The next day Norah searched various Web sites for job postings. While there were some possibilities in the Madison area, that would mean an hour’s commute each way—unless she and Izzy moved closer to Madison.
“But then what’s the point?” Izzy said with maddening logic. “I mean, isn’t the idea to be closer to the grands?”
“We would be. Just not in the same town.”
“So you’re talking really starting over—like totally?” She flopped onto the sofa. “I mean here at least I’ve got some friends and the church youth group and—”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Norah said, fighting to keep her own frustration out of her voice. “Nothing’s been decided, okay?”
“What about a place to live? Does that look any better?”
“First I need to find gainful employment.”
“Hey, what about that cool old house you like so much?”
“The mayor’s mansion? Oh, Izzy, we could never afford that and even if we could, it would need a ton of work and it’s a huge house for just the two of us.”
“We could turn it into a bed and breakfast,” Izzy suggested, her eyes alive with what she clearly saw as the brilliance of that suggestion.
“We could,” Norah said as if she might seriously consider the idea. “So you’re saying that you would be willing to make beds and clean guest rooms and bathrooms for tourists while I cook them elaborate breakfasts and prepare afternoon tea—assuming we have guests?”
Izzy made a face. “We could hire help?”
Norah shook her head.
“Okay, bad idea. You’re not that good of a cook anyway,” she reasoned.
“Isabella Wallace,” Norah protested, but she was laughing because it was true. Tom had been the better cook. She wondered if he still tried new recipes from time to time. You could ask him, she realized and felt a warm spot in her heart because Tom was right down the street, not halfway across the country.
“We could at least look at the place,” Izzy was saying. “Come on, Mom. Let’s just look at it. It’ll be fun—and educational for me to see a house like that.”
“It would also be a waste of time—and time is not something we have a lot of right now. Besides don’t you have things you need to do for the party?”
The phone rang and Norah grabbed it before Izzy could. “Go,” she whispered to her daughter before greeting the caller.
“Norah? Meredith Olsen.”
“Hi.”
“I hope I’m not out of line here, but it’s a small town as I’m sure you know and news tends to travel fast.” She paused for a breath and added, “Is it true you’re thinking of moving back?”
“How did you know?”
“I was in the chair next to Irene at Sadie’s this morning.”
After Tom had left the evening before, Norah had stopped by her parents’ room and told them she was thinking about coming home to Normal. Her mother had gone to the hairdresser earlier that morning and Sadie Evanston’s shop had always been gossip central.
“Isabella and I are thinking about it,” Norah admitted.
“Great. Irene said you were checking out jobs and I may have a position for you to consider. Maybe you heard the old hospital is being converted into a wellness center?”
“I did. That’s such a good use for that wonderful old building.”
“Well, I’m on the planning board and we’re just beginning the search for an executive director. Interested?”
“Maybe.”
“At the Christmas Eve pageant Tom was going on and on about all the programs you created for that place you work for in Phoenix. That kind of innovation is exactly what we need here—not to mention someone who knows how to go after grant funding and keep the doors open.”
Norah had stopped at Tom was going on and on, savoring the idea that Tom would show such obvious pride in the work she’d done.
“Are you available to meet with the committee day after tomorrow?”
“Sure. Just let me know what time and where.”
“Let’s meet at the hospital at ten. That way I can give you a tour and then the others can come at ten-thirty and we can talk. If nothing else we’d love to just pick your brain for ideas.”
“That would be fine.”
Norah hung up.
“Well?” Isabella huffed.
Norah had almost forgotten her daughter was there, hearing only her side of the conversation. “I have a job interview—here in Normal.” Together they squealed with delight and hugged each other.
“Let’s go house hunting,” Izzy said as she grabbed for the phone. “I’ll call Dad and see if he’s free.”
Caution replaced the euphoria Norah was feeling. “Iz, even if this works out for us, Dad’s not moving back—you get that, right?”
Isabella gave a dramatic elongated teenaged sigh. “Mother, he is a real estate attorney, remember?”
Norah couldn’t argue that. But was she ready for Tom to know things were moving forward so quickly? On the other hand, who better to celebrate such good news with than your best friend? “All right, call your father.”
When Tom picked them up he handed Norah a folder. “Copies of your résumé,” he explained. “I still had it on my laptop.”
“Thanks. Izzy, you ride up front with your dad and navigate since you’ve got the listings,” Norah directed as she climbed into the backseat. But as soon as Izzy was in the car and Tom had started down toward town, Norah sat forward in the middle, her face between them as she filled Tom in on the details of her conversation with Meredith.
Tom could smell the faint scent of the perfume she’d always worn. It suited her—it was fresh and woodsy. Totally natural. He watched her face in the rearview mirror. Her expression was animated and youthful as she recalled every word Meredith had said. And it struck him that while she had always been pretty with a sort of gamine quality to her features, maturity had made her beautiful.
Isabella called out the address for the first house and Tom obediently followed streets he knew by heart to their destination.
“Yuck,” was Isabella’s immediate assessment of the place. “Total drive-by. Keep going.”
Tom couldn’t disagree and Norah’s silence said she wasn’t eager to look any closer at house number one. Houses two through five were not much better. After that Norah—always determined to find the positive in any situation—began working overtime trying to find something good to say about the places.
“It has a nice yard,” she commented.
“Mother, we are not going to be living in the yard,” Bella reminded her as she sank lower in the seat and threw one hand over her forehead as if exhausted. “Bor-r-r-ing,” she moaned.
“It’s not so bad,” Norah said, but even her voice rang with doubt and when Tom cocked an eyebrow at her in the rearview mirror she smiled. “Okay, it’s bad. Shall we abandon this exercise for today? It’s premature.”
“There’s still the mayor’s place,” Bella murmured.
“Yeah,” Tom said as he turned the car away from the street that would take them home and headed back toward town.
“We’ve had this discussion,” Norah told Isabella firmly. “It’s a fabulous house, but it’s way too big and too expensive—”
“Doesn’t cost anything to look,” Tom said with a wink at Bella. “I’ll just borrow the key from Keith.” He left the motor running while he ran to the hardware store. This time Keith handed him a fact sheet on the house.
“For Norah,” he explained. “Can’t hurt.”
Tom returned to the car and handed Norah the sheet, but Isabella grabbed it first. “Wow! There are a gazillion rooms.”
“You realize this is a terrible idea,” Norah told Tom.
“Hey, we saw it in the dark. Let’s see what the place looks like in daylight.”
“You two were there? At night?” Bella was all ears now. She sighed and returned to her scrutiny of the flyer. “That is so romantic.”
Tom saw Norah roll her eyes and sink back onto the seat, her arms folded across her chest as she met his apologetic gaze in the rearview mirror. Great work not getting the kid’s hopes up, her expressive eyes said.
“Look at this!” became Isabella’s mantra as she bounded from room to room once they were inside the house. Within a matter of minutes she had selected her room—the third floor corner that overlooked the street. “A canopy bed would be so perfect,” she announced.
“Your bed at home is a trundle,” Norah reminded her.
“Oh, Mom, surely you aren’t planning to move that modern stuff here.”
“Oh, Izzy,” Norah parroted her daughter’s exasperated tone, “surely you don’t expect that I can afford a mansion like this and all new furniture?”
Tom could not help laughing out loud at Isabella’s next plan. “Grandma Eleanor has a canopy bed in her third bedroom.”
“Stop laughing. You’re only encouraging her,” Norah warned as she brushed past Tom and started back down the stairs.
“Don’t blame me. She learned this stuff from you,” he replied as he followed her, leaving Bella to continue her exploration of the third floor and on to the attic.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that from the day I met you there was never a problem you faced that you couldn’t solve. Bella has a lot of that can-do side of you in her. It’s one of the things that makes her instantly attractive to other kids—that confidence and assumption all things are possible.”
He saw Norah soften slightly. “That’s more of you,” she said. “You were the one we all turned to as kids when it looked like we were facing some impossible situation. You were the leader.”
“Maybe. But we’re not talking about leadership, Norah. We’re talking about the ability to take lemons and turn them into lemonade. That’s what you do and Bella has picked up on that from you.”
“Thank you,” Norah said. “That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said.”
And suddenly he knew that she, like he, was remembering all the hurtful things they had said to each other in the months leading up to and following their divorce. Would it always be this way? Tom wondered. Would they ever reach the point where the memories that sprang to mind weren’t neatly divided between before and after their split?
Only one way that’s going to happen, he thought. Heal the split.
He shook off the thought as well as one that had kept him awake most of the previous night—an idea not yet fully formed. An impossible idea made all the more intriguing by the sheer impossibility of it becoming reality. What if he came back to Normal—started a little practice in town?
“You know what I think?” he asked. “I think you need a time-out.”
Norah laughed. “From what?”
“From everything. You’ve been worried about Isabella and then your dad and now you’re thinking of making a huge life change. How about we take this evening and just put all of that on the back burner for a couple of hours?”
“You, me and Izzy?”
“You and me. Not Izzy,” he replied and realized he was practically holding his breath the way he had the first time he’d officially asked her for a date when they were in high school.
“I don’t know,” she hedged.
“There’s a new film version of that Broadway musical you like so much playing at the movies. Two or three hours of mindless entertainment with a big bucket of popcorn and a soda?”
“Tempting,” she agreed. “Buttered popcorn?”
“Is there any other kind?”
“It might not be terrible,” she said, mimicking their daughter.
Tom thought his heart might actually hammer right out of his chest. Do not blow this, he mentally ordered. “Hey, Bella,” he shouted up the stairway. “Tour bus leaves in five minutes, okay?”
Norah deliberately dressed down for the movies in jeans and an old turtleneck. She was relieved when Izzy asked permission to spend the night with Darcy and Heather so they could work on the party plans.
“Going out?” her mom said when she came downstairs and laid her jacket and purse on the hall table.
“Tom and I thought we’d see a movie,” she said, hoping she sounded as if this was no big deal. “Do you guys want to come?”
“Nope,” her father replied. “Basketball game I want to watch. Renie, you go if you want.”
“No, I’ll watch the game with you.”
Norah was well aware that her parents were trying to remain as casual as she was and that not one of the three of them didn’t see this for what it was. Norah and Tom were going on a date. Norah heard Tom’s car on the drive and was out the front door before he had a chance to come in. “See you later,” she called.
“Next time, tell that young man to call for you properly,” her father shouted.
On the short drive to the theater they talked about people they’d run into that they both knew from before, amazed at how many of their old friends and classmates had moved back to Normal or never left in the first place. At the movie, Tom bought the tickets and the promised popcorn and they hurried to find seats in the already-crowded theater.
“Remember when movies didn’t have commercials?” Tom said as they sat through several minutes of ads for cars, sportswear and local businesses.
“You make us sound like we’re a hundred and two,” Norah said, reaching for more popcorn and all too aware that her shoulder and Tom’s were pressed together in the tight space. To her relief the lights were lowered the rest of the way as the feature started.
For the next two hours she was lost in a world of fantasy—the one up on the screen where people burst into song at the oddest moments. And the one in the darkened theater where she was sitting next to Tom as she had dozens of times before, laughing at the same lines, their hands touching as they reached for more popcorn at the same time. And when as usual the happy ending of the film touched Norah and brought on tears, Tom shook his head, grinned and offered her his handkerchief.
The movie was exactly what she had needed—an escape from everything she’d been dealing with these last several days. As the credits rolled she reached over and took Tom’s hand. Surprised, he looked at her.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
He laced his fingers through hers and held on. “You’re entirely welcome.”
On the way back to the car they talked about stopping for ice cream only to discover that nothing was open in town.
“What happened to the Hob Nob?” Tom asked.
“It closed at least five years ago,” Norah told him. “We had some good times there,” she added and immediately wondered if Tom had taken that the wrong way when he didn’t reply. “I didn’t mean that…”
“I know. I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“Old times and maybe some not-so-old times,” he said as he drove the deserted streets and parked in front of her parents’ house. He cut the engine and turned to her. “Norah, do you ever think we might have made a mistake?”
All the time lately, she thought. “Sometimes,” she admitted. “But I think that’s probably to be expected. I mean we were both so sure—each in our own way. And being back here—especially at Christmas—well, it’s a little like the movie we saw. Not the real world.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “We’ve come a long way, Tom,” she said softly. “Whether it was Denver or my dad or some combination, it feels as if we’ve turned an important corner, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I…”
She reached for the door. “Thanks, Tom,” she said. “For knowing this was exactly what I needed tonight—mindless entertainment with no pressures of job or family or anything else to think about. It was great.”
She was deliberately letting the moment pass. Opportunity missed, she could practically hear Izzy protesting, but the truth was that she was still caught up in the romance of a world where people wore colorful gowns and sang and danced to express their joys and sorrows. That wasn’t real—and neither was this.