A Nantucket Wedding(17)

Alison laughed. “I’m a little old to be a princess—”

“Cleopatra, then,” Jane suggested.

“Right!” Felicity clapped her hands. “Jane and I could be your servants. We’d fan you with enormous peacock feathers.”

“I think it’s a good thing I didn’t order champagne,” Alison said. “Heaven knows what you’d dream up then.”

For lunch, Alison and Jane both enjoyed delicious lobster rolls. Felicity had an enormous Wagyu burger.

“It’s your fault,” she told her mother. “You’ve awakened my taste for red meat.”

“Isn’t Wagyu beef the kind they breed in Japan and massage every day?” Jane asked.

“I’ve heard that’s a myth,” Alison said. “But it is especially delicious and tender—and expensive.”

    “Oh, I hope the cow was massaged every day,” Felicity said. “This would have been a happy cow.”

“You should know,” Jane joked, adding to clarify, “I mean you just had a massage.” She turned to Alison. “How many people are coming to your wedding, Mom?”

“Not too many. About eighty.”

“Don’t you feel strange, leaving all the decisions to what’s-her-name, David’s assistant?”

“Heather. And no, I don’t. Heather does the research. She and her husband have a house here, so they know whom to contact. She’s friends with Michael Molinar, who owns Flowers on Chestnut, so he can advise her about what will work. Then she shows us the possibilities for tents, menus, music, and so on. David and I discuss and decide and Heather implements our decisions. It’s like throwing a party and having it catered.”

“But it’s your wedding,” Felicity stressed.

“Yes, and it will be here, isolated from the world,” Alison responded. “Nature will be our cathedral. The sky and sun and waves will be our witnesses. David and I have so much, all we need. David worked hard all his life. We’ve both lost our beloved spouses. It’s a miracle that we’ve found each other. We want to share our great good fortune and our joy by giving our family and friends a wonderful fairy-tale weekend.”

Alison’s face glowed as she spoke. Felicity and Jane looked at each other, surprised by so much passion coming from their mother.

“I’ve never heard you talk that way before,” Jane said softly.

“I’ve never felt this way before,” Alison replied with a smile. “Now. Let’s skip dessert and go into town, shall we? I’m in the mood to shop!”

Nantucket had many fabulous stores along the brick tic-tac-toe grid of the main town and also along the wharves in boutiques that had once been fishermen’s shacks. They surrendered to a shopping mania, drunk on color and fabric and glitter and style. At Murray’s Toggery, Alison bought Felicity and Jane clever little tops and capri pants and some Jack Rogers sandals, which, Alison said, everyone wears. Felicity found tops at Vis-A-Vis that were loose and flowing, very romantic, with lace or embroidery, not at all the blue-and-white-striped things that screamed I own a yacht. Both girls found silk shirts and light jackets at Zero Main. Alison noted with satisfaction that Felicity didn’t make any kind of a fuss about trying on such gorgeous clothes.

    They drove home in the late afternoon. When they walked into the house, they stopped dead, as if in a trance.

“Bread!” Jane cried. “Ethan’s baked the bread!”

They dropped their shopping bags and hurried into the kitchen. Ethan was there, huge and masculine in board shorts, a T-shirt, flip-flops—and an apron.

“This is every woman’s dream.” Jane sighed. “A handsome man in the kitchen.”

“Good to know,” Ethan joked, and he flashed a glance at Jane, who blushed.

Alison’s radar pinged. What was happening to her serious, sensible daughter? She stepped between them. “It smells like it just came out of the oven.”

“It did.” Ethan dried his hands. “I took the butter out of the refrigerator a while ago to soften it. And I made fresh lemonade. With real lemons.”

“Can we keep him, Mom?” Jane joked. “Maybe chained in the basement?”

“We’ll let him out to cook for us,” Felicity added, sliding around the table to gaze down at the crusty loaf.

They sat at the table eating the warm, crusty bread, almost incapable of conversation. Afterward, Felicity and Alison went upstairs to nap after their hard day of lunching and shopping.

“I’m going down for a swim,” Ethan said.

Alison paused with her hand on the bannister, waiting to hear what Jane would say.

    “Have fun,” Jane said. “I think I’ll read for a while.”

“That’s boring. You can read anytime. But a day like today is rare. Come on. Swim with me.”

Jane hesitated. She’d told him this morning she was married and would not betray her vows. And after all, he was only inviting her to go for a swim. But the thought of them together in the silky water, buffeted against each other by the waves, their bodies bare except for the merest strips of clothing…she was appalled at how much she wanted to swim with him.

She stood up. “Actually, I think I’ll take a nap. All this sun and good food is acting like a tranquilizer. Enjoy your swim.” She left the room. She almost ran.