Chapter 9 #3
Nora was sitting off the edge of the boat, her toes dangling in the chilly water.
Leo had called last night with amazing news.
He’d gotten her an audition for a late open spot in a new musical called Hairspray, starting previews in July.
They were already in rehearsals, something hadn’t worked out with the original casting—Nora was unclear what and she didn’t ask.
The only problem was, the audition was tomorrow afternoon, and Nora wasn’t set to fly back until Sunday.
“Just switch your flight,” Leo had implored her.
“This is too big an opportunity to pass up, kiddo.”
She had rebooked her flight for tonight and would have to leave right after this boat ride.
She felt guilty about leaving early, missing their annual last-night dinner out at the historic boathouse restaurant on the bay.
Grandma Vera used to take them there, and even last year they’d kept up the tradition, bringing baby Veronica.
But Emily had already mentioned she’d noticed the restaurant had a new name; it had a new owner and was no longer the Chart House.
It wasn’t going to be the same, Nora had told herself, whether she flew home early or not.
“Jules, you don’t look so great,” Nate was saying, and Nora turned back to look at her sisters. Nate was right, Julia looked like she was going to throw up. Emily’s eyes were glassy as she sipped her mimosa.
“We should head back,” Nora said. She hesitated for a moment and then considered that this might be the safest place to tell Julia and Emily she was leaving early.
On a boat, out in the water. With Nate and Becca as witnesses.
Or human shields. “I actually, um, had to change my flight to go back a little early and have to, um, get to the airport soon anyway,” she mumbled.
Emily raised her eyebrows and downed the rest of her mimosa. Julia grimaced and clutched the side of the boat. And only Becca said anything in response. “Is everything okay, Nora?”
Nora nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I just got a last-minute audition tomorrow, so I have to get back to New York a little early.”
“Oh, how fun is that!” Becca said, and she raised her champagne glass in a mock toast before laughing and taking a sip.
Back at the house, Nora quickly finished packing her suitcase.
And when she carried it downstairs, Julia was sitting on the couch.
Her color was back to normal, but her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she was frowning deeply.
Emily was lying on the other side of the sectional, her eyes half-closed.
Per the schedule, they were supposed to be reading on the beach now, followed by grilled cheese and strawberry jelly sandwiches and an afternoon ice cream sundae bar, just like Grandma Vera used to set up for them.
Before Leo had called with the news, this afternoon had been what Nora had been looking forward to most. She wanted to tell Julia that now.
But Julia was shooting daggers with her eyes, and Nora bit her lip and said nothing.
“So you’re really leaving early then?” Julia said crisply, sounding personally offended.
“I have to,” Nora said.
“One week a year, Nora,” Julia said quietly. “Is that really too much to ask?”
“But this could be my big break!” Nora exclaimed, annoyed that Julia didn’t seem to care or understand that in the slightest. “And what difference does it make if I miss one day?”
“It makes a big difference! We can’t finish the schedule if you leave now.”
Emily opened her eyes. “God, Julia. Calm the fuck down.”
“No one asked you,” Julia snapped, offering Emily an icy stare.
Emily stood up. “Well, since I don’t count… then maybe I should go too.”
“Sit down, Em,” Julia said curtly.
“Hold up, Nora,” Emily said, walking toward the stairs. “Let me grab my stuff and we can share a cab to the airport.”
“Let’s not fight,” Nora said weakly, but both of her sisters ignored her.
Julia raised her arms. “Why did I bother leaving my kid and coming all the way out here if no one wants to be here?” She shouted toward Emily, who was already halfway up the stairs.
“Grandma Vera,” Nora said, thinking how Grandma Vera would understand exactly why she was leaving early, that she would, in fact, be pushing her out the door, with last-minute notes on what song to use for her audition.
“Grandma Vera isn’t here,” Julia said. “And we’re all adults now. No one is forcing any of us to be here.”
“Exactly!” Emily shouted from the top of the stairs.
“Great.” Julia threw her hands up in the air again. “Well, this is just great.” Julia turned back to Nora and glared at her. “Now look at what you’ve done.”
Nora felt her cheeks flaming as Julia chastised her, like she was still a child. “Why are you being such a bitch? It’s one stupid day. If we’re supposed to be honoring Grandma Vera this week, well, she would want me to go do this. Unlike you, Grandma Vera believed in me.”
Emily ran back down the stairs, her roller bag in one hand, which she plopped down next to Nora’s. “Nora’s right,” Emily retorted to Julia. “And you are being a bitch.”
“Fine,” Julia said. “Go. Both of you. Far be it from me to stop you. In fact, I’ll just tell Nate to book this week for next year so none of us ever have to come back here together.” Her voice was rising now, and color splashed across her cheeks, the way it did when she got truly angry.
“Fine by me,” Emily said.
Nora wanted to say that it wasn’t what she wanted at all.
That she was sorry she was making them all fight.
That she would make it up to them next year, when she was certain her life and her career would finally be in a better place.
But all she said instead was, “I have to go. Or I’m going to miss my flight. ”
Julia changed her flight and left a day early too.
The truth was, she was missing her daughter desperately.
She’d thought she’d needed the adult time away from Veronica this past week, but once she actually got it, she’d felt all week like she was walking around with a hole in her chest. A hole that seemed to grow and grow, no matter how many activities she had crammed into the schedule each day.
In her head she had been checking it all off, one by one, counting down until she could get on the plane, fly back home, walk into her house, and kiss those sweet toddler cheeks.
She even longed for the sound of Veronica’s voice as it shouted a defiant no.
Had she overreacted about Nora leaving early? That thought floated in her head the whole long flight home, but she pushed it aside as soon as she got to her house and unlocked the front door. She was, at last, where she was meant to be: home!
It was quiet inside her two-story Colonial, the front living room dark. Her stomach dropped as she realized that Ted and Veronica might not even be back yet.
But the kitchen light was on, and she walked past the foyer toward it, finding Ted sitting at the table with a glass of red wine in front of him.
“Julia!” Her name burst out of him like sunshine, and she smiled, the first genuine smile she had allowed herself all day. Maybe all week. He stood and walked quickly to her, wrapping her in a hug. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t,” she said. “But I missed you. And V. So much.” She swallowed back the rest of the story, because this much was also true. She had missed them both terribly. And now that she was back home, where she belonged, she suddenly felt like crying.
“We missed you too,” he said, pulling back and gently kissing her forehead, then her lips.
“And I’m sorry. I felt bad all week about the way I behaved.
You should be able to take a week with your sisters.
Of course you should. You love them. They’re important to you.
Please accept the humble apology of a daft only child. ”
Julia let out a small laugh as she guiltily remembered the way she’d left things with her sisters yesterday. “No one would ever accuse you of being daft. And I’m sorry too,” she said. “Where’s V?”
“Asleep.” Ted put his finger to his lips in a weary way that made Julia understand bedtime might have been a battle.
She smiled. “I think the terrible twos are upon us. All the parenting books say they can start at eighteen months. So I guess… here we are.”
Ted nodded and pulled her back toward him.
Her head hit the top of his chest in that perfect place it always felt like it fit, and they swayed together for a moment in the kitchen, like they were dancing slowly to a song only they could hear.
“So maybe this is gonna sound crazy,” Ted said quietly.
“But I was thinking while you were gone, how much your sisters mean to you. How those relationships were so formative for you.”
Julia nodded, suddenly biting back tears.
Her sisters. She would never love anyone in quite the same frustratingly wonderful way that she loved Emily and Nora.
They’d bickered their whole lives. But being sisters always transcended everything else.
Their shared history, their shared trauma, their shared DNA.
It was all irreplaceable. And she knew, no matter what she might’ve said in anger yesterday, that she would find her way back to Coronado each May, to Emily and to Nora, no matter what else happened between them.
“And I really want Veronica to have that too,” Ted continued. “I think we should give her a sister, Julia.”
She leaned close into her husband, enjoying the warm and comforting scent of his evergreen aftershave. “I don’t think that sounds crazy at all. In fact,” she added, “I think maybe we should give her two.”