and he is the only one. Four generations of his family owned property here, so he is considered an islander. These distinctions are not petty. The Thaxters are Boston Brahmin blue bloods, but his father burned through the money, and Harrison got kicked out of every school he ever attended. Ever since the family had to sell the big captain’s house in Edgartown, he has lived year-round in impoverished splendor in a series of ramshackle rentals. I should marry him. Not just because I love him, which I do, but because I hate my fiancé. Saying yes to Jeremiah was possibly the stupidest thing I ever did. Never get engaged for passion hoping it will become true love. If you do, you’re guaranteed heartbreak. I am in, what my English grandmother calls, “a state.” Jeremiah is on Timmy Tyler’s Bermuda 40, supposedly doing the Marblehead-to-Camden regatta, but I don’t trust him. Maybe he’s on the boat, but I’ll bet anything Timmy’s got girls on there, too.
