A Nantucket Christmas Read online

  At eleven, Seb appeared on the library porch. “Ready?”

  “Absolutely. Here comes my replacement.” Nicole hugged her friend, took Seb’s hand, and they went down the wooden library steps and through the picket fence to the brick sidewalk.

  “Which way?” Seb asked.

  Nicole linked her hand through her husband’s arm. “Let’s go see Santa arrive.”

  They sauntered along, taking it all in, waving at friends. Several of the streets were blocked off for the gathering crowds whose pleasure was reflected back to them by the shining shop windows. Clever wreaths of evergreen or seashells or buoys decorated the doors, and dozens of small Christmas trees twinkled up and down the six major streets of the town. A fiddler strolled through the town playing folk tunes. The town crier strode around in his long black cape, waiting to ring the bell to announce the arrival of Santa.

  “Look, Sebastian!” Nicole pointed at a Great Dane in a Santa Claus hat and a cherry-red Rudolph nose.

  “Nantucketers love their dogs,” Sebastian told her.

  Nicole spotted dogs decked out with reindeer ears and red velvet bows, hand-knit sweaters and blinking lights. A corgi wore a jingle bell collar that tinkled as she waddled along. “The dogs seem quite pleased to be in costume,” Nicole observed.

  The town sheriff, Jim Perelman, waved at Sebastian and Nicole. “The boat’s on its way!” he called to them.

  Nicole tugged Sebastian’s hand. “Hurry.”

  Straight Wharf was already crowded with families. Daddies held children on their shoulders, older kids worked hard to appear blasé, dogs sniffed the ground in search of dropped cookie crumbs. Everyone looked to the harbor waters, watching for the Coast Guard boat that brought Santa and Mrs. Claus.

  “Here it comes,” Sebastian told Nicole. He waved. “There’s John West, he’s the captain.”

  “The one with the candy-cane-striped muffler?” Nicole asked.

  “Right.”

  The vessel motored steadily through the waves toward the pier, the Coast Guard decked out in red jackets and Santa Claus hats. The American flag with its red and white stripes rippled gaily in the breeze.

  The boat docked. The ramp was secured. The crowd applauded as Santa and his wife stepped off the boat and were escorted into a carriage pulled by a handsome black horse. They processed up the cobblestone street toward the historic Jared Coffin House, where Santa would sit children on his knee and listen to their Christmas wishes.

  “This certainly puts me in a holiday mood.” Nicole squeezed her husband’s hand from sheer delight. “Let’s stop and listen to the bell ringers.”

  They paused at the top of Main Street, where a glittering Christmas tree towered in front of the Pacific Bank. The peals of the bells floated like golden bubbles through the frosty air.

  “Lunch, I think,” Sebastian said, tugging Nicole away from the music.

  At 12 Degrees East, they dined on creamy clam chowder and healthy green salads, sipped glasses of sparkling Prosecco, and treated themselves to bread pudding topped with whipped cream.

  “I feel a nap coming on,” Sebastian confessed.

  “I feel the need to shop!” Nicole countered.

  “Nicole.” Sebastian shook his head fondly. “You mustn’t get carried away with this Christmas business.”

  Nicole swirled milk and sugar into her coffee. “Tell me about your Christmases with Katya.”

  Sebastian shrugged. “No big deal. When Kennedy was small, we went to either my parents’ or Katya’s for the holidays. After our parents died and Kennedy was older and more manageable, we took family trips over Christmas. To Fiji, and Paris, and Aruba, that sort of thing.”

  “Did Katya decorate the house?” Nicole restrained any tone of judgment from her voice.

  Sebastian considered her question. “Somewhat. Candles, that sort of thing. She never put up a tree because the needles would fall off, making a mess on the carpet. And after all, the trips were the main event.”

  Nicole put her hand over Sebastian’s. “You know, Gordie and I never had any children. I always loved the Christmas season, but I missed being able to share it with a child. Now that Maddox is coming, I’m eager to get a big tree and do it up right, and buy lots of presents for him. And for the new baby. Maybe something fabulous and sparkly for Kennedy, too, to buoy her up since she’s so weighed down with her pregnancy.”

  As she spoke, Nicole’s face brightened. She loved giving gifts.

  Sebastian’s face lit up, too. “Sweetheart, you’re such a dreamer. Sure, let’s get a great big evergreen and you can trim the tree to your heart’s content.” He leaned forward. “What would you like for Christmas?”

  Less than a year old, their marriage was still new. Nicole blushed. “I have everything I want,” she told her husband.

  5

  On that dreadful September day, Snix had run like a wild thing so fast and so far he’d finally come to the end of the moors. Here on the hilltops, huge mansions overlooked the world around them. Many were in the process of being shut up for the winter and refrigerators were cleaned out, their contents tossed into garbage containers that were easily opened. For a few weeks, Snix sniffed out sufficient food to sustain him.

  Wandering this way, he found himself approaching the main cluster of population, where houses gathered closely together along winding lanes. As the days went by and the leaves turned colors and drifted down, some of these houses emptied out also. Still, many houses were lived in. Snix could tell by the smells. Some dogs even possessed homes, great massive structures with yards where entry was forbidden by their urinary territorial postings. He avoided those places.

  He could usually find a comfortable wicker chair on a back porch to sleep in for the night. He searched the center of the town for food, hitting the jackpot where the ferries and boats docked. There, the trash barrels were always full.

  The trees grew bare. The temperature fell. The lights disappeared from summer homes. Hunger didn’t hurt him as much as loneliness. No one petted him, no one held him, no one even ever said hello. He trotted along the streets of town like a ghost dog, unrecognized, unapproached. After a while, he noticed that all the other dogs kept their owners on a leash, and Snix didn’t blame them. If he had someone who loved him, he’d want to be permanently connected, too.

  During the days, as he hunted through the town for something, anything, to eat, he couldn’t help catching sight of what he was pretty sure was himself in the shop windows. He was scrawny, with ribs curving beneath tangled matted hair. It was embarrassing.

  No wonder the girl had left him behind.

  It encouraged him slightly when locals began to put up lights all over their houses and the town lined the streets with fragrant green trees covered in small glittering bulbs. Frigid air blew over the island, but more visitors kept arriving, gabbing away with their hands clutching hot cups of coffee, munching heavenly-scented sweet rolls, dropping the occasional crumb that Snix tried to get to after the people walked away, before the seagulls swooped in.

  He was surviving. It was worse when the blowing rain or snow began. Back porches provided little shelter, so he huddled, shivering, inside bushes or beneath cars. In the daylight, what little there was of it, he ran through the streets, searching for food and a warmer spot.

  He was so lonely.

  6

  “Know what, Mommy?” Kennedy grumbled. “I hate this season.”

  “I never liked it, either,” Katya sympathized.

  “It’s such a bother.” Kennedy was reclining on her mother’s living room sofa, visiting for the afternoon. Alonzo had taken Maddox down to the condo’s gym to play, which almost made Kennedy like the man, even if her mother had run off with him. Kennedy could still hope with all her heart that her mother would come to her senses and return to her father.

  “All the awful parties,” Katya agreed. “It’s so hard not to gain weight.”

  Kennedy cast a skeptical eye at her mother, who hadn’t gaine
d an ounce after her twenty-fifth birthday.

  Katya had learned to slenderize her body and her life before it became all the rage. She always chose modern furniture with sleek, clean lines. She hated clutter. She disdained “collectibles.” Her clothing, too, was classic. No ruffles, no lace, no faux anything. White shirts and khakis in the summer, white cashmere turtleneck sweaters and khakis in the winter. Black dresses for evening wear. Real pearls. Costume jewelry—ugh. Only real, large—but not vulgar—diamond solitaires for her ears. Her blond hair was always cut to fall just to her chin, sweeping from a side part.

  “How do you stay so skinny?” Kennedy asked.

  “Exercise and willpower,” Katya told her. “Your weight has to be your first priority in life. It’s extremely hard work. I’ll admit I’ve suffered at times.”

  “But it’s worth it, right, Mom? I mean, just look at you.”

  Katya preened. “Thank you, darling.”

  “I’ll lose weight after I have the baby.”

  “Of course you will.”

  Kennedy made a face. “But we’ve got to go to Dad’s next Sunday for the whole week!”

  “It will be fine,” Katya assured her daughter. “Come on. This way, Nicole has to do all the fussing about Christmas. She’ll do all the cooking and cleaning. You won’t have to do a thing. Sebastian will take care of Maddox. He and James can go off and do manly things. You’ll be able to rest.”

  “I hope so, because you know Nicole is going to fill Maddox with candy and icing. He’ll be a hyperactive monkey boy.”

  “What are you getting Nicole for Christmas?” Katya sipped from her mug of unsweetened green tea and settled more comfortably into her chrome and leather chair.

  Kennedy shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve only met her once. I don’t know what that woman likes.”

  “Get her some chocolates.” Katya leered wickedly over the top of her mug.

  Kennedy giggled. “You are bad.” Nicole wasn’t fat, exactly, but she didn’t have Katya’s lean, lithe lines.

  “Why?” Katya widened her eyes innocently. “All women like chocolates.”

  Kennedy snorted. “Nicole obviously does.”

  “Don’t be mean, Kennedy. My sources tell me Nicole is a very nice woman, and your father seems satisfied enough with her.”

  “Oh, Mommy!” Kennedy struggled to sit up. “Why’d you have to leave Daddy?”

  “Darling, we’ve been over this before. Your father and I were boring together. You are grown and married. It was right for me to have some ME in my life.”

  Kennedy flopped back against the pillows. “By ME, you mean Alonzo. Sex.”

  Katya rolled her eyes and directed the subject back to the holidays. “So. You can order chocolates for Nicole online. Go Godiva, that’s always easy and best. Send her the biggest box. They’ll gift wrap it. Done. For your father, go online and order a few of the newest biographies. You know all the man does is read.” Katya yawned. “SO boring.”

  “Mommy.” Kennedy didn’t like her parents criticizing each other.

  “What did you get James?”

  “Nothing yet.” Kennedy poked her enormous belly. “Maybe I’ll order him a life-size blow-up doll he can have sex with.”

  Katya ignored this. “Does he need a new golf bag? Tennis whites?”

  “For Christmas? In New England? We can’t go anywhere, may I remind you, because this baby boy is coming in January. So, no Florida, no Aruba, just snow.”

  “Now let’s be positive. How about cross-country skis for James and for Maddox? They can go out together.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’ve ordered a sled from L.L. Bean for Maddox.” Kennedy gazed around the living room. No tree, no pines on the fireplace mantel, no presents. “What are you doing for Christmas?”

  “I told you, Kennedy. Where is your mind these days? Alonzo and I are going to a cleansing spa in Switzerland for ten days. No fats, no alcohol, no sugar. Lots of exercise and fresh air. Indoor tennis, of course.”

  “You told me you were going to a spa, but you didn’t say Switzerland!” Kennedy sat up, alarmed. “Mommy, what about the baby?”

  “Kennedy, he’s not due until the middle of January. I’ll be back on December thirtieth. Plenty of time.”

  “You’ve got to be!” Kennedy ran her hands over her belly. “I need you there, and Daddy and James.”

  “We’ll do our best.”

  “I know you will. Still—”

  “Ssh. It’s going to be fine.” Katya glanced at her watch. “I’ve got my yoga class in about thirty minutes …”

  “I know. I should get Maddox home for his dinner, anyway.” Kennedy pushed her arms back, trying to extract herself from the sofa.

  Katya watched her daughter with an assessing eye. “I promised to give you money for a nanny.”

  “I know, Mommy, and I’m grateful. But I want to bond with the new baby, even if he is a boy.”

  “It’s a shame about that. Girls’ clothes are so much cuter. But never mind, Kennedy, it will be fun for Maddox to have a brother to play with.”

  Kennedy had achieved a standing position. “I wish James would take a week’s vacation and spend it with me and the new baby, and especially with Maddox. It would be wonderful for Maddox to have his father give him special attention when we have a new baby.”

  “James has an important job with his brokerage firm, Kennedy. You’re being far too idealistic with this bonding mumbo-jumbo. Get a nanny, let her care for the baby, and you spend time with Maddox. I had a nanny for you, and you turned out all right.”

  Kennedy lumbered across the room and into the hall. She pressed the intercom and told Alonzo that he should bring Maddox up.

  “Maddox wants a puppy,” she said over her shoulder to her mother. “I told him no. I can’t deal with a puppy and a new baby. Plus, I’m allergic to animals.”

  “Are you, darling? I never knew that.”

  Kennedy stared at her mother. “I thought that was why we never had a pet.”

  “Oh? I must have forgotten.” Katya opened the closet door and took out Maddox’s little black dress coat and wool cap. She handed them to Kennedy. “I’m sure you’re right.”

  7

  It was the middle of December. Nicole wore a blue roll-neck cotton pullover with a large white snowflake in the center. She’d opened her holiday jewelry box and selected snowflake earrings to match. They’d cost less than five dollars and were iridescent—she could still remember how pleased she was to discover them at a local pharmacy. She looked pretty cute, even if she did say so herself. Kennedy, of course, would consider her sweater sappy. But Kennedy wasn’t here yet.

  And today they were going to buy the tree!

  They bundled up in puffy down coats and leather gloves and drove out of town to Moors End Farm on Pol-pis Road.

  Snow wasn’t falling, but the wind blew fiercely, and overhead the sky hung low and white, as if ready to drop its load of flakes at any moment. Sebastian squeezed the car between two others. He and Nicole slammed their car doors and leaned into the wind, battling toward the trees propped against wooden supports.

  Nicole headed toward the tallest trees. After a moment, she noticed Sebastian was no longer beside her. He’d stalked over to the area with the midget trees.

  “Sebastian!” she called. “Over here!”

  Sebastian waved to her, indicating that she should come over to where he stood.

  “No!” Nicole called. “Tall!” She raised her arms high and wide. “BIG!”

  Sebastian hurried over to her, looking worried. “Nicole, we don’t have the decorations or the lights for such a large tree.”

  Nicole wriggled cheekily. “I do. I brought a couple of boxes when I moved here. Plus, we can buy more lights in a flash!”

  Sebastian chuckled at her weak joke. “I’m afraid I’m not much help with all this tree business.”

  “You’ll be all the help I need when you carry it into the house,” Nicole assured him.


  A burly sales clerk in a red-checked flannel jacket and a fuzzy green hat appeared.

  “What about this one?” he suggested, pulling out an eight-foot-tall tree and shaking it so its branches fell away a bit from their tightly twined position.

  “Look, Seb, it’s flawless.” Nicole clapped her hands in delight. She’d never seen such a sublime evergreen. “It’s shaped like an A. Each side is bushy, so we won’t have to tuck one bad side in a corner to hide it.”

  Sebastian glanced fondly at his wife, who was practically levitating in her pleasure. “Okay,” he surrendered. “This tree.”

  At the small shed where they paid, Nicole bought a wreath for the front door, too. A tasteful wreath with a large red bow and nothing else, no small decorations, no candy canes, no pine cones dusted with faux snow, which she would have preferred. This was her private concession to Sebastian’s decorous (lackluster) tastes. While he and Katya had never had a Christmas tree in the house, Nicole couldn’t imagine Christmas without one.

  With the lumberjack’s help, Sebastian easily hefted the tree to the top of his SUV and fastened it with rope and bungee cords.

  Getting it into the house was a different matter entirely. The tree was heavy. Sebastian removed the cords and wrestled it to the ground, but once he’d gotten his hands on the trunk, he had trouble lifting it and for a moment stumbled around the car as if dancing with a clumsy drunk in a green fir coat.

  Nicole stifled a giggle. “Let me take the top to guide it in.” She stuck her hands in between the branches, grabbed the slender trunk, and together they carried it into the living room. They dropped it on the floor, then wrestled it into the stand Nicole had placed in readiness.

  Sebastian stood back, staring at the tree. “It’s awfully big.”

  “I know,” Nicole agreed smugly. She cocked her head, studying her husband. “Tell you what. If you’ll help me put the lights on, I’ll do the rest of the decorating.”