Christmas In Hawthorn Bay

NORA CARSON HAD ALWAYS found it hard to say no to Maggie, even when she knew that her bullheaded best friend was being stupid. Though Nora, at nineteen, was only three months older than Maggie, the younger girl had a way of making Nora's common sense sound pathetically boring. And if making Nora feel like a fuddyduddy didn't work, Maggie had big sad eyes and a killer pout, a little-girl-lost look that turned Nora--and just about everyone else--straight to mush. This late-autumn Saturday, Maggie's nineteenth birthday, was no exception. Maggie, who was eight months pregnant, woke up with a hankering to go sailing. Nora knew it was a rotten idea, and so did Dr. Ethan Jacobs, the young obstetrician who had begun as Maggie's doctor when they'd arrived in town three months ago--and ended up more like a love slave with a stethoscope. But neither of them could resist Maggie in a Mood. So here they were, halfway to nowhere, with the Maine coast receding as Ethan's sails filled with crisp, clean wind. The cooler at their feet bulged with fried chicken, egg-salad sandwiches and bottled water. Ethan had caved in to Maggie's pressure first, and admitted that he knew a tiny island Maggie would love. Just a couple of miles wide, it had everything, he said--a green forest, a cliff, a small white waterfall. Best of all, it was completely uninhabited. The perfect place to make the world go away for an afternoon. They'd been on Ethan's tiny day sailer for almost an hour--the island was about ten miles offshore--when suddenly Maggie hopped up onto her cushioned seat and let out an exhilarated squeal. "This is the best birthdayever!Oh, my God, Ilovethis day!" Nora, who was sitting at the back of the boat, couldn't help smiling. Maggie's spiky brown hair stood straight up in the wind, and her pregnant stomach looked as rounded and full of energetic purpose as the sails above her. Maggie's moods were always infectious. If she was depressed, everyone around her suffered. But if she was happy... "And I loveyou!" Maggie climbed down and wrapped Nora in a bear hug. She turned to Ethan, who was angling the tiller, and, taking his face in her hands, covered his parted lips with a loud, smacking kiss. "And you, my dashing seafarer!" Then she whirled away, and, with a contented sigh, leaned over to drag her fingers in the green current that rushed along the side of the boat. Nora caught Ethan's gaze. Behind his wire-rimmed glasses, he looked stunned, as if he'd never been this close to anything as dazzling as Maggie. The sails began to luff, as Ethan forgot to steer, but he corrected the mistake and shrugged sheepishly, his cheeks pink. Just last night, he had confessed to Nora that he was in love with Maggie. When Ethan had finished rubbing Maggie's feet, which had been sore after a long day waiting tables at the lobster shack, she had stumbled off to bed, leaving Nora and Ethan alone together. He had flushed the entire time he spoke. He knew it was inappropriate, he said, given that Maggie was his patient, but he couldn't help it. She'd made her way into his blood, and he was going to ask her to marry him. What did Nora think? Would Maggie say yes? Nora wasn't sure. For all her childlike displays of emotion, Maggie kept her deepest truths in darkest secret. That's how you knew something really mattered to her--the bubbling stream of chatter suddenly dried up to dust. Though they'd been best friends since they'd eaten paste together in kindergarten, Nora had accepted that there were things she'd never learn, no matter how many times she asked. Like where Maggie got that old-fashioned gold ring she wore on a chain around her neck. Or who was the father of her baby. "Land ahoy!" Maggie leaned way out this time, pointing east. "I see it!" "Maggie," Ethan said sharply, "don't lean out so far! You could fall overboard!" "Stop being suchO'Brien, Kathleen is the author of 'Christmas In Hawthorn Bay', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373781270 and ISBN 037378127X.