Maine - J. Courtney Sullivan [137]
Her heart sped up. Could this really be happening? In some ways, she had almost expected it, but then she’d tell herself not to be silly, that it was just a fantasy. She knew the decisions were being made this week, but she hadn’t thought it would happen on a Monday. (After church on Sunday, while Pat went to get the car, she lit a candle for this very reason, and then felt ridiculous about it.)
“A finalist?” she said softly, as if she might have misheard.
“Yes. You should be very proud. Out of over two thousand contestants, you’ve made the top ten. The finals take place September first in London. All expenses paid for you, plus one guest.”
God help her, she immediately envisioned herself walking hand in hand with Steve Brewer down a cobblestone street.
“That’s wonderful,” she said, and then, almost as a sort of consolation to Pat: “My husband will be so excited. He studied abroad in London one semester during college.”
“I expect you know all the rules and restrictions already, but we’ll be mailing you a packet with the relevant information later today.”
“Oh, I know them,” Ann Marie said. She had practically memorized the competition section of the Wellbright website. The finals required you to submit a brand-new house. You couldn’t have any outside help or even use a preexisting floor plan from one of the trade publications. You had to decorate it from the ground up. The grand prize winner got to have her house featured on the cover of Dollhouse World magazine, a five-thousand-dollar Wellbright gift certificate, and a brief lecture tour of craft fairs in the United Kingdom.
Last year’s winner had been at it for decades—she owned two shops in Canada. And here was Ann Marie, with only a year’s experience under her belt. After she hung up, she went to the dollhouse and actually kissed the front door. Then she removed the canopy bed from the master suite and kissed that too.
“Oh, you beauty,” she said to the house. “Thank you.”
Unsure of what to do next, she squealed like a child and bolted upstairs. Raul, her trainer, would be proud. She hadn’t run this fast since high school.
“Pat!” she called. “Honey!”
He emerged from the bedroom in his suit, straightening his tie.
He chuckled. “Yes?”
“I won! I won! Well, I’m a finalist, anyhow. I just got a call from the Wellbright people.”
“That’s great,” he said.
She tried not to let the fact that he sounded slightly underwhelmed stand in the way of her joy. This wasn’t really his thing, she reminded herself. But she kept pushing.
“Out of two thousand applicants, they only picked ten.”
“That’s fabulous. I’m so proud of you. Why are we standing in the hall?”
“And we both get to go to London, all expenses paid, for the grand prize judging.”
Now he nodded, his eyes widening.
“Look out, world, here comes my wife, the interior designer.”
“Oh, I’d hardly call myself that.”
“So you build it here and they judge it across the pond?”
“Right.”
“Your dollhouse will make one hell of a carry-on,” he said. Of all things.
“You send it ahead, silly,” she said.
“Should we go out to dinner tonight to celebrate?” he asked.
“That would be nice.”
“It’s our last night together before you ship off to Maine,” he said.
“I know. I have so much to do before I can start working on my house.”
“You’re going to start today, huh?” he asked, sounding amused.
“There’s not much time!”
She thought of everything she had to do: She needed to finish packing. She needed to go grocery shopping and pick up her mother’s prescriptions and drop them off to her. Which meant she’d probably end up staying for lunch and helping her mother hang those blinds in the den. She had told Patty that she’d buy bathing suits for the kids at the Filene’s sale. Then she had to come home and cook some meals for Pat to heat up while she was away. Plus maybe go over to Alice’s house in Canton and retrieve whatever her mother-in-law needed from there. She had library books to return. The car was filthy. She