On a tiny stage Nora sat with a book in her hand, her coat laid across her lap to cover her too short red leather skirt. Three small children—one boy about five or six years old and two tiny girls sat wide-eyed and spellbound listening to Nora.
“‘Beware the Jub-Jub bird,’” Nora recited as she held the book open so the children could see the pictures, “‘and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.’”
“What’s a Bandersnatch?” the smallest girl asked, tripping over the awkward word.
“It’s like a bird-dolphin-hippo-snake thing,” Nora explained matter-of-factly. “But more frumious. Got it?”
The kids nodded and giggled as Nora turned the page. Zach coughed to get Nora’s attention.
“Oh, what do you want?” Nora closed the book and glowered at him.
“Your presence, madam,” Zach said, putting on his most posh Oxford accent, “is required on the main floor.”
Nora groaned and stood up.
“Sorry, kiddles. I have to go.”
The older girl tugged on Nora’s sleeve.
“Miss Ellie,” she said, “is that your boyfriend?” she asked in a whisper everyone could hear.
“No,” Nora said in a stage whisper of her own. “He’s my babysitter.”
Nora left the children with obvious reluctance.
“I’m your editor. Not your babysitter. And who is Ellie?”
“The question is ‘Who was Ellie?’ And better question—what the hell are you doing here?”
“Wesley invited me. He said book-signings made you nervous.”
“Book-signings make him more nervous than they make me. They just annoy me. You sit there like some queen on a dais with all of seven people out there and four of them are related to you.”
“Well, there’s eight people counting me,” Zach said. “If you hate signings then why are you doing one at such a large bookshop?”
“Because Lex asked me and I couldn’t say no.” Nora sighed. “Saying no has never been my strongest suit.”
“Lex?”
“Bald guy—Lex Luthor. Owns the place. I used to work here so we keep in touch.”
They reached the down escalator and Zach noticed a man with shoulder-length dark hair pulled back in a ponytail standing at the railing and staring at Nora. He wore a Victorian-cut gray suit and riding boots and next to him stood the most exotically beautiful black woman he’d ever seen in his life. The man said something in French to the woman and the woman smiled. The man leaned against the railing and winked at Nora. Nora stepped onto the escalator, looked calmly up at the man, raised her hand and flipped him off. The man’s stunning companion only laughed.
“Who is that?” Zach asked once they were out of earshot.
Nora shrugged as they reached the first floor. “No idea.”
Zach heard her mumble something else but couldn’t quite make it out over the applause. They parted ways and Zach rejoined Wesley.
Nora stood on the platform and waved at the assembled crowd of nearly a hundred. Lex stood next to her and opened the books to the title page for her while Nora chatted with her fans.
“No reading?” Zach asked Wesley.
“Nora doesn’t do readings at ‘straight bookstores’ as she calls them. She doesn’t want to get arrested for public indecency. And no Q&A session, either.”
“For the same reason, I suppose,” Zach said and smiled.
Nora sat a few yards away but Zach could hear her bantering with her devotees. One young woman asked Nora where she got her inspiration. Nora answered, “Catholic school.”
Zach laughed to himself, enjoying the repartee, but Wesley paid no attention. He kept scanning the crowd and not once did he take his eyes off the men who waited in line. Zach let Wesley watch the crowd while Zach watched Nora. For all her protestations she seemed to be having a wonderful time. She looked radiant in her red suit even if her skirt was too short to be entirely appropriate. Another young woman brought out a riding crop and Nora attempted to sign its narrow length. An older man in a suit got Nora’s permission to kiss the tip of her shoe while the man’s wife took a picture.
“So how long have you lived with Nora?” Zach asked Wesley, hoping to distract him from his unnecessary vigilance.
“A little over a year.”
“And how long have you been in love with her?”
Wesley looked sharply at Zach before laughing ruefully.
“A little over a year…and a few months.”
“She doesn’t know?”
“Nope. She only asked me to move in because I sort of hinted that I might have to move back to Kentucky. I thought if I told Nora I might be moving…”
“You wanted to see how she would react,” Zach said with a sad half smile. “And she called your bluff.” Zach couldn’t stop himself from recalling the day he told Grace he was moving to the States. If that’s what you want, Zachary, wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping for.
“That she did.” Wesley grinned at Nora who looked away from her fan long enough to return the smile.
“I see it worked for you. Didn’t work quite so well for me. I think I underestimated you, Wesley.”
“I hope I overestimated you,” Wesley said, and Zach felt a quick pang of guilt.
“I’m not your competition, young man. I am still married after all.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Wesley said with far too much bitterness for someone so young. “Holy vows have never stopped her before. Yours won’t, either.”
“Yours seem to have stopped her.”
Wesley said nothing for a moment, and Zach knew he’d misspoken.
“She told you I was still a virgin?”
Zach heard Wesley’s wounded pride.
“I’m sorry, Wesley. I accused her of taking advantage of you and she was simply defending herself.”
“It’s okay,” Wesley said. “I’m not ashamed of it. I’m just…waiting.”
“For her?”
“You think I’m an idiot, right?”
“Of course not. But whether you like to admit it or not, she is fourteen years older than you. These sorts of relationships rarely work out even under the best of circumstances. Not if experience is any indicator.”
“Yeah, well, whose experience?”
Zach looked from Wesley and back at Nora. He stared at her but didn’t see her. Instead, he saw a door and the door opened and standing in the doorway was Grace, and no woman in the history of the world had ever looked so brave or so scared or so beautiful standing in a doorway.
“Mine.”
Wesley didn’t answer. Zach didn’t know what to say to comfort him. If he had any words of comfort, he would have told them to himself. But there was nothing but the cold, hard truth that loving someone and being loved back was only the beginning, not the end, of all the pain.
The young man in the green jacket came to Nora with