Ha! Kevin thinks. He feels a childish joy any time Nantucket is mentioned on TV. It’s absurd.
“These areas can expect eighteen to twenty-four inches of snow,” Dougie says. The kid looks positively aglow. Margaret, although lovely in an ivory wrap dress, looks exactly like a woman who is about to sit for ten hours-minimum-in atrocious traffic inching northward in a car piloted by an inexperienced driver.
During the final seconds of the broadcast, when newspeople usually smile inanely at the camera, the meteorologist Dougie bursts into song: “White Christmas.” He does sound a little like Bing Crosby. Kevin snaps off the set, and Genevieve starts to cry.
They should have eloped.
GEORGE
He’s no stranger to New England winters and he’s been coming to Nantucket at Christmastime for nearly fifteen years, so he’s learned a few things. He and Mary Rose stay ahead of the storm. They drive George’s 1931 Model A fire engine onto the steamship at 2:45 on Wednesday, and the man who helps them park it on the boat says to George, “You’re smart. This is the last boat that’ll go for days.”
“You think?” George says.
“I know,” the man says, looking up at the sky, which does indeed look white and heavy, like a feather pillow about to burst.
George and Mary Rose check into their room at the Castle. The hotel is cheerfully decorated for the holidays. Johnny Mathis sings “Sleigh Ride.” The front-desk clerk, Livingston-George remembers him from last year-says he has a suite available and Livingston can offer it to George at the same rate as the room he booked because George is a return guest. “Wonderful!” George says, and he lets out a robust “Ho-ho-ho!” turning every head in the lobby.
“Shall we call Kelley and Mitzi and tell them we got here early?” Mary Rose asks. “Maybe they can meet us at Lola for sushi tonight.”
“I want you all to myself tonight,” George says. “Room service and Christmas movies.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life!” Mary Rose says.
That it is, George thinks. His hats were featured in the shopping guide of the holiday issue of Vogue and the spike in business was exactly what George needed in order to buy Mary Rose a two-carat diamond engagement ring.
He has the room-service waiter place the velvet box under a silver dome so when Mary Rose lifts it off, expecting calamari, she sees the box instead.
She shrieks. She trembles. She opens the box and sees the ring, and tears stand on her long lovely lashes.
Because of his new exercise regime, George is able to bend down on one knee. “Will you marry me?” George asks. “Will you be my Mrs. Claus?” He can’t believe the difference a year makes, never mind two years. Two years ago, Kelley had caught George and Mitzi kissing in room 10, and George’s world had gone into a tailspin. Then, last year, he had broken up with Mitzi and met Mary Rose. He’s a little old to believe in meant-to-be but he’s old enough to know that he wants to live out his days with this delightful, curvaceous redheaded creature right here. She makes him so, so happy.
Mary Rose throws her arms around George. “Yes!” she says.
AVA
She told Potter she would pick him and Gibby up at the ferry on Wednesday evening, but Potter calls to say a guy he met on the boat has offered him and Gibby a ride to the inn so Ava should just sit tight. It has started to snow; the boat they just disembarked from wouldn’t be going back to Hyannis, Potter reports.
Uh-oh, Ava thinks. Paddy and Jennifer, the boys, Isabelle’s parents, Margaret and Drake, and Bart. All of them are on the wrong side of this news.
Ava can’t worry about everyone else; they’ll get here when they get here. She is excited to see Potter. She is still in the stage of major butterflies and although she knows she should go into her bedroom and read or play carols on the piano until Potter arrives, she stands out on the front porch, waiting. The front of the house looks so pretty with the tree twinkling through the window and the sled with its bundles and all of the wreaths and candles.
Joy, Ava thinks. As she waits for her new beau to arrive, she feels pure, unadulterated joy.
A familiar truck pulls up in front of the inn and Ava blinks.
What?
It’s Nathaniel’s truck. She recognizes the sticker from the Bar in the back window and the dent above the wheel. What is Nathaniel doing here? Ava’s mind is racing. She receives a text or two from him each week; Ava has told him that she’s moving to New York City in June to start a new job, but she hasn’t told him what or where the job is, and she hasn’t told him about Potter. She needs to get him out of here before Potter arrives, which is sure to be any second.
Nathaniel turns off the ignition. No! Ava thinks. Not okay! Nathaniel is going to want to catch up. He must be on Nantucket for Christmas? Ava had been sure he would go back to New Canaan for Christmas to see his parents, his sister and her kids, and his pathetic old girlfriend Kirsten Cabot. He has said nothing about returning to the island, and although he still has a cottage here, it seems unfair that he would show up without warning.
Then a horrifying thought enters Ava’s mind: Nathaniel and Kevin are friends; is Nathaniel on Nantucket so he can come to the wedding and attend the reception at the inn on Christmas Eve?
Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
“Hey!” Nathaniel calls out with a wave. He goes to the back door of his truck and opens it. He extends a hand, and an elderly gentleman steps out.
Ava’s eyes narrow. She has seen this gentleman before. It’s… Gibby. She realizes this just as she sees Potter get out of the passenger side.
Oh no.
Potter grins and waves like… well, like a little kid at Christmas. Ava wants to return the enthusiasm but she’s too addled by Nathaniel. Nathaniel was the guy who offered Potter and Gibby a ride to the inn. Naturally. Because Ava is the object of some curse where her love life will forever be an obstacle course.
She hurries down the steps to help Gibby.
“Hello, Gibby!” she says loudly, not because Gibby is hard of hearing but because she wants Nathaniel to realize these are not random guests of the inn. “Welcome to Nantucket!”
“Hello, my dear. Thank you for having me.”
“Our pleasure!” she says. She holds Gibby’s arm as he ascends the stairs. She visualizes Potter following behind with their luggage and Nathaniel disappearing with a wave and a “Merry Christmas!”
But when Ava and Gibby reach the safety of the porch and Ava turns around, she sees that both Potter and Nathaniel are heading up the stairs.
Whom to greet first?
There is only one answer to that question. Ava throws her arms around Potter’s neck and kisses him so that there can be no misunderstanding the nature of their relationship. When Potter releases Ava, she turns to Nathaniel. He seems unfazed.
“Hey, stranger,” he says and he hugs Ava. Tightly.
“Hey, stranger, yourself,” she says. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
“It’s a surprise,” Nathaniel says.
Yes, it certainly is.
“I thought I might have Scott to contend with,” Nathaniel says. “But I see my competition this year is taller. And better-looking.”
“Competition?” Potter says. Then he seems to get it. “Oh, are you one of Ava’s ex-boyfriends?”
“Her ex-fiancé, actually,” Nathaniel says.
There is a beat of silence, during which Ava wants to vaporize. Then she says, “Gibby, you must be freezing. Let’s get you inside.”