Free The Time of Her Life by Jeanie London Page B

with a reply.
Maybe if they were discussing another man, any other
man. But not Jay with the bright green eyes and charming laughter. Not the man
she had to coax past the honeymoon phase and into Northstar’s business model
with a smile on his face.

CHAPTER FIVE
    D AYS PASSED BEFORE Susanna could look
at Jay without recalling that disturbing phone conversation with Karan. Days
when every smile was suspect. Days when every laugh felt indicative of whether
she needed to kiss a frog. Or wanted to.
    No.
    Karan was wrong there. But the rest...transitioning into a
woman who, while still a mother, could live a fulfilled life of her own. Karan
wasn’t wrong about that. Something was in Susanna’s way, had been since Skip had
died. Until she’d sold the house, and her two biggest reasons to get up in the
morning had gone off to college, Susanna hadn’t been forced to analyze the
situation too closely, too honestly. She’d been in her familiar home working her
familiar job, which had helped to balance the un familiar.
    Skip’s death. Financial struggles. Grown kids.
    She no longer had the luxury of familiar. Add to that pressure
from every angle. The kids were counting on her to create a new home base, to
continue providing. They looked to her to be an emotional anchor as they
branched into adulthood. They looked to her to financially provide all that
their scholarships and summer jobs couldn’t.
    Add Northstar, who believed she’d persuade Jay to close the
deal. And The Arbors’ staff, who expected an administrator on par with the one
who was leaving. And Jay, who looked to her to transition his private facility
into a corporate one without losing the private.
    Pressure, pressure, pressure wherever she turned.
    She found herself asking: How could she transition The Arbors
when she wasn’t successfully transitioning in her life?
    And Karan thought she should be worried about dating?
    Only Karan.
    Susanna couldn’t do a thing but tackle the learning curve of a
property administrator. She couldn’t do anything but continue to educate herself
about Alzheimer’s care. She certainly couldn’t afford asking questions that
undermined her confidence. She needed to keep moving forward and not complicate
life any more than it was already.
    Susanna found a bit of a break from her worries in the comfort
zone of quarterly reports as she prepared for the financial review with
Walter.
    On the morning of the first of their formal review meetings,
Susanna arrived on the property earlier than usual. After checking in with the
duty manager, she conducted her own walk-through of lockdown. As she emerged
from the stairs on the third floor, she nearly ran into a resident on a
crack-of-dawn stroll from the dining room with plastic bags of bread stacked
high in the basket of her walker.
    Mrs. Harper apparently didn’t notice Susanna, who stopped short
to avoid a collision then watched curiously as the small but agile woman with
the head full of steely curls tooled down the hall toward her apartment. Travis
and Goldie, caged parakeets who made their home in a hallway alcove, tittered
excitedly as she passed. Travis wolf-whistled, but the object of his attention
kept a slow and steady pace, not acknowledging the compliment in any way.
    While the ALF portions of the facility weren’t as closely
monitored as the first floor, all three floors were on lockdown, which meant
someone knew Mrs. Harper was running around when most residents were still in
their apartments.
    “That one does gets around, Ms. Adams,” the floor nurse
explained after she emerged from an apartment. “Keeps us on our toes. Wish more
residents would take advantage of the freedoms they have up here. The exercise
is so good for them.”
    Susanna agreed and was about to ask about the bread but the
radio crackled and the duty manager announced, “Got the shift report done. Will
you sign off, or is Mr. C. around?”
    Encouraged the management had approached her rather than