Against All Odds

by Danielle Steel

  Chapter 7

  Kate had lunch with Liam two days after Christmas, and told him about Justin’s baby and Izzie’s new man. She always kept him abreast of what her children were up to and valued his advice. Sensibly, he told her that she had to make her peace with Justin’s child, and he advised her not to get too worked up about Izzie. Hopefully it was just an aberration of some kind, and a hot romance, and it would blow over. His own daughters were home from Europe. Penny, his oldest, was madly in love with a boy in Edinburgh, and Elizabeth had three different men she was dating in Madrid. But they were both young enough that he didn’t take any of it seriously, and he said that Maureen was a nervous wreck keeping track of the girls. They were in and out of the house every five minutes, and their friends were dropping by at all hours. Hearing about it made Kate realize how much she missed those days when her kids were younger and still at home. She had loved it when their friends came over, and her small apartment was jammed to the rafters with young people.

  “Maureen doesn’t know how good she has it,” she commented nostalgically. “It’s so lonely when they’re gone.”

  “She’s sad when they leave, and all the coming and going drives her crazy when they’re here. Personally, I like it. It’s too quiet when they’re gone, and very lonely,” he said honestly and smiled at Kate.

  “Once they’re in college, it’s over. As soon as they graduate they’re gone. It all happens so quickly.” It had for her, and she’d been trying to adjust to it ever since. She was grateful she had the store to keep her busy.

  Business had been fantastic during the holidays, and she needed to replenish her stock. She was considering going to Europe in January. Liam loved hearing about it. The success of her business was a source of personal pride to him, since he had advised her and helped her get it off the ground. She was making a very decent living from it.

  They lingered over lunch and went for a walk afterward. They compared plans for New Year’s Eve. Liam and Maureen were staying home, and their girls wanted to have friends in, to have dinner and dance. Kate said she’d been invited to a party by one of her celebrity clients, but she said she hated going out on New Year’s Eve, and was thinking of staying home too.

  “Everyone tries too hard that night. I’d rather watch old movies.” She had a collection of them that he always said he wanted to watch with her, but never did. They saw each other at lunch, and only rarely in the evening. It always gave Liam a new lease on life and new energy when he saw her, and she gave him good advice about their girls, since she had been there not that long ago when her kids were the age his were now, in college.

  She kept the shop open till seven on New Year’s Eve, because it was always a busy day for them, when women hadn’t found a dress for that night anywhere else, and showed up at Still Fabulous in desperation, and often found something perfect for whatever party they were going to. They made their last sale at six-thirty that night, an exquisite Dior gown in white satin and black velvet that looked as though it had been made for the woman who bought it. And shortly before, they had sold a gold Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress that Kate had been tempted to buy herself when it came in. It was pure glamour, and looked like melted gold on the woman who took it home, with a white fox jacket from Revillon. She was young and looked like a movie star from the fifties. Kate loved selling clothes to women who looked magnificent in them. It was like matchmaking, to find the right clothes for the right woman.

  When she locked up the shop and turned the alarm on, she felt like she’d done a good day’s work. She walked home as it started to snow, and she was suddenly glad she had declined the dinner party she had been invited to. She was delighted to be staying home. And she already knew which movies she was going to watch. She wanted to see Rear Window again, and there was an old Cary Grant movie, To Catch a Thief, she wanted to watch too. They were perfect for New Year’s Eve.

  Julie had said she was having a few friends from work over for dinner, mostly her interns who were young designers. Justin had told her that he and Richard were staying home or maybe going to a neighbor’s for dinner. And she knew that Izzie and Zach were going to East Hampton. God only knew what Willie was doing, but she was sure he’d be with a pretty girl to see in the New Year. And her mother would probably be dancing the tango in Buenos Aires. Her plans were always the most fun of all. She never spent New Year’s Eve in New York and always managed to be someplace fun. She had been in Brazil the year before.

  —

  Zach and Izzie drove out to East Hampton in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve, just before it started snowing. And an hour after they got to his grandmother’s house, there was already a light blanket of snow on the ground. It looked beautiful and made the house seem even more inviting. They had decided to cook dinner at home, and Zach found a bottle of Cristal in the wine cellar, which he put on ice for them. Izzie had brought a small tin of caviar to surprise him. He had luxurious tastes, and it was fun to indulge him. Despite his unconventional look, he still had a fondness for the luxuries of his childhood. They had the caviar and champagne before dinner, and Zach made steaks. Izzie set a pretty table for them with his grandmother’s linens and china. The housekeeper was away for the weekend, and the caretaker was in his separate cottage, so they were alone in the house. It was a perfect New Year’s Eve, which suited them both, and far different from the last two she had spent alone in her apartment, crying in front of the TV as she watched the ball fall in Times Square. It was amazing how life could change. For the past four months, her life with Zach had been like a dream.

  They were tucked in bed at midnight, after they had made love. And Zach poured them each a glass of red wine. It was a very old Château Margaux he had brought up when he found the Cristal they’d had before dinner.

  “Should we be pillaging your grandmother’s wine cellar?” she asked him guiltily, as he handed her the glass and laughed.

  “She’ll never know the difference. There’s a lot more downstairs,” he said easily. The house she was letting him use for the winter added a whole other dimension to their life. Izzie had never had a country house before, and they spent every weekend there.

  He kissed her after they took a sip of the wine, and gently took the glass from her hand and set it down on the bedside table. She thought he was going to make love to her again. He was tireless, and a very skilled lover. But instead he kissed her and looked into her eyes with a serious expression.

  “I have something to ask you,” he said gently. “You make me so happy, Izzie. I’ve never known anyone like you, and I’ve never felt like this in my life.”

  “Neither have I,” she said honestly. She had a wonderful time with him, whatever they did. At times, she felt like they were living in a bubble, and she hoped it would never burst.

  “I love you so much,” he whispered. “Will you marry me?” For a moment she thought she had dreamed the words, but when she looked at him, she knew that what he had said was real.

  “Are you serious?” she asked, feeling dazed. She had never expected that.

  “Yes, I am. I wish I could give you a ring, but I can’t right now. All I have to give you is my heart, and the rest of my life with you.”

  “That’s all I need,” she said in a husky voice filled with emotion. “I love you too.”

  “Let’s get married soon. I don’t want to wait.” It was almost as if they were already married. They hadn’t been apart in four months, except when she went to work. Every other moment they were together.

  “I don’t want to wait either,” she said, smiling, as she lay back against the pillows, and then he made love to her to make it all seem real to both of them.

  She fell asleep in his arms that night, dreaming of the life they would share. When she woke in the morning, he was still sound asleep, holding her in his arms. And it was a winter wonderland outside. He opened an eye as she looked down at him and stroked his hair. She had never seen a man as beautiful in her life, and now she belonged to h
im. She had never been happier.

  “Were you drunk last night?” she asked, grinning at him, feeling as though she was about to float away with joy.

  “Why? Did I say something weird?” He looked blank as he asked the question, and then they both laughed.

  “Very weird. I think we’re engaged, Mr. Holbrook.” He rolled over on his back with a self-satisfied expression when she said it.

  “As a matter of fact, I think we are. Are you going to call your mother and tell her?” He looked as though he liked the idea.

  “I think I’d rather tell her in person when we go back to the city.”

  “What do you think she’ll say?” He looked vaguely concerned, but not very. He had liked her family when he met them, although they were as square as she said, but they had their little individual quirks too.

  “I think she’ll be happy for me,” Izzie said about Kate. “She knows how unhappy I’ve been.” Izzie was suddenly glad that her previous engagement hadn’t worked out. If it had, she would never have met Zach and fallen in love with him. Or she might have met him anyway, but he would have been a client and nothing more. And now that she knew him, she realized how ideally suited they were to each other. They were a perfect match, although she would have never expected it, given how different their early lives were. His in the lap of luxury, hers working her way through college and law school, to help her mother. But her childhood had been a lot happier than his. And she wanted to make that up to him now. She wanted to make him ecstatic and feel loved for the rest of his days.

  Zach called his grandmother and told her the news, and he reported to Izzie that she was delighted for him. And he called his father and found him in Aspen. They talked for only a few minutes and Zach looked disappointed when he hung up. His father said he was busy, congratulated him briefly, and said he was rushing out to meet friends and would call him soon. It was the usual short shrift he was used to, and he didn’t call his mother, since he had no idea where she was.

  They spent an idyllic weekend, and threw snowballs at each other when they went for a walk. They played like children, and much of the time, Zach acted like an overgrown boy. Izzie got serious for a minute when they were making dinner, and asked him what he was going to do now.

  “About what?” He looked confused.

  “Zach, you really need to find a job. It’s not good for you not to work.” She wanted to make it clear that he needed to contribute to their life too. She was keeping the cash drawer full and paying for everything else. It was a lot. He spent money like water.

  “I’m not sure what I can do. Other than play polo and bridge. I play tennis and ski. I was a race car driver for a while, but I don’t have a car. I don’t have any marketable skills. I could be a tennis teacher, but you don’t want me to do that, do you?” he said disapprovingly. “And I’d feel like an idiot going back to school. It’s a little late for that at my age.”

  “You need to figure something out, just so you have something to do.” It was the most honest conversation they’d had about it. But it mattered now, if they were getting married. While they were just dating, she’d felt awkward spelling it out to him.

  “Is it that important to you?” he asked her and she nodded.

  “I think it’s important for you too. You’ll feel uncomfortable being around people who work, when you have nothing to say about what you do.”

  “I don’t care. I told you, no one in my family has ever worked.”

  “Everyone in mine does,” she said directly. “And I think it would impress your trustees.”

  “Oh, that.” He laughed at her. “How will I keep my role as black sheep if I get a job? They’d be worried about me.”

  “They might actually let you have some of your money. That would be nice for you.”

  “I guess it would,” he said as though it was a novel idea. “I’ve kind of stopped thinking about it.” But she couldn’t keep funding their cash drawer, although it was awkward to say so. “I’ll think about it,” he said vaguely. And then dinner was ready, and he changed the subject, and they talked about their plans to get married. “Do you want a big wedding?” he asked her, and she shook her head immediately.

  “Just my family, and a few friends. I’ve never wanted a big wedding. Just a husband I love, and who loves me.”

  “We’re all set then.” He beamed at her.

  “What about you?” Izzie asked gently.

  “Not my family. My grandmother is too frail now after her stroke. My mother wouldn’t come. She gave up on me years ago. And my sister is too screwed up to go anywhere. Maybe my father would, but I don’t know. And I’ve moved around a lot, and I’m not sure you’d like my friends.” She hadn’t met any so far. All he wanted was to be with her. He was a man without possessions, encumbrances, or deep ties to anyone. Everything he owned fit into two suitcases, one of which was in East Hampton, and the other in her apartment in New York. The blending of their two lives would be very simple. “I’d like to take you to Palm Beach to meet my grandmother soon, though. She’ll love you, and think I’ve finally done something right.”

  “I’d love to meet her,” Izzie said sincerely. They spent a quiet night, and talked about when they wanted to get married. Izzie liked the idea of the first of May. Zach was disappointed that it wasn’t sooner, but a four-month engagement would give her time to plan a small wedding with her mother. They made a list of who they wanted to invite, and it came to about thirty people, which seemed like enough to both of them. They didn’t want more.

  When they got to the city, Izzie dropped him off at her apartment, and went to see her mother. She was at the shop, going through one of the storerooms, trying to make order out of chaos after the holidays. She couldn’t believe how much they’d sold.

  Jessica told Izzie where to find her, and she went upstairs to locate her mother. Kate looked surprised to see her.

  “What are you doing here?” She smiled broadly at her oldest daughter.

  “We just got back from East Hampton a little while ago. I have something to tell you, Mom.” She said it with a serious expression, and Kate emerged from the racks of clothes to take Izzie to her office so they could talk.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No.” Izzie smiled at her. “On the contrary. Zach and I are getting married. He proposed to me on New Year’s Eve.” She looked ecstatic, and Kate felt her heart sink.

  “Isn’t that a little soon? How long have you two been dating?” She knew it hadn’t been long, since sometime in the fall, which Izzie didn’t tell them until November. And now she wanted to get married.

  “Four months. I know it’s short, but we’re both old enough to know what we’re doing. And I’ve never loved anyone as much in my life. We want to get married in May, so that would be an eight-month courtship.” She was trying to sell it to her mother. Kate was so stunned she didn’t know what to say for a moment. And Izzie was right, they were old enough to make their own decisions. But this seemed like a bad one to Kate. They were too different. He was a spoiled rich boy, and he had no education, and no career. In Kate’s opinion he was not the kind of man Izzie should marry. The odds weren’t great for success.

  “How is he going to support you?” Kate asked her quietly. “He doesn’t have a job.”

  “He has to work that out. He said he would.”

  “Why don’t you wait until he does?” Kate said, as her heart slipped further into her shoes. This wasn’t the kind of man she wanted for her oldest daughter, or for any of them. Izzie needed a man who was her equal. But the one who seemed to be her equal had betrayed her and broken her heart. And just as Izzie’s grandmother had said, Zach was a rebound. But a very dangerous one, in Kate’s opinion. And Izzie couldn’t make it up to him for his unstable childhood. You couldn’t replay history about things like that.

  “We don’t want to wait. We know we love each other. That’s all we need to know, Mom. We’ll figure out the rest as we go along.”

 
; “That’s a hard way to start out.” Kate felt like she was fighting for air as she said it. “You need to have some real plans. And he needs to have a job, or you’ll lose respect for him.”

  “My respect for him is based on who he is as a human being, not what he does for work.” She had almost forgotten by then how she had met him, and that he’d been dealing drugs. But fortunately her mother didn’t know any of that.

  “Why don’t you wait awhile, and see what he does? Why the rush?”

  “Why wait at our age? He’s staying with me now. It’s like being married.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s like dating. There’s a whole lot more to marriage than meets the eye. You both need to be on firm footing when you start out. You have a solid career, but he needs a job.”

  “He’s going to get one,” Izzie said, looking irritated. “Is that all you care about?” She made it sound trivial, although his lack of a job bothered her too.

  “I care about your happiness, Izzie, you know that. But I also want to see you married to a stable person, who is going to help you build a solid life. I don’t want all the responsibility on you.”

  “It won’t be. He’s a strong man, Mom, and he wants to do his share. He just doesn’t know yet how he’ll do it.”

  “Well, he’d better start figuring it out. And why the big rush to marry in May?”

  “We want to be married so we can start our life together. We’d get married sooner, but I figured you’d want the time to plan a wedding. We only want a very small one,” she reassured her. She didn’t expect her mother to create miracles in four months. “We’re going to do it whatever you say,” Izzie said stubbornly, “so will you give us your blessing?” Izzie’s eyes pleaded with her and Kate wanted to say no. The last thing she wanted to give her was her blessing. But Izzie had spelled it out very clearly. She was going to marry him no matter what her mother said. But Kate believed it wouldn’t work. Every ounce of her being was silently screaming “No! Don’t do it!” But Izzie was giving her no leeway. She had made up her mind. And she didn’t want to hear anything her mother had to say. Kate wondered what her own mother would think. They had been in agreement before she left that Zach wasn’t the husband for Izzie, only a hot date. And now she wanted to get married.