Jane Austen in Boca by Paula Marantz Cohen Read Free Book Online Page A

all, but turning quickly from Gloria’s penetrating gaze to May’s sweet, more timid one. “I know we’ll be seeing each other again soon—that is, if I can escape my keeper long enough.” He looked at Stan, then tapped his head in a sudden illumination. “Wait a minute—I have an idea! We’ll all take Stan’s course in the spring. He can’t object, since he’ll have us under his thumb. He’ll even have the satisfaction of getting me to open a book. We’ll read—who is it? Jane Austen—together, and Flo here can quarrel with him in front of a group of undergraduates.”
    May’s face lit up. “I’d like that!” she responded happily. Flo caught Stan’s eye and smiled, too, but for a different reason: It amused her to imagine how little the idea appealed to him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    C AROL DECLARED THE PARTY A GREAT SUCCESS. E VERYONE ATE everything, including the tuna sandwiches, which, she said, were soggy, a fact she intended to relay to the deli owner (“If you don’t tell them, how can they know to improve?”). The poolside widowers had even posed a problem in not wanting to leave. They had burrowed into comfortable positions on the sofa, and it had taken a pointed “excuse me” from Carol, as she squeezed by to get her valises, to flush them out.
    “I think,” said Carol to her mother-in-law, “that you have some wonderful raw material here. It’s a matter of working it up.” She ran over to straighten May’s sofa pillows. “You need a throw to liven up this corner.” She gestured toward one of the armchairs near the TV unit. “I’ll pick one up and UPS it down.”
    “Please,” said May, “don’t bother.”
    “As for follow-up, let’s see: Arrange a little card game for Friday night; have them all over again, or at least those with real possibilities. I saw you talking to Norman Grafstein—well preserved, rich—pursue him; let him know you’re interested. If only I were around here to push you. But you’re on your own. I’ve done what I could.”
    “And you’ve been wonderful,” said May, kissing her daughter-in-law and gently steering her toward the door. “You need to go lead your own life now.”
    But Carol seemed to feel that she hadn’t covered everything. She stood in the doorway, holding the Vuitton overnight case in one hand and Alison’s trainer potty in the other, resisting departure.“Did I leave you Sylvia Cantor’s number? She absolutely wants to see you about recovering the sofa. She says she knows just the fabric to pick up the pink in the painting.”
    “Yes,” said May “I have all the numbers. You’ve done a wonderful job getting me in the swing.”
    “Carol—the limo’s here. We’ll miss the plane.” To May’s relief, Alan was calling up from the parking lot.
    “I want you to use the momentum we’ve got going,” Carol added rapidly. “Call Norman Grafstein tonight. Ask him to lunch. It’s not threatening to go to lunch. People go to lunch here like they get a glass of water.” Alan had come up from the parking lot and was steering Carol out the door like a guard with an unwilling prisoner. “I’ll call you tomorrow to check up …” Carol’s voice grew faint as she was led down the stairs into the waiting car.
    And then, thank God, thought May, she was gone.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    F LO AND L ILA STOPPED BY THAT EVENING FOR WHAT F LO referred to as a “debriefing.”
    “Has your daughter-in-law left?” asked Flo, peering in the door. “I sense a power outage.”
    “Gone,” said May. “They took the five-twenty plane to Newark.”
    “That woman has a mind like an overstuffed freezer,” noted Flo. “I’ve never seen so many ideas packed so closely together.”
    “You know, she collared me and asked me why I never had children,” commented Lila. “She wanted to know why I didn’t plan better for my old age.”
    “I’m sorry,” said May, “how rude.”
    “No, no, coming from her, it wasn’t rude. I had the feeling that she