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Her face went tight, full of pain, and I immediately regretted the question.
“I’m sorry.” I held up a hand. “I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“It’s fine. It’s called rhabdomyosarcoma, a malignant cardiac tumor. It’s rare.”
“It couldn’t be treated?”
“Some can be removed, some can’t. She wasn’t one of the lucky ones.”
I nodded. “Thank you for sharing that.”
She finished off her wine. “Is it my turn now? I don’t have a question, but what I have to say will probably piss you off.”
I smiled. “Shoot.”
“Stop bitching at your grandmother about her choices. They’re hers to make, and she’s enjoying herself.”
“I saw that. Her smile was huge when you two snuck back into the hotel after the jump.”
“It’s scary to know you’re going to lose someone. I get that. But I promise, your grandmother doesn’t have a death wish. She just wants to feel alive, and getting close to deathon her own termsgives her that.”
“I’ll work on it.”
“She talks about you all the time, you know?”
“Uh-oh.”
Nora smiled. “Most of it is good. Though she did want to smack you when you told her youforbidher from doing the wingsuit jump. Haven’t you figured out that when you tell a certain type of woman they can’t do something, it only makes them want to do it more?”
I rubbed my lip. “A certain type of woman, huh? I have a feeling my grandmother isn’t the only one who falls into that category on this trip.”
“Maybe not.” She smiled.
I leaned to her. “I forbid you from having sex with me.”
Nora’s head bent back in laughter. It was a pretty damn spectacular sight.
“Your grandmother says you’re a whip,” she said, shaking her head. “I can see why.”
“What else does my grandmother say about me?”
“Lots of things. She says you’re smart, first in your class at Princeton. Successful—you started your own company one year out of college and have invested wisely in Manhattan real estate. You work too much, and apparently that comes from your grandfather. You’re divorced and have an adorable little girl who I think is six?”
I nodded. “Go on…”
“You’re close to your brother—who is ten years younger and pretty much the opposite of you and drives you nuts, yet you hired him to work for you anyway because you’re extremely loyal. Oh, and you once went with your grandmother to pick up your little brother from daycare. You insisted you should hold the infant carrier, instead of her. And neither one of you noticed until you got home that you’d grabbed the wrong baby. When you went back, the police were there because the mother thought someone had stolen her child.”
I hung my head. “Jesus Christ, did she have to tell you that? She was selling me so well with the beginning stuff.”
She grinned. “Another time, when you two were on the subway, a mouse ran through the car. You asked how it got in, and your grandmother told you the skeleton of a mouse allows them to get through small cracks. You slept on your back for a month before she found out you were afraid to turn over for fear one would get into your butt.”
“Seriously? Why would she tell you that?”
Nora shrugged. “We were standing on the subway platform one night waiting for a train, and a mouse ran across the tracks. Louise went hysterical laughing, and then she explained why. She didn’t mention how old you were, so I’m hoping it wasn’t too recently.”
“Wiseass.” I finished my drink and raised a hand for the bartender. “I’m at an unfair disadvantage here. I don’t have any stories about you.”
“And we’ll be keeping it that way.” She laughed.
