Southern Lights: A Novel

“My mom wouldn’t let me go there.” Savannah smiled at him. “Too far away, but I didn’t get into Stanford anyway. UCLA’s a great school. I should have applied there, but I didn’t.”

“Princeton will be fine, thank you,” Alexa interjected. “I don’t want you three thousand miles away. Four months in Charleston was bad enough. I miss you too much,” she said, and both the senator and her daughter smiled at her. She was honest about it. “You’re the only kid I have.”

They talked about art and theater then, and what Savannah wanted to study. It was like an easy evening with an old friend, and he was good with kids. She had seen that when she had had dinner at his ex-wife’s house with her three teenage sons, who were in and out constantly and seemed totally at ease with Edward and he with them. He told Savannah she should come to Washington and visit the Senate. She looked interested, and he told her she was welcome anytime. He had an easy, comfortable way with people and a sharp mind. And by the end of the evening, Alexa and Savannah were totally at ease with him. He walked them out after dinner and put them in a cab back to their hotel. They stood in the Place Vendôme for a minute, admiring how beautiful it was. It was all lit up and spectacular looking with the obelisk in the center. And then they got in the cab and gave the driver the address of their hotel on the Left Bank. Edward waved and strode back into the Ritz.

“I like him,” Savannah said, as they drove across the Alexandre III Bridge to the Left Bank.

“I do too,” Alexa admitted. “Just as a friend.”

“Why just as a friend?” Savannah challenged her. “Why not more than that? You can’t stay alone forever. I’m leaving in September. Then what are you going to do?” Savannah was serious. She worried about her. And it was time for her mother to have a man in her life again. It had been too long, and she was still young. She wasn’t even forty yet, although she would be soon. Edward Baldwin was fifty-two, which Savannah thought was a good age for her mother.

“Stop trying to get rid of me,” Alexa complained. “I’m fine like this.”

“No, you’re not. You’re going to wind up an old maid,” Savannah threatened her, and Alexa laughed.

She called Edward Baldwin the next day to thank him for dinner. He was leaving that night for Ramatuelle, and said he’d call her when he was in New York again, which sounded nice to her. She wasn’t sure if he would or not. She wasn’t worried about it, but she had enjoyed her two evenings with him, and lunch. She was flattered that he’d asked her out at all.

Alexa and Savannah spent the rest of the week in Paris, enjoying all the sights, and decided not to go to the South of France. They went straight to Florence instead and loved it, spending hours in museums and galleries and churches. Then they decided to go on to Venice and do more of the same. They spent five days there in a funny old hotel on the Grand Canal. It was magical. And they flew home from Milan after nearly three weeks in Europe. They were both thrilled with what a perfect trip it had been.

And it was hard getting back to New York and real life. Alexa hated to start work again, and two days after they returned, Savannah flew down to Charleston to see Turner. She stayed with Julianne for a few days, and then her father. She was planning to stay for two weeks. Luisa was away, and Daisy was at camp for the month.

And in New York, Alexa was shocked by how lonely she was in the apartment without Savannah. She didn’t have the trial to keep her busy now, and she hated coming home to the empty apartment at night. Her mother and Stanley were away too, on the trip to Montana and Wyoming.

She had dinner with Jack and complained about it.

“You’d better figure something out quick,” he warned her. “She’s leaving for college in a couple of weeks, and then it’s forever.”

“Thanks,” Alexa said glumly. They had just gotten a robbery case to work on together that day, and it didn’t interest either of them a lot. She was in the doldrums at home and at work.

Things got better and livelier again when Savannah came back from Charleston. Her friends were in and out of the apartment constantly to say goodbye. Alexa and Savannah had things to buy and pack, all her favorite clothes to pack again, she needed sheets and towels for school. They dragged a trunk home to put everything in. They managed to get it all together by September 1st. And on her last night in New York, they had dinner with her grandmother and Stanley. They had just gotten back from Moose, Wyoming. They were both wearing new cowboy boots and jeans and cowboy shirts, and Savannah laughed and told them they looked cute.

They had dinner at Balthazar in the Village, which Savannah liked, and her grandmother promised to come and visit her at Princeton soon. It was only an hour and a half away. And Tom and Travis had said they’d come up too in October.