To Fall in Love Again

by David Burnett

  Amy squeezed Cathy’s shoulder. “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “Anytime. I learned to deal with Wicked years ago.” She laughed as she sat on the floor and pulled Amber into her lap.

  Rich and Heather arrived about an hour later, and the adults gathered around the tree to open their presents.

  Elaine oohed over the perfume. “It’s my favorite, Mom. Thank you.”

  Amy held her breath as Cathy gently pulled the wrapping paper off her present.

  “What could it be?” Her eyes opened wide when she saw the necklace. “Oh, Mom, it’s absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much.” She turned so that Amy could help her put it on, then she ran to a mirror to look. “Perfect.”

  As Elaine and Heather picked up, Cathy went to the kitchen with Amy to work on dinner.

  “Mom, my necklace—it looks just like the one Jennifer was wearing this morning.”

  Amy nodded. “It is similar. Drew and I went shopping together.”

  Cathy smiled. “I thought Jennifer’s was so pretty when I saw it. I almost said that I wished I had one so nice.” She hugged Amy. “Thank you.”

  After a while, Heather slipped into the kitchen. “What can I do to help? They guys are watching football, Zach and Amber are playing, the baby is asleep, and Elaine is reading.”

  “Let’s see.” Amy peered into the oven. “The turkey is browning nicely. The green bean casserole and the dressing are in the oven. The rice will take fifteen minutes. It’s not time for the salad, yet…no, there’s nothing. Not right now.”

  She poured three glasses of wine. “Talk to me. We don’t see enough of each other.”

  Cathy and Heather sat around the kitchen table, and Amy leaned against the counter.

  Heather tasted the wine. “That’s really good.” She took another sip. “So, what’s up with Elaine and Dr. Nelson? She still doesn’t like him, does she?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, she was going on a little while ago about him—he monopolizes your time, he’s taking advantage of you somehow.” She laughed. “She’s still ranting about your trip to the mountains.”

  “You’ve met Drew.” Amy put her wine on the counter and crossed her arms. “He’s very nice.”

  “He certainly seemed to be. What’s her problem?” She looked first to Amy, then to Cathy.

  “Well…” Amy began.

  “A bunch of things.” Cathy smiled. “I work for a psychiatrist, so I know how to analyze her.”

  “Right.” Amy rolled her eyes and Heather laughed.

  “First, she’s ticked off because we were over at the Nelsons’ house when she arrived this afternoon.”

  “She was almost two hours early,” Amy said.

  “Makes no difference to Elaine,” Cathy noted. “The world revolves around her. You should have been here.”

  Amy nodded. “You’re right about that.”

  “Second, she’s embarrassed because Dr. Nelson is from an old, wealthy Charleston family. She would never admit it, Heather, but she’s jealous of Mom. Her husband has neither the family nor the money. She can’t have what she thinks Mom might have one day, so she decided that he’s no good and Mom should stop seeing him.”

  “That’s sad,” Heather said.

  Amy unwrapped a homemade cheeseball, and Heather took a cracker and spread a slice of cheese across it.

  Cathy nodded and picked up her wine. “Finally, as you said, she’s convinced that he’s going to take advantage of Mom somehow—swindle her out of her money or something.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, she doesn’t make sense, and she changes from day to day.” Cathy shook her head. “One day she thinks that he really has no money and plans to get his hands on whatever Dad left for Mom.”

  Amy started to protest, but Cathy held up her hand. “The next, he’s using her as a play-toy and he’ll discard her as soon as he loses interest.”

  “Why will he lose interest?”

  “As soon as he gets me in bed,” Amy said, shaking her head. “She’s convinced that he engineered my accident in the mountains to make us have to spend the night.”

  Heather began to laugh. “He planned for you to sprain your ankle?”

  “Let me tell you, as bad as my ankle hurt that night, there was no way on earth…”

  “She’s a real trip,” Heather said.

  “Absolutely.” Cathy sipped her wine. “An absolute trip.

  ***

  The week between Christmas and New Year’s passed quickly. Elaine had called early in the week to ask if Amy would be able to babysit Zach and Amber on New Year’s Eve, so that she and James could go to dinner and to a party. Amy had suggested that she take them to see the fireworks display over the harbor and that the children plan to spend the night.

  “Thank you so much, Mom, for taking them for the night. Our regular sitter was already tied up and, since it was New Year’s Eve, it was just impossible to find anyone. I’d really given up hope. I was certain that you would be out celebrating with…with Drew.”

  Amy almost laughed at how difficult it seemed to be for Elaine to say his name. “Actually, I was thinking that Drew could help me with them tonight.”

  “What?”

  “They want to attract families to see the fireworks, so they will start at nine o’clock, you know. It’s almost six o’clock now. We’ll drive over shortly and beat the traffic. Drew plans to have hamburgers and french fries for dinner. From his house, it’s only a two-block walk to the Battery.”

  “I had thought that you would watch from this side of the river, from the foot of the bridge.”

  “You can see a lot better from the Battery. If Amber gets sleepy, one of us can stay at the house with her, and Zach won’t have to miss the show.”

  “It makes sense to me.” James had been standing nearby, listening to the conversation. “A lot safer.”

  “That’s right,” Amy said. “There will be two adults rather than just one.”

  Elaine frowned and sighed. “Okay. I suppose you are right.”

  “We’ll drive home right after the fireworks end.”

  Elaine nodded.

  “We’ll all be tired, so why not plan to pick them up around, say, nine thirty in the morning?”

  Elaine agreed and she and James left. The children watched television for a few minutes while Amy finished dressing, and they reached Drew’s house shortly before six.

  Drew opened the door just as Amy prepared to knock.

  “I saw you drive up. Come in.”

  She looked down at the children. “Drew, these are my grandchildren. You remember Zach, and this is Amber.” Amber was peeking out from behind her and Zach was clinging tightly to her hand.

  “Hi, Zach. Hi, Amber. It’s nice to meet you. Dinner is almost ready. There are toys in the family room.” Drew pointed.

  Zach’s eyes grew large as he saw the toys scattered around the room. He rushed over to a train set that wound around the Christmas tree, which still stood in front of the window. “Wow. Thomas the tankard. Can we play with them?”

  “Surely. I left them out just for you.”

  A few minutes later, Amber came up to Drew. “What’s for supper?” she asked.

  Drew flipped the hamburgers into the air and Amber squealed with delight.

  “Hamburgers! Wow. Mom never cooks hamburgers. They always come in a Happy Meal.”

  Drew asked Zach to help set the table for supper. He planned to sit on the floor around the coffee table, and Zach carefully carried plates and glasses full of Coca Cola from the kitchen.

  “Almost ready. Amber, can you hold this plate for me?”

  Amber held the plate while Drew placed the hamburgers on it.

  “Now, will you carry it to the table for me?”

  “The french fries are fantastic, Drew,” Amy told him. “How did you cook them?”

  “Olive oil. Anything tastes better fried in olive oil.”

  By eight o’clock, they set out to claim
a place to stand on the Battery, and Amber insisted that Drew carry her. Zach ran between him and Amy, holding first one hand, then the other.

  Just after nine, the first rocket arched into the sky above the harbor, and Zach cheered and jumped around in excitement. Amber covered her ears to muffle the noise as the rocket exploded, but she seemed mesmerized by the trails of colored light that had streaked across the sky.

  The display lasted for over twenty minutes, and it was almost ten before they returned to Drew’s house. Amber had fallen asleep in his arms just before the final rocket, and Zach dozed off as Amy buckled him into his seat.

  “Not the New Year’s Eve you had planned?” she asked Drew as he quickly kissed her good night.

  “I’ve no complaints. I had a wonderful time. Amber is so cute, and Zach reminds me of Lucas.”

  “You don’t mind it that you’re dating a grandma?”

  “Not if you don’t care if I’m a grandpa.” He kissed her again. “Better get them home.”

  Amy waved as she backed out. “I’ll call you.”

  It took forty-five minutes to get through the traffic and reach home. As Amy tucked them into bed, Amber stirred and opened her eyes. “I had a good time, Grandma,” she whispered. “I really like Drew.”

  Zach nodded. “He’s really nice. Is he going to be our grandfather?”

  Amy smiled. “I don’t know, Zach. I hope so. Would you like him to be?”

  “I would.”

  Zach snuggled under the blanket. As he drifted off to sleep, Amy realized what she had said about Drew becoming his grandfather. She sighed, hoping he wouldn’t tell his mother what she said.

  Cathy was not home. Matthew Nelson, Drew’s son, had not yet returned to school, and he had invited her to a party. Amy had no intention of waiting up—Cathy was almost twenty-one. A year from now she would be finished college and on her own, or in grad school.

  Amy called Drew as she lay in bed watching the celebration in Times Square. The sparkling ball dropped, and a singer Amy did not recognize crooned “Auld Lang Sine.” People on the street screamed and danced and blew horns as Drew and Amy talked.

  “We ought to go there sometime,” Amy said.

  “Next year, perhaps.”

  “Maybe so.” She smiled and glanced at the clock, noting that they had talked until one a.m.

  “I need to get to bed,” she said. “Zach and Amber will be up at dawn, even though their dad isn’t picking them up until nine thirty.”

  “I need to go too.”

  “Good-bye. I love you.”

  “I love you.”

  The Will

  “I’ll have the caesar salad, please.”

  Amy handed the menu to the waiter and took a sip of water. The holidays had ended and she had dragged herself out of bed at six o’clock for the first time in over a week. She had arrived at work early and, by eleven o’clock, the bowl of oatmeal she had eaten for breakfast no longer satisfied her. She and Ellen had taken an early lunch.

  “It’s so hard getting back in the swing of things after the holidays.” Ellen spread butter over half of a freshly baked roll.

  “Tell me. I don’t think I’ve had a full night of sleep since mid-December. I mean, there were parties, and babysitting, relatives visiting.” She shook her head.

  “Not to mention dinner with Drew, and walks with Drew, and shopping with Drew, and…” Ellen broke off laughing.

  “And all of that.” Amy smiled. “It was so hard to get out of bed this morning. I was awake early, but I couldn’t enjoy just lying there. I knew that I would have a pile of work waiting for me.” She sighed. “Thought I might as well go on in, get started.” She reached for a roll. “I ate breakfast so long ago, I’m famished.”

  Ellen nodded. “I felt the same way, and I ate so much over Christmas that I must have gained ten pounds. Even though I’m starving, I’ll feel guilty after lunch and—”

  A roar of laughter from the other side of the partition that divided the restaurant into two rooms drowned out the remainder of Ellen’s response. Amy saw her lips move, but heard nothing. As the laughter died away, she recognized a familiar voice.

  “I saw them together on New Year’s Eve. Amy and her boyfriend were on the Battery for the fireworks. Had two kids in tow. Grandchildren, I’d guess.”

  “That’s Marie,” Amy told Ellen. “Are they talking about me?”

  “Wait.” They heard another voice. “Amy Barrett has a boyfriend? At her age? Didn’t her husband die about a year ago? Just before she came to work?”

  Amy started to stand. “I’m going around there.”

  “Stop.” Ellen caught her arm. “Let’s hear what they are saying.”

  “Yes.” It was Barb’s voice. “He did. She began dating in September. Her boyfriend is Dr. Andrew Nelson. He’s a prof at the medical school, he lives below Broad, and he’s loaded.”

  “How do you know so much, Barb?” It was Alicia, another of the programmers. Amy recalled that the outer office had been almost empty when she and Ellen had left for lunch. Now she knew why.

  “I was present at their first date.”

  Amy’s mouth dropped open. “She makes it sound as if there were three of us on our first date,” she hissed. “Like, maybe she arranged it.”

  “Why would she want to remarry? Is it sex or money?”

  Barb silenced the second wave of laughter. “Ladies, let’s dial it down. Alicia is right. It could only be sex or money. In this case, though, it is definitely money.”

  Amy put her hand to her mouth to keep from screaming.

  “It’s obvious,” Barb continued. “They are both over fifty-five years old—can you imagine? It’s a well-known fact that interest in sex evaporates after age fifty.”

  “How stupid, “Amy whispered.

  Ellen chuckled.

  “If Dr. Nelson were my boyfriend, I’d have him interested in sex, regardless of his age. I’d have dumped the kids on New Year’s Eve and found some place private to celebrate.”

  “You’d get him interested in sex, Marie? You’re so flat your husband yawns when you undress for bed.” Barb’s voice carried across the restaurant, and Amy saw the manager heading in the group’s direction.

  Marie’s response rose up to be heard over the laughter. “My husband drools when I get ready for bed. He knows what will happen when I hit the sheets.”

  Amy heard a man’s voice—the manager, she guessed—and the volume dropped.

  “What about love?” Celia asked. “Maybe Amy is looking for love.”

  Amy nodded.

  “You’re so innocent, Celia,” Barb said. “Money and sex make the world turn on its axis. In this case, it’s money.”

  Amy could hear the waiter as he distributed their checks. She stared at a mural on the wall across from her, hearing the scrape of chairs across the carpet, muffled voices, and giggles as the group departed.

  “She makes me sound like I’m chasing Drew for his money. I’m not after his money, Ellen. I’ve never even discussed finances with him. Celia was right, you know. I just want someone to love again.”

  Ellen reached across and patted her arm. “Don’t worry about them, Amy. They’re just talking. You know how girls are. They can’t imagine being our age, so they can’t imagine how you feel about things.”

  Amy dabbed at her eye with a napkin. “I know you’re right. It just hurts to hear them say it.” She took a bite of her salad. “To hear them talk, I either must be a gold-digger or a sex-crazed old woman.” They both laughed. “I wish Barb would fill Elaine in on the fact that Drew isn’t interested in me for sex. It would make my life so much more peaceful.”

  “Elaine thinks he wants to get you into bed?”

  “Says it all of the time. He’ll use me up and throw me away, she says.”

  “What makes her say that?”

  “There’s no reason, nothing that Drew has done or said. I mean, we are long past just holding hands,” Amy felt her face becoming warm, “b
ut there’s nothing.” She sighed. “We’re both rather traditional. Neither one of us fooled around before we were married, and we don’t want to do it now.” She looked down at the table. “Then, too, I think Drew would see it as a betrayal of his wife.”

  “Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “Not really. You can’t live with someone for thirty years and then erase them from your life, from your memory. His first wife will always be a part of him, just as Jack, for good or ill, will always be a part of me.”

  “But if you were to get married…”

  “We haven’t talked about marriage. I mean, we’ve only been dating four months.”

  “Things move faster when you’re our age.” Ellen laughed. “They have to. We don’t have as much time to waste as we did when we were younger.”

  “You’re right. They do. I’ll just say that if we were to get married, then I would not anticipate any problem in…well, in that department.” They both laughed.

  “Elaine was really close to Jack. More than the other kids were, I think. Maybe she sees Drew as my attempt to replace her father.” She looked quickly over her shoulder, as if to make sure Elaine was not there.

  “On New Year’s Eve, Zach asked me if Drew was going to be his grandfather. I told him that I hoped so. Elaine would be so upset to hear what I said. I still worry that he might mention it to her. I hope he was already asleep.” She sipped her tea.

  “She comes up with all sorts of reasons why I should not see him. He’s still in love with his first wife, she will tell me. He wants my money. He only wants my body.” She shook her head. “Her most common complaint is that he has another girlfriend—his real one—and that I’m just a plaything for him. She asked me once about hiring a private investigator to follow him around. I certainly hope that she doesn’t do anything stupid like that. Honestly.”

  “That’s terrible,” Ellen exclaimed.

  “The whole thing makes me so unhappy. I feel guilty when Elaine is upset.” She shook her head. “At least Barb is consistent—it’s always about money. With Elaine, I never know what she will complain about.”

  ***

  The following Wednesday, Amy left home early and drove across the river, into town. The city was just beginning to awaken. She easily found a parking space and walked down Broad Street toward the law office of Jason Cooper, Jack’s attorney. In his will, Jack had named Jason as his personal representative, and Jason was preparing to settle the estate.