Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Beau says you’re a famous singer. I’m sorry but I don’t listen to music much. A bit of Chopin here and there and even a bit of Sibelius, but that’s about as modern as it gets for me.”
“I’m a piano player first and foremost, so I love Chopin. My dad taught me starting when I was four. I always warm up with a bit of Bach.”
She turns to me, grinning. “Oh gosh, I’m a sucker for Bach. Partita number 2 during a rainstorm.”
“Oh that’s a favorite of my mom’s. I love it too. So…kind of heart-wrenching,” I say.
“That’s a good description.” She comes to sit opposite me with another peeler in her hand. “You always wanted to sing pop music?” she asks.
“I like to play all kinds, but yeah, I suppose I never considered being a jazz pianist like my dad.”
“Oh, he’s a musician too?”
I smile up at her as I dunk another apple into the water. “Yeah. He loves it. He doesn’t have to work anymore, but…it’s not work to him.”
“That’s the best kind of work—the kind that doesn’t feel like it. I tell my boys that all the time.”
“Beau says you’re an incredible surgeon.”
“I’m retired now. I do some speaking engagements. John and I spent so much of our boys’ childhoods working, we wanted some time to enjoy them as adults and watch their careers. Working in a hospital—it’s not conducive to family life. Now, we have at least one of them up most weekends and sometimes it’s three or four or all of them. I absolutely love it, as you can probably tell. And I’m building an extension so we can have their wives and girlfriends to stay. And the grandchildren when they come. We have one so far, and another one on the way with Vincent and Kate’s little one.”
“Do you miss it?” I ask her. “Surgery, I mean.”
“Sometimes. But I gave it up under my own terms—not because I had an uncooperative husband or a man who demanded the limelight for himself.” I freeze at her words. Is she sending me a message? “So many of the women I trained with took a less challenging route to either accommodate family—no judgement—or their partners’ careers. Excruciatingly frustrating. John never asked me to make a choice. Not by his words or actions. So our careers with a growing family were tiring and life at home was chaos, but it meant we both wrung out all our careers had to offer. We left nothing on the field. When we retired, we were ready.”
I smile. “I like that. You always felt like your husband was supportive?”
“It was one of the reasons I married him. John is a very clever man—there’s no doubt about that. But I was cleverer and it never bothered him. More than not bothering him, it was one of the reasons he loved me. There’s nothing more attractive than a man with confidence enough not to be intimidated by a clever woman.”
I laugh. “You’re so right.”
“I like to think the pair of us were good role models in that way for our sons. The ones who are settled have chosen very clever women. Independent women who don’t need to rely on their husbands for anything, but choose to. That’s what the boys saw at home.”
Before I can ask more about her other sons, John and Beau appear followed by a couple. I can tell just by looking at the man that he’s a Cove. This family is just too darned good-looking.
“Vivian, this is my older brother, Jacob, and the woman who’s far too good for him, Sutton.”
I drop my apple, wipe my hands on my apron, and stand.
Jacob gives me a sharp nod and reaches out his hand, but a whirlwind of a woman pushes through the throng of people. “Vivian,” she says. “Christ on a bike. You are gorgeous. Even better in real life.” She takes my hands in hers. “Give me thirty seconds and I’ll get over it all, but I just need to say that I’m a huge, huge fan. I mean, I bought your first album way back in the day.”
“I started young,” I say to everyone, and they laugh.
“Come on, Sutton,” Beau says. “She’s off the clock.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “I never get tired of hearing that people like my music.”
“Well, I do. And so does Madison—that’s Nathan’s wife. We’re coming to see you in concert next year. Are you still going ahead with the album release?”
I suck in a breath. “I am, although it might look a bit different to what people were expecting. Me included.”
“That sounds…exciting. Tell me everything.”
I laugh, but give nothing away. I want the whole world to find out about the album at the same time.
“Give Sutton a glass of wine and an apple to peel,” Carole says. “I’ve never seen you so excited.”