Page 73 of A Nantucket Wedding

It was, Felicity thought, a perfect summer day. They swam and ate and dozed in the sun. Jane led Alice and Luke on a beachcombing trek through the dunes, so both Felicity and Noah took a nap in the shade of the beach umbrellas.

They were all drowsy with heat and sunshine as they sailed back to the harbor, moored the boats, and drove through town to David’s house. Jane drove herself back to the airport to catch her plane back to New York, while Felicity ushered her children through showers and shampoos and into clean clothes. David drove the Wellingtons to their plane. Noah shook hands manfully with David and promised to come back soon, but once they were in line for boarding, Noah whipped out his phone and ignored his wife and children. That was all right, Felicity thought. At least he’d come to the island. And he’d enjoyed his time with David and Patrick and Ethan. It was possible Noah had been charmed by the island and Felicity’s blended family. It was possible that the golden glow of Nantucket would make Noah forget whatever pleasures Ingrid was offering.

—

Everyone was glad to be home. Felicity tucked her children into their own beds. She started to pull on one of the old T-shirts she slept in, but a thought occurred to her. Noah had been silent on the drive home, but she was certain he’d had a good time. He had seemed to get along very well with David. So Felicity put on a nightgown, a real nightgown instead of a T-shirt, short and lacy and alluring. She went down to the den to seduce her husband.

Noah was sitting on the sofa, not isolated in a chair. A good sign. Felicity curled up in the arm of the sofa, facing him.

“So, did you have a good weekend?” she asked.

“Anyone could have a good time staying at a multimillion-dollar rich boy’s summer castle.” Noah’s words spilled out in a bitter surge.

Felicity was stunned. “But, uh, didn’t you think that David was nice?”

Noah turned to face Felicity and he was angry. “Davidshouldbe nice with all that money.”

“Well, Noah, I don’t think there’s a correlation between wealth and niceness. Look at Bernie Madoff. Look at—”

“My point exactly! These guys who own the world are nothing more than conspicuously consuming crooks!”

“David isn’t a croo—”

Noah interrupted her. “Of course he is! He’s raping the island, despoiling the natural beaches, sucking up fuel for his damned powerboat, not to mention the house, the damnedbeachhouse, has air-conditioning! And heat!”

“The family has always spent a lot of time on the island in the off-season,” Felicity explained. “They come for the Cranberry Festival, Thanksgiving, the Stroll, Christmas, Daffodil weekend—”

“All unnatural reasons to come to the island!” Noah rose from the sofa and paced the floor, slamming his fist into the palm of his hand.

“Well,Thanksgiving—”

“A man like that makes me want to vomit. Such a show-off, an egomaniac who doesn’t give a shit about nature unless it’s got a sticker he can put on his four-wheel drive vehicle! Felicity, I used to admire your mother. I thought she was a good woman, a smart woman, but now I think she’s just another pretty face who’s gotten her claws into a rich man!”

“How dare you!” Angered, Felicity stood up and blocked her husband’s pacing. “How dare you say that about my mother. She’s not a gold digger!”

“You’re blind if you can’t see it.”

“Noah, come on, you’re being irrational.”

“You think? I might be, because that whole setup makes me so damned mad. Have you seen the Wauwinet? David is taking that expensive hotel over for an entire weekend? He can throw away money that should be spent on charities, on wildlife conservation groups, on helping this poor world instead of throwing parties for his group of miserable moneygrubbers! I tell you, Felicity, there is no way in hell I’m going to that wedding.”

Felicity’s hands flew up to her heart, as if afraid it would stop. “Oh, Noah. Don’t say that. Please. You have to go. Your children will be in the wedding. I’ll be in the wedding. My mother would be heartbroken if you didn’t come.”

“That’s her choice,” Noah said. “She’s chosen the dark side. I’m not going over there.”

Felicity stared. Who was this man? She opened her mouth to plead—and instead, she found herself saying, “ ‘The dark side’?How do you define the dark side? I would say that a husband having an affair with his personal assistant is about as dark as it gets.”

Noah recoiled. “Don’t drag Ingrid into this.”

“Ingrid. You want to protectIngrid?Noah, I am your wife. The mother of your children. If you think David’s evil because he has money, what about you? What would your adoring employees think if you got divorced so you can fuck Ingrid?”

“I never mentioned divorce.”

“Well,Idid. Just now.” Felicity was standing almost toe-to-toe with her husband, as close as she’d been physically in weeks. Energy was zapping between them, and she knew her face was as red as his, and both of them were breathing heavily, but this was the dynamics of battle, not love.

“You’re being absurd,” Noah said.

“Oh, I can get crazier,” Felicity warned, and she had no idea where these words and the strength to power them was coming from, but she was filled full of a righteousness that she’d been denying for weeks. “I think Ingrid is a danger to our marriage. Either you fire Ingrid, or I’m leaving you.”

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