A Nantucket Wedding(49)

    David ran his hands through his hair again, thinking. “You’re right. If I’m honest, I don’t want to retire. I don’t want to hand over the reins to Poppy. But Poppy wants to be head of the company.”

“But remember, Poppy is young. She knows stuff you don’t know. She has ideas you don’t have. You need to share the work—and the glory. And you need to start taking a couple of days a week away from work. We can go to the island. We can go to museums and concerts in Boston. You can lead a more balanced life.”

“What about you?” David asked. “No honeymoon?”

Alison ran her hand down his beloved face. “Whenever we’re together, that’s all the honeymoon I need.”





sixteen


Felicity understood that she possessed an unrealistic view of marriage. Her parents had been happy together, and Felicity had assumed her marriage would be happy, too.

Or, wait, she thought. She didn’t mean happy or even easy. She’d thought marriage between two people would be a joint effort. Fifty-fifty. Maybe sixty-forty.

Now she knew she’d been naïve.

Her situation was compounded by the fact that in the group of mothers Felicity saw on a regular basis, usually at someplace like the park or the school with the kids, no other mother seemed as conflicted about her own marriage as Felicity was about hers. She knew, of course, they couldn’t all be floating on rosy clouds of matrimonial bliss, but while they all complained—with laughter—about their husbands, no one expressed the doubts and the downright anger Felicity felt.

    She spent three days muttering to herself, and finally, in the middle of the week, she called Jane.

“I was just going to phone you!” Jane said.

“You were?” Felicity couldn’t help smiling.

“What’s going on?” Jane asked.

“Do you have a moment?”

“Of course. Where are you?”

“I’m in the attic.”

Jane laughed. “Isn’t it hot up there?”

“Sweltering. But this way the kids can’t hear me.”

“Wow. Tell me everything.”

“You first,” Felicity said.

“No, you first,” Jane said. “Please. I need to get out of my Slough of Despond.”

“Your what?”

“It’s from The Pilgrim’s Progress…never mind. Tell me.”

“All right, well, the coming weekend is the Fourth of July. Fireworks, cookouts, the All-American day, right? Mom has invited us all down for the long weekend and it’s going to be wicked hot those days. Plus, I’ve been to the island twice and Noah hasn’t deigned to come even once.”

“And he doesn’t want to come for the Fourth?” Jane asked.

“He doesn’t! He won’t! And do you know why? Because Ingrid, his ‘office wife,’ is having a huge cookout for everyone who works for Green Food.”

“But the Fourth is a family holiday, isn’t it?”

“Exactly! That’s what I told Noah and he said children are invited, too, and get this, the astonishing Ingrid has a swimming pool!”

“Um, Mom’s got the ocean…”

“Noah says the salt in the ocean bothers his eyes.”

“And the chorine in a pool doesn’t?”

“Noah says he has to be at Ingrid’s cookout. He says it will be a perfect time to network with his employees on a personal basis.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I called you.”

    Jane laughed. “Yes, because I’m such a wizard in the marriage department.”

“Wait, tell me more about you.”

“Well, guess what. Scott won’t go to Nantucket for the Fourth, either. We’ve always gone to the summer home of one of the partners of his firm, and he’s insisting he’ll go there even if he has to go without me. We had a major fight. I’m really angry, Felicity. I’m angry enough to end this.”

“Oh, Jane, no. You and Scott are so perfect for each other. With each other.”

“I thought we were,” Jane said sadly. “I’m not so sure anymore.”

The sisters were quiet for a long moment, deep in thought.

“Well, Filly, this ought to put your Independence Day picnic in perspective,” Jane said with a wry laugh.

“Actually, it does. You’ll be going to Nantucket, won’t you?”

“You bet I am. And I hope that yummy Ethan is there, too.”

“What? Why? Oh, Jane, don’t be a fool.”

“Why not? Ethan’s handsome and sexy and willing.”

“Don’t even. You know Ethan’s just a serial flirt. What you have with Scott is profound. You don’t want to muddy your marriage with some stupid flirtation.”

“Don’t worry, Felicity, if I muddy my marriage, as you say, I’ll be sure it’s more than flirtation.”

“Jane!” Felicity burst into tears. “Infidelity is nothing to joke about!”

“Oh, silly Filly, don’t cry. I’m not going to sleep with him. I’m just hoping Scott isn’t drowning his sorrows with one of the female lawyers in his firm.”