A Very Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer

Author:Nancy Thayer [Thayer, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2015-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

3

A week later, George trudged up the stairs with a wicker basket of fresh laundry in his arms. He found Jilly in the guest bedroom. “Here you go, Lady Gordon, one clean set of snowman-covered sheets and a reindeer-patterned duvet.”

“Help me make the bed, will you please, George?” Jilly asked. “My back is starting to ache.”

“I’m not surprised,” George said as he flapped out the bottom sheet and helped Jilly spread it on the mattress. “You’ve been working like a crazy woman on the house.”

“We’ll never have another Christmas like this one. I want it to be perfect,” said Jilly. “Anyway, I have most of it done. Lauren and Porter will be in Lauren’s old bedroom with air mattresses on the floor for Portia and Lawrence. Felicia and Archie will have her old bedroom. Pat Galloway could have the guest room but she prefers staying in a hotel. I’ve put on Christmas sheets and quilts anyway.”

“I noticed,” George told his wife. “Looks great. And I’m sure that now that the kids are older, nothing will get broken.”

Jilly was quiet as she helped George finish making the bed. She plumped up the pillows in their Christmas shams and smoothed out a few tiny wrinkles on the duvet.

“We don’t have any little-boy toys in the house, but I bought a few “Meg Mackintosh” mystery books I think Lawrence will like and I’ve put them on the bedside table. As for Portia, I left Lauren’s old doll carriage and baby doll in the room for her to play with.”

Suddenly Jilly collapsed on the bed, dropped her face into her hands, and began to cry.

Alarmed, George sat down, put his arm around his wife, and asked, “Hey, honey, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, George,” cried Jilly, “when I got out the baby carriage, it made me remember when Lauren’s children were babies and slept in our daughters’ crib. There it was, up in the attic, all folded up, with a mattress wrapped in plastic, and the soft baby sheets and blankets and bumpers tucked away in a plastic box. And we’ll never use any of it again.”

“How can you say that?” George asked. “Felicia’s getting married. I’m sure she’ll have kids someday.”

“Yes, and she’ll probably give birth in a yurt in the Gobi Desert, attended by two Mongolians and a goat.”

George threw back his head and laughed, hugging Jilly to him. “You have quite an imagination.”

“I don’t need an imagination when I have a daughter like Felicia,” Jilly said glumly.

“You really have been working too hard,” George said soothingly. “You’re upset over nothing. Listen, it’s Stroll weekend. What are we doing sitting inside? Let’s go for a walk and then I’ll take you out to lunch.”

“George, what a great idea.” Jilly wiped tears from her eyes and stood up. “I’ll change clothes and put on some lipstick.”

In a flash, Jilly’s mood brightened. The Nantucket Christmas Stroll took place the first weekend after Thanksgiving weekend. This annual occasion became more exciting every year, as islanders and tourists alike

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