she went down the ladder, just as her eyes were about to disappear, she looked up at him. “Please go away, Jake. It’ll be a lot easier for both of us if you just leave me alone.”
It would be a lot easier if he did.
He just wasn’t sure he could.
Vivien hadn’t meant to leave the Tuesday Ladies to their own devices back in the area where all the dressing rooms were, but catching Jake poking around up in the catwalk area had been distracting and delayed her from returning to them.
He simply didn’t have any business poking around here. Stubborn jerk. She could handle things herself. She just wished he would stop being here. Didn’t he have a job?
Ricky DeRiccio had taken it upon himself to pass out some of the scones, sandwiches, and bottles of water brought from Orbra’s Tea House, and a small cluster of teens surrounded him in the first three rows of seats in the house. There would be crumbs galore, but that was no worse than the current situation of dust and debris, so Vivien hardly winced when she noticed.
She answered several questions from a couple of the teams of volunteers (whether she wanted to save any of the old playbills—no—and where to find more garbage bags and a broom). Vivien was just about to head backstage and search out the Tuesday Ladies when her realtor showed up, walking down the main aisle.
Bella Pohlson was wearing a huge, congratulatory smile and a smart powder-blue summer suit. Her hands flashed with a large diamond, and her wrists were decorated with a glittering diamond bracelet and several thick silver bangles, and she looked far slicker and more put together than Vivien felt at the moment. Which was to be expected.
Bella wasn’t alone, for Melody Carlson and another woman who looked vaguely familiar—both of whom were also dressed professionally—were with her. They look like ladies who lunch, Vivien thought, and that observation made her think of “Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little”—neither of which were accurate or even fair, but she didn’t control what she thought of as her mental “casting hat.”
“Hello, Vivien!” Bella said with a wave as she came forward to give Vivien the sort of hug professional women often gave each other even if they weren’t close friends. “I hope you don’t mind that we stopped in. Susie mentioned all the activity—that’s her nephew over there, carrying one of those boxes—going on today, and I just had to stop by and congratulate you again…and welcome you to town as another small business owner.”
“That’s so nice of you,” Vivien replied sincerely. “Thank you. The volunteers are really making quite a dent in the cleanup work. And it’s nice to see you again, Melody. I hope Cherry didn’t work you too hard yesterday.”
“Oh, no, of course not. She’s just brilliant. It really helps with my anxiety doing those long, slow yoga poses,” Melody replied.
“Vivien, you might not remember me, but I’m—I was, I mean—Susie Parminster. Now it’s Wallaby—my husband’s a dentist, if you need one—and I just have to tell you how excited we are to finally have a live theater coming back to town.” Susie was beaming and looking around as if it was Christmas.
“Oh, yes, of course I remember you,” Vivien replied, scrambling for details. And then they came to her. “You were Marty the year they did Grease in high school—and of course Melody was Sandy.”
And I was nothing.
“That’s right!” Susie seemed to be delighted to be remembered. “Hello, Robbie!” she called, waving to her nephew. “Keep up the good work!” She turned back to Vivien. “And welcome back to Wicks Hollow. I’m sure it’s going to be quite a change from the hustle and bustle of—New York? That’s where you came from, right?”
“The home of Broadway,” said Melody with a smile. “I’ll bet it was wonderful being there and able to see any show anytime you wanted.” She sounded a little wistful. “We get to Chicago a couple times a year—I’ll take my father even now—but they just don’t have the variety there.”
“Yes, I saw a lot of shows when I lived there.” Both in the audience and from backstage.
“Well, my dear, I’m sorry to interrupt—we just wanted to stop in and say hi. Do you mind if I just show them around backstage really quickly right now?” asked Bella. “We won’t be a minute. I’m just so curious to see what you’ve done already.”
“Well, not a lot, really, but sure, feel free. It’s not as if