A Nantucket Christmas Read Free

think of no objection, and managed to say, “Tell Nicole thank you, Maddox.”
    “Thank you,” Maddox said.
    Nicole beamed as she rose to her feet. She had passed the first test. Proudly, she wrapped her arm through Sebastian’s arm, giving it a quick smug hug.
    “Love-dovey—ick!” Maddox giggled.
    Nicole started to pull her arm away.
    But Sebastian laughed and with his other arm reached out and pulled his daughter next to him. “Maddox, I like hugs from my women.”
    Nicole watched emotions flicker over Kennedy’s lovely face: surprise at her father’s unusual spontaneity; joy at being hugged by her father; consternation at being hugged when her father was with Nicole.
    Dinner was a complicated casserole with a French name and a salad of puzzling gourmet lettuce called frisée that felt like sharp bitter hair in Nicole’s mouth. Still, she appreciated the trouble Kennedy had gone to.
    “This meat is so tender,” Nicole complimented Kennedy.
    Kennedy actually blushed. “Thank you. It’s
daub au poivre.
The meat is marinated with wine and all sorts of herbs. I had to find lard for the recipe.
Lard.
Who uses lard anymore? But I wanted to make it authentic …”
    She’s nervous, Nicole realized, as Kennedy babbled on. Not nervous about Nicole, but about the excellence of her cooking. Kennedy’s eyes flitted to her father as she spoke, waiting for him to praise her. Nicole kicked Sebastian in the ankle until he spoke up.
    “It’s delicious, Kennedy. Never tasted anything better.”
    Nicole could see Kennedy’s shoulders actually relax, dropping a few inches away from her ears. A tender spot blossomed in her heart for the young woman.
    But when time came for dessert, Kennedy refused to taste Nicole’s deep-dish apple pie.
    Putting her hand on her waistline, Kennedy said, “I don’t eat desserts. We all know that sugar is bad for us. And I have to watch my weight, like mother does. I don’t want to get”—she glanced at Nicole’s rounder figure—“pudgy.”
    Sebastian chuckled around a mouth of delicious pie. “We all gain weight as we grow older, darling.”
    “Mother hasn’t,” Kennedy reminded him. “She’s got a gorgeous shape and a flat tummy.”
    She probably doesn’t eat
lard
, Nicole wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut.
    And that, as far as Nicole was concerned, summed up her relationship with Kennedy. One step forward, one step back.
     
    Nicole and Sebastian married. The January ceremony was attended by only a few intimate friends since they assumed Kennedy would refuse to attend. Katya was blissfully redecorating her Boston townhouse and continuing to see Alonzo. Kennedy’s husband, James, was doing well with his work, and Maddox was growing out of the toddler stage, becoming more manageable. A delicate harmony existed in Sebastian’s inner circle; Nicole and Sebastian did not want to disrupt the peace.
    Nicole sold her small apartment and moved to Sebastian’s Nantucket house to live year-round. She made friends, loved the small town, and began to anticipate the holiday season.
    This year Katya and Alonzo were going to a tennis and cleansing spa. That meant that Kennedy, James, and Maddox were coming to the island for Christmas week.
    The entire seven-day-long Christmas
week
.

2
    Why did his parents need another baby? Maddox wondered about this constantly. It was going to be a boy, too, his mommy had told him. Wasn’t Maddox a good enough boy for his parents?
    He tried to be a good boy. He ate his vegetables, even though they sometimes made him gag. He strained desperately to comprehend the funny squiggles on the page every day when his mommy tried to teach him to read, and he had already mastered the art of using the potty. Most of the time.
    But Maddox had seen babies. They couldn’t use the potty at all. So why did his parents want one?
    “You’ll have someone to play with,” his mommy promised. But a kid couldn’t play with a
baby.
Babies couldn’t throw a ball.