“Isabelle,” Kelley says, “what’s wrong?”
“She doesn’t want to leave the baby,” Kevin says.
“Oh!” Margaret says. She gives Isabelle a hug. “It’s natural to feel that way. I remember being assigned to a story in Morocco when Patrick was two and this one”—here, she points to Kevin—“was a baby, just about Genevieve’s age. And I had to go for a week. The flight to Casablanca lasted seven hours and I cried the whole way.”
“True story,” Kelley says. “I was there.”
“You were working,” Margaret says. “Your mother was there.”
Drake clears his throat.
Margaret wipes a tear from Isabelle’s cheek. “It’s just a few hours,” she says. “The baby will be fine.”
“That’s what I told her,” Kevin says.
Kelley offers Mitzi an arm. “Shall we go?” he says.
AVA
She’s riding to the party with Kevin, Isabelle, and Jennifer. Ava stares out the window at the colorful Christmas streets. Normally, the lights and the trees would make her giddy with little-kid wonder, but right now she feels dateless and alone. She can’t because Jennifer is even more alone than Ava is—and for longer.
When they all bundle into the car, Ava says, “Does anyone know if Dad and Mitzi are back together?”
“Don’t start,” Kevin says. “It’s none of our business.”
“George had a lunch date with some other woman at the pharmacy,” Jennifer says. “It seemed like a date-date.”
“Don’t start,” Kevin says. “It’s none of our business.”
“Isn’t it?” Ava asks. “He’s our father.”
Isabelle pipes up from the front seat. “I think Kelley and Mitzi just worry together about Bart.”
Kevin says, in a voice that puts an end to the subject, “We all worry about Bart.”
Ava decides to call Scott. She wants to hear his voice, and with George showing up out of the blue, she hasn’t had a chance.
He picks up on the sixth ring. Since he’s left, he has either missed Ava’s calls altogether or picked up on the very last ring before voicemail, which bothers Ava. Why is it taking him so long to answer his phone when he keeps it in his front pocket at all times?
Ava doesn’t care to speculate.
“Hello?” he says.
“Hey,” she says. “We’re in the car headed to the party.” She lets this sink in for a beat or two. “What are you doing?”
“Well,” he says, his voice chipper, “Roxanne is out of surgery, she’s awake, and I’m trying to entice her to eat some of this nice vanilla pudding.”
Ava doesn’t quite know what to do with that sentence. She can only picture Scott positioned at Roxanne’s bedside, feeding her. She finds this vision infuriating.
He should be here with her. Not spooning pudding into Roxanne’s mouth.
“Please give Roxanne my best wishes,” Ava says.
“I will,” Scott says. “How was your day?”
“My day?” Ava asks. The only thing out of the ordinary—other than the drama with Santa and Mrs. Claus—was that Ava received flowers from Nathaniel. Thinking of the flowers from Nathaniel only serves to make Ava even angrier—because the flowers should have been from Scott! But Scott didn’t think to send Ava flowers because he was too busy trying to entice Mz. Ohhhhhh to eat her pudding.
For a second, Ava considers telling Scott that Nathaniel sent her flowers.
Should she?
Should she?
She really needed to have that conversation with her mother today. Maybe she could ask Jennifer? But there isn’t time; they’re almost to the Whaling Museum.
“My day is about to hit its highlight,” Ava says. “We’re pulling up to the Whaling Museum now. Shall I call you after the party? It might be pretty late. Maybe I’ll just see you tomorrow morning?” Ava will have to move the flowers from her room tonight. She’ll put them on the coffee table in the living room. She’ll bury Nathaniel’s card deep in her “Things That Might Have Been” file.
“About tomorrow morning…,” Scott says.
Don’t say it! Ava thinks.
“… I can’t get back tonight. Roxanne is being released tomorrow morning at nine, and she has no way to get back to the island, so I told her I’d drive her back. She’ll be on crutches, obviously, and she’s never used them before, and…” Here, he lowers his voice. “… I just can’t leave her here, Ava. She is completely helpless.”
“You’re going to miss the baptism?” Ava says.
“Yes,” Scott says. “I might make it to part of the lunch, depending on how late it goes.”
It’s on the tip of Ava’s tongue to say, Don’t bother coming to the lunch, and don’t bother calling me ever again! This debacle is entirely Scott’s fault! It was his idea to invite Roxanne Oliveria to the Ugly Sweater Caroling party when he saw her at the pool! The party tonight is one thing; it’s just a party. They can go together next year, and the year after that. But the baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime Quinn family milestone. The first granddaughter. And Ava is the baby’s godmother! They are already short two men with Patrick and Bart gone. Ava can’t believe Scott doesn’t realize how important his presence is.
However, she knows he’s doing the right thing. He can’t leave Roxanne to get home to Nantucket on crutches by herself. He just can’t. Ava would be disappointed in him if he did.
Deep breath. She needs to be supercool here.
“You’re such a hero,” Ava says. “Don’t worry about me. I have my whole family here to support me. You just get Roxanne home to Nantucket, and if you make it to lunch, so much the better.”
She hears Scott breathe a sigh of relief. “What did I do to deserve you?” he asks. “I am missing the whole weekend of fun with you. I know you need me there, and yet you’re being so understanding. I feel so lucky to have you, Ava. All I’ve talked to Roxanne about is how much I love you.”
“Well, good,” Ava says. Scott’s words actually do the trick in setting things right between them. “I love you.”
“I’ll get home as early as I can tomorrow,” Scott says, “and I’ll come right to you.”
“You do that,” Ava says.
Kevin drops Ava, Isabelle, and Jennifer off at the entrance of the Whaling Museum. It’s a perfect winter night—crisp and cold, with just a few fat snowflakes starting to drift down. There’s a line but it’s moving. Everyone is in tuxes and overcoats, gowns and furs. Ava lifts the hem of her green gown, and in a few seconds she’s hanging her wrap in the Discovery Room.
The Whaling Museum is all decked out for the holidays. There are greens and velvet bows and white fairy lights—and eighty-two Christmas trees, each decorated in a theme by island businesses and organizations. The fun in the party is to stroll the museum ogling the trees, hitting the bar, and picking up the bite-size offerings from thirty-five Nantucket restaurants. There will be incessant chatting with fellow year-rounders and the summer residents who come back to Nantucket for Stroll weekend. Everyone who is anyone is at the Whaling Museum tonight. The Festival of Trees party is the ultimate see-and-be-seen scene.
But there isn’t anyone at this party who will be as sought after as Margaret Quinn. She is, of course, a national icon, one of the most recognizable faces in America. Ava knows her mother can handle any crowd with aplomb and that the initial feeding frenzy for Margaret’s attention will die down. Ava decides not to wait for her mother, but when she leaves the Discovery Room after hanging her wrap, she realizes she’s lost Jennifer and Isabelle.
She’ll catch up with everyone later. She knows plenty of people and can make her own way.
She glides over to the bar, minding the hem of her dress. She feels elegant, but that will come to an end if she trips and face-plants.
At the bar, she sees Delta Martin, a woman about ten years older and a hundred million dollars wealthier than Ava.