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“Thanks. I’ve had a lot of support, and I appreciate it,” Cora says.
We eat in comfortable silence for a while, and then Cora looks at me grinning. I like her this way. Playful, relaxed, and just plain happy.
“Do you realize that we are both out of jobs?”
“You just had to remind me, huh?” I make a mock stern face, then relax. “Seriously though, we’ve worked hard for years. This is a good opportunity to relax and plan the way forward.”
She nods. “That sounds good. Plan for the future.”
We finish eating, and this time, Cora won’t hear of me doing the dishes alone, so we do it together. Afterward, we settle in the living room and watch documentaries on Netflix.
This could grow on me. It’s nice to be part of a couple again.
Chapter 31
Cora
The doorbell rings, and I hurry to open it. It’s the third time that I’ve been alone in the house since I moved in. I open the door for my mom, and we hug and kiss. She has a look of wonder as she takes in her surroundings.
“Thomas has a beautiful home,” she says.
I shut the door. “That he does.”
She follows me into the kitchen, where fresh coffee is waiting for us. My tolerance for coffee has come back, though I’m limiting myself to one cup a day.
“Would you look at that kitchen,” my mother exclaims as she sits down at the table. “Is this where he lived with his late wife?”
I’d told my mother and Adeline about Thomas losing his wife so early on in their marriage.
“That was my first question, too, when I moved in. The answer is no, even though it doesn’t really matter. It was a long time ago, and part of his history that you can’t erase.”
I carry our mugs of coffee to the table and sit down.
“I love how mature you are about it. But then again, you’ve always been older than your age. You’ve handled it with more maturity than I have, I’m afraid.”
I take my first sip and let out a soft sigh of ecstasy. It feels like I haven’t drunk coffee in years, and I had a cup yesterday.
“What do you mean?”
Mom sighs and looks down before looking up again. “It’s taken some time to come to terms with the fact that there was another woman in Ian’s life whom he loved very much, sort of like your Thomas.”
That sentence is wrong on so many levels. How I wish that he were my Thomas. “I know what you mean, though. It was tough at first knowing there was another woman who had Thomas’s heart.” That much is the truth. “But over time, it ceases to matter.”
I came to terms with this even before Thomas told me about Tessa’s unfaithfulness. Loving another person doesn’t diminish a person’s capability to love another. In Thomas’s case, it did diminish, but that was because it was his choice not to open his heart up to love again.
I never told anyone about Tessa’s affair, and I never will. Thomas told me that in confidence, and besides, it wouldn’t even be fair to spread nasty stuff about someone who is not even there to defend themselves.
As far as I know, he didn’t tell Fran or Martin and has no plans too. He managed to push that whole heartbreaking business to the back of his mind, and I’m proud of him for that.
“That is true. I’m getting there slowly. I was used to being the one and only woman in your father’s life,” she says wistfully.
I cover her hand with mine. “Soon, that won’t bother you one bit, I promise.”
She smiles. “Thank you, and I think you’re a wonderful woman. Thomas is lucky to have you.”
I smile in response. I came clean to Adeline, but I wouldn’t dare to do so with my mother. She’ll make a great deal out of it, which is understandable, but I don’t want to deal with that.
Mom’s face lights up. “You won’t believe who came around for a quick visit.” At my blank face, she continues, “Emma! I can’t tell you how happy I was to have her for one night. She went back the following day.”
Emma is Riley’s mom. “Yeah? How is she?”
“She’s good and loving the change of being away. She sent her regards and warm wishes.”
I’m curious about what she had to say about my mother’s affair with Ian. I’m sure she was as scandalized as Adeline and I were. “Did she meet Ian?”
“She did, and they hit it off. That made me happy. Emma is my oldest friend, and I’d have hated it if she had hated him.”
So much for Riley’s mom getting scandalized.
Mom sighs. “We women really short-change ourselves. Emma confided in me about a man she met two years after she lost her husband. She fell for him hard, but nothing happened. She wasn’t brave enough to pursue it, and she was frightened of what her children would say.”
