The Beach Book Bundle: 3 Novels for Summer Reading: Breathing Lessons, The Alphabet Sisters, Firefly Summer (59 page)

“Are you?” He seemed surprised. “All right, then. So will I.”

She stared straight at him, trying to ignore a glint of amusement in his eye. “I was wondering whether you wanted to audition, because if you do there’s still time.”

He nodded, but didn’t answer.

“Well?”

He smiled. “I’m sorry, Bett. I really am trying to ignore that little accident, but it’s a bit hard when you’ve got red wine dripping down your chin.”

She clung desperately to her new cool persona. “Well, we can’t have that.” She reached for a serviette, and wiped it away. “Would you like to audition? I noticed you’d put your name down, but we didn’t get to hear you.”

“I got called out for an hour,” he said. “An urgent phone call. I missed my slot.” He gave a surprisingly shy smile. “I thought it might be something different to do.”

How come he was being so normal? Did he have one-night stands all the time or something? Or had he blanked it out? Bett had been trying to, but all day she’d been tormented by memories from that night. She tried to block them out again. He’s got a live-in girlfriend, remember that. Possibly even married. Possibly even seven or eight children. A Labrador. Halitosis. Alopecia. Fungal toenails. It wasn’t helping. She was noticing only good things about him. The dark eyes. The laughter lines. The kind face. The shaggy dark hair. The faded jeans and casual shirt, hanging loosely, sexily, on him.

She opened her mouth, needing to say something about their night together, trying to find the words for it, when she heard a voice behind her.

“Hi, Daniel. I’m Carrie. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Hello, Carrie.”

Carrie looked from one to the other. “So are you two ready to get down to it?”

Bett blushed. She didn’t look at Daniel. “Pardon?”

“The audition?”

Yes, the audition. “Of course. Ready, Daniel?” Bett discovered you could look just to the right of someone’s face, and it almost seemed as though you were looking directly at them.

He smiled. “Ready when you are.”

Bett followed them back to the piano, surprised the candles on the tables weren’t melting from the heat coming off her face.

I
n her room, Ellen woke up. “Mummy?” No answer. “Mummy?” Then she remembered. Her mum was doing the musical and Lola was looking after her. She’d told her to come to her room if she wanted anything.

Ellen climbed out of bed.

A
nna was businesslike. “Okay, Bett, Daniel, when you’re ready.”

Daniel was standing by the piano, looking down at her, ready to sing. She had to blink away another memory of kissing him. If she was remembering his body, was he remembering hers? She sucked in her stomach.

“Bett?” Anna’s voice a little louder.

Concentrate, Bett, she told herself. Easier said than done. How had her life come to this? Sitting at the piano in the Valley View Motel about to play the backing music so that Daniel Hilder could audition for a musical Lola had written. She’d have been less surprised to find herself strapped to the nose cone of a space shuttle. She stared at the sheet music. Hands poised over the piano, she glanced up at him, nodded, and played the first note.

A loud shrieking filled the room.

They all turned. Ellen was in the doorway, dressed in her pajamas, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Mummy, Lola’s dead.”

Chapter Eleven

B
ett pressed her cheek against the wall of the hospital corridor, feeling the coolness as she spoke into the public phone. “No, you don’t need to come back, Dad. She’s in hospital. It’s all under control.”

“Are you sure? We can catch a flight and be there in a few hours.”

“Seriously, you don’t need to. She’s a bit shocked, but it’s just a broken wrist and a bad cut on her forehead. She wasn’t even unconscious when Ellen found her. It’s just Ellen got such a fright.”

Nothing compared to what Ellen’s words had done to the rest of them. The auditions had been forgotten, Daniel Hilder had been forgotten, as Bett, Anna, and Carrie ran to Lola’s room. The first sight was the worst, seeing Lola sprawled across the floor, the chair upended beside her, her left wrist bent at an awkward angle.

“Lola, no,” Bett heard herself scream. Anna reached for her right wrist to feel the pulse, then nearly leaped out of her skin as Lola spoke. “Hello, darling.”

“You’re not dead?”

“Not unless heaven looks like the motel.”

Bett was on the floor beside her in seconds, gently touching her. “Are you hurt? What happened?”

“The stupid lightbulb. I told your father to buy better-quality ones.”

“Lola, we’ve told you not to change those bulbs,” Anna said crossly. “You’re eighty, too old to be climbing up on chairs like this.”

Lola rallied. “One minute you’re crying because you think I’m dead, the next minute you’re telling me off. Talk about fair-weather friends.”

Crouched on the floor beside her, too, Carrie put a hand on her own chest. “Oh God, Lola, at least you’re okay. I nearly died of the fright. My heart is still racing; you should feel it.”

“
Jesus,
Carrie.” Bett was shocked as a surge of fury hit her. “Do you have to be the center of attention all the time?”

Carrie’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t, I was just—”

“You were so. You always—”

“Stop it, Bett, for God’s sake,” Anna snapped. “You’re as bad as each other.”

Bett glared at her. “Don’t you start on—”

“I will start on you. Leave Carrie alone and ring an ambulance, would you?”

“I was about to, before she—”

“Darlings, please.” Lola’s voice came from between them. Her head was against Carrie’s shoulder, her eyes closed. “Don’t fight over me. And, Bett, please don’t blaspheme like that again. You know I don’t like it.”

Her words set them into motion, even as they avoided any further eye contact. Bett called for an ambulance. Carrie stayed with Lola while Anna moved to the door, asking the crowd that had gathered to please move back. “She’s fine; she’ll be fine. She’s not dead at all.”

“Mummy?” A familiar little voice came from the back of the group. Anna turned as Richard Lawrence came into view, holding Ellen by the hand.

He brought her forward. “I found her crying in the function room.”

Anna pulled the little girl into her arms. “Ellie, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry to leave you behind.” In the rush to find Lola after Ellen’s announcement, they had run straight past her. “You’re such a good girl; you might have saved your great-grandmother’s life, do you know that?”

Bett was about to suggest a cup of tea, something warm and sweet for Lola, when she saw headlights approaching. She crouched down beside her grandmother again and gently took her good hand. “Here we are now. The ambulance is here.”

It wasn’t the ambulance but an ordinary station wagon. Daniel Hilder got out and walked over. “I thought it might be as quick for me to bring Lola in to the hospital. The ambulance could be a while yet.”

“You see how important this musical is?” Lola said, rousing again for a moment. “I told you this Valley needs another ambulance.”

“Lola, are you sure you’re okay to move?” Bett asked. “You’re not hurt anywhere else? Your back or your legs?”

“I’m fine. It’s just my sore head and this stupid wrist.” She was shaking violently.

Carrie was on one side of her, Bett on the other. Bett turned to Daniel, businesslike, serious, in no need of an inner-Anna now. “Daniel, we’ll accept, if you don’t mind. Carrie, you and I go in with her. Anna, you’d better stay here with Ellen. Lola, can you stand?”

Daniel stepped forward. “I can carry you to the car, Lola, if you need it.”

“So kind of you, Daniel.” Lola managed to be gracious. “But I’ll walk. Where’s my little Ellen first?” Ellen came forward, and Lola touched her gently on the cheek. “Thank you, my little darling, for doing exactly the right thing.”

Bett had felt her eyes well up with tears at the sight of Ellen’s face, filled with pride. After that it had been all action, getting Lola to the hospital, into the waiting room. Daniel Hilder had been there, gentle, helping; then he had gone before Bett had a chance to thank him.

On the phone, Jim Quinlan sounded relieved. “You’re absolutely sure you don’t need us there, Bett?”

“I’m sure, Dad. She’s sleeping now. We’re going to go home, too. I’ll call you first thing in the morning.”

As she hung up, she saw that her hands were shaking. Nurses were moving swiftly up and down the hospital corridor. Carrie was in a chair down a little way, making a call on her mobile phone. To Matthew, Bett presumed.… 

“Bett?”

She turned. It was Daniel.

“Is everything okay? Is Lola all right?”

She nodded. “She’s going to be fine, they think. It looked more serious than it was.” She glanced up at the clock. Nearly two hours had passed since they had arrived, the time speeding past in the flurry of doctors’ visits and X rays, before Lola was finally settled into a small ward. “Have you been waiting all this time?”

“I didn’t mind. I had a book with me. I thought you and your sister might need a lift back to the motel.”

She was too tired to be embarrassed or to feel nervous with him. She just gave him a big, grateful smile. “Thank you.”

T
en meters away, Carrie was talking into her mobile phone. “… so they’ll keep her in overnight. God knows what would have happened if Ellen hadn’t found her. She was so shocked she hadn’t been able to get up off the floor.”

“What was she doing up on the chair in the first place?” Matthew said. “Don’t tell me, swinging from the light fittings?”

It was nice to laugh. As soon as she’d heard from the doctors that Lola was going to be all right, she had wanted to ring Matthew. He had been wary when he first answered, but his tone had changed as soon she told him what had happened. Just hearing his voice helped calm her, too. Until he suddenly changed the subject.

“I want to come down, Carrie.” He paused. “Not just for Lola, but also to see Bett. I think I need to. I’ve been thinking about her a lot.”

Something chilled in her again. She thought of the photo she’d found. “No, you can’t.”

“Carrie, come on.” He sounded cross, impatient again. “What do you think will happen? That I’ll decide I made a mistake and go back to her?”

So the thought of that had been in his head already. “I don’t know what would happen, and I don’t want to find out.”

“Carrie, don’t hang up. Can’t you see—”

She didn’t want to see anything else that night. “The doctor is coming back, Matthew. I have to go. I’ll be in touch.”

“Carrie—”

“Good-bye.” She hung up first, once again. Composing herself, she walked over to Bett and Daniel.

A
t the motel, Anna was kneeling beside Ellen’s bed. She stroked the hair back from Ellen’s face and tucked the sheet in close around her shoulders. The child was nearly asleep, stirring now and again to ask another question. “Lola will be all right, Mum, won’t she? They’re not taking her to be put down, are they?”

Anna stopped herself from laughing. Their neighbor’s cat in Sydney had been run over and had needed to be taken to the vet to be put down. Anna thought she’d explained the situation to Ellen well when it happened, telling her the truth, that the cat had broken so many bones and was in such terrible pain it was kinder to end its life than try to fix it. She stroked her forehead again. “Of course not, Ellie. The doctors and nurses know exactly what to do, and she’ll be back home before we know it.”

Ellen’s eyelids fluttered, then closed, and in seconds her breathing was slow, measured. Anna waited a moment longer, then leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead and whispered, “I’m just going to turn all the lights off in the motel and then I’ll be right back.”

As Anna came out of her room, she jumped as a figure appeared in front of her. It was Richard. She noticed the bar and function room were already in darkness.

He came closer. “I hope you don’t mind, I wanted to do something, so I closed up for you. I’ve been here so long I know where all the light switches are.”

“Thank you,” she said, surprised and touched.

“And Lola will be all right?”

Anna nodded. “I’m sure she will. It’s us who nearly died of the shock.”

Richard looked concerned. “Anna, can I make you a cup of tea? Or perhaps a hot chocolate? I know my way around the kitchen, I think. Would you like that? You must have had a terrible fright tonight.”

“Yes. Yes, I have. Thanks, Richard. That would be really kind of you.”

Then she burst into tears.

T
he blue station wagon pulled up in front of the motel.

“Thanks, Daniel,” Carrie said from the front passenger seat beside him.

“Yes. Thanks, Daniel,” Bett said from the back.

“I was happy to do it. You’re both okay from here?”

“We’re fine, thanks,” Bett managed to get in first.

“And will you tell Lola I was asking after her?”

“Of course.” Bett hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was the opportunity to speak to Daniel. She had to mention something about their night together, or the tension at work would be too much. But she couldn’t do it now. Not with Carrie in earshot. Her sister already seemed to be taking what seemed like hours to undo her seat belt and get out of the front.

They finally got out at the same time, standing side by side to wave as Daniel drove off. There was a long, awkward silence. Bett felt uncomfortable. Did she ask Carrie to stay for a cup of tea? Give her the chance to talk over the night? Surely she was feeling as shocked as Bett was?

Carrie took the decision away from her, reaching into her bag for her car keys. “Anna’s turned off the lights, I see, so I’ll leave you to it.” Her voice was very brisk.

“Oh. Okay. Good night, then.”

“Yes. See you tomorrow.”

Bett walked to her room. Carrie walked to her car. Neither of them turned around, or noticed that the light was still on in the kitchen.

Chapter Twelve

F
usspot.”

Anna grinned. “Lola, I’m not a fusspot. I’m doing what the doctor told us to do, checking on you all the time.”

“Much ado about nothing, if you ask me.”

“Taming of the shrew, more like it.”

Anna stood by Lola’s bed, looking down at her grandmother, sitting up against the pillows, her arm in a sling made from a wildly patterned silk scarf. Her bed jacket was a bright yellow satin. There were bunches of flowers all over the room—they’d been arriving all day as word got around that Lola was out of hospital and back at the motel. She was wearing full makeup, the foundation applied around the bandage on her forehead. Anna could see she’d missed her mark slightly, a smear of blusher heavier on one cheek than the other, the lipstick wobbly. Lola had been keeping up a brave front since the accident, although her doctor had called Anna aside and told her to keep an eye out for delayed shock. So far there’d been no sign of it, though. Lola had spent the afternoon reading to Ellen and would still be at it if Anna hadn’t prized them apart and put Ellen to bed.

Anna gently tucked the sheet in around her grandmother. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything before I go to rehearsals?”

“I’m fine, darling. Stop looking at me as if I’m some museum specimen.”

Anna sat down beside her and took her hand. “You frightened us, you know.”

“I frightened myself.”

“Don’t die, Lola. We wouldn’t like it.”

“All right, darling, I promise I won’t. Now, off you go to those rehearsals and make your poor sick grandmother proud of you.”

A
nna had been gone only a minute or two before Carrie knocked lightly on the door and came in. “Is everything all right, Lola? Do you need anything?”

“I couldn’t be happier, darling. I should have done this months ago. All this spoiling, it’s marvelous.” She patted the bed. “Now, enough about me. Let me interrogate you for a quick minute. Are you coping with all the motel business while your parents are away? Do you need any extra help?”

“Everything’s fine. No problems at all.” Carrie was enjoying it, in fact. It was giving her the opportunity to try out a few of her own ways of doing things.

“And how are things with Matthew?”

“They’re fine,” she lied smoothly, picking up one of the Get Well cards on Lola’s bedside table, concentrating fiercely on the greeting inside. It was from the ladies in the charity shop, wishing her a speedy recovery. Beside the cards was a large basket filled with fruit, chocolate, and crossword puzzle books. Jim and Geraldine had sent it. “He sends his love. Says he would have brought you a bunch of grapes if he’d been here.”

“If he’d been allowed to be here, you mean. Carrie, I’ve been thinking about the ban, and I’ve decided it can be lifted. I think it would be all right now if he visited here again. In fact, I think Bett would like to see him.”

Carrie’s head shot up. “Has she said that to you?”

“No, but she doesn’t need to. I know her. Has Matthew said anything?”

“He said he’d like to see Bett again, too.” The words tasted awful in her mouth.

“Good. I’d hoped as much. I’ll leave it up to you to arrange it. The sooner the better, I think.”

Carrie turned away before Lola saw her expression.

Lola had just gone back to her crossword after Carrie’s departure when there was another knock. A dark curly head poked around the door. “Lola? Are you okay?”

Lola smiled at her. “Bett, darling, shouldn’t you be at the rehearsal, too?”

“I’m on my way. I got delayed with a late arrival at reception. I just wanted to check if you needed anything or if you wanted to come up and watch.”

“I couldn’t bear the pain.”

“Oh, you poor thing. Shall I move one of the big armchairs in from the bar? You could rest your arm on that, if you liked.”

“Not the pain in my arm, the pain of seeing you all massacre my masterpiece.”

Bett relaxed. “Very funny. You might be surprised. We’ve actually got a pretty good cast lined up.” Anna had spent the day after Lola’s accident on the phone, handing out the parts as well as reporting on Lola’s condition.

“Lola couldn’t have timed it better if she tried,” she’d confided to Bett. “People didn’t dare say no to any of the parts, not knowing it was Lola’s life’s work. You don’t suppose she did it deliberately?”

For once, Bett was sure she hadn’t. She’d seen real pain and shock in Lola’s eyes that night.

Anna had gone on. “I asked that Daniel Hilder if he wanted to come and audition again, but he said no, unfortunately his circumstances had changed. Shame, he’d have been about the right age for that Jack-the-Lad character.”

“Yes, that is a shame,” Bett had said casually, relief flooding through her.

Lola was leaning back against her pillows, content. “I can hardly wait until opening night. Tell me, Bett, are you ready to see Matthew yet?”

“You’re asking me just like that? Haven’t you got a little bell you can ring to warn me you’re bringing up something personal?”

“Do you want to see him? I think you should. Get it over and done with. It will clear the air between you and Carrie.”

“Carrie and I are fine. All things considered.” They weren’t, actually. Things may have been thawing between her and Anna, but they were definitely still covered in snow with Carrie.

“No, you’re not. Not yet. Think about it, Bett. Remember my two rules.”

“Face your fears and tell the truth. Yes, I remember.” She leaned down and kissed her grandmother. “You know, you’re lucky I love you so much, or I’d call you an interfering meddle-some old bag.”

Lola laughed and returned to her crossword.

A
nna smiled at everyone in the function room. There were fifteen people sitting in a circle of chairs all around her. Carrie was on one end. Bett sat nearby, at the piano, the sheet music piled beside her.

“So you’ve all got your scripts now? Good. And you’re sure which parts you’re playing? Yes? No more confusion over who’s playing the General MacArthur role?” Two of the men studiously avoided looking at each other. “Terrific. To get in the mood, I’d like you all to call each other by your characters’ names while we’re in rehearsals, okay? So we’ll start today with a read-through of the opening scene with you, Mrs. MacArthur, and your son Arthur beside you.”

Mrs. MacArthur, formerly known as Len the butcher’s daughter Kaylene, smiled broadly at everyone. The thirteen-year-old boy playing the part of the four-year-old Arthur didn’t look quite so happy. But a part was a part, and he needed all the experience he could get if he eventually wanted to go to drama school. Or so his mother had told him.

Anna moved her chair to face them. “As it says in the script, you are with your husband and father, General MacArthur, in a plane flying from the war in the Philippines on your way to Australia. A storm is raging all around you. There’ll be the sound of gunfire as well as thunder and lightning, so it will be very dramatic.” She hoped it would be, anyway. Her first meeting with Len about the stage set hadn’t filled her with confidence. She’d had to gently explain to him they would need more than clashing saucepan lids and glass jars filled with rice to make the storm effects.

“So, Mrs. MacArthur, your young son hasn’t been well and is feeling frightened, so to ease his terrors, you start singing ‘My Favorite Things’ to him. Would you like to try that scene?”

Mrs. MacArthur cleared her throat and looked down at the page.

“Poor-Arthur-you-must-be-scared-of-that-noise-don’t-worry-I-know-how-to-put-a-smile-back-on-your-face.”

Anna had heard more animation from the speaking clock. “That’s a great start. But perhaps it would help if I could talk through some of the motivation with you.” She paused, thinking hard. “Imagine the scene. You’ve been traveling with your husband and ill son for weeks, bombarded by war, homesickness, longing for the familiar, feeling cut off from everything you know and love—your home, your family.”

She stood up and started pacing the room, drawing on her own experiences as she’d been taught at drama school, thinking back to the latest angry phone call with Glenn. “Is this what you wanted when you first got married, you ask yourself? Did you go into it with your eyes wide open? Or were you seduced by the thought of glamour and travel and social standing and allowed that to take over? Has your marriage become a shell? Your friends abandoned you because they are sick of the two of you fighting all the time? Is your child suffering?”

“Anna?”

“Do you cry yourself to sleep some nights through loneliness and fear and the pain of broken hopes and dreams?”

“Anna?”

Anna came to as Bett said her name even louder. The group was looking at her in some alarm. She steadied herself and briskly tapped the script. “Or another simpler way of looking at it would be a mother singing her scared son to sleep. Bett, when you’re ready. ‘My Favorite Things’ from the top.”

At the break, Bett brought a glass of water over to her sister. “Anna, are you okay?”

“Fine. Couldn’t be better.”

Bett hesitated. There had been some uncomfortable echoes in Anna’s words about Mrs. MacArthur. Echoes from the big fight the night she had found out about Carrie and Matthew, when she had turned on Anna, and said terrible things about Glenn, about Glenn and Anna’s marriage. Some of it almost word for word what Anna had said. Ever since Lola’s accident she’d had an urge to talk about it all. To bring everything out in the open. To stop all this stepping around each other. “It’s just … what you were saying about Mrs. MacArthur …”

Anna waited.

“Was it only about Mrs. MacArthur?”

“Of course.” She gave a light laugh. “My directors were always telling me off for going overboard with my motivation exercises.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Anna busied herself making notes on her script.

Say it, Bett, say it. “You weren’t talking about you and Glenn? It’s just some of what you said …” She trailed off as she saw Anna visibly sit up straighter and her chin lift.

Bett backed off immediately. “Never mind. I’ll leave you to it.”

T
hat night, Carrie was in the office when she heard a knock at the door. It was Bett. Carrie was surprised. So far they had done their best to avoid being alone together. “Is everything all right? Lola’s okay?”

“She’s fine. Watching TV, complaining that her gin and tonic levels are way down and that she’s going to have to get drunk for a week to bring them up again.” Bett hesitated. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something else.”

“Oh. Okay. Come in.”

Bett took a seat and tried to choose the right words. Perhaps that was where she’d gone wrong with Anna earlier. She’d said it too bluntly. She tried to feel her way now. “It’s about Matthew.”

Carrie stiffened.

Bett couldn’t help noticing. “Carrie, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I need to see him.”

“What do you mean ‘need’?”

“I think the three of us need to get together. Maybe Lola was right at the start to ask you to keep him away, but I’m staying on, and, with the musical and everything, I think it’s important.”

“You’ve been talking to Lola, haven’t you?”

“Yes. But it’s what I want, too.” Couldn’t Carrie even meet her halfway on this?

“He’s away for work,” Carrie said shortly.

“Then when he’s back on the weekend.”

“He doesn’t come back every weekend.”

“Well, on the weekend he does come back.”

Carrie was looking down at her paperwork again. “I’ll think about it.”

I
don’t get it,” Bett whispered to Anna several minutes later. On the way back to her room, Bett had seen Anna’s light on, and on the spur of the moment knocked gently on her door. Anna had seemed surprised, but beckoned her in, her finger on her lips. Ellen was asleep in the single bed. A book lay open on Anna’s bed. “What does she think I’m going to do, hurl myself at him when I see him? Manacle myself to his legs?”

“That would make sheep crutching a little tricky for him. You dragging around in the dust at his feet,” Anna whispered back.

“So much for Lola’s advice,” Bett said, her voice still low. “It’s all very well to say face your fears, but what if your fears don’t want to be faced? I actually thought Carrie would want to get it over and done with, too. But it’s like she doesn’t want me anywhere near him, in case I burst into tears and try to steal him back or something.”

“And you wouldn’t, would you?”

“Wouldn’t what?”

“Try to steal him back.”

“Sorry?”

“You wouldn’t want him back, would you?”

Bett tensed. “I don’t know.” A pause. “I’m not sure how I’ll react until I see him.”

“Still avoiding the truth after all these years, Bett?” Anna’s tone was joking, but her eyes were serious.

Bett looked away. She didn’t want to spoil this new fragile friendship with Anna. “I mean it. That’s why I need to see him.” She rushed to change the subject. “So how did Ellie enjoy school today?” The little girl had started at the local school that week. They had all gathered to see her go off in her school uniform the first day, waving as if she was their own daughter.

Anna hesitated, then accepted the change of topic. “Fine. She hasn’t said much yet. It takes time to settle in, though. You remember what it’s like, arriving at a new school in the middle of term.”

Bett nodded. The tension was definitely back between them. What did she do now? Try to break through it again? Ask about Glenn, when he was one of the main reasons she and Anna hadn’t spoken in three years? She imagined Lola in the corner of the room, urging her on. “How’s Glenn, Anna?” The words came out sounding half chewed.

“He’s fine,” Anna answered.

Bett knew her well enough to know that was the most Anna would say about it tonight. She watched as Anna went to the fridge, took out a bottle of wine, and reached for the corkscrew. She didn’t look like the mother of a seven-year-old, Bett thought. She looked amazing, in fact—the sleek straight hair, the perfect makeup, the thin, tanned body, not an ounce of extra flesh on her at all. And that cool poise she had, the keep-your-distance kind of elegance that Bett knew she could never have, not in a million years. It suddenly seemed important to Bett to compliment Anna, to let her know how great she looked, to be the first to start building bridges. As Anna came over to the bed with the opened bottle and two glasses, she smiled up at her. “Anna, you really are amazing.”