Chapter 9
Hannah fell into a routine of sorts for the rest of the week, while her aunt was away. She woke early, did her morning walk along Shore Road, then showered and went into Spencer’s office for the morning. After the first day, she found that she’d connected with Natalie and looked forward to chatting with her each day when Spencer wasn’t showing her something.
It was helpful to sit at the desk behind him and listen to him and Natalie as they spoke to their clients on the phone. She sat in on a few other meetings with Spencer as well and it was interesting to watch him with clients. She’d expected him to be somewhat formal and abrupt, like many lawyers she’d come across, but he was actually a good listener and seemed to care about his clients’ problems and reassured them that he would do everything he could to help. For those who faced a potential court trial, he would gently warn them that if they went to court there were no guarantees and things might not go their way. Hannah wasn’t surprised when Natalie informed her that Spencer’s track record was very good.
The topic had come up on day two, when they were off getting sandwiches at lunch. “Spencer almost never loses when he goes to court,” Natalie said. “If he thinks his case isn’t strong enough to win, he will always advise his client that they may be better off settling.”
“He is very reassuring with his clients,” Hannah said.
“They love him. I’ve learned a lot by sitting next to him.”
Spencer wasn’t one for idle chitchat. He stayed focused the entire day and always ate lunch at his desk. Natalie, however, liked to chat in between client calls and Hannah enjoyed talking with her. Although Natalie had a different style, she seemed equally capable with her clients and Hannah learned a lot by listening to her as well as Spencer.
Each afternoon, after lunch, she headed to the coffee shop and spent a few hours at her favorite corner table. The book was still coming along slowly, but a bit more smoothly now. A few new plot ideas had come to her after sitting in the office and she was eager to work them into her story.
Hannah usually left for the day around three, when the coffee shop slowed and she was often the only person still sitting at a table. She headed home that Wednesday afternoon and carefully pulled up to the mailbox to collect her aunt’s mail before turning onto the driveway. She was extra careful not to hit the mailbox again. She parked and waved hello to Joy, who was walking toward her.
“How is your week going?” Joy asked as they both reached the mailboxes and Hannah grabbed her aunt’s stack of mail.
“Good, I’m keeping busy. I was at Spencer’s office this morning and at the coffee shop this afternoon.”
“I hope Spencer is being helpful?”
“Yes, thank you for suggesting it.” Hannah had been horrified at first, but she was grateful now that Joy had come up with the idea for her to shadow Spencer. Her impression of what a lawyer did had been very different from how it actually was, and she would be able to add a layer of authenticity to the story now that would make it better.
“Of course.” Joy cocked her head. “Your aunt is still in New York?”
Hannah nodded. “Yes, she’s coming back on Sunday. The house is quiet without her.”
“Well, if you don’t have plans for supper, why don’t you join us? I tried a new recipe, an eggplant pasta baked dish, and we have tons of it. Ben has to eat and run to chorus practice, but we can sit and chat a bit.”
Hannah didn’t hesitate to accept. The evening stretched ahead of her and she hadn’t even given dinner a thought.
“I’d love that. Can I bring anything?”
Joy shook her head. “Not a thing, just yourself. Come by around five thirty.”
“This is so good!” Hannah had just taken a bite of the roasted eggplant that was thinly sliced and tossed with rigatoni, tomato sauce, and lots of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. It was like an eggplant Parmesan but lighter as there was no breading. Joy had toasted up slices of her leftover homemade bread as well.
They ate around the kitchen table. Ben had inhaled his food in record time and said a quick goodbye as he dashed out the door to get to his chorus practice on time.
Joy and Hannah were only halfway done with their meals and Joy encouraged Hannah to help herself to seconds as she piled another scoop onto her own plate. Hannah finished hers and added a little more.
“So, things are going well with Spencer?” Joy said. She had a little gleam in her eye and Hannah sensed she wasn’t just asking how the shadowing was going.
Hannah smiled. “It’s definitely helping. Thanks for suggesting it.”
“I was never all that fond of the last one he was dating. He’d told me he was close to proposing. I don’t think he would have been truly happy with her. I told him that when she broke things off.”
“Why didn’t you think she was right for him?” Hannah asked.
“I only met her once. Pretty girl, perfectly polished and very driven. Kind of cold, I thought. I didn’t see her as the mother of Spencer’s children.”
“Does Spencer want children?” He was so focused on work that Hannah wasn’t sure she could picture it.
“Of course he does. He’s great with kids. Spencer was so confused when Michelle said she was leaving him for that fisherman. But it made perfect sense to me.”
“It did? Why?” It seemed confusing to Hannah, too. It sounded like Michelle and Spencer had so much in common.
“George was the complete opposite of Spencer—and of Michelle. Opposites really do attract, you know. Sometimes it’s just an attraction that burns out when there’s not enough shared interests. But often, in a good marriage, they balance each other out. At the end of the day, I think she was too similar to Spencer and they would have gotten tired of each other.”
Hannah thought about it and realized that was true of many couples she knew. They seemed like opposites and those differences kept things interesting and had a positive effect on each other. She thought of Tom and Sara and how Tom was always early and very conservative with money, great at saving, whereas Sara tended to run late and was much more of a spender than a saver. She’d encouraged Tom to relax a little and splurge now and then, and now that she did all the shopping and managed their checking account, she was more careful about spending.
“Are you and Ben opposites?”
Joy laughed. “Most definitely. I’m the outgoing one. We’d never leave the house if it was up to Ben. I encouraged him to join the local choral group and he loves it. He’s happy just hunkering down in his shop, or reading a book. I need to be busy. I always have a project or two going and if we are just staying in and watching TV, I’ll usually be knitting at the same time. I find it relaxing and it also works my hand muscles in the opposite way that typing does. So, it helps prevent sore hands and wrists.”
“I didn’t know that. Maybe I should learn how to knit,” Hannah joked.
But Joy took her seriously. “I’m happy to teach you if you really want to learn. It’s not hard.”
“Oh! Maybe I’ll take you up on that if I ever get this book finished.”
Hannah helped Joy clear the table when they finished and they took cups of tea and a few chocolate-chip cookies into the living room. Hannah settled on a comfy sofa that faced the window and the ocean beyond it. Joy and Ben’s home was smaller than her aunt’s but the view was every bit as good.
“How did you meet Ben?” Hannah asked. She knew it was a second marriage as Joy had mentioned once that she’d been married before. She wondered if Joy had met Ben in the UK.
“It was fate.” Joy smiled. “I had recently divorced and a friend talked me into going skiing for a long weekend in Vermont. Ben was staying at the same hotel and we were all in the pub for after-skiing happy hour. Ben was visiting a college friend and they weren’t supposed to be there at all. They’d planned to leave the day before we arrived, but they had car problems and it couldn’t be fixed right away. The shop had to order a part so they stayed through the weekend. We hit it off, skied together the next day, and kept in touch after that. I didn’t think much of it because I knew he was going back to England.”
“Oh, he was just on vacation?”
“He was only here for two weeks. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. But we wrote to each other and he invited me to come visit. I still wasn’t thinking it would be more than friendship. My family is here, after all, and I couldn’t possibly move to England. But once I went there, it was clear that it was more than that. And here we are! I never would have met him if my friend hadn’t forced me to go with her on that trip.”
“That does seem like fate. You two seem perfect for each other.”
Joy picked up her knitting and without even looking, started clacking her needles together as she spoke. “He really is my best friend. Sometimes he drives me crazy and we need a little space from each other. He’ll go to his shop and I’ll work on my writing and then all is good again. What about you, are there any interesting men in your life?”
“Not at the moment. I actually ended a relationship not long before I came here. I’m not sure how much my aunt told you, but I was having panic attacks, from stress. I realized that Jeremy wasn’t the person I wanted to grow old with. And my mother’s passing hit me really hard. I also have a deadline hanging over me and the words weren’t coming. So, right now, I’m very single and not focusing on dating at all. I need to finish this book first.”
Joy nodded. “Stress is a difficult thing to deal with. Anything you can do to decrease it is a good thing. Take a walk on the beach, sit outside in the sun, and just let your story come to you. Love will find you the same way when you are ready for it.”
Hannah smiled. “I’ve always heard that, how love finds you when you’re not looking. But I’m not sure I believe it.”
“I’ve found it to be true. You can’t force it, though. That never works. It’s good that you’re not focusing on it. Give your energy to your book and once that is flowing well, everything else will fall into place for you, eventually.” Joy sounded so sure of it that Hannah relaxed a little. Her writing was going a little better and she was hopeful that the book would turn out okay.