are my favorites, and this one particularly. I always thought I would keep this one, but I couldn’t imagine it in better hands.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Completely.”
“How much is it?”
“It’s yours. A gift.” He bowed.
“A gift? But…”
“Yes. I won’t hear anything else about it. Say, what are you doing now? Do you want to get an ice cream from the Paradise?”
Audrey broke into a wide grin. “I can’t imagine anything I’d like to do more.”
* * *
“Don’t you look happy.” Aunt Judith looked up from where she was sitting in the garden, reading the newspaper, a small folding table next to her with a glass of what might have been iced tea, a bowl of nuts beside it.
“I do? I feel pretty happy.” Audrey, in fact, felt more than happy—she felt giddy. A perfect day with a man she might not be able to have, but his attention, his flattery, the way he had made her laugh, had her feeling like a teenager, light and free, without a care in the world.
“Where have you been? I was thinking perhaps tomorrow we can start making headway with sorting out the attic. How would that be?” She peered at Audrey. “You’ve caught the sun, and I noticed the baby oil was missing. The beach?”
“Yes. Actually I ran into Brooks, your neighbor, this morning, and he ended up coming to the beach with me.” Audrey looked away as she said this, not wanting her perceptive aunt to see anything in her eyes.
“What a treat!” Aunt Judith spoke without judgment. “He’s delicious, isn’t he? If I weren’t so old I’d fall head over heels for that man.”
“He’s terribly nice.”
Aunt Judith sat back and gazed at her niece. “My sweet girl, I think you deserve to have some fun, and I’m delighted you’ve found a new friend who makes you smile. You seemed weighted down by the world yesterday, and today it is as if I have got my Audrey back. If being in the company of my neighbor does that for you, then more power to him, I say.”
“You don’t think it’s dangerous?” Audrey asked, after some hesitation.
Aunt Judith smiled her familiar smile, her eyes twinkling as she tilted her head. “I think we are only here for one life,” said her aunt. “I think we cannot tell what our future holds, but we should seize happiness where we find it. Do I think you should leap into bed with him? Well, no. Of course not. But nor do I think you should avoid someone with whom you have a connection. Have fun, Audrey. You deserve to have fun, my darling. That’s all.”
Audrey skipped over to her aunt and leaned down, kissing her on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said. “I won’t be jumping into bed with him—I am a happily married woman, after all—but thank you for blessing our friendship.”
“You’re welcome.” Her aunt watched thoughtfully as Audrey hopped up the wooden staircase and back into the house.
* * *
Audrey felt herself bubble over with excitement. She might not have been thinking about jumping into bed with Brooks, but she couldn’t stop replaying their day together. Their walk to the ice cream parlor, then wandering around looking at the boats, and finally the beach, where they sat and talked about everything under the sun.
Everything seemed brighter, the trees greener, the sun stronger, her world in sharp relief as her insides fizzed with possibility. She hadn’t thought about her husband all day, her other life, her staid suburban-housewife life back in boring old England.
She looked at herself in the mirror. She had indeed caught the sun. Freckles were emerging on her nose, as they always used to do. She had left the rollers and hair iron behind in England, was leaving her hair loose and long, hanging below her shoulders.
She slipped a tunic over her head and slid her feet into sandals, calling to her aunt that she would be going for a walk, suppressing the knowledge that actually she was going to find Brooks, was hoping against hope she might run into him again, just wanting to see him smile, to continue feeling the high she had felt all day.
She skipped down the front steps, out onto the street, pausing as she heard a murmur from next door. There in the doorway was Brooks, with a young woman. Audrey froze behind the tree, her heart pounding as she watched them, watched Brooks reach out a hand and lay it on her arm, saw the woman