Against All Odds

by Danielle Steel

  “Maybe it’s time for you to think more about yourself than about your kids. You don’t put any more effort into finding someone than either of your daughters, and if you don’t want to end up alone, maybe you should. You’re too young to be on your own for the rest of your life, Kate. And it’s been a long time since you had anyone in your life. At my age, it doesn’t matter, but at yours it does.” Her mother looked at her seriously as she said it.

  “There are lots of people your age and a lot older who find someone and get married,” Kate reminded her and served it right back to her, but Louise was unimpressed.

  “I had a good marriage for a long time, and I don’t need another one. I couldn’t travel as much as I do if I had to take care of someone, or be here to keep him company. I don’t want to be tied down at this point in my life, except to you and the kids. And you can all manage fine when I’m away. I don’t want some man complaining every time I get on a plane. Or to be a nurse. I took care of your father, and he would have taken care of me. But we had a lot of great years before that. I don’t want to start at that part at my age. I’m having fun. I don’t want to screw that up.” It sounded sensible to Kate, and her mother didn’t seem to mind being alone. She was always busy doing something that interested her, taking a class or seeing friends, or planning her next trip. It was hard to find fault with that. And Kate knew that her mother was right about her. Kate hadn’t made any real effort to meet a man in several years. She would have liked to have someone to share her life with, but she was set in her ways too, and it wasn’t as easy to meet men as it used to be. They were all married or seemed strange, and she had no desire to put up with someone else’s quirks. She was still very involved with her kids, and the men she had dated earlier had always resented that. In those days, she had been a mother first, since she had to be both mother and father to her children. Now she was less engaged with them, but they would still be someone else’s children to any man she met. Her life seemed almost complete, with her friends, family, and work. It was hard to imagine how a new man in her life would fit in.

  She brought it up to Liam the next time they met at one of their favorite haunts, Da Silvano, for a glass of wine and a plate of pasta. She always loved seeing him. They could tell each other anything, and had for years.

  “Your mother’s right, as usual. She always is. You’re too young to be alone, Kate. I worry about you too,” Liam admitted as they finished lunch.

  “What do you want me to do, stand on a street corner and whistle for a guy, like a cab? They don’t fall out of trees, you know.” He laughed at what she said. He was a good-looking man, and was aging well. He was a year older than Kate. He still looked the same as he always had, with a little distinguished gray at the temples, and most important, he was intelligent and kind. It always intrigued her that he didn’t demand more of Maureen. But instead of insisting that she join him for every social occasion, he let her do her thing. He was willing to let her lead the retiring life she preferred, and he saw many of their friends on his own. It was an arrangement they had agreed to many years before, since he was more gregarious than she was. It wouldn’t have suited Kate, but it worked for them.

  “You could go to more parties, or places where you’d meet men,” he scolded Kate, since she’d brought the subject up herself. He knew she’d been too busy with the kids to focus on romance for a lot of years, but it was different now, even though Kate thought it was too late, which he said was absurd at her age. She was fit and trim, youthful in her appearance, and beautiful and as appealing as ever. Men always looked at her admiringly and she seemed not to notice.

  “Like go to bars?” She looked horrified.

  “You know what I mean. You don’t try.” They both knew it was true, and she didn’t deny it.

  “I’m happy the way I am.” There was truth in that too, but she did miss having a man in her life at times. “And whenever I meet single guys now, they’re weird.”

  “They can’t all be weird.” He laughed at her. He always loved talking to her. He could never banter with anyone the way he did with Kate.

  “Maybe they can all be weird,” Kate said thoughtfully. “There are a lot of strange guys out there. There’s a reason why they’re single. No woman wants them.”

  “What about a widower?” he said helpfully.

  “Are you suggesting I read the obituaries and start stalking them?” She had read the obits to find estates for clothes for her store early in her business, but she didn’t do that anymore. It was too awkward and embarrassing writing to bereaved relatives about buying their loved ones’ clothes.

  “It can’t be as hopeless as all that,” Liam commented.

  “I just figure if it’s right, someone will come along, and if not, I’m fine the way I am.” She was at ease about it. It wasn’t high on her list of things to worry about. She was far more concerned about her kids finding good partners than herself. They had lives to live ahead of them. She had already been married, had children, and had a busy life and career. Her children all had that to look forward to.

  They lingered for a long time over lunch, as they always did, and since it was already October, Kate asked him about his Thanksgiving plans. Liam reminded her that European schools didn’t have time off for Thanksgiving so his daughters weren’t coming home.

  “We’re going to my father-in-law’s house.” Kate knew he didn’t enjoy it, but was doing it for Maureen since the girls would be away. His own parents had died many years before. “What about you?”

  “Same as every year, they’re all coming to me for Thanksgiving. That and Christmas are my favorite times of year. I get them all at the same table for a big meal.”

  “Will Justin stay with you?”

  “No, they stay with friends, but they come over for Thanksgiving dinner. And of course my mother comes too. She’s planning some big trip again in January. Argentina, I think. But she’ll be home for the holidays. She’s going to China next summer. She’s been studying Mandarin all year.”

  “She’s amazing,” Liam said with admiration. “I hope I have half her energy at her age.”

  “I think you just have to keep moving, and doing, and learning. There’s always something new she wants to do. She’s a role model for us all,” Kate said with a warm smile at her friend. Kate knew how lucky she was to have such a terrific mother.

  They left the restaurant reluctantly after two hours of easy conversation and laughter. Liam went back to his office and Kate returned to the shop. The store was busy in the fall before the holidays, with customers looking for dresses to wear to parties and holiday events. Her most recent acquisitions, and some old ones, were flying out of the store. And an article in the Sunday Times Magazine had mentioned Still Fabulous, which always brought in new business, with people who hadn’t heard of them before. And after Thanksgiving, they kept the store open two hours later at night to make it easier to shop.

  —

  By November, Izzie and Zach had been deeply involved for almost two months. They were still spending weekends in the Hamptons at his grandmother’s house, despite the cold weather, which made it even cozier at night. The housekeeper and caretaker were used to seeing her, and Zach had keys to Izzie’s apartment in the city by then, and came and went while she was at work. They had settled into a regular life, but she was still concerned that he didn’t work, and had no regular plans in the daytime, and nothing to do with himself. His grandmother gave him some money from time to time, which wasn’t enough to live on, but with a roof over his head and food provided by his grandmother’s employees, all he needed was enough to take Izzie out to dinner occasionally, and pay for movies and cabs. Izzie didn’t expect him to contribute to her home, but he needed more to do than just wait for her to come home at night.

  Zach didn’t seem to mind not having a job, or not doing something constructive with his time. It didn’t even occur to him. He read, he went for walks, he met up with his friends. She had signed him up at her gym
, but he was a grown man, and she thought he should have an activity and a purpose in life. But when they saw her friends, or had dinner with lawyers she worked with, he didn’t appear to mind saying that he didn’t work. It made him seem prosperous and like a trust fund baby, which he had been, but a very meager one, and it bothered her for him. She tried to bring the subject up gently, and he laughed whenever she did.

  “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it,” he told her. “I’m not. My father doesn’t work either.” But his father also had control of his own money. Zach didn’t. He negotiated with his trustees for a pittance, and they thought he should be working too, and then they would have been freer with the money if they thought he was responsible. They didn’t want to encourage him to stay indolent and unemployed. But even having too little money didn’t inspire him to get a job.

  “Is there anything you like to do?” Izzie asked him, trying to guide him in the right direction.

  “Yes, make love to you,” he said, and the topic would be brushed aside while he made love to her. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get him interested in a job. Their sex life took precedence over all else, except her work.

  She still hadn’t said anything to her family about him, and didn’t want to do so prematurely, although their relationship seemed solid, but it was still early days, and she was savoring the secret. He didn’t answer her phone at the apartment, so no one ever knew he was there. She had toyed with the idea of inviting him to her mother’s for Thanksgiving, but he wanted to visit his grandmother in Palm Beach so she wouldn’t be alone for the holiday, so Izzie didn’t have to make a decision. He called her frequently and was always nice to her. He was surprisingly well behaved for a self-declared black sheep, although he never called his parents, and she noticed that they never called him. Her own mother called her every few days, and Izzie called Grandma Lou once or twice a week to check in with her. Most of the time, she was doing something and too busy to talk.

  “What’s your family going to think about us?” Zach asked her in bed one night before Thanksgiving.

  “They’ll be intrigued, and want to meet you. And they’ll be happy for me.” She smiled at him, her head close to his on the pillow. But she also knew that they would want to know what he did as a job. In her family, everyone worked. Not working was not an option, nor even a remote possibility, for any of them. And they all liked what they did. Living as Zach did, doing nothing, on money he begged from his grandmother or his trustees, would be inconceivable to them, and would make them suspicious of him. And given how little money Zach could eke out of any of them, she couldn’t understand his not wanting to work. It wasn’t fun being broke. She had taken to leaving a couple of hundred dollars in a drawer in the kitchen, without comment, so he would have pocket money. She didn’t want to just hand it to him, but he knew where it was, and she replenished it every few days. He was spending a few hundred dollars a week of her money. And it occurred to her frequently that it would have been nice for both of them if he’d had even a small job. But he thought that beneath him, and he had no skills to sell, and no education. He was smart and charming, and gorgeous to look at, but you couldn’t get a job with that, not a decent one. And he would never have considered working as a waiter or something he considered menial, like being a salesman, although he might have been good at it. But she knew his not working would be a major stumbling block with her family, and Zach wasn’t shy about saying he didn’t work and almost seemed proud of it. She had no idea how to explain it to her family. They were all going to disapprove of that, and of him as a result, no matter how happy she was.

  Izzie had never gone out with anyone like him before. He still loved dressing like a “bad boy.” He had all kinds of motorcycle gear and leather jackets, which he wore with jeans and biker boots. It made him look sexy to her, but she couldn’t see her brothers dressing like him. She suggested modeling to him once, or acting, but he laughed at that too. He was perfectly happy as he was, and didn’t mind being broke or getting cash from her. She didn’t want to support him, although she was well paid at the law firm. That was a pattern she didn’t want to establish in their relationship. He mentioned a few times that his trustees might give him money if he was married, depending on who he married, but she didn’t want to marry him for that reason alone, and they hadn’t been together long enough to consider marriage. She didn’t know how to handle his complete lack of work ethic, and it was hard to discuss with him since he wasn’t bothered by it. But other than that, they were ecstatically happy and got along. It was a unique relationship in her life, and maybe for that reason, she found it exciting. She kept telling herself that sooner or later she’d convince him to go to work, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do. It was not an easy problem to solve. And Zach wasn’t worried about it at all. He liked having free time to do what he wanted and had no shame about Izzie supplying his financial needs. And being gainfully employed seemed dreary to him.

  He “borrowed” three hundred dollars from her when he left for Palm Beach the day before Thanksgiving, and had no way to pay it back. The trustees had paid for his airfare, since it was to visit his grandmother.

  Izzie thought about it after he left, and she knew it would have to change, or eventually it would impact their relationship, even if it hadn’t yet.

  He called her from the plane before his flight took off and told her he loved her. He was so sweet and affectionate with her that he was irresistible. He had brought her back to life, and given her faith in the human race again. He had healed her broken heart and made her happy. And after they hung up, she wondered if that was enough. Maybe the rest didn’t matter. Maybe black sheep never got jobs, and weren’t supposed to work. But if so, it was going to put a heavy burden on her. And she noticed when she went to make herself a cup of tea that the cash drawer in the kitchen was empty. He had taken what was there along with the three hundred dollars she gave him. It was expensive loving a black sheep.

  Chapter 4

  Kate’s children arrived at her apartment around three o’clock on Thanksgiving Day every year. They talked and laughed, happy to see one another, and they sat down to an early dinner at six, after her daughters helped her with the final touches in the kitchen. Grandma Lou came early to help cook the turkey, and Richard loved to help and was a fabulous cook.

  Everyone was in high spirits, talking at once and teasing each other, very much as they had when they were children. Kate said grace before the meal, and then they brought in the food from the kitchen and passed it around. She prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and other than Christmas, which was equally festive, it was everyone’s favorite day of the year.

  They all noticed immediately how happy Izzie looked this year, and they were halfway through dinner when Justin pressed her about it. She finally admitted that she was seeing someone, and she said demurely that it was going well.

  “Okay,” Justin said, smiling at her, “tell us what that means. Who is he? What does he do for a living? How did you meet him? And is it serious? Let’s get the cards on the table,” he teased her. “We all want to know.”

  “Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” she said, blushing. “Don’t be so nosy. He’s very nice, his name is Zach Holbrook, and we’ve only been dating since September.” They were a lot more involved than just dating—they were basically living together—but she didn’t think they needed to know that, even if they wanted to. She wasn’t ready to tell all yet.

  “How did you meet him?” Justin was relentless.

  “He was a client,” she said truthfully, but she didn’t describe how she had defended him on felony charges in a pro bono criminal case. That wouldn’t have occurred to any of them, and they would have been horrified, and so was she initially, but it didn’t matter anymore. She knew now what a decent person he was. He was also incredibly sexy, and she was in love with him.

  “What does he do?” Justin persisted, and she hesitated for a fraction of an instant.


  “He has a trust fund,” she said in a soft voice. And that was true too. They just didn’t happen to give him much money from it. Almost none in fact.

  “Does he work?” Willie asked her. It was a reasonable question. He might have, but the answer was no.

  “Not at the moment,” she said vaguely.

  “Why didn’t you bring him?” Grandma Lou asked her, watching her carefully. She could sense that there were things that Izzie wasn’t sharing with them, and didn’t intend to. Kate had that feeling too.

  “He’s with his grandmother in Palm Beach for Thanksgiving.”

  “He sounds very fancy,” Julie said quietly. “Is it weird being with someone who has so much money he doesn’t have to work?”

  Izzie nodded in answer to the question. “Sometimes.” She was dodging their questions artfully. They wouldn’t have liked the truth.

  “What did he do before?” Justin chimed in again, assuming that he must have worked at some time.

  “His father manages their investments,” she said vaguely, and tried to change the subject by commenting on how good the food was.

  “When are we going to meet him?” Kate asked her daughter. “Would you like to bring him for Christmas?” She wanted to lay eyes on him and judge for herself. She could tell that he was important to Izzie.

  “I don’t know yet. We’re still getting to know each other.” That wasn’t entirely true, but she didn’t know what else to say.