It’s the summer of 1980-something, and valedictorian Claire Hart has nothing to do. Her summers have always been meticulously planned—a class here, educational camp there—so her last summer before college she quickly becomes lost in the possibilities. She can’t believe her luck when she’s swept up in the storied world of the Tooheys, heirs to a plumbing fortune and the richest, quirkiest family in Keech Harbor, Maine. She’s found a perfect summer, full of Toohey hijinks. As she follows the Toohey clan from one party to another, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere other than in the library with her nose in a book. But perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and Claire has to decide whether she wants to live a perfect life—or one that’s perfect for her, whatever that may be.
The excerpt below is adapted from Chapter 1 of The Last Summer Before Whatever Happens Next by Bee Burke.
June 1980-Something
“Come on, they’re catching us,” I heard a girl’s voice say.
The next thing I knew, her arm was looped into mine, and she
was pulling me down Water Street. I found myself running to
keep up with her, trying hard not to trip over my long sundress.
I had never met this girl, but I knew who she was. Pepper
Toohey. How did I know? Everyone knew who the Tooheys were.
That family was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, manufacturers
of plumbing supplies in North America. If you are reading this on
the toilet, stand up and look around. Chances are it says Toohey
on the tank.
Living in Keech, Maine, it was impossible not to know who
they were. My dad thought the Tooheys were God’s gift to the
town. He loved telling Toohey stories. He loved hearing Toohey
stories. Most people, however, thought they were just stuck-up
snobs that clogged the best seats in the restaurants in the summer
and hogged the best parts of the coast for themselves.
Pepper’s dad was the big boss at the toilet company, and she
was the big boss of her cousins. We had both just graduated—her
from some prep school in Massachusetts and me from Keech Town
High. She was wearing crazy huge vintage sunglasses and a big
floppy hat. Her blond hair was pulled into two pigtails. I didn’t
know anyone my age who still wore pigtails, but on Pepper, it
somehow looked all right. The sunglasses called attention to the
spray of large freckles that spanned the bridge of her nose. They
were pronounced and spread apart, like she had been Raggedy
Ann for Halloween and never washed off the face paint. Come
to think about it, that’s how I recognized her.
I looked behind us, and a pack of her cousins were following
us down Water Street past the dockside restaurants and souvenir
shops. Pepper smacked her dime-store flip-flops as loud as she
could as we rushed along the sidewalk speckled with gull poop.
She was wearing a gray tank top, patched jeans, and a madras shirt,
unbuttoned and untucked, as if thrown on as an afterthought. It
fluttered behind her as she sped along.
She directed us into the Dock n’ Dine just as they were opening.
The Dock n’ Dine was the town’s best restaurant, and it had
the best summer jobs—boaters too drunk to sail, showing off for
each other with outrageous tips. I had never worked there. Our
housekeeper, Flo, told Dad the waitresses there get groped—and
“those girls” encouraged it to get bigger tips. After that, the Dock
n’ Dine was completely off-limits for me—even for dinner. And
that was a bummer because it used to be our special occasion
restaurant. The last time we came here, it was because I got a
1260 on my PSATs. And now, here I was with the Tooheys on
some random Tuesday in June.
We were greeted with dirty looks from some of my classmates—
well, they weren’t my classmates anymore. They were
waitstaff now—maybe forever. Pepper moved the closed sign
out of a section and commandeered a large dockside table. The
rest of the family caught up and began to settle around the table.
She quickly pushed me down into a chair next to the tallest—and
cutest—boy in the group. I guessed he was her brother, Pike. She
sat on the other side of me.
When everyone was finally seated, Pepper snapped her head
around and looked at me.
“Wait a minute, who the hell are you?” she said.
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