Lucas
Well, let him laugh.
Jack nodded. “Cool.”
“Like Beau,” Jack said, naming a running back from their high school football team.
“Exactly. So this September at the soup kitchen, a nurse saw me help a guy who was having a seizure, and she liked the way I helped him. I mean, you know, seizures can look so scary. I wasn’t afraid.
I got down on the floor with him and rolled him on his side in case he barfed and talked to him while he went through it. She thinks I’m a natural.”
Jack snorted. “A natural what? Like, a jock doc?”
“Yeah. Or like a nurse.” Lucas knew he sounded jazzed up, but this was a big deal for him, it was a life changer.
“A nurse?” Jack choked back a laugh.
“I’d study rehabilitation, too. I want to go to BU’s Sargent College. The courses are practical and hands-on. I’d learn a lot of skills and decide which I want to focus on.”
“What about your dad? He’s counting on you to take over his company.”
Lucas frowned. “I know. He’ll be disappointed. Hell, he’ll be furious. And my grandfather—this will probably break his heart. But I can’t do what other people want me to do. I mean, not all my life.”
“Tough decision.”
“True. Also…there’s a woman.”
“What?” Jack glanced over, surprised. “When did this happen? Who is she?”
“Her name is Sheila. She’s a nurse. On Nantucket. I met her a couple of summers ago. She’s the coolest person I’ve ever known.”
“You never mentioned her to me,” Jack said.
“I know. I know. It’s just that, well, we are only friends right now. We’ve been texting and talking on the phone, but we haven’t…” Lucas shrugged.
“Haven’t what?” Jack asked. “Hooked up?”
Lucas laughed. “We haven’t even kissed. I know how I feel about her, but I have no idea how she feels about me.”
“Well, if you’ve been talking and texting…”
“Yeah, well, maybe she’s just being nice. Maybe she thinks she’s mentoring me.”
“Are you going to see her this weekend?”
Lucas smiled. “Yes, bro, I absolutely am.”
They came to the Sagamore Bridge crossing the Cape Cod Canal.
From here it was only twenty or thirty minutes to Hyannis and the fast ferry, and Lucas felt his spirits lift.
The Nantucket Christmas Stroll was always awesome.
He got to see his high school friends and the staff at his father’s office and everyone who came to the family’s Stroll party.
His beloved grandmother Evangeline had “gone aloft” as she had called it, a few years before, and now Brick Jr., Lucas’s grandfather, was married to another woman, a shy lady named Beatrice.
It was usually cool to see his parents, but this year when he announced his career change, he expected them to be disappointed at the very least. But he was sure he’d be supported by his sisters, his partners in crime.
“What are you grinning about?” Jack asked.
Lucas laughed. “When we were younger, my sisters and I were such a gang during the Stroll. We’d steal mugs of the champagne punch when they weren’t looking and hide under the dining room table—the white tablecloth draped almost to the floor.
When I was twelve, I lifted an entire platter of Christmas sugar cookies—you know, the kind shaped by cookie cutters and iced to look like Santa or a tree or a star—and we three sat under the table eating every single cookie.
Mom kept babbling to herself because she couldn’t find the cookies.
Actually, that made us all feel guilty—but we never told her—until one year, Florie ate too many cookies and barfed. ”
“Your poor mom,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“Oh, don’t act so holy, dude. Remember the year you came to the Stroll party and we went around behind everyone and made fart noises?”
Jack laughed. “Yeah, we thought we were hilarious, but no one heard us.”
“Right. Not in that crowd.” Lucas closed his eyes, remembering.
“Mom and Dad are always so happy during the Stroll. They love giving parties. And it’s kind of fun to see the oldies.
Mrs. Warren, our English teacher, remember her?
She was so smart and kind and we all loved her, but she used to come to school with one pink curler left at the back of her head or one eyebrow drawn in and the other left forgotten. ”
“Oh, right! One day she came in with her sweater on inside out. But she was always so excited about things like, I don’t know, nouns or commas, and we learned a lot from her.”
“Last year, the Carters’ kids, the young ones, stole decorations from our Christmas tree. Josie took an angel and her brother took a toy soldier.”
“Did you stop them?” Jack asked.
“No. They were so young. And we have so many decorations it’s hard to see the tree.” Lucas looked over at Jack. “You’re coming Saturday, right?”
“I’ve never missed it once. I’ll be there.”
“Great!”
Still watching the road, Jack held out his knuckles and Lucas knocked them.