28 Summers

Mallory’s baby, a boy she names Lincoln (“Link”) is born in April 2001. The chapter relates his first birthday party in April 2002 at the cottage. Flashbacks reveal how Mallory told her family and friends about her pregnancy, with their reactions ranging from surprised to delighted to furious (Cooper once made Frazier promise never to pursue Mallory, but after he gets over his initial anger, he's excited). Mallory and Frazier, who lives in Vermont, don’t pursue a romantic relationship but quickly find out that they can carry on a friendly and effective co-parenting relationship. The family dynamics at the party are a little strained because of the presence of Sloane (Link’s paternal grandmother) and Leland’s father, who cheated on Leland’s mother with Sloane. Overall, however, it goes fine. Cooper initially said he couldn’t come to the party but surprises them all by showing up. After the guests leave, Cooper tells Mallory that Jake and Ursula have moved back to Indiana and that Ursula is running for Congress with a good chance of winning.

Jake arrives for his weekend on Nantucket with extra caution because of Ursula’s political ambitions. Over the weekend, Mallory dejectedly says that maybe the two of them should stop their annual tradition, but Jake insists that it’s too important to both of them to stop. He alludes to the fact that he suspects Anders and Ursula may have been involved and that Anders’s death in the September 11 attacks spurred Ursula to enter politics. Mallory doesn’t tell him about her conversation about the baby’s paternity with Ursula at Cooper’s wedding the year before.

In November, Ursula easily wins her congressional race. 

Mallory and Jake’s annual weekend together isn’t related in this chapter. Instead, one day on the beach after Labor Day, Mallory runs into Scott, a man she bought a car from when she first moved to the island. They’re both single, and the romantic chemistry between them is apparent. After a romantic dinner date, they continue seeing each other. Scott is committed to staying on the island, handsome, financially secure, personable, and open about wanting a long-term commitment with someone. Mallory admires the way he treats the people who work for him and feels that they could be a good fit, but she isn’t ready to start planning a future with him. Even as they become an official couple and start to integrate into each other’s lives, Mallory is hesitant and unsure about pursuing a future with Scott. When he says “I love you” on New Year’s Eve, Mallory panics and responds likewise, although she has suddenly realized that she does not, in fact, love him.

Over the next few months Mallory tries to untangle her feelings of reluctance about Scott even though he has so many qualities she finds desirable. She finally realizes that she’s just too in love with Jake to have a future with any other man, even one as compatible as Scott. Still, she can’t bring herself to break up with her boyfriend since she enjoys his company so much. After a reporter meets them at a local car show, Scott and Mallory’s love story is published on the front page of the newspaper that spring, which makes it even harder for Mallory to end the relationship. Finally, when Scott starts planning a special weekend trip for the two of them in Boston—a trip Mallory feels sure will include a proposal—she decides to be honest with him and end the romance.

In June 2004, Apple (the school’s guidance counselor) tells Mallory that she’s pregnant and that she and her fiancé Hugo have decided to get married over Labor Day weekend. Mallory agonizes over rescheduling or canceling her weekend with Jake, wanting to attend her dear friend’s wedding but knowing that she and Jake can’t go together. Her dilemma is solved when Apple receives the news that she’s actually pregnant with twins, which prompts her and Hugo to elope immediately. 

Fifi is becoming increasingly frustrated in her relationship with Leland, who she sees as smothering and clingy. Fifi’s career has continued to take off, while the literary magazine that Leland has worked at for a decade is failing in the Internet age. On a trip alone to Boston, Fifi impulsively visits Mallory on Nantucket. After spending time with Link, Fifi tells Mallory she’s decided to leave Leland—motivated in part because of her longing for a child, something Leland is vehemently against, and in part because Fifi recently reconnected with another woman from her past who also wants a child.

The narrative turns to Jake and Ursula’s life in South Bend. After winning her House congressional race, Ursula has set her sights on becoming a senator and continues to work an intensely busy schedule. Jake still works for the cystic fibrosis foundation but is a hands-on father, handling many of the day-to-day tasks of raising Bess. He is unhappy in his marriage and resents Ursula’s time away from their daughter. In his job, Jake focuses on fundraising and coordinating fundraising events for the foundation, but at a gala in Phoenix is unexpectedly asked to fill the keynote speaker spot, where his speech is enthusiastically received and donations skyrocket. Despite his initial nerves giving the speech, Jake tries to recreate the time he told Mallory about his sister during his first visit to Nantucket. After the event, Jake is asked to talk about his personal experience with the disease more and more often, discovering that people respond well to his story and the foundation benefits by receiving higher donations.   

Ursula is invited to bring her family to Newport, Rhode Island, for Labor Day weekend to network with a wealthy donor—who turns out to be Bayer, Mallory’s ex-lover, although Jake doesn’t know this. Jake refuses to go with Ursula, unwilling to reschedule his weekend with Mallory, even when Ursula offers to call Cooper (who has unknowingly served as the front for Jake seeing Mallory) on his behalf. Jake continues to refuse to change his plans, but Ursula doesn’t call Cooper, instead going to Newport alone. 

Cooper gets married for the third time, this time to a woman he met on public transit named Tish. Mallory, Jake, and Ursula all attend. At the reception, as they’re chatting about the newlyweds’ honeymoon, Ursula asks Cooper if he and Jake will have to reschedule their annual trip to Nantucket since he’ll be honeymooning over Labor Day. Cooper, of course, doesn’t know anything about the trip but smooths it over and is quickly distracted from wondering about this mysterious trip—and putting two and two together about his sister and Jake—by the arrival of the dinner hour. When Tish asks about it while they eat, Cooper concludes that Ursula must have been mistaken, since there is no such “guys’ trip.”

Later at the reception, Cooper watches his sister and Jake interact, and finally begins to consider the idea that they’ve carried out a surreptitious romance for 14 years. He confronts Jake about it privately, but Jake says that he doesn’t want to tell Cooper anything about his time on Nantucket. Cooper then confronts Mallory, asking her if he can bring Tish to Nantucket over Labor Day, and she makes an excuse about needing to clean the house before Link comes back from staying with Frazier. Cooper does not buy either of these explanations but doesn’t push his friend or his sister. (His marriage ends within a few months when Tish leaves him for a long-standing family friend.) When Jake calls that fall to ask Cooper out for a beer, Cooper decides that his friendship with Jake will have to lie dormant for a while. 

In 2008, Ursula wins her Senate race. At a victory party, Jake meets Bayer, who tells Jake he thinks he’s heard his name outside of a political context (from Mallory). Jake finds out that Ursula has accepted money from the National Rifle Association, which infuriates him. He tells Ursula he’s leaving her if she doesn’t return the donation—which turns out to have been a large one and Ursula accepted in return for protecting gun ownership laws. However, both he and Ursula know that his threat is toothless.