A Nantucket Wedding(14)

Felicity had loved their house and the life lived in it. People were always coming in and out, settling at the kitchen table for tea and cookies or wandering out to the garden with a glass of wine while Felicity and a friend climbed up to the tree house her father had built. Only as she began her own family and tried to keep some sign of sanity in her busy house did she realize how much seemingly effortless work her mother had done to keep them all clean, well fed, and on time to every scheduled event. She had assumed her mother had enjoyed making cupcakes for school sales and sweeping the kitchen floor every day and doing loads of laundry…she was still sure Alison had loved the laundry bit. When it was sunny Alison had carried a wicker basket of wet sheets, towels, tablecloths, and hand towels outside and pegged the linens onto the clothesline, humming as she did. And when she’d brought the linens in, she would say, every single time, “I love the way laundry smells after it’s dried in the sun.”

The smell of bacon snapped Felicity right back to the present. She jumped out of bed and hurriedly dressed.

In the kitchen, Felicity found her mother at the stove and her sister and Ethan huddled over a laptop on the kitchen table.

“Good morning, darling,” Alison called.

    “Good morning, everyone,” Felicity said, scooting past the long pine table to stand at the glass doors and gaze at the view. Sparkling blue water, lazy and sun-speckled, as far as she could see.

“Good morning, Felicity,” Ethan said. He wore a faded T-shirt that matched the blue in his eyes.

Jane looked up. “We don’t have yeast.”

Well, Felicity thought, that was odd. Why would Jane want yeast?

“Bacon?” Alison asked.

The smell was irresistible, plus she’d strayed way off the virtuous vegetarian path last night when she ate steak. “Please,” Felicity said. She poured herself a mug of coffee, lightened its caffeine attack with milk and sugar, and settled at the table.

“Why do you need yeast?” she asked her sister.

Ethan said, “I went into town this morning and picked some up.”

“Oh, good!” Jane looked at Felicity. “We’re going to make bread!”

“We are?” Felicity asked. “Can’t we just buy some?”

Jane and Ethan exchanged glances and laughed, and all at once Felicity was suspicious. How had her sister and Ethan become such a pair? They sat together beaming with secret knowledge, as if they were the popular kids at school.

“Ethan, you explain,” Jane said.

Ethan rose and poured himself more coffee. “I was telling Jane last night that I like to bake. Bread, mostly, but cakes and muffins, that sort of stuff, too. I like working with yeast. It’s organic. It’s magic.” Returning to his seat, he offered, “I’ll teach you, too, if you’d like.”

Felicity caught the laser-swift Do it and die message her older sister deployed with squinted eyes. “No, thanks. I’ve made bread before. I want to enjoy myself while I’m a free woman.”

Alison set a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon before Felicity.

“Oh, Mom, thanks, this smells heavenly.”

    “You’re welcome, sweetie. And I have a surprise for you.”

Felicity, mouth full of bacon, could only raise a questioning eyebrow.

“Jane’s going to spend the morning making bread with Ethan. And, I’ve booked a massage for you.”

“A massage!” Felicity was breathless. “I haven’t had a massage in forever!”

Alison smiled. “I thought you’d like that. And after lunch, I want to take you girls shopping.”

“Shopping? Why?” Was that a conspiratorial look that flashed between her mother and Jane?

“Because I can,” Alison said, laughing. “Because I love having my daughters here with me and I want to buy you both some cute summer dresses.”

Felicity said, “Maybe we should get something for the children instead—”

Her mother cut her off. “I’m buying clothes for my children.”

Felicity’s heart sank a little. She would love having some brand-new, never-before-worn clothes from a classy Nantucket shop, but it wouldn’t please Noah if she allowed herself to slide out of the clear clean sunlight of virtuousness into the evil, seductive consumer shade. Well, she decided, as she ate her insanely delicious eggs and bacon, she could just go along and pretend she didn’t want anything.

Rising, she carried her dish and cup, rinsed them, and stacked them in the dishwasher. She hugged Alison. “That was divine, Mom, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Filly.” Alison kissed her daughter’s cheek. “We should leave for your massage in about fifteen minutes.”

Felicity cast one more suspicious glance at Jane and Ethan, who were happily scrolling down a list of recipes on a laptop on the kitchen table.

“Felicity?” Alison called from the front hall.

“Coming!” Felicity called. To Jane and Ethan, she said, “Bye for now.”

    “Bye, honey, have a great massage,” Jane said, her eyes focused on the computer screen.



* * *



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Jane was relieved when she heard her sister and mother leave the house. She’d sensed a flicker of jealousy from Felicity, and couldn’t help but enjoy it. Just a little.