The Time of Her Life (7 page)

The new director of The Arbors had a sweet tooth from the looks
of it. She was rooting through the basket. “These pears are gorgeous. And
caramel popcorn. Oh, I’m in for a good time.”

“Hope you enjoy it.”

She glanced up and met his gaze with pleasure deep in her blue
eyes. “This was really sweet. Thank you. I couldn’t have asked for a better
first week—work or home.”

She was making too big a deal out of his effort. All he’d done
was text Pete to bring the same welcome basket they gave to all The Arbors’ new
ALF residents.

But he was glad she liked everything.

Herding Butters and Gatsby outside, he let the dogs scamper
down the steps and said to Susanna, “Enjoy your night.”

Then he headed in the direction of the shed to pick up the path
to his house, resisting the urge to glance back to see if she was still
there.

* * *

A
NOTHER
WEEK
PASSED
before Susanna managed to get the golf cart out of her shed. A frenzied
week spent learning names and procedures and routines. A week spent observing
medical assessments, intake meetings and care plan evaluations.

A week spent conducting performance appraisals of the various
departments and orientation meetings to explain how she and Jay would work
together during the transition. She let the staff know what to expect and
coached them on how to address her with problems and questions. She reassured
them all would be well and hoped they believed her.

Vanity had been the biggest deterrent to driving the golf cart.
She was all about inspiring confidence with the staff and fitting in and
couldn’t gauge the effect of the drive on her appearance. Frizzy hair? Melting
makeup? Sweat stains?

But she’d begun to feel ridiculous and wasteful for taking the
car on the short drive, when Jay arrived at the facility every morning with
every hair in place. Except for the hair he was always pushing back off his
forehead, but Susanna guessed that was a result of a cowlick rather than the
morning ride.

She waited until dawn began to fade the sky before heading
outside. She hadn’t wanted to tackle the unfamiliar path in the dark even though
she’d been raring to go for an hour already.

Two weeks into her new life and the nerves still hadn’t worn
off. She crashed at night, bone weary from the long days of information
overload. Unfortunately, she was still bolting upright as quickly as she had
upon first arriving at The Arbors, and usually long before the alarm, thoughts
racing with the upcoming day’s agenda.

With any luck, the ride in the brisk predawn air would start
her day off right. God knows she could use some fresh air.

Then there was the fact that she didn’t want to miss anything
on this journey. Especially not Jay’s house.

Her phone vibrated as she clambered into the golf cart, and she
hoped her plans wouldn’t be derailed by an emergency at the facility that would
force her back into the car.

But the name on the display surprised her. “Good morning,
Karan. What are you doing up at this ungodly hour?”

“Your guess,” Karan replied. “Saw Charles off to surgery and
was wide-awake. Figured I’d give you a call since you’re the only one I know
awake at this hour besides my doctor husband.”

Susanna held the phone to her ear and backed out of the shed
slowly. “You’re in time for a journey through the arbors to The Arbors.”

“Maybe I’m not as awake as I thought—”

“Remember those acres and acres of flowers I mentioned? I’m
taking the golf cart to work so I can see them.”

“I hope you don’t wilt like a flower. Isn’t that what you
Southern belles do?”

“I don’t think I’ve been here long enough to qualify as a girl
raised in the South.”

“Pshaw. You’ve been a G.R.I.T. from the minute you crossed the
Mason-Dixon Line. A Girl
Relocated
to the
South.”

“Tee-hee.”

“You sound awfully chipper this morning,” Karan said. “May I
assume work’s going well and you’re getting some sleep?”

One out of two wasn’t bad, and
some
sleep
was relative. “Can’t complain. I’m finally going to see Jay’s
house. It should be right off this path.”

“I thought you were supposed to assess the place.”

“Not on the top of my to-do list. That report won’t be due
until the acquisition.”

“You sound confident. Things must be going well.”

Susanna held on tight as the cart bucked over a protruding tree
root. “We’ve hit a few bumps, but nothing we haven’t been able to work
through.”

Yet.
They hadn’t tackled the
profit-and-loss statements, either. Jay insisted on full disclosure so he could
gauge the corporate effects on The Arbors, and she was using every ounce of her
financial expertise to figure out how wide the disconnect was between his
services and payroll and Northstar’s parameters. Juggling was the key, which put
sleepless hours to good use.

“We’re still in the honeymoon phase,” Susanna admitted. “Jay’s
walking me through the way things work at The Arbors so we haven’t done a lot of
procedural projections. There’s time.”

“You think that’s the best way to handle—”

“Ohmigosh, Karan. I think this is it,” Susanna blurted when a
low brick wall appeared through a sudden break in the trees, a vision of
manicured civilization in the forest.

“The plantation?”

“Yes. This has to be it. We’ve got formal landscaping. Tiered
bushes and ornamental grasses and flowering vines. It is. Here’s the entry.”

There was no gate, only an opening marked by stone urns, both
stained by rust from the irrigation water. The flagstone walk bore similar
stains and wound into another world.

Jay’s world.

“Ohmigosh.” Susanna whispered reverently into the quiet
morning. “This must be the backyard. There’s a huge lawn with those big oak
trees you see in movies. Generations old like the arbors. Jay told me his
great-grandmother planted them.”

“See the house yet?”

“House doesn’t even begin to describe it, Karan. Seriously. Can
you say ‘antebellum plantation’?”

“Tara?”

“Actually, no.” Susanna laughed. “Except for the ambience of
another era. The house isn’t even white. Just the eaves.”

Those eaves towered above two floors with massive white columns
that outlined a wraparound gallery. The house had been constructed of blond
brick, and the walls contrasted with the black shutters that framed every
floor-to-ceiling window. And there were a lot more windows than the three that
graced the porch of her cottage.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom what might drive someone away
from The Arbors, and she knew the curiosity might kill her.

“You know, Karan, my cottage is very similar in design. I’ll
bet that was intentional. A miniplantation.”

“Brooke should like that. She’s always loved dollhouses.”

As Karan would know since she’d indulged that particular fancy
since Brooke was old enough to be trusted not to gnaw on the tiny furnishings of
the ridiculously expensive dollhouses Karan gifted her with.

“Fingers crossed. I really want the kids to consider wherever I
live as home base. At least until they settle down.”

“As long as you’re there it will be home base.”

Susanna appreciated the reassurance. The most important thing
was being together. “I think I can see the driveway. I’ll bet if I took a left
at the fork instead of the right that brings me to the cottage, I’d wind up
here.”

“I can’t believe this is the first time you’re seeing the
house. With as much as you say ‘Jay this’ and ‘Jay that,’ I can’t believe he
hasn’t invited you over for a Bundt cake or pecan divinity or whatever
Southerners do to welcome neighbors.”

“It’s not like that, Karan. I told you. But I’m really dying to
know what could possibly possess him to sell this place. It’s a total
mystery.”

“Ask him.”

“I can’t ask him something personal like that.”

“Why not? Seems a logical question to me given the fact you’re
taking over his job.”

“Because I can’t.”

There was a beat of silence on the other end before Karan said,
“You’re working awfully hard to delineate boundaries between professional and
personal. What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Susanna only knew she’d better
get a move on. She didn’t want to get caught gawking at Jay’s house like a
tourist.

“I’m talking about how many times you’ve mentioned getting
personal with this man. I hear it every time we talk. You’re curious about him,
Suze.”

“Of course I’m curious. Why doesn’t he simply parcel off the
land, sell The Arbors and keep his family home?”

“Why don’t you ask him? Oh, wait. That’s personal. Are you
interested in Jay? I mean
interested,
interested.”

“Stop it. That isn’t funny.” Neither was the heat rushing into
her cheeks at the mere mention of being interested in Jay. “I’ll have a hand in
deciding the fate of the man’s house.” And wherever Jay was headed must be
incredible considering what he’d be leaving behind. “That’s all, Karan.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“I can’t even believe you. Some best friend.”

“What can’t you believe—that I know you so well? What kind of
best friend would I be if I let you lie to yourself?”

Susanna slowed the golf cart to a stop, pulled the phone away
from her ear and scowled at it, a thrill of annoyance overshadowing the
excitement of a moment ago. “That’s unfair.”

“Are you sure?”

Susanna didn’t answer because that simple question had a
complicated answer. Karan wasn’t entirely wrong. Susanna couldn’t think about
being interested in another man, not Jay or anyone. The very thought made her
uncomfortable deep inside, not so much guilty as...unable.

She hadn’t realized until this very moment.

“I’m broken,” she admitted.

“No, my dear sweet friend,” Karan said in a thoughtful tone.
“You’re just making peace with the hand life dealt you. You and Skip had big
plans, and things didn’t turn out as you expected. You need a new plan.”

“Is that what’s happening?”

“I think so. You were with Skip for your entire adult life. Now
he’s gone. It’s got to be easier to shut down a part of yourself than it is to
open up and take chances on living a life you didn’t imagine.”

Susanna let the idea filter through her, stared down the path
beneath the arbors in the paling dawn, vines winding through trellises and
archways so twisted it would be difficult to follow any one to the root.
Impossible to separate.

She and Skip had been like that. Their lives entwined into one,
so now she couldn’t find her own roots, didn’t think she’d ever bloom again.

“I’m broken. If I wasn’t, I’d be able to figure out how to move
on, because I know better than to waste a second when none of us have any idea
what the future holds.”

“True, true,” Karan said. “But you’re not wrong to feel the way
you do, Suze. You know, but you’re human.”

“I have everything in the world to be grateful for. I shouldn’t
be stuck—”

“You are grateful. You’re the most grateful person I know. You
don’t waste a second with your kids or me or anyone you love. I’m just saying
that you need to branch out. Before you’re old and gray and no man would ever
want you.”

“Karan.” But Susanna found herself smiling.

“There’s nothing wrong with being interested in Jay.”

“This isn’t about Jay. It’s about me.”

But Karan laughed a knowing laugh. And kept laughing until
Susanna hit the gas and took off, obligated to drown out the laughter with some
very rational arguments.

“He’s helping me learn the ropes around here. And even if that
wasn’t the case, even if I was stupid enough to jeopardize the acquisition by
mixing business with pleasure, Jay couldn’t possibly be in the running.”

“Why’s that?”

“The man is younger than I am.
Seven
years
younger. That’s another lifetime. And, oh, did I mention he’s
leaving?
As in selling this place?”

“I hear what you’re saying. Now hear what I’m saying. I know
you. Listing all the reasons you can’t be interested in a man isn’t going to
change the fact if you are.”

“I’m not. I just met him, for heaven’s sake.”

“I’ll reserve opinion if you don’t mind. I’m the one you used
to drag through Ashokan High so you could
accidentally
run into Skip, remember? ‘He has second lunch so let’s
walk all the way around the freaking school to get to our lockers so we have to
go through the cafeteria.’ This ringing a bell?”

Susanna crushed the phone against her ear as if that might
block out the sound of Karan’s voice. Her heart suddenly pounded too hard.
“You’re ridiculous, Karan. I’m not in ninth grade. I’m forty years old—”

“You’re not forty yet, thank you very much.”

Of course she wasn’t, because then Karan would be forty, as her
birthday was nearly a full month before Susanna’s. “Whatever. I outgrew crushes
a long time ago.”

“So long ago you might not remember what one was?”

“Puh-leeze.”
She sounded alarmingly
like Brooke. Daughters grew up to be like their mothers but Susanna had had no
idea the reverse was true. “I’d remember a crush. Trust me.”

“You sure about that, Suze? The last time you had a crush on
anyone you were a virgin. That makes the sum total of your experience, one man,
a really long time ago.”

And he’d been the right man.

“I had a lot of sex in my fifteen years of marriage, thank
you.” Likely even more than Karan, who’d had three marriages to two men plus one
long-term relationship and a lot of time off in between. Susanna kept that
observation to herself.

“It matters. You were comfortable with your husband. You both
grew together. That’s different than dating.”