Mallory is facing financial difficulties because the cottage needs a new roof. She’s hoping to win a new teaching award at the school where she works, which awards $75,000 to the recipient. On the first night of Jake’s visit, a lit candle falls over while the two of them are sleeping and volunteer firefighters arrive. One of them is JD, which is uncomfortable for Mallory because that summer she and JD reconnected, made up after their bumpy relationship years before, and she slept with him. JD attempted to rekindle a romance with her, but Mallory turned him down.

After Jake leaves, Mallory learns that she didn’t receive the teaching award. She wonders if it’s because some of JD’s relatives were on the selection committee and JD told them about finding Jake in Mallory’s house.

Jake discovers Facebook and adds several of Mallory’s family members as friends on his profile. He looks at Mallory’s profile but doesn’t request to be her friend, since he thinks she’ll decline. While he’s on Nantucket kayaking with Mallory, one of Cooper’s old girlfriends who knew them both in college (the one Cooper met up with at the bar in Chapter 6) sees the two of them and tries to flag him down.