Chapter 4 #2
Grandma Vera had told them at dinner that Nate had recently moved back next door as the new owner of his childhood home after his mom’s death last year, and that she was worried he was struggling.
Be extra kind, girls! He could really use the May sisters to cheer him up this year.
Julia had looked down at her plate and ignored the request, which was fair, since things had been awkward with her and Nate, ever since he’d told her he just wanted to be friends right after his mom got sick three years earlier.
Emily had commented that she would do whatever she could but drew the line at surfing again.
And Nora had said, Don’t worry. I’ve got this! Here was her chance.
She walked down the porch steps and then ran across the street. Once she got closer, she could see he wasn’t just waving his arms in the air, he had something in his hands. “What are you doing out here?” she asked, breathless, as she reached him.
He held his hands out in front of him. “I got two last-minute tickets to Cyrano de Bergerac at the Lamb’s Theatre for tomorrow night. A friend of mine from high school is doing tech for the show. And then I realized what week it was, and that you were here!”
Remarkably, for such a small island, Coronado had two playhouses.
Lamb’s Theatre was the one Grandma Vera did not regularly perform in, which had something to do with an old feud with Grey’s ex from back before they were married, the details of which Nora was not totally clear on.
And though Nora had been to the Coronado Playhouse a few times, and had once even seen Grandma Vera perform there, she had never gotten to go to Lamb’s Theatre.
“Well?” Nate said. “What do you think? Should we make a date of it tomorrow night?”
A date? Her cheeks warmed. The truth was she would go anywhere Nate asked. And theater? Double yes. She nodded. “I’ve never seen Cyrano de Bergerac,” she said. Though she did like Daryl Hannah and Steve Martin in Roxanne.
“Me neither,” Nate said. “It’s at seven tomorrow night. I’ll meet you out here at six thirty?”
Nora agreed, and as she turned to walk back across the street, back up Grandma Vera’s porch steps, she felt weirdly as if she were floating. She forgot all about her sisters, her dead mother, and the picture Grandma Vera had wanted her to see in the armoire.
As she walked back inside the house, she heard Grandma Vera call out that she’d told Nora the wrong drawer, that she’d meant second from the left.
“Okay!” Nora called back. But the picture of her mom would have to wait. She was too busy floating now to pay attention to some old silly picture.
In fact, she floated all the way upstairs to her room, burrowed under her covers in the darkness, and let out a muted cry of joy.
“Where are you going?” Julia asked Nora the next evening, as she walked down the stairs in her pink crop top and black overalls. Her curls were still damp from the shower, and she’d put on lipstick the same exact shade as her crop top.
Julia was curled up on the couch with a book, wearing a Yale T-shirt and sweats.
Grandma Vera was at the other end, bright red readers on the bridge of her nose, working diligently on a cross-stitch—a brand-new hobby she had picked up that she was “terrible” at.
Emily was sitting out back, sipping what she said was lemonade from a thermos, but even Nora knew she was sneaking something stronger.
“Nate got tickets to the Lamb’s Players show,” Nora said.
Grandma Vera made a face. She was never one to let go a grudge. And Julia raised her eyebrows. “You’re going out, with Nate?”
Nora shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I’m cheering him up, just like Gram wanted us to. Plus, I can never turn down live theater. Sorry, Gram.”
Grandma Vera laughed. “Don’t be silly. Their Cyrano is brilliant. I saw it last week myself. Have fun, my tiny songbird.”
The show was very well done, and afterward Nora and Nate both walked out of the theater, landing on Orange Avenue, smiling. “Should we get a drink?” Nate asked.
Nora bit her lip, not exactly wanting to remind him that she was only seventeen. But she was only seventeen. “Ice cream?” she said instead.
He nodded. “I have some Ben and Jerry’s in my freezer.”
“What flavor?” Nora asked, though she would eat any flavor if it meant hanging out with him more.
“Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Maybe Em and Jules would want some too?”
She frowned at the mention of her sisters.
She felt greedy now, and she wanted more time with Nate, all by herself.
She glanced at her watch. It was close to ten—Emily was probably buzzed and Julia was probably already in bed.
She told Nate that, and he nodded. “Well, maybe another night this week then. I didn’t realize it was so late. I guess I should get you home too.”
“No way,” Nora said firmly. “Now that you’ve promised me Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, you can’t just take that away.”
Nate laughed and shook his head. “Okay, Noradora,” he said. “One small bowl of ice cream for you coming up.”
Though the May sisters had been coming to Coronado for most of Nora’s life, and had seen Nate almost every visit, Nora could count on one hand the number of times she’d ever been inside Nate’s house.
It was dark when she followed him in now, and she waited in the entryway for him to flip on the lights.
She blinked to adjust her vision, and the living room was mostly empty, save one Barcalounger.
“It looks like Chandler and Joey’s apartment in here. ”
“Who?” Nate asked.
“Friends. You don’t watch?”
Nate shook his head. “I got rid of all my mom’s furniture. I didn’t want to sell the house. I love it here. But I didn’t want it to feel like I was living in the past, or in some mausoleum either.”
“It looks…”
“Empty,” he said. “I know. I got accepted to medical school in Philadelphia for the fall. I’m still deciding if I want to go or if I want to furnish the house.” He shrugged.
Medical school? Nora hadn’t known about this, and selfishly, she hoped he’d choose to furnish the house, that he would stay next door to Grandma Vera forever.
“I’d offer you a seat,” he said now. “But there’s only that one. Feel free to take it.”
“Or you can get the ice cream and we can go sit on the beach?”
“Good idea,” he said. “Hold on a sec.”
He vanished into the kitchen and then returned a moment later with a small pint of Ben & Jerry’s and two spoons.
They headed back out, across the street and down the beach to where the sand was hard enough to sit on.
In front of them the Pacific roared and glowed from the lights of a helicopter running a military exercise not too far offshore.
Nate handed her a spoon and opened the ice cream.
She dug in and took a big bite, and between that and the damp night air she shivered.
Nate took off his sweatshirt and threw it casually over her shoulders, and suddenly she could hear the roar of her heart beating, louder than the ocean or the helicopter.
“Thanks for coming with me tonight, Nora,” Nate said. “It was nice to get out of my head for a while.”
“Thanks for taking me,” she said. And then she was brave enough to speak something true: “I always love being with you.”
“Aw.” He half hugged her with one arm, squeezing her shoulder. “I always love being with you too.”
“I know I’m only seventeen,” she said softly. “But in a few years, if you come back here, after medical school, I’ll be twenty and you’ll be twenty-seven.”
Nate laughed. “That is how math works.”
She leaned into him and let her cheek drop on his shoulder for the briefest of moments. She inhaled the salty smell of the ocean, the sandalwood smell of his neck. “Someday everything could be different,” she said, not looking at him.
“I sure hope so,” Nate said, but the roar of the ocean and the helicopter above swallowed up his words. And later, Nora couldn’t be sure if she’d heard him correctly at all.