Change of Life. Leigh Riker

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      Still she didn’t move. For years she had entertained the happy fantasy of her daughter one day becoming a mother, too. Nora loved her family. She had two children of her own, and on his wedding day Johnny would make three.

      Wasn’t it only yesterday that Savannah had been a little girl in pigtails, playing jump rope during school recess? Crying over her first boyfriend? Giggling with her girlfriends? Learning to ride a horse? Trying on her prom dress? And always, always after Nora’s divorce from Wilson, drawing her primitive stick figures of their family, together again? For a second or two, Nora let the sweet and poignant memories drift through her mind.

      “Say something,” Savannah murmured.

      And at last Nora came out of her trance.

      “Ohhh!” she shrieked. Startling Daisy, she sidestepped the dog, crossed the room, hauled Savannah into her wide-open arms, then Johnny, too. “Oh, my God! You two…”

      She told them how pleased she was, then turned her first, shocked silence into the kind of Hallmark occasion that sold greeting cards by the millions. Daisy was more than eager to join in the expressions of joy. She shimmied and jumped up on people and gave a short, sharp bark of delight. The bright blue metal tags on her collar jingled like a nursery mobile.

      “Can you believe it, Ma? Eeeek!” Savannah shouted.

      Nora’s eyes misted. How many such moments came along, after all, in anyone’s lifetime? She and Savannah surrendered to their tears and clasped each other close, erupting now and then as only women can in support of each other on such a happy occasion.

      Soon they would talk, as only mothers and daughters knew how to do, together. They would go shopping. For now Johnny was here, and he was a man, excluded by his sex from their female circle. He gazed helplessly from Nora to Savannah and back again with a baffled expression on his face at their display. He, in particular, wouldn’t understand such up-front emotion, and Nora finally took pity on him before she and Savannah went crazy all over again, unable to help themselves.

      Yet underneath, Nora felt a strange mix of powerful emotions all her own. One minute she was stepping back to think, It’s too soon. She had wanted this some day, but years from now when she would be ready. In the next instant, she was laughing and crying and holding on to Savannah for dear life. New life.

      Her baby was having a baby.

      Nora felt close to being hysterical, actually. Even in the company of the people she loved more than her own life, it had been quite a day.

      “I’m going to be…what?” she murmured.

      CHAPTER 2

       “Y ou sure don’t look like any grandmother I ever knew,” Nora heard Johnny say as soon as the restaurant hostess had shown them to their table, “including my own. Both of them.”

      She struggled not to blush at the compliment.

      “You think so? Really?”

      “Character is my business, Nora. I’m thinking—” he assessed her for a long moment “—Sandra Bullock for the part.”

      “She’s only forty.”

      She felt grateful for his flattery, but Nora had lived on a roller coaster of emotion for the past two days, obsessing over Savannah and Johnny’s surprising news. Sometimes she found herself smiling at the prospect, then fighting the urge to run and look in her mirror for any obvious signs that Mark Fingerhut could be right. This morning she had called Johnny to arrange one of their regular brunches, and seized the chance to get away from herself.

      Besides, she owed him something. The other night when she and Savannah had done their happy dance all over her living room, Johnny had stood there with a somewhat puzzled expression. What are they screaming about? She’d seen that male look on his face but, considering his emotionally deprived background, she hadn’t known how to include him then. Almost shyly now, she pushed a small jewelry box toward him.

      But Johnny hadn’t finished. With barely a glance at the box, he left it where it was.

      “Fifty is the new forty,” he pointed out.

      “How about thirty? Could you see me as, say, Catherine Zeta-Jones?” She was teasing, yet Nora felt cheered. “I’d certainly like to think so, and it’s true women do take better care of themselves these days. Preventive maintenance.” If only Nora could do a better job of that, but there were always other people who needed her. Maggie, for one. And now there would soon be a little one to cuddle. Still, she couldn’t resist saying, “In theory, you realize, I’m too young to be a grandmother.”

      Johnny had the audacity to laugh.

      “Too young? Savannah said last night that she has no idea how we’ll get all those candles on your cake next week.”

      Nora choked on her Bloody Mary.

      His grin grew. “It’ll be a conflagration, a forest fire raging out of control.”

      “I’d rather ignore it.” She waved a hand, dismissing the topic of her upcoming birthday. Dismissing the unattractive bouts of ambivalence she’d suffered for the past few days. “Johnny, seriously. My birthday aside, I can’t wait to dispense hugs and kisses, read stories, and even bake Christmas cookies for your child, not that I intend to put on a frumpy apron while I’m doing it.”

      “Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? Savannah won’t give birth for six more months.”

      “I like to be prepared.” In fact, she’d done just that before she met Johnny for brunch. Thanks to a friend who owned a beautiful shop in the Silver Sands Mall, she’d been able to get the gift ready for him on time. This would be her way of making Johnny feel like an even bigger part of the celebration and their family. Idly, he spun the gift box in the center of the table. He still hadn’t opened it.

      “Please,” she said.

      But Johnny had lost his smile. “I can’t quite believe it myself, you know. We’re having a baby.” He shook his head. “Do you realize that less than a year ago I was still living with Savannah’s best friend? Trying to get Kit on track in her life while I neglected my own? Keeping her kid from turning into a future juvenile delinquent in that crazy household? Not to mention that mother of hers…” He rolled his eyes over Kit’s demanding parent. “Now Kit’s back in school to finish her degree, Tyler’s still a great kid, I’m with Savannah and she’s—we’re—pregnant. Just call us The Incredibles.”

      Nora reminded him of something else. “A year ago Savannah was pining away over you, fretting that you’d never see how right you were for each other. You didn’t know that? Well, she did. She was working for that awful temp agency—until I finally persuaded her to take a few clients of mine.” Before the second round of hurricanes, Nora thought, before her workload diminished. “But you forgot the rest.” She felt a fresh glow of approval for her future son-in-law. “You love Savannah with all your heart. And it’s a big heart, angel.”

      This newly revealed side of his personality thrilled her, because Johnny had been the king of suppressed emotion for most of his life. Savannah had opened him like a can of beans, and in Nora’s view the change was all to the good. For his benefit, as well. No, especially for his benefit.

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