Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“I’m glad.” And I very much was.
She looked down to my coffee cup. “Are you done with that?”
I nodded.
She whisked it away.
And we were back to normal.
I went to the menu and approved it, before I reminded her, “I’m in committee meetings all day.”
“I remember.”
“I’ll be home around four.”
“Okay.”
“Have a good day, Alyona.”
“You too, Miss Nora.”
I walked out and found Heiress eschewing her cat bed to sleep on Jamie’s pillow (I understood her decision).
I gave her a scratch. She gave me some purrs.
Then I grabbed my bag and went out to face the day.
Wednesday afternoon, Dru and I stood in the foyer of Jamie’s brownstone.
As mentioned, she was a sweet young woman who I liked very much, but I could tell, right then, she was uncomfortable, and I was concerned she didn’t want to be there, but she was doing it for her dad.
The only way I could help her with that was to get on with it.
“To start, let’s do a bottom to top, dear,” I suggested.
She licked her lips and nodded.
Yes, uncomfortable, and maybe nervous.
We then toured every inch of Jamie’s home, the one Rosalind Oakley created for her family, and left with them.
When we were finished, we ended up in the library, which was full of books and leather furniture and a fireplace with a large television over it.
And I was studying yet another wedding portrait.
This depicted a glowing, flame-haired Rosalind wearing a cream Oscar de la Renta, full-skirted, to the calf wedding dress, Jamie, handsome in a tuxedo, with a much younger Judge at Rosalind’s side, and a little girl Dru wearing a pretty cream bridesmaid dress at Jamie’s side.
Judge looked a mite awkward. Perhaps it was his age. Perhaps it was that he didn’t know his place in that new family.
Rosalind, Jamie and Dru were all beaming.
“Uh…well? Do you have any ideas?” Dru called.
I turned to her. “Your mother decorated in, well…” I smiled at her as I swept my arm in front of me. “Jamie.”
Dru glanced around, then she burst out laughing.
“Oh my God,” she pushed out. “She totally did.”
“I can’t say I hadn’t noticed it before, I had. It just came very to the fore in inspecting the entirety of it. It’s not as if it’s overwhelmingly masculine, but she definitely balanced the scale more to that side so her husband would not only be comfortable but able to wallow in his many successes.”
The humor left her expression.
“Mom was super proud of Dad,” she said softly.
“It shows,” I replied.
“He really needs you to, um…change things.”
It was me talking softly when I said, “I know.”
“I think he, um…uh…needs you to make it very you.”
“I know that too.”
“I know he doesn’t want to erase her,” she said swiftly.
“Dru, darling,” I replied, going to her and taking one of her hands in both of mine. “I think we both know he needs that because he wants it for me. Our mission here is to give him what he needs so he can assure himself that I’m fully aware of his feelings for me, at the same time make it his space, your space, Judge’s space, and retain Rosalind’s space.”
Gratitude shone in her eyes even as she noted, “That’s a hefty order.”
“I believe we’re up for the challenge.”
Dru added her other hand to both of mine and gave them a squeeze. “I love how much he loved her, and even though it might seem bizarre, I love how much he grieved for her, because it showed how much he loved her, and it felt good, having someone share that with me, even if what we were feeling felt awful.”
“Of course, dearest,” I whispered.
“But I’m sorry he didn’t see what was right in front of him for so long so he could be happy again.”
“Oh, Dru,” I said, pulling her hands to my chest. “That’s very lovely. Thank you.”
“I should be thanking you for making him happy. He’s, I don’t know how to say it except, he’s back.”
I adored she felt this from Jamie.
“Outside my children, this is my greatest triumph,” I declared.
She smiled before she let my hands go, and she pulled me into a hug.
When we stepped away from one another, I said, “I think this room, we don’t change. It’s so very Jamie, it oozes him.”
“I agree.”
“The front room, darling, let’s go there to feel the space and brainstorm.”
She grinned at me. “Awesome.”
We came up with some ideas, decided to share those while we interviewed a few interior designers, and we headed out.
Dru was a flautist, a talented one, and as such, she was quite busy with session work, and she was booked to be at a studio soon.
An aside, to augment her income, on days she wasn’t booked, she was a substitute teacher. She had, I noticed, not shared this with Nico and Felice the Sunday before, and since she didn’t, I didn’t either. However, she’d seen Felice’s behavior with Alyona, and I didn’t need to crawl into Dru’s head to know she worried that Felice, a full-time educator, might look down on Dru doing it for extra cash.