Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie and Dean decide that, before he goes for his tryout, they will invite Andy and Monica for a cookout. Prior to the meal, Evvie's mother Eileen calls and says she would like to see Evvie in September when she comes to Maine. Evvie starts drinking before Andy and Monica arrive, and their evening gradually goes from bad to worse as the animosity that has been unspoken between Andy and Evvie gradually erupts. As each becomes more inebriated, Evvie accuses Andy of secretly being in love with her, and Andy tells Evvie she is wrong. Monica takes Andy home, and Dean carries Eve up to her bed. Before she falls asleep, Holmes writes, “She chuckled sort of lazily, slowly, and then she said, ‘I knew I should never have tried to be happy’” (231).

The next morning, Evvie wakes remembering enough of what transpired to feel terrible about it. She hears Dean downstairs cleaning up the kitchen. She goes into the shower and weeps, glad no one can hear her cry.

Dean returns from his tryout without giving any indication of his experience. Evvie chills another bottle of champagne expecting great news. Dean breaks the news that he still is unable to meet the expectations of the major leagues and is not going to be able to pitch again. He tells her he wishes she had not pushed him into trying to go back and pitch again. He says that it's over, which she takes to mean their relationship is over.

Dean walks off by himself while she goes upstairs to her bedroom. When it is time to go to bed, she comes down. They have a conversation in which she implicitly tells him that his time with her is coming to an end, mistakenly believing that was what he meant earlier. It surprises him as he assumes she is telling him it is time for him to move out. Neither of them wants that to happen, but each believes the other is saying their relationship is over 

Dean soon begins a procession of getting ready to move out of the apartment. He sells everything he purchased when he moved. He bids farewell to his new friends in Calcasset. As moving day approaches, Evvie feels more and more remorse. They spend their last few weeks doing everything they enjoyed in their time together. On the last day, as Dean leaves, Evvie is caught up with grief she cannot express. She receives a text message from him to look under the sink in the apartment bathroom, where she finds the black baseball glove with pink laces he bought for her: “A sticky note is in the palm. Go be great, champ” (246).

Evvie decides she must be independent and start doing things for herself. While attempting to change a light bulb, she knocks over a jar of screws, nuts, and small tools, which in turn knocks over a can of applesauce, making a huge mess. This launches her into a furious rage combined with grief.

She cleans up the mess in the kitchen and texts Andy, asking him to come over. Within ten minutes he comes into the kitchen and sits on the floor with her. She proceeds to tell him what's happened and to apologize for the fight that they had, expressing that she is glad he came. She unpacks all her baggage about Tim, telling Andy how mean her husband was. Andy tells her about his ex, Lori, and the trouble that he and Monica have had with her. Evvie expresses to Andy how much she misses Dean. She is not sure the next thing she needs to do so she can move on. They apologize to each other, then say that they are glad they have overcome the breach between them. The scene ends with Andy putting his arm around Evvie, comforting her.

Several days later Monica comes to see Evvie. They lie on the floor of the apartment looking up and have a bonding conversation. Monica tells Evvie she kept the secret about the lingerie purchase from Andy. Monica also says that she has been on anti-depressants since she was a teenager. They discuss Evvie’s need to speak to her mother, whom she still hasn't called. Monica points out that everything has always been done on her mother's timescale and never Evvie’s. She reminds Evvie she can get together with her mom whenever it suits Evvie.

Several days later she calls her mother and tells her it will not work for the two of them to get together this September. When her mother wonders why, Evvie explains she has had a lot going on, including just breaking up with someone, and the last two years have been very difficult. Plus, she's about to sell her house, and she doesn't have the energy to explain everything that's happened. Her mother refuses to accept the answer but has no choice.

For the first time, Evvie goes to see Dr. Talco for herself. Previously she went to see if there was something she could do to help Dean. Beginning to cry the minute she sits down, Evvie has a very candid meeting with the doctor. Talco tells Evvie there is nothing wrong with asking for help and most people are candidates for therapy.

Evvie sells the big house where she lived with Tim. She invites his mother to look through the house for any keepsakes she would like before she moves out. She releases her grief for Tim to her former mother-in-law and feels that a great burden has been lifted from her shoulders.

Evvie moves in February into her house called Kettlewood and adopts a puppy she names Webster. She hooks up a soundbar to a stereo system and is astonished at how loudly the music plays. Then she realizes her new house is fairly isolated, and she can play music loudly and dance if she wants to. When the song is over, she lays down on her back, and the puppy climbs on top of her. Evvie recognizes she owes nothing to anyone,: She is truly free.

Dean goes to his parents’ home for Christmas. He enters a memento room where he sees all his awards and trophies his parents have collected over his baseball career. He tries to tell them they need to get rid of this stuff since he's no longer going to be a baseball hero. They tell him he will always be able to have the memory of every good day in baseball. They will never stop being proud of him for everything he accomplished, regardless of whether he ever picked up another baseball.

As they're eating, Dean’s father Stewart brings up Evvie and wants to know if he has heard from her. Dean relates that Evvie wanted him to leave because she couldn't get used to him being a “head case,” particularly after he failed to make the Phillies team. His parents remark that this does not sound like Evvie at all.

Evvie goes to the post office to mail a package to Dean late in March. She encounters Dr. Schramm, Tim’s old boss, and they have a conversation about the fact that she has moved on from the big house and now is living on Kettlepot Bay.

Several days afterward, her dog Webster wakes her. They eat, and she takes him for a walk in the isolated area around her house on the island. She comes back and checks her phone to see if perhaps Dean called. She sits down with a book to read and hears Dean’s truck pull up to her house. She is immediately overwhelmed when she sees him. He has brought back her black glove with the pink laces in which she had written him the note “I MISS YOU” (276).

Evvie shows Dean all around the house. They eat together, watch TV together, and drink together. They walk the dog out across the island. Dean is amazed at Evvie’s wonderful view of the water. After supper they watch a baseball game on TV, and then Evvie takes him to the bedroom. Dean asks if she is sure she wants to make love. She affirms in no uncertain terms that is exactly what she wants.

Afterwards, they lie in bed talking about what comes next. Dean affirms they could continue to go their separate ways since he is doing okay in New York and obviously she's doing really well on the island. However, he says that he wants the two of them to be together because he really loves her. They talk about the possibilities of what they can do and decide that they will start with him living with her and resuming his work at the baseball field. He will keep his place in New York and they will spend part of the time there doing things that they like to do together.

The final chapter describes the marriage of Andy and Monica. Dean serves as Andy’s best man. Evvie has lots of thoughts going through her mind before the wedding. She thinks about how she and Dean went to his lawyer in New York and made it possible for her to give away all the life insurance money that Tim left her. She has successively written him out of her life and no longer goes to memorials for him. She has also taken back her maiden name: Ashton.

When Evvie goes to the Presbyterian Church where the ceremony is to be held, she sees Andy's mother and then goes to where Andy is getting his tuxedo on. She greets him, and they have a warm conversation in which she says that she will always be nearby. They hug each other, which has been a rite of passage at the beginning of each new chapter in their lives. She sits between her father and Dean's parents in the sanctuary and cries during the wedding. When the ceremony is over, she sits in her car and watches Dean come out walking toward her and smile.

Holmes writes that she drew the idea for the novel from her interest in baseball and the love of the rural coastal Maine area where the book is set. She notes that the book is not just about love and baseball but also grief. Evvie’s grief is misunderstood in that she grieves a marriage that never was what she hoped it would be, and she grieves the fact that she alone understands this. Holmes intentionally did not give much description of Evvie's physical appearance in order to let readers fill in that element. She also offers several bits of advice to would-be authors. She warns that authoring a book is a demanding process and that the writing may stall. The key elements, she says, are having the middle part of the book in mind as well as the beginning and end, and that authors should grasp the emotional arc of the narrative.