She waved Clara closer. “It’s freezing out here,” she called. “Come drink something warm and non-nonalcoholic with me.”
It took only a glance to know that of course Clara wasn’t feeling smug about being right about Paul. She was feeling sorry. She hadn’t wanted to be right. Izzy never should have bristled the way she had.
She led the way into the garage and held open the door to the kitchen. “Irish coffee?”
Clara shrugged. “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya.”
The brewer’s burner light still glowed warm, as if expecting company all along. She moved to get the Baileys from the fridge while Clara settled onto a counter stool.
“Of everything that ever bothered me about Second Date Update,” Izzy told her, “I now know firsthand the worst thing.” In the cupboard by the sink, her hand hovered over a set of stemmed dessert coffee glasses, then chose two larger, cozier hand-fired clay mugs and began to fill them. “Sometimes you can get a read on the callers right away. I’ve seen it all—and a lot of it, I’ve seen coming.”
She carried the mugs to Clara and handed one over.
“But sometimes,” Clara finished for her, “you can’t tell.”
“Not even when you’re really trying.” She fixed her eyes on Clara, hoping to convey something not unlike an apology. Clara waved it away as if she’d spoken the words aloud, and just like that, the air was cleared.
“Please tell me they aren’t going to make you do some kind of follow-up on the air.”
“They’re not going to make me do some kind of follow-up on the air. Because I’m not going back.”
Clara’s eyes widened. “You’re going to quit?”
“Would you believe Yellow Springs Public Radio called this morning and offered me a job?”
“91.3 WYSO?”
Izzy nodded.
“I love WYSO!”
“They saw Hallie’s profile in that gazette thing. I guess their morning producer resigned and they’re desperate for a new one who requires minimal training. Didn’t even want to interview me. Just asked if I was tired of commuting to Dayton and offered to match my salary.”
Clara let out a delighted squeal. “And here I thought we were drinking our sorrows away. We’re celebrating!” She clinked her mug to Izzy’s, and they both took a sip. “You’ve got to tell Hallie. She’ll be so excited to hear something good came of the paper! Natalie too.”
“I take it you’re back on good terms?”
“She was at my back door this morning with muffins. I get the sense she views neighbors the way I do—sort of like family. You don’t get to pick them, and you’re stuck sharing space whether you like it or not, so you might as well try to get along.”
Izzy laughed. “So you admit you’re only nice to me because I’m across the street! I always suspected.”
“Just because you don’t pick your neighbors doesn’t mean you can’t be grateful for the ones you get.”
“Randi and Rhoda are like quirky fun cousins, then.”
“And you’re like the slightly younger sister I never had.”
“I have one of those,” Izzy said. “But I haven’t done a very good job as big sis lately.”
“Well, that makes two of us.”
“You meant well.” Izzy turned serious. “Actually, so did I.”
Clara took a long sip of her drink. “You know, when I married Benny, everyone was giving us all this unsolicited advice. It’s like an invitation to a wedding is an invitation to unload all your baggage in the form of wisdom onto the couple.”
Izzy laughed. “I noticed that with Penny and Josh. I kept hoping people would quit telling them what to do right so they might screw it up.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, God, I can’t believe I just admitted to that. I’ve been awful.”
Clara laughed too. “No one involved in a wedding is exempt from engaging in some kind of awful behavior. I think it’s a bylaw.” Izzy wished she could let herself off the hook so easily. “Anyway, it was annoying. I didn’t think we needed any advice. We were perfect together, one of the lucky couples. I would have made you throw up in your mouth a little.”
Izzy gave her a look. “You still sort of do sometimes. No offense.”
“None taken. But there was one bit—and I don’t even know who said it—that stood out as useful and true: On your wedding day, you’re choosing to love that person forever, but that’s just the beginning. You have to continue to choose them, every day. It’s not like your other options are going to go away—it’s up to you to turn them away. Marriage isn’t what it once was to a lot of people. And if you really want it to work, you’re not making a one-time vow—you’re committing to a lifetime of remarrying that person every day. That’s not the most romantic thing in the world, but it made sense to me then, and it makes even more sense to me now.”
Izzy nodded at her blankly.
“If you can choose to love someone every day,” Clara said, “maybe you can choose not to love them, for as many days as it takes until it sticks.”
“Funny you should say that,” Izzy said. “I just packed everything I have of Josh into the trash. I’m literally kicking him to the curb—not that he’ll ever know.”
“Do we have Paul to thank for this?”
“I’d prefer to credit his better half.”
Clara nodded slowly, staring into her coffee. “What happened last night … I suppose it’s only a matter of time before the reporters catch wind?”
Izzy nodded. “Detective Bryant said he’d appeal to them to keep my name out of it, but that I should brace for the worst.” She raised her cup to Clara. “Liquid courage.”
Clara was quiet for a moment. “If it comes, it will blow through.” Izzy nodded. She was dragging her feet about calling her family, operating in one-step-at-a-time mode. Her mother would be a basket case. “Hard as it is,” Clara went on, “without any kind of coverage he’d be just … just out there, for some other unsuspecting woman.”
“That will probably be the case—eventually, anyway—whether I’m a blip on the local news or not. Although Detective Bryant said they might have probable cause to get a warrant to search Kristin’s house now. He’s going to try for one, though he didn’t seem particularly hopeful of finding anything, even if it’s granted. So much time has passed, and so much has been packed up.”
Clara looked like she was about to press the issue, then checked herself with a nod.
“He knows my favorite place to hike alone,” Izzy said quietly. “Guess I can’t go anymore.”
“I’ll go with you,” Clara said automatically, and Izzy found herself biting back a grateful smile. She’d been spending too much time dwelling on relationships she didn’t have. The ones right in front of her held so much potential when she stopped being so self-conscious and allowed for the fact that her new friends knew her faults and still seemed to like her. For a moment, she and Clara sipped their coffees in companionable silence.
“You know,” Clara began, “Detective Bryant, he seemed really concerned about you. Sweetly concerned.”
Izzy sighed. “He asked me out, actually—before all this.”
Clara opened her mouth to speak, but Izzy held up a hand.
“Maybe the timing will be better down the road,” Clara rushed to say.
“I know I have a lot to sort out,” Izzy said quietly. “But it’s not just that.”
“He’s not your type?”
Izzy hesitated. For months she’d been lamenting that if life were like the movies, Josh never would have gone through with marrying Penny. Likewise, a Hollywood version of Izzy would have jumped at a second chance with Detective Bryant, disregarding her better judgment with a shrug. But really, it was too bad that the movies weren’t more like life.
If they were, maybe people wouldn’t spend so much time waiting around hoping for alternate endings, or deleted scenes.
She shook her head. “For once, I just want there to be a story with a happily-ever-after that does not involve ending up with a love interest. Do you think that’s possible?”
“Absolutely,” Clara said without a hint of hesitation.
Izzy decided to believe her.
44