I promised Carissa we’d go shopping for jammies. She’s got a slumber party on New Year’s Eve. I’ll talk to you later.”
New Year’s Eve. Catherine hadn’t had the opportunity to ask what her daughter was doing, but she was sure Lila would have something planned with her husband. William and Gabrielle would be doing something, too.
Which was as it should be. Everyone should celebrate the beginning of a new year with someone they loved.
The thought of spending the night alone wrapped her in melancholy. “But I’m not going to say anything to Lila or William,” she said to Cookie. “I already said enough to upset them.”
She could handle seeing in the new year alone. She could handle a lot of things alone.
The melancholy began to slide off. “We don’t mind being on our own, do we, Cookie?”
Cookie thumped her stumpy tail and lifted a front paw, giving Catherine a little doggy wave.
“I knew you’d agree. You know, I’d never really been alone before Bill died. I lived at home when I was going to college and then I got married. Sometimes I feel a little like a sheep, looking for the rest of the flock. I don’t know if alone suits me.”
Still, one had to make the best of things. She’d find something to do New Year’s Eve.
Take down the tree, read a book. Maybe start a new knitting project. And...what else? She’d think of something.
19
It was early afternoon on New Year’s Eve when Catherine got a text. She had to read it twice to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
This is Rudy in case you don’t recognize the number. I’m in town and wondering if you have plans for New Year’s Eve.
Rudy? Plans? She blinked. She had to be hallucinating. She read the text again. Oh, my.
She texted back...several times, thumbing in a reply and then deleting it, her heart thumping all the while. She finally settled for something innocuous. It would be lovely to see you.
What a bland response in light of the crazy excitement she was feeling. It was as if she’d been thrown back in time, and was once more on the dance floor of that cruise ship, in his arms, falling in love for the second time in her life.
The first had been Bill, and she remembered those butterflies she’d felt when they’d stood on her front porch after their second date and she’d known he was going to kiss her. Time changed a woman on the outside, but never on the inside. The butterflies always returned. And now, here they were.
What did that text mean? Surely it could only mean one thing, that he wanted to keep what they started going. But she was afraid to hope. How, she was dying to know.
Okay. I’ll make reservations.
They set a time, she gave him her address. It was a done deal.
New Year’s Eve with Rudy. What was she going to wear? She hurried to her bedroom closet and stood a long time looking at the clothes hanging there. She didn’t have anything fancy, at least nothing that fit anymore. She hadn’t needed anything fancy for the quiet New Year’s Eves she’d spent with her husband. You hardly had to get dressed up to watch TV.
“I need to go shopping,” she told Cookie.
An hour later she was at Ross Dress for Less, sifting through the dresses on the rack. She finally found a simple black dress with long, lacy sleeves that didn’t make her look too much like the proverbial sack of potatoes. She still had some black heels that would do and a rhinestone necklace and matching earrings. All she needed was pantyhose.
Ugh. Pantyhose were one of fashion’s instruments of torture. She read the measurements on the back of the packages with knit brows. How much did she weigh now? She hadn’t gotten on her scale since the cruise. Actually, she hadn’t gotten on her scale in the last year, and she’d been afraid to look every time she went to the oncologist and the nurse weighed her. She finally bought two different packages, deciding it would be best to have options.
Then she drove home, set her bedside alarm clock for two hours, fell back on her bed and...lay there, staring at the ceiling, her mind whirling. She should rest. She’d be exhausted.
She was too excited to sleep.
She finally gave up. She called her son and asked him to come pick up Cookie for an overnight.