Nora Goes Off Script(64)
My face shows my trepidation. “Was there another option?”
Leo says, “I say let’s get married on the lawn in front of the tea house, with the door wide open so we can look out into the forest. Just family and our closest friends.” He sees that Bernadette is rolling her eyes. “And Bernie gets full control over decorations. No budget.”
Arthur says, “Can I pick the band?”
“Done.”
My butler is removing my plate and is replacing it with a plate of the most exquisite fresh fruit I have ever seen. I can have this and a backyard wedding, I think. I wonder at the possibility of having it all.
CHAPTER 26
In July, we get married. Leo and Bernadette have hired a crew to create a canopy of white lights over the entire back lawn. Leo and Arthur are in white linen suits. Bernadette and I wear simple white sundresses, chosen by Weezie. It’s hot, and at the last minute we all decide not to wear shoes.
There’s no need to add color—the forest behind the tea house is a curtain of all shades of green. Above it is a clear summer sky. On either side of the tea house’s open door is the annual explosion of blue hydrangea. They welcome me down the aisle, perfectly framing Leo in my line of sight. Leo’s here in July. And he’s staying for all of the Julys after this. Something blue, indeed.
After the ceremony, we move to the front yard, which has been transformed by candlelit tables, a band, and a dance floor. The caterers have taken over my kitchen and my porch, but the whole place still feels like home. The trees that surround the property give a feeling of privacy that I never really felt like I needed before. Laurel Ridge might be the perfect place for a celebrity to get married.
Luke gets up to make a toast about how I turned his brother into a real person. Leo rolls his eyes and gives me a squeeze. “Mom was so proud of you. She tried not to brag about you, but she couldn’t help herself,” he goes on. “And this family you’ve wiggled your way into, this is what she would have bragged about the most.” Leo takes my hand and kisses it.
There’s something extraordinarily celebratory about this wedding. It’s not just because the people there love us and want us to be happy. It might be because they lived through the time that we were apart and miserable. It might be because they all either lived through or saw the movie version of my marriage to Ben. Luke and Jenn, Kate and Mickey. Even Mr. Mapleton seems profoundly relieved that Leo turned out to be a good guy. Penny and Rick make Leo promise that we’ll come to their annual white party in East Hampton. Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki spend the whole night on the dance floor.
Weezie is giddy. “I met Nora right here last year,” she tells my parents. “She was worried we’d wreck her lawn, and she was right. And all the while there’s this thing brewing between her and Leo.”
Martin is there with Candy, who appears to be back in the rotation. “I take full responsibility for this,” he tells everybody. “It was my idea to film here. I brought Leo right to her door and let him sleep on her lawn.”
* * *
? ? ?
I am falling asleep in my bed with Leo, because he’s my husband now and that’s legit. We’re lying as close as we would be if we were still in the daybed in the tea house. I have two thoughts that I can’t shake. First, that dance floor is going to wreck my lawn for the summer. And second, that the best things come back. Sometimes it’s right after the commercial, sometimes it takes longer. But time and sunshine bring growth, and life unfolds just the way it’s supposed to.
My husband whispers in my ear. “You still awake?”
“Yes,” I say, though I’m nodding off.
“There’s a part for Arthur in a film I’m thinking about doing in the fall. He’d play my son.”
“Where?”
“England.”
Nothing’s how I planned, and I’m speeding into a future I can’t quite visualize. Life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art. “Let’s talk about this over the sunrise tomorrow,” I say.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In her impromptu acceptance speech, Nora says that she’s grateful that her story was welcomed and nurtured by such talented people. I know just how she feels. A heart full of thanks to my agent Marly Rusoff for her immediate and enduring enthusiasm for this book. I could not be in more able or more caring hands. Working with editor Tara Singh Carlson has been a flat-out thrill. Thank you, Tara, for shining your laser focus on this book and for being so kind every step of the way. Thank you to Sally Kim for giving me the opportunity to share this book with the world, and to everyone at G. P. Putnam’s Sons for making it happen, particularly the very patient Ashley Di Dio.
Thank you to my dear writing friends, who told me this book had legs in its very early stages—Lynda Cohen Loigman, Karen Dukess, and Steve Lewis. Without you it would still be a one-hundred-page Word document and a twinkle in my eye. I’ll say it for the millionth time—there is nothing that embodies the spirit of generosity more than writers who make time for other writers’ work.
A particular thank-you to my mostly adult children, Dain, Tommy, and Quinn, who read an early draft of this book under duress and for money. Your notes, honesty, and interest in the process were actually my favorite parts of this project. And Tom, the leading man in my favorite love story, thank you for your quiet faith in me and for reading it for free.