“Thank you,” Carrie said. A lump had suddenly risen in her throat. That seemed to be happening a lot lately. “I'm really happy, Zoe.”

“I know.” It sounded as if Zoe had the same lump. “When is this bash?”

“We're thinking this fall.” Carrie paused, to add to the drama. “Right after I produce Family.”

“Excuse me?”

“That's my father's musical.”

“I know what it is. It's the ‘I produce’ part I didn't get.”

“Well, I've kind of been keeping that a secret until I got everything lined up, because I've screwed up so many times before, although Lu says I shouldn't look at it that way, and …”

“Carrie, focus. Your dad's musical?”

“I'm going to produce it. I've never produced anything before, but I think I have a feel for it. George Standish says I do, but maybe that's because I asked him to finish that last scene Bobby never wrote. We've turned it into an epilogue and we're bringing in a new character—the great-grandmother. We wrote her as an eighty-year-old for Lu, although she could play a lot younger. She's going to be the one who sings ‘Carrie's Moon Song.’ We only had to lower the key one step, and she was able to hit all the notes. It's amazing how she's kept her voice in shape all these years.”

“You're going to put on a play? You?”

“Yeah. Every producer in town wants to be my partner—I mean, I've got Bobby Manning's last musical, and Lu Lawson's going to be in it, so it's a no-brainer—but I decided to go with a little theater in Georgia I heard about called the Venable Opera House. It's run by two young women; one's married to a lawyer and one is a single mother. They've been very successful with new material, and I think it will be the perfect place for us—not too big, but they are starting to get a bit of a national reputation. We'll come into New York after the Georgia run.”

“Howie knows about this new career of yours?”

“He was the one who thought I should do it. I kept saying, what if the play bombs, or what if it doesn't and I bail on the producing thing like I have with everything else, and he said to stop worrying, because the world needs dilettantes. And then I said what happens if I become a big power producer, and he said he'll stay home and take care of the kids. He wants kids.”

“He should have them—and that is something I almost never say about friends of mine.”

“He's good for me, Zoe.”

“Yes. I know.”

“Mother wouldn't approve of any of this. She'd hate what I'm doing.”

“Maybe.”

“But it's my life now.”

“Yes, Carrie. It is.”

Epilogue