Page 56 of A Nantucket Wedding

At last Poppy spoke. “That might work. I’ll think about it.”

“And, Poppy, one more thing.”

Poppy squinted suspiciously. “What?”

“I’d love to have your advice about the wedding present I want to give David. You’re the only one I can ask, really, because I need it to be kept a secret, something my daughters find impossible to do. Plus, you know your father best of all of us.” She was flat-out flattering Poppy, and the younger woman seemed receptive.

“I can keep a secret,” Poppy said. “Ethan, not so much.”

“That’s what I thought. So. I’ve spent time walking around town. I’ve noticed that many houses have quarterboards, like those on ships, with clever names, likePLEASANT DREAMSon Pleasant Street orLOVE OF FAIRon Fair Street. This house doesn’t have a quarterboard, so I thought I’d have one made to give to David as a wedding gift.”

“Hm. What would it say?” Poppy still looked suspicious.

“I was thinkingGLAD TO BE HERE. Because your father’s last name is Gladstone. And we’re all glad to be here, right?”

“That’s kind of corny.”

Alison bit her tongue. “Too corny? What do you think of the idea in general?”

“I like the idea, but…”

“Okay, well, what about this one?GLAD TIDINGS. Because the house faces the ocean and the tides—”

“I get it. Yes, that’s kind of clever. I like that one.”

“All right then! I’ll get right on it!Gladto have your input!”

“Don’t tell Heather,” Poppy said. “She’d be sure to tell Dad.”

“Okay, good idea. I won’t tell anyone else. It will be our secret.”

Poppy almost smiled before she left the room. Fine, Alison thought, now Poppy believed she was making the decisions not only about the company and about her father’s honeymoon plans but also about Alison’s wedding present to David. So she and Poppy weren’t friends yet, but they were collaborators in a major secret. That was a good start.

Jane flew in later that afternoon and made her way to the house in a rental car. Ethan arrived in the early evening. David spent a great deal of time with his grandchildren, and Alison saw how that made Poppy ease into a happy state that Alison hadn’t seen her in before. Everyone was in a good mood, so for a day or two, Alison relaxed.

seventeen

Ingrid lived in a house, a real house, not a rented apartment like many of the young people who worked for Green Food. It was large, airy, and uncluttered, a house that could have been photographed for a magazine, everything crisp and dove gray and cream, open plan, the living room segueing easily into the dining room and kitchen. Glass doors slid open to the patio and swimming pool.

It was nicer than the house Noah and Felicity owned. As Felicity sat on a lawn chair, smearing sunblock on her children and putting water wings on Luke, she listened to the talk around her as other employees came out to the pool. “Wow,” they said, or “Awesome,” but no one asked how it was that Ingrid had such a house. So they must all know, and Noah must know, and there was another important matter that Noah shared with Ingrid but not with Felicity.

The other wives and significant others and female employees all wore bathing suits, mostly bikinis that showed off their already tanned bodies. When did they have time to tan? Felicity wore a bathing suit, too, and it was also a bikini, but she was self-conscious about the weight she carried on her hips and her sagging-from-nursing breasts. The worst thing was that there were no other children at the party. No other mothers. Not even one. Felicity knew she was not the oldest person there, but she wasn’t young and carefree and cool and hip, or whatever they called themselves these days. She didn’t even know what they called themselves, which made her feel at least another decade older. But when Alice took Luke’s hand and tenderly helped him down the steps into the water, Felicity forgot about everything and sat smiling, lost in the beauty of her children.

A woman swept up. “Hello again! Remember me? I’m Cynthia Levine, we met at the Christmas party. I’ll sit here, okay? We’ll be the old married section.”

Felicity smiled as Cynthia, bravely displaying dimpled thighs and a bulging belly in her black one piece, joined her.

“Your children are darling. I hope this little guy is as cute as yours.” Cynthia settled herself on a lounger, setting a beach bag spilling over with towels, crackers, water, sunblock, and a chiffon cover-up next to her.

“You’re pregnant! Congratulations!” Felicity’s pleasure was real. At last, another mother on the Green Food wives’ team.

“Yes, and I love it. I never have to hold my stomach in. And the Horny Bachelors have stopped flirting with me. They avoid me like the plague.”

“The Horny Bachelors?”

“Don’t tell me they haven’t hit on you. They’re young and obsessed with work and awkward in social situations and desperate to get laid without consequences. They especially like married women. See the guy with the man bun? And the guy with the tattoo? And the guy in the Hawaiian shirt?”

“Those guys have hit on you? Why don’t they hit on the women on the staff?”

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