No Love Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer

Author:Grace Palmer [Palmer, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grace Palmer

Toni woke up to someone’s face filling her entire field of vision.

She had to stifle a terrified shriek before she realized that it was just her nephew Brent, who’d clambered onto the bed and was trying to touch his nose to hers.

“Brent, honey! You scared the daylights out of me,” she said.

Mae came rushing in a moment later, brandishing a wooden spoon like a battle ax. “Brent Evan Benson!” she yelled. “What did I tell you about letting Aunt Toni sleep?”

He started to stammer something and looked like he was on the verge of tears. Toni interceded. “It’s okay,” she said. She swept the four-year-old up into her arms and planted a kiss on top of his blond head. “Aunt Toni had a good nap, and she wanted to see you anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Toni,” Mae said. She sighed and let the spoon fall by her side. Everyone in the house knew that Mae didn’t have the heart to ever actually use the thing, but that didn’t stop her from charging into the middle of Benson child mayhem like an armed Viking if the furor ever got too loud.

“No, no, really, it’s okay. I oughta be getting up anyhow. What time is it?”

“Just shy of five o’clock,” Mae said. She turned to leave the room before stopping to add, “Oh, I invited Lola and Debra over for dinner as well! I hope you don’t mind?”

“Of course not!” Toni said. “It’ll be good to see those old hens.”

Mae laughed. “Make sure you say that to their faces,” she said. “They’ll have some choice words to say back, I’m sure. I’ve gotta go check on the lobster. Do you mind?”

“Go do your thing, hon. Can I help with anything?”

“Not a chance!”

“Aunt Toni,” Brent said cheerily once his mother had retreated back downstairs, “can we read a book?”

Toni grinned. “Nothing in the whole wide world would make me happier. Why don’t you go pick one out, and I’ll meet you on the porch? We can sit in the rocking chair and read together. How’s that sound?”

Brent wheeee’d his way out of the room in a blaze, leaving Toni chuckling in his wake. She groaned and kept working out the kinks in her neck as she sat upright. The airplane seat really had done a number on her muscles, though it had helped somewhat to nap for as long as she did.

She changed quickly into a pair of comfortable jeans and a white cotton T-shirt. Then she padded downstairs.

The lower floor was rich with the aroma of butter and stock. Toni was sorely tempted to go peek into the kitchen to see what Mae was whipping up, but Brent was waiting by the front door already, book in hand and shifting excitedly from foot to foot. He looked like he might erupt if she denied him their promised book time for even a second longer.

So she went over to him, opened the door, and they went out onto the porch. “Up you come!” she cooed as she hefted the boy into her lap.

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