Page 70 of Winter Solstice
“Scott?” Ava says.
“I said I’d help him serve the holiday dinner at Our Island Home, then we’re going out drinking.” Nathaniel arches his eyebrows. “You could come!”
No, thanks,Ava thinks.
“We could surprise Scott. I show up, bring you along. He’ll flip. You know that other chick, the English teacher? She really put him through the wringer. She’s sixteen kinds of crazy.”
“Roxanne,” Ava says.
“I’m meeting him at five tomorrow,” Nathaniel says. “Early bird special and all that. I can pick you up.”
Ava signals the bartender and orders a glass of wine. “I’d love to,” she says. This isn’t remotely true. The last thing she wants to do is climb aboard the same old merry-go-round with Nathaniel and Scott. Ava can’t believe they’re friends now, friends who make plans together! “But I can’t. My father is very, very sick.” Her wine arrives in the nick of time, because Ava feels tears building and the last thing she wants to do is cry in front of Nathaniel, thereby giving him reason to comfort her. She clears her throat. “I’m going home to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye?” Nathaniel says. “Is he that sick?”
Ava nods. “Brain cancer. He’s got… a day or two left, I guess.”
“Oh no, Ava. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Please,” she says. “Let’s change the subject.”
“Okay,” Nathaniel says. “Let’s see… you live in New York now. How do you like it? Are you still dating the ridiculously handsome guy I met last Christmas?”
“Potter,” Ava says. “Yes.” She holds up a finger and rummages through her bag for her phone. There is one missed call from Potter but no voice mail and no text.
At that instant the seven-fifteen flight to Nantucket is called.
“There’s our chariot,” Nathaniel says. He plunks some money down on the bar. “I’ve got your wine.”
“No,” she says.
“Ava,” he says. He touches her cheek. “It’s me.”
Ava spends forty-five minutes in the dark cabin of the Cessna staring at the back of Nathaniel’s head. She thinks about the years they were together, how crazy in love she was. Nathaniel was always just out of her reach in those days. Three years ago at Christmas he went back to Connecticut and got entangled with his high school girlfriend. He broke Ava’s heart. Then, when Ava started dating Scott, Nathaniel came back with a vengeance. He proposed, even.
But it had never been right with Nathaniel. It had never been real.
And Scott… Ava’s relationship with Scott was more viable. She thought they might end up together—but then he flaked out. Scott Skyler was the biggest disappointment of Ava’s life, a far bigger disappointment than Nathaniel because Nathaniel had been so unreliable to begin with.
Ava can’t believe the two of them are now friends. She hopes they’ll be very happy together.
She loves Potter. She misses Potter.
When they land at Nantucket Airport, Nathaniel says, “Do you want to share a taxi?”
“Kevin is picking me up,” Ava says.
Nathaniel says, “I’m sorry about your dad, Ava. Call me if you need me.”
Ava smiles. If there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that she won’t need Nathaniel Oscar. “I will,” she says.
The inn is quiet when Ava gets home, and all of the lights are out except for the lights on the tree, the mantel, and the wreath. It’s pretty in the living room and it smells good. There’s the usual glass canister filled with ribbon candy, that old deceiver—looks so alluring, tastes so terrible.
Ava longs to sit down at the piano and play some carols, something soothing—“O Little Town of Bethlehem” or “Away in a Manger”—but she doesn’t want to wake Kelley or disturb the peace of the house. She’ll see everyone in the morning.
She tries calling Potter one more time before she goes to bed, but she gets no answer.
Paddy arrives at eleven the next day with Jennifer and the boys, and Margaret and Drake come at noon. Kevin goes to Sophie T’s for pizzas, and Jennifer sets up Monopoly in the kitchen. Bart, Allegra, and the three boys play, and Drake agrees to serve as banker. Ava knows the game is meant as a distraction. They’re having a vigil. They’re waiting for Kelley to die.
