Lydia
Which wasn’t fair.
“It’s the tradition that the male joins the firm,” her parents had told her.
It had broken her heart.
But she was, as her parents constantly reminded her, “a big girl,” and even if there had been times when she’d sat in the back of her closet weeping into an old dress because her own father didn’t value her enough to ask her to join the company—even if she had been hurt and angry and sorry for herself—she knew she had to figure out her life as it was in reality.
She decided she wanted to run a posh hotel like the ones on the island.
In high school, she was the desk clerk for three summers at a charming B&B and moved up to work at a waterfront Nantucket hotel.
She discovered she had a talent for that.
Her mind was sharp and quick and she could manage several different problems at once.
She liked people and gradually realized that people liked her.
She made a new plan. This spring she would have her master’s degree in hospitality.
For the past four years, she’d worked part-time for the Golden Resort in Boston and she’d done well.
She was ready to start her career. She was smart. She was experienced. She was prepared.
She knew she would always be sad because she couldn’t live her life on her beloved island, but she pushed that disappointment away. She’d come back whenever she could, and that had to be enough.
Besides, right now she had another problem.
She was in love.
Standing by the door to the apartment she shared with Rose Wells, Lydia lingered, double-checking her tote bag for the zillionth time.
Rose was packing for a weekend at home in Maine. Because she held a shirt between her chest and her neck as she folded it with both hands, her words were mumbled.
“Why are you so anxious? This isn’t like you at all.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Lydia answered grumpily. “I guess it’s just that I’m nervous about inviting Jari home for Stroll. I know I should be happy that he wants to come, but I’m terrified he’ll meet my family and take the first plane back to Boston.”
“You’ve been with the guy for almost a year. You said he seems serious.”
“Jari always seems serious.”
Lydia went into the bathroom, shut the door, and sat on the rim of the bathtub, elbows on her knees, chin in her hands. She needed to think.
First, most people thought Lydia was rich, and she kind of was, but not like that, not billionaire-ish. That Lydia’s father was president and CEO of Parsons Insurance Company of Nantucket only made them sound rich.
Jari Hekkinen, on the other hand, was truly rich.
His father had started off in IT early and now had an international company building bots for geological use, which was a disguised way of saying looking for oil.
When they’d met at a party ten months ago, it had been a staggering bolt of love at first sight for Lydia, and she was certain that Jari felt the same, although he was insanely reserved and Finnish when it came to talking about emotions.
He was always traveling, but when he was in Boston, they were together every moment they could find.
She’d spent her summer working in Boston instead of enjoying the island because that way she could be with him.
She’d stayed with him in the city over Thanksgiving.
But! Jarie had agreed to join Lydia’s family for the Nantucket Christmas Stroll, and Lydia knew that was a major commitment for him.
Wasn’t it?
Oh, why was she so emotional about Jari?
Never mind that he was tall, blond, and handsome.
Her high school boyfriend was tall, blond, and handsome, and her very own sibling, her brother, Lucas, was tall, blond, and handsome, plus he had the whole surfer dude thing going on, because that’s who he was, a guy who loved to surf, even though their father insisted that Lucas would be the next president of the insurance company.
Lydia heard a couple of knocks and after a short pause the bathroom door opened.
Rose stuck her head in. “I can hear you muttering to yourself. Come out and pack. I won’t say another word about Jari.”
Lydia returned to their bedroom. She and Rose had been best friends since they met when they were freshmen, and as sophomores they were allowed to live off campus, so they rented a tiny student apartment in South Boston and remained there while working on their graduate degrees.
The kitchen appliances were from the avocado age of the seventies and their view was of a back alley behind a restaurant, but they had thrown their thrift shop quilts over the sagging chairs and sofas and cherished their privacy.
“I don’t know what I’ll do without you after this spring,” Lydia said, slumping on her bed. “We’ve been like twins for so many years.”
Rose scoffed. “Hey, I’ll only be in Maine. You’ll be in Boston. We’ll see each other all the time and FaceTime every day.”
“Will I be in Boston? Jari’s company’s U.S. base is in New York.”
“Has he asked you to go there with him?”
Lydia sighed. “No. I’ve tried hinting about it to him. ‘I love New York,’ stuff like that, but frankly, it’s embarrassing to be the one asking. Begging.”
“He’s coming to your home for Stroll weekend. That’s something.”
“Maybe. And he’s six years older than I am, so it’s time for him to get married.” Lydia stood up and began packing. “On the other hand, he’s so cosmopolitan and sophisticated. He speaks six different languages! And Nantucket is so small.”
“Just try to enjoy the Stroll,” Rose advised. She held up a rose-covered sundress, one of the dozens her grandparents and parents had given her. “Do you want this?”
Lydia reached out and took the dress. “It’s awfully pretty. Are you sure?”
Rose snorted. “I have enough rose-adorned clothes, as you well know.”
“I should go if I’m going to catch the bus at South Station,” Lydia said.
“Yes, Lydia. You should go.”
“Jari doesn’t arrive until tomorrow, so I’ll have time to decompress and warn the family.”
“Warn the family?”
“I’ve told you. He’s so…private. He’s so…factual. He told me what his name, Jari, means in Finnish. It means ‘helmet protector.’ ”
Rose laughed. “Okay, that’s weird, but it could be ‘jock strap.’ ”
“You’re terrible!” Lydia laughed, too. “What I mean is, I don’t know if he’ll like my family.
Plus, the Stroll means so much to me. Our Christmas Stroll party is a family tradition and so much fun.
The house is totally decorated—there’s even a stuffed Santa perched on the bathroom mirror.
We make tons of yummy munchies and my parents concoct this delicious sparkling champagne punch and everyone we know comes and we’re all as noisy as a room of preschoolers.
I don’t know how Jari will fit in. I mean, he might find it all a little too sweet and silly.
And my family is so huggy-kissy, they’ll probably think he’s arrogant.
He’ll probably stand in a corner and check his phone. ”
“That’s all possible,” Rose said. “Or maybe he’ll enjoy the party and your family will like him. You can’t know until it happens.”
“You’re right. I know. I’m sorry I’m such a grump.”
Rose grabbed Lydia by the hands and pulled her up. “Leave. Catch the bus. Catch the ferry. Enjoy the Stroll. Enjoy the island. What happens with Jari will be whatever, and you’ll be able to deal with it. Now go.”
Lydia hugged her friend. “Thank you.”
And with butterflies in her stomach and a sinking heart, which made, she decided, an unattractive and terribly complicated image, Lydia opened the door and pulled her suitcase along as she headed toward the bus to Hyannis and the first Christmas holiday of the season.