Summers at the Saint

The novel returns to the present.

Traci is in her office at the Saint. Charlie Burroughs, the general manager who has worked there since he was 14, stops by. Charlie has seen the hotel through many disasters, including the death of Hoke Eddings, Traci’s husband, whose plane crashed four years ago. Charlie reports that the restaurant’s chef is leaving and taking her husband, their guest relations manager, with her. Like many business owners around town, Traci is finding it difficult to hire young people to work for the hotel. The high cost of living is a problem. Traci suggests converting the old golf cart barn into a dormitory for employees. The hotel is already struggling with debt, but Traci needs staff for the summer.

Parrish Eddings watches her father, Ric, drive away in his Porsche after another fight with her stepmother, Madelyn.

As Parrish packs for a trip to Europe, her aunt Traci invites her to lunch at a new development a few miles north. The restaurant is understaffed, and their food order is incorrect and unappetizing. Traci recalls a sweet gift that Hoke once gave her and then asks Parrish to work guest relations at the Saint. Parrish resists—she would rather go to Europe and get away from her parents—but Traci reminds Parrish that the hotel is in debt after renovations that Hoke oversaw and the pandemic shutdown. The hotel is Parrish’s legacy: the Eddings family business. Traci offers to let Parrish live in the new dorm. After they pay, Traci stays to speak to the server.

Waitress Olivia “Livvy” Grayson sees a woman (Traci) waiting to speak to her and assumes that she is upset about her food. Instead, the woman tells Livvy that she looks familiar and then tells Livvy to call about working at the Saint. The rest of Livvy’s shift is hectic, and she goes home tired.

Livvy’s mother, Shannon, has strict rules; Livvy wants her own place. She calls Traci and finds the job offer appealing. Traci is surprised that Livvy’s last name is Grayson. When the cook at work sends Livvy another picture of his penis, Livvy forwards the picture to her boss and quits.

Shannon is upset that Livvy wants to work at the Saint, which Shannon sees as a corrupt and dangerous place: “You don’t know those people. They’re rich and charming on the surface, but the reality is that they’re rotten” (27). However, when Shannon tries to forbid Livvy from working there, Livvy announces that she’s moving out.

Felice Bonpierre returns to her motel to find that Deion, her boyfriend and business partner, has taken their food truck and left. The girl working at the reception desk tells Felice that she has to check out that day. Felice realizes that Deion took her credit card as well. At least, Felice thinks, she still has her knives. She packs her clothes in her duffel bag and tips the maid on her way out.

Kevin John “KJ” Parkhurst is woken by his father, Spencer, who is angry. The Parkhursts are a wealthy family; KJ grew up attending elite prep schools and got into a prestigious university, where he became an athlete and fraternity member but struggled with poor grades. Now, KJ has a knee injury that prevents him from playing lacrosse, and he is on academic suspension for plagiarizing a term paper. His mother is disappointed; his father is furious. He called Ric Eddings and got KJ a job at the Saint for the summer. KJ’s father wants this job to feel humbling and deprecating: “[Y]ou’ll suck it up and work hard and let all your rich, entitled friends treat you like the minimum-wage jerk you’re gonna be” (35). When KJ taunts his father, his father strikes him in the face.

Traci inspects renovations to the old golf cart barn with Javi Guerrero, who has worked at the Saint as long as Traci has. When Traci recalls the staff quarters she lived in during “her last summer of innocence” (37), Javi reminds her that he didn’t live in the dorm because Fred Eddings was racist and only let the white kids stay there. Instead, Javi rented an apartment with Guatemalan friends. Javi asks what happened to Traci’s friend, the other lifeguard who was working with her during the summer when a kid drowned.

The novel flashes back to Traci’s young adulthood in 2002.

Traci is hung over; she and Shannon stayed out the previous night at Pour Willy’s, a local bar. It’s a hot, boring afternoon at the pool. Hudson, “a skinny, little eight-year-old pain-in-the-ass” (39), shouts that someone pooped in the pool. While Shannon runs to the bathroom to vomit, Traci clears the pool and skims out what turns out to be a Tootsie roll.

Traci sees Hudson in the water beneath the diving board, thrashing. At first, she thinks he is kidding, but then she realizes that Hudson has gone limp. She and Shannon try to resuscitate him without success.

The novel returns to the present.

Ric Eddings, Hoke’s younger brother, is angry with Traci for persuading Parrish to put off her trip to Europe and work at the hotel. Ric has always been louder, more aggressive, and flashier than quiet, steady Hoke. Traci responds that Parrish deserves to be part of her family legacy. Ric accuses Traci of being possessive of Parrish because Traci has no children of her own. Ric doesn’t want Parrish to live in the dorm. Traci realizes that he “ha[s] no idea just how un-sheltered his daughter really [i]s” and accuses Ric of treating Traci like “[p]oor white trash. Just another Ain’t” (44). Ric informs Traci that he gave Spencer Parkhurst’s son, KJ, a job at the Saint, though Ric is supposed to only be in charge of Saint Holdings, the business’s real estate arm, while Traci runs the resort.

Felice is looking for jobs and sees an ad for an executive chef. She thinks of Deion, who “offered her an escape, a glittering glimpse of what life could be” (47).

Traci is concerned about some gaps in Felice’s resume, but Felice doesn’t want to explain that she took time off to take care of her aunt during her illness. Changing the subject, Felice describes the kinds of food she could cook for the restaurant and asks about the on-site housing. Traci welcomes Felice to the Saint.

Garrett, Traci’s favorite waiter, serves her at the Verandah, the Saint’s restaurant. He admits that he’s gotten offers from other restaurants where the clientele are younger and better tippers. Traci offers him a raise and free housing if he’ll become the headwaiter.

Madelyn, Ric’s wife, is upset that Traci didn’t consult her on renovations to the golf cart barn. She passive aggressively comments that the Saint’s decor is giving guests the impression “that [they]’re stuck in a time warp” (56), insisting that she and Ric are only trying to keep the family legacy alive. Before he retired due to Parkinson’s disease, Ric and Hoke’s father, Fred, hired Madelyn as design director. Traci feels that “Ric and Madelyn had been attempting to meddle in the way the hotel was run ever since the plane crash” (56).

Hoke’s mother, Helen Parrish Eddings, began the tradition of having people gather on the Saint’s patio to watch the sunset. As resort members and hotel guests gather, a musician plays a song, and Traci toasts to “another beautiful summer at the Saint” (59).

Hoke introduced Traci to the tradition of making the rounds at the end of each day to inspect the property. The hotel became important to Traci because it was important to Hoke.

Traci stops by to visit Fred. When his Parkinson’s disease began affecting his mobility, Fred moved from the family mansion to Gardenia cottage. He can no longer speak, but he watches stock prices, and Traci believes that he understands what is said to him. Fred ruled with an iron hand, and Traci is glad that Hoke was nothing like him. She feels guilty that she has not done more for Fred, and she grieves Hoke. She also feels bitter that Fred is still alive while her gentle Hoke is gone.

Unexpectedly, Shannon calls.

Shannon and Traci meet at Pour Willy’s, which Shannon thinks hasn’t changed much from the days they used to hang out there as teens. Shannon compares how fit and put-together Traci looks with her own more disheveled appearance. Shannon is upset about Traci giving Livvy “[a]n opportunity to be exploited” and “preyed on by assholes and jerks like [her] other employees, or even worse, [her] ‘member-guests’” (67).

Traci assumes that Shannon’s grievance is that Fred fired Shannon, but not Traci, after Hudson died. Traci is still hurt that, while Traci always told Shannon everything, Shannon didn’t tell her when she became pregnant. Shannon says that Traci went over to the dark side when she became involved with the Eddings family.

Traci remembers that she and Shannon, both Ain’ts, had planned out the summer of 2002, but then Traci went to Pour Willy’s and met Hoke. She recalls teasing him. Only after she’d gone back to his place did Traci realize that he was Hoke Eddings—a member of the family that owned the Saint.

Livvy says goodbye to Shannon and leaves for her new job.

Traci greets her new employees in the dormitory: Livvy, Felice, Garrett, and KJ. Traci lays down the rules. When she leaves, the new staff members introduce themselves.

Scott Whelan arrives in Bonaventure and works as an Uber driver to learn the town. He goes to the police station and asks to see an incident report, which is very brief. At the library, there are few news articles about an eight-year-old drowning at an expensive resort. Whelan goes to Pour Willy’s and learns from the bartender the difference between Saints and Ain’ts. Whelan’s mother recently died; as he was cleaning out her home, he decided to find answers about Hudson’s drowning years ago.

Parrish, at the guest relations desk, deals with a mother who is trying to enroll her kids in the resort’s day camp because she doesn’t want to have to entertain them. Felice, in the kitchen, notices that the sea bass isn’t fresh. KJ is embarrassed when someone he knows sees him working in the pro shop, selling golf gear. Livvy is also working at the pro shop instead of the restaurant, where she would get tips.

Traci’s friend Hannah calls Traci to report that Ric is up to something sneaky: He hired a new lawyer and a videographer and went to his father’s. Hannah remembers that when Ric damaged her car when she was in college, he refused to admit to or pay for it. Traci calls the family lawyer, Andy Plankenhorn, who isn’t aware of Ric’s intentions.

Parrish handles Colonel McBee, who regularly has complaints. The Colonel insists that the maid has been rummaging through his wife’s jewelry, grumbles that the housekeeping staff doesn’t speak English, and says that the television doesn’t get the right channels. Parrish makes a note in her blue notebook, which she calls the “bitch book.” When she tells Charlie that the new smart TVs ought to be getting premium channels, Charlie says not to bother Traci; he’ll look into it.

Livvy works late at the restaurant. When she returns to the dorm, she asks Parrish if she knows the story of Traci and Shannon’s falling out.

Traci is woken by her dachshund, Lola. For a moment, she forgets that Hoke is gone.

Traci visits Fred and asks his nurse, Alberta, about the visit from Ric’s lawyer. Ric didn’t want Alberta present, which makes Traci even more suspicious. Alberta, too, is a widow, and she understands Traci’s grief.

Traci reports back to the family lawyer, Andy, who promises to look out for her. Traci takes comfort in how his “deep, courtly Southern voice already sooth[es] her jangled nerves” (104).