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“You really didn’t have to drive all the way down here. I could’ve met you halfway,” I said to Nora, reaching across the console to hug her.
“First of all, it isn’t that far, and secondly, the girls got a decent nap on the way.”
I looked behind me to where Eleanor and Elizabeth were both asleep in their car seats, secretly wishing they were awake so I could hear their sweet voices as they called out for their Auntie Em.
“Where are you going?” I asked when she pulled out onto the main thoroughfare.
“We’re celebrating. It’s a surprise.”
I don’t know what I would’ve done the last three months if it weren’t for my friendship with Nora. She and my mother were the only two people I confided in about Lynx, admitting that I was truly heartbroken that I hadn’t heard a word from him after his mission ended. Logically I knew we’d both agreed that our “summer holiday” was just that. Temporary. With an end date. That didn’t stop my heart from aching whenever I thought about him.
“You won’t believe who I ran into yesterday afternoon.”
She looked over at me and raised a brow.
“Tommy, you know, Saint.”
Nora’s eyes opened wide. “I knew who you meant, but where did you see him?”
“He showed up at the end of my lecture.”
She peeked over her shoulder at the girls, who were still sound asleep.
“What did he want?” she whispered anyway.
“To talk to me about Lynx.”
Her furrowed brow softened, and she smiled. “And?”
“I don’t know if what I’m about to tell you makes me feel better or worse, but supposedly he’s here in the States. Evidently, he’s thinking of leaving MI6.”
Nora’s furrowed brow reappeared, and I held up my hand.
“Before you say anything, I have run the gamut of emotions over the course of the last twenty-four hours, and I change my mind about how I feel hourly.”
“I don’t understand. Why hasn’t he been in contact?”
“According to Tommy, he wasn’t sure I’d want to see him.”
“That’s ridiculous. So, where is he now?”
“Tommy said he wasn’t certain, but he thought he might be in Texas…where his brother lives.”
“How is his brother? Stephen mentioned he’d had several surgeries.”
“You know more than I do.”
“How’s this?” she said, pulling up to the curb in front of what she knew was my favorite restaurant in Newport.
“I love it,” I said, clapping my hands. “I’ve been craving Brazilian food since Stephen asked where they should eat tonight.”
“Let’s take a picture,” Nora said once the girls were settled in high chairs. She handed her phone to the waiter and then stood next to me behind Eleanor and Elizabeth.
“Stephen will love this,” she said, looking through the photos the waiter had taken. “Do you mind if I text it to him?”
“Of course not. Why would I?”
“You know, cell phones at the dinner table.”
