Carver realized he had folded and crumpled the piece of paper in his hand at some point, and he tried to fix it, laying it flat against his thigh and smoothing it out. Josh Levin and Lena Levin-Kim. Josh Levin and Lena Levin-Kim. Josh Levin and Lena Levin-Kim.
“You really think he would have liked me?” he said. “As an adult?”
“I do think so, yes,” Nora said. “I think he would see you as a very worthy heir.”
Carver’s own eyes filled with tears, then, and his throat got tight. “Okay. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t believe it.”
He let out a rueful laugh. “I know.”
Nora reached up to smooth her hair again. It was clipped back by a barrette, but some flyaways were escaping. “Are you going home tomorrow?”
“Uh… I’m not sure.”
“I’m assuming you’re not goinghomehome,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I, uh… Lillian said it was okay with her if I stayed at our place, but that didn’t feel right.”
“Understandably,” Nora said. “But don’t you two own other properties?”
Carver shrugged. “The places we own in the city or around it have tenants in them, the rest are vacation homes.”
“So where do you plan to go?”
“I might stay on our yacht.”
Nora shook her head. “You’re going to live on a boat?”
“I don’t know why everyone’s so against this idea,” Carver said. “Tom Hanks did it inYou’ve Got Mail.”
“What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”
“I don’t know, he made it look kind of fun.”
“It won’t be fun,” Nora said. “You’ll get tired of it in a week, I know you will.”
He shrugged. “Then I’ll go to a hotel, I guess.”
“Carver…”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” Nora said. “Just don’t retreat into any sad cliches, please.”
“Where do you want me to stay, here?”
“You’d be welcome to.”
“Seriously? After all this? You don’t think we should have some space from each other?”
Nora’s lip twitched like she wanted to say something but had stopped herself.
“What?” Carver said.
“We really did it all wrong,” she sighed. “We should have just accepted… you know.”
“Accepted what?”
