Martin is there with Candy, who appears to be back in the rotation. “I take full responsibility for this,” he tells everybody. “It was my idea to film here. I brought Leo right to her door and let him sleep on her lawn.”
* * *
? ? ?
I am falling asleep in my bed with Leo, because he’s my husband now and that’s legit. We’re lying as close as we would be if we were still in the daybed in the tea house. I have two thoughts that I can’t shake. First, that dance floor is going to wreck my lawn for the summer. And second, that the best things come back. Sometimes it’s right after the commercial, sometimes it takes longer. But time and sunshine bring growth, and life unfolds just the way it’s supposed to.
My husband whispers in my ear. “You still awake?”
“Yes,” I say, though I’m nodding off.
“There’s a part for Arthur in a film I’m thinking about doing in the fall. He’d play my son.”
“Where?”
“England.”
Nothing’s how I planned, and I’m speeding into a future I can’t quite visualize. Life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art. “Let’s talk about this over the sunrise tomorrow,” I say.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In her impromptu acceptance speech, Nora says that she’s grateful that her story was welcomed and nurtured by such talented people. I know just how she feels. A heart full of thanks to my agent Marly Rusoff for her immediate and enduring enthusiasm for this book. I could not be in more able or more caring hands. Working with editor Tara Singh Carlson has been a flat-out thrill. Thank you, Tara, for shining your laser focus on this book and for being so kind every step of the way. Thank you to Sally Kim for giving me the opportunity to share this book with the world, and to everyone at G. P. Putnam’s Sons for making it happen, particularly the very patient Ashley Di Dio.
Thank you to my dear writing friends, who told me this book had legs in its very early stages—Lynda Cohen Loigman, Karen Dukess, and Steve Lewis. Without you it would still be a one-hundred-page Word document and a twinkle in my eye. I’ll say it for the millionth time—there is nothing that embodies the spirit of generosity more than writers who make time for other writers’ work.
A particular thank-you to my mostly adult children, Dain, Tommy, and Quinn, who read an early draft of this book under duress and for money. Your notes, honesty, and interest in the process were actually my favorite parts of this project. And Tom, the leading man in my favorite love story, thank you for your quiet faith in me and for reading it for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Annabel Monaghan is the author of two Young Adult novels and Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big?, a selection of laugh-out-loud columns that appeared in the Huffington Post, The Week, and The Rye Record. Nora Goes Off Script is her adult debut novel. She lives in Rye, New York, with her family.