Page 6 of A Nantucket Wedding

The front door slammed. Alison called, “Darlings! Come help carry in the groceries.” When her girls appeared in the front hall, she told them, “More groceries in the car, Felicity. Steak and bacon. Here, Jane, take this, it’s a heavy bag.”

“Ethan’s here,” Felicity said.

“Oh, good. He’s lovely. Is he staying for dinner?”

“I don’t think so,” Jane answered, lifting the bag from her mother’s arms. “Thisisheavy. What did you buy?”

“A little of everything. It’s such a luxury to have both of you here with me, and I want this weekend to be something special.”

“I think I’ve just had a special moment,” Jane murmured.

“I think I had the same one,” Felicity said, grinning.

“They say it’s always better at the beach.” Jane nudged her sister.

As her daughters unpacked the groceries, Alison set the steak in a long glass dish to marinate in olive oil and crushed garlic and red wine. Hearing her girls laughing with each other filled her heart. Alison could relax. Jane and Felicitywereadults. They had husbands, families, work, their very own lives. It would be brilliant and not so impossible if they got along this weekend. Alison wanted to tell them all about David’s plan for an amazingly romantic wedding, and David’s children and grandchildren, and how much she was hoping they could all be, just for a while, one big happy family, like all the families on Christmas cards.

Had they ever been one big happy family? Yes, Alison thought, they had. She knew that no one was happy all the time, and it would be unreasonable for her to expect her daughters to be without their own worries and fears, but her daughters were so different in every way—what they liked to eat, how they dressed, what they read, how they played—it had been impossible to please them both at once. Still, the years of her marriage to Mark, Felicity’s father, had been golden for them all.

Her daughters had their own families now. Alison was free to focus on David, to enjoy life, to accept with pleasure the remarkable gift of love which fate had brought her way. She told herself to get her mind off her daughters and focus on the approaching summer.

She heard whistling and knew that Ethan was coming downstairs.

three

Felicity and Jane shared a look.

Ethan walked into the room. When he saw Alison, he broke into a huge, gorgeous smile.

Their mother smiled back. “Ethan!”

Together the sisters stood like statues, staring as their mother so casually threw her arms around Ethan and hugged him.

“Sweetie, I’m so glad to see you.”

Jane and Felicity exchanged glances.Sweetie.

“We’re having steak!” Alison announced. “And I bought a nice red wine and some new potatoes and asparagus and maybe Felicity will make her fabulous chocolate ‘mouse.’ That’s what we’ve always called it since she was a little girl.”

Felicity knew she was blushing. First of all, it was way too much responsibility, making a dessert for this man to eat. She’d worry with every teaspoon that something would go wrong. Second, she hated that her mother made her seem so childish, so silly.

“Sounds great, Alison, but I’ve got to go help a friend with his boat. We’ll grab a hamburger later.”

“Well, tomorrow night, then,” Alison said.

“That’s a plan.” Ethan waved. “Have a good night, ladies.”

Then he was gone.

As if she hadn’t noticed their giddy smiles, Alison announced, “I thought we’d eat early tonight. That way we can talk about the wedding and plan the summer and maybe watch a movie together.”

“Oh, perfect!” Felicity dumped the new potatoes into a colander and rinsed them in the sink.

“Let’s have a drink on the deck. It’s still a bit cool in the evenings, so we’ll need sweaters. Jane, can you set the table and open the wine? We’ll eat in the kitchen. It’s just us, the dining room is too big, and it will be too cool to eat outside. Let’s forget making the mouse, Felicity. I’d rather have you sit and talk. We can have fruit.”

As Felicity rinsed the asparagus and snapped off the tough ends, she couldn’t help but notice what a great kitchen David had. Granite counters, Wolf gas stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator-freezer, and…“Mom, is the kitchen floor cork?”

“It is. Isn’t it heaven to walk on? And if we drop a dish, it won’t break, and cork is resistant to mold and mildew, brilliant for the island.”

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