Chapter 44

Nine Months Later

James, Jack, Byron, and Gus hauled the last of Catherine's many things to the truck. Copper wanted desperately to help, but her idea of helping was to nip at everyone's ankles. Lacey was supposed to arrive at any moment to pick Copper up.

Copper had been one of Nora and Jack's first joint acquisitions as a couple—a rescue mutt with an overly helpful disposition.

Of all the things that had happened to Nora in the last year, the one thing she couldn't quite grasp was that if she had not told the truth at her parents' house that Sunday night, she would not have run into Jack.

What were the odds? They were almost as staggering as surviving her NDE. Almost as staggering as Jack being at Catherine's and being Plot Seven.

She and Jack had been together since that night. They'd both agreed they'd be idiots to ignore fate twice. Nora had moved into his apartment six months ago, shutting the door on the last piece of her Before when she handed over the keys to her apartment.

"Can we move this along any faster?" Catherine shouted from the second floor of the apartment building. "We have rehearsals at five!"

"Oh my God, is she always this bossy?" James complained.

"Always," Jack confirmed.

With the furniture loaded, James hopped down from the truck, wiped his brow, and said to Nora, "This is where my help ends. I can't believe you talked me into manual labor."

"You're the best, James."

James bent down to scratch Copper's head. "I know I am, and you still don't pay me enough. Don't forget you have the meeting with the lady suing the city Monday morning."

Nora's law practice wasn't as robust as she'd like it to be, but she had enough cases to keep James busy. And they were cases she believed in—her clients were people who truly needed her help.

Neither James nor Nora kept up with the gossip of November and Sons, but James had recently heard they were changing the name to the November Law Firm. They'd been awarded a huge settlement in a medical malpractice suit, and everyone was getting a bonus. "When are we getting bonuses?" he'd asked.

Nora had laughed so loud that he'd told her to turn it down a notch.

"I'm out of here," James said. He waved to Jack and Byron, then shrieked when Lacey pulled into the parking lot too fast. "What is the matter with you?" he yelled at her when she hopped out.

"Sorry!" she shouted back. She jogged to where Nora was standing with Copper. "How long can I have her?" she asked, bending down to greet the wiggly dog. Lacey, who swore she had no time for pets, came over at least twice a week to take Copper to the Yard Bar, a popular dog park that served adult beverages.

"Just get a dog, Lacey. Can you bring her back tonight? I'll order dinner. I made an Italian cream cake."

"Oh my God, yes," Lacey said. "I love your cream cake. Come on, Copper. Come on, girl, let's go to the dog park!"

Copper was off like a shot to Lacey's car, as familiar to her as Nora's. Marnie—Lacey's girlfriend—waved at Nora from the passenger seat.

"Bring Marnie!" Nora shouted after Lacey.

"I will!" Lacey shouted back.

"Let's go!" Martin joined in the shouting.

Despite their best efforts, Nora and Jack had not been able to save the Triangle Theater. But Nora had found a way to help Catherine. While she couldn't get Brad Sachs to come to an agreement for the seniors to keep the property, she did manage to negotiate enough time for them all to find living arrangements. And with the money she'd been paid by Manuel Cervantes for her story, she'd been able to pay for Gus's treatment, and then used the rest to help Catherine and the senior thespians pay the up-front costs to get into a retirement community. That hadn't left anything for medical bills, which was still a source of worry. But when she got overwhelmed, Jack would wrap his arms around her and rest his chin on top of her head and say, "We'll figure it out. You have to believe that we will."

She believed him. He was her beacon in the dark. She tried to be that for him too. She was always there to hold him when his job was too much to bear. It was funny, wasn't it, that they'd been so weirdly connected by death, but united by life?

Catherine and her friends had taken the move in stride. One afternoon, when Nora and Jack had come to help with the packing, Catherine told Nora that they had expected it to happen all along. "Miracles don't really happen like everyone thinks they will," she'd said.

"True. Sometimes you can't see them except in hindsight,"Nora had said, watching Jack help Karen. Nora considered herself lucky—she'd found her place with Jack and these wacky seniors. With Copper and Lacey and Gus and James. It was her life, her design, her season, and she loved it.

"We'll be staging The Little Foxes," Catherine had informed her this morning. As luck would have it, there was a theater group at their new retirement community. "You won't believe this, but Carol thought she ought to be the lead."

Carol, Nora had learned, was an upstart already living in the retirement community who had dabbled in theater.

"I don't know who she thinks she is,"Meredith said from across the room. "What person in their right mind would think they could compete with our experience?"

"Exactly,"Catherine had agreed.

Carol had united Catherine and Meredith where so many others had failed.

"Ladies, can we wrap this up?" Walter complained. He waved at Nora. "Did you see my flytraps?" he called to her.

Nora had seen them. Nick had helped her find a variety that Walter could live with, and he'd won Best Exotic again this year. Nora was super careful to turn off the hose every time she used it.

The last things were loaded, and the thespians marched to their cars. Most of them had moved weeks ago. Only Walter, Doralee, and Catherine had remained until the bitter end.

Before they left, Nora made everyone arrange themselves for a photo and darted up the stairs to take it. Her social media exposure had changed to a single Instagram account, where she posted pictures of paintings, most of them pretty bad. And snaps of everything she and Jack ate, and their gardens, and lots of pictures of Copper—on the couch, on her bed, and in Lacey's back seat.

During the basketball season, Nora had posted photos of the Hot Shotz,who,she was proud to say, took third place in their division out of a field of three. The basketball season had come and gone. But Nora was on board to sponsor and coach the team next year. Some of her original girls were returning, and some new... including Willow's little sister, Summer.

Nora's shooting was getting better too. She wasn't going to win any tournaments, but she could at least run the court and do a layup.

"Willow's impossible,"Tanya complained over coffee last weekend. "Just eaten up with boys. Nora, this coffee cake is so good. You should open a bakery. The pie you made at Thanksgiving was unbelievable."

"Thanks!"Nora had not given up on cooking—she'd filled Jack's kitchen with pots and pans. She just happened to be much better at baking, which the few new pounds on her proved.

After she took her group photo, Gus met her at the bottom of the stairs. "I'm going to take off."

"Really? Won't you come to dinner tonight? Lacey and Marnie are coming."

"Nah, I'm going to head back to the ranch. We've got a new guy, and I'm a little worried about him."

Gus and his huge heart. After he completed his program, he'd stayed at the facility to get his counseling credentials. He'd found his calling, a job he could stick with. He'd been sober since entering the treatment program. And he looked good too, strong and healthy. Most important, he looked happy.

"Next weekend?" she asked.

"It's a date." He hugged her, and on his way to the car, he high-fived Jack.

Jack closed the back of the truck and secured it. "Ready, gorgeous?"

"Ready."

"Why does it feel like we're sending the kids off to college?"

"Right? I thought they'd never get out of the house." She slipped an arm around his waist as they walked to the cab of the truck. "What was your worst move ever?"

"Hmm... to California when my mom died. Yours?"

"Home after college."

At the driver's door, he pulled her into his chest. "Best move?"

"Into your apartment. Yours?"

"Same." He tipped her Stinking Iris bucket hat back and kissed her. "Let's get this over with. I've already promised Walter I'll be out sometime next week to help build sets and help him transplant those damn Venus flytraps in his new community garden plot."

Nora laughed. For better or worse, they were part of the senior thespian crew.

Catherine was in the passenger seat of her car when Nora got in behind the wheel. "Did anyone tell you?" she asked as Nora started the car. "We're donating the proceeds of the play to that mental health alliance you told us about."

Nora gasped. "Really?" Months ago, she'd texted Dr.Cass for a recommendation for a therapist she could afford. Dr.Cass had sent her some names with some hearts and hand-clapping emojis. The therapist Nora had begun seeing had recommended that in addition to ongoing therapy, Nora attend a support group for mental health sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Central Texas. Nora attended once a week.

"It's the least we can do after all you've done for us." Catherine patted Nora's knee as they pulled out of the parking lot. "Jim was right about you."

Nora laughed. Depending on Catherine's mood, what Jim was right about varied.

As for Grandpa's garden, Nora worked in it twice a week without fail. This spring she'd grown spectacular calla lilies of every color. She made cuttings and gifted them to the gardeners in the Stinking Iris Mighty Girls' Gardening Group, to which she finally belonged—she had the bucket hat and everything. Recently Nick had asked her to assist in the Green Thumb Club, where he taught urban kids how to grow their own food.

"You know,"Nick had told her recently, "I had not even a smidge of hope for you in the beginning."

"Gee, thanks,"Nora said.

"Not a sliver. If ever there was someone who could not garden, I thought it was you."He'd wrapped her in a one-armed side hug. "Nice work, Nora November. Feeling a bit proud, I must admit," he'd said as he gazed at her calla lilies.

Nora felt a bit proud of herself.

As she pulled out of the parking lot of the Triangle Theater and headed for Catherine's new life (with Catherine singing a show tune, of course), Nora was a bit overcome with emotion. There had been so many days in her life she'd believed she would never know true happiness. And now she had it in abundance. Every single day.

She hadn't seen her parents since that night in their dining room, but some months later, on a cool autumn afternoon, she saw her mother in the Goodfellow Community Garden. She'd done a double take—it was indeed her mother watching her from afar. Nora waved. Her mother did too. And then she disappeared.

She didn't feel Grandpa around her like she used to, but every so often she'd catch sight of a big tomato or a perfect rose, and she'd imagine him moving down the path of his celestial garden with Roxie. He'd still be there when it was time for her to go.

In the meantime, she would work to make every day better than the last. She now truly believed the best was yet to come.

Life was for the living.