacher Ms. Fox called “the best college essay I’ve read in thirty-one years.” It took the form of a letter to Hollis’s deceased mother, Charlotte. Dear Mom, it started, I think you would be proud of the way I turned out. Here are some of the reasons why.
 It was bittersweet when Hollis decided to go to the University of North Carolina at