“Morning beautiful.” His voice was cheerful and she could picture him smiling.
“Hi Alex.”
“Are you still up for showing me that restaurant you mentioned? The Mexican place?”
“Millie’s. Yes, of course.”
“Great. What night is good for you next week? My schedule is wide open.” He laughed.
“I’m off Tuesday night.”
“Okay, Tuesday it is then. Do you mind picking me up? Or I could meet you somewhere downtown. Whatever works for you.”
“I’ll pick you up.” He gave her his address and she jotted it down.
“See you at six then?”
“Six is perfect. See you then, Alex.”
Gina was still smiling as she put the phone down and gave her hair a final brush. Just a week ago she’d been feeling down about the holidays and hadn’t had a date in weeks and suddenly she sort of had two lined up with very different guys—though she wasn’t really sure either was really a date, even though Connie seemed to think so. She hoped that Alex was interested, but she wondered if he was just looking for a friend to show him around. And Jared, as cute as he was, she wasn’t even remotely considering their afternoon at the stroll to be a date. Not in the slightest. But, she was looking forward to it, to seeing what all the fuss was about the stroll.
She added an extra layer, a warm, red cashmere sweater over a snuggly white turtleneck and her favorite soft jeans and black boots. A red hat, mittens and scarf, her long white wool coat and she was dressed and ready to go. She lived about a half-mile from downtown and decided to walk as she knew it was going to be mobbed and nearly impossible to park. Plus, she figured she could use the walk and it wasn’t too bad out. It was cold but sunny and there was no wind.
She left at a quarter to twelve and made her way toward downtown and the Straight Wharf restaurant which was at the beginning of Main Street. She was a few minutes early, but Jared was already there, leaning against the side of a building and watching the crowds. There were already throngs of people of all ages walking around.
Jared smiled and waved when he saw her. He was dressed warmly too in jeans, hiking boots, a hunter green down jacket, navy hat and sweater.
“You made it.” His eyes twinkled as he glanced up Main Street toward the group of carolers in front of the old-fashioned Nantucket Pharmacy. “Shall we go hear some carols and say hi to Connie?”
“Sure, lead the way.”
Slowly they walked along Main Street, stopping as they went to admire the creative Christmas windows. Each store had decorated their windows and storefronts, some with twinkling lights, others with spray snow paint and other decorations. They stepped inside one of Gina’s favorite stores, Nantucket Threads, where Izzy the owner, who was about Gina’s age, was handing out samples of hot mulled cider, selling packets of the cider spice mix and all kinds of fun Christmas sweaters and ornaments.
“Cider?” Jared asked as he took one for himself and when she nodded, handed one to her. Gina took a sip and the hot, sweet beverage warmed her and tasted like the holidays. She smelled cinnamon and other spices. Gina noticed a few new sweaters—not Christmas ones, just pretty ones that she would have liked to get a closer look at, but didn’t want to bore Jared by sweater shopping for herself.
“It looks like you have some new stuff in. I’ll stop back in next week,” Gina said to Izzy as Jared stepped outside. She followed him and they continued on their way. Connie saw them as they drew close and waved. A good crowd had gathered around the carolers and they stayed and listened to several songs before moving on. They were about to step into another store when Jared tapped her arm. “Look, Santa’s coming.”
A firetruck with a waving Santa slowly came down Main Street, which was closed to all other traffic. A line of children ran behind the truck, their parents close behind.
“Where is it going?” Gina asked.
“The Jared Coffin House, I think. That’s where kids will line up to sit on Santa’s lap.” He glanced at the gift shop straight ahead. “It looks like this store is handing out cookies. Are you interested?”
Gina’s stomach rumbled in response and she laughed. “Yes, please.”
They looked around a bit in the store, gratefully accepted a bite-sized shortbread cookie, then moved on to the Sweet Inspirations chocolate shop, which was handing out samples of their famous chocolate-covered cranberries, which Gina loved. She bought a small bag of dark chocolate-covered ones and they snacked on those as they continued strolling around.