know what your answers are, Claire. There’s no magic formula to get over losing the love of your life. Though I think you’ll find another man to love one day, you’ll probably have to learn to love yourself again first.” She shrugged. “But what do I know?”
Another wave of emotions rushed through Claire, and she had to close her eyes and breathe through them. She put her hands behind her head—fighting the nausea—and looked at Didi. “I miss him more than anything, and the hole in my heart aches. The hurt is indescribable, like someone has ripped my rib cage open and left me to die.” Hot tears filled her eyes. “I can’t bear it anymore.”
Didi rounded the desk and wrapped her arms around Claire. “Stay strong. That’s all I can tell you. Try to tap into your stronger self.”
Claire cried into her friend’s shoulder. “How can I stay strong? I’m not strong. Nothing about me is strong.” All she wanted to do was curl up and finish David’s book, to read his words, to be close to him again.
Her friend released her and wiped one of the tears from Claire’s cheek.
Claire removed her glasses and wiped her eyes.
“You don’t ever have to say goodbye to him. He’s in your heart, Claire. He’ll always be in your heart.” Didi stood straighter and touched her own chest. “Find him here. Feel him. And talk to him. Ask for his help. That’s my magic formula. Not these men who chase me around. My secret is that my husband is here in my heart, and he wants me to be a fighter and to carve out a new happy life for myself. He wants me to be happy. What does David want from you?”
“I . . . I wish I knew.”
After a long hug, Claire said to Didi as she was leaving, “By the way, you’re one wild woman. He’s a catch and a half.”
Her friend perked up with a sinister lift of an eyebrow. “He’s delicious, isn’t he? Great on the eyes and even better under the sheets.”
Claire couldn’t hold back a smile. “I have no idea where you find these men.”
She raised her hands, palms up. “They’re falling from the sky! What can I say?”
After a shake of the head and one more smile, Claire said, “Thanks for being in my life.”
“See you tomorrow afternoon at the meeting?”
“Yeah, for sure.” Didi blew Claire a kiss and disappeared back into the madness of the café.
Claire sat and stared at the wall for a while. Sometimes that numbness of being all cried out was the only peace she could ever find. She loved her friend for her honesty and encouraging words, and though much of Claire didn’t believe she had the strength to overcome, a very small part of her believed that she would. That she had to. Her dead husband would demand it.
Claire touched her heart and whispered, “Are you out there somewhere, David?”
Chapter 3
SAVING ORLANDO
After locking up, Claire climbed into her convertible and drove north, back toward the Don CeSar hotel. David’s novel rode shotgun.
Claire couldn’t help but see the parallels between her adult life and that of the hotel. Opening in the late twenties, the Pink Palace was welcomed with a flurry of excitement, drawing the rich and famous from all over the world. Those booming times were like the first years of Claire’s marriage to David. After fighting off the early impact of the Great Depression, the untimely death of the hotel’s owner had led it on a downward path of disrepair, only to be bought for a song by the US Army, who converted it into a military hospital during World War II. Shortly after, the army even abandoned the building. The southern sunshine and salt air had eaten away at this glorious feat of architecture over the subsequent thirty years.
That was just about how Claire felt right now: exhausted and worn down. But there was a bright side. New owners in the seventies and renovations over the next few decades had restored the Don CeSar to its former glory, and the hotel was back in business. Claire hoped the Don’s story was just a few years ahead of her own.
Claire’s new house was on the beach side of the main drag, still a half mile from the Don but only two blocks from the sand. After David died, knowing she could never spend another night in their house, she’d rented a spacious two-bedroom condo downtown. But a