Against All Odds

by Danielle Steel

  “That would be truly wonderful,” Kate said, sounding thrilled. “I can’t thank you enough. What good luck for us that you sent it.”

  “I hope your daughter enjoys it!” Both women hung up feeling touched by the hand of fate, and Kate turned to her daughter with a broad smile as she wiped her eyes.

  “It’s yours,” she said, beaming at her as Izzie’s eyes grew wide and she threw her arms around her mother’s neck.

  “Oh my God, I love it! Wait till Zach sees me in it. I didn’t think I wanted a vintage gown, and it doesn’t get more vintage than 1920, but it’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen.” She felt like a queen in it…and a bride. And it looked as though it had been made for her. It was Izzie’s dream dress. And all Kate could wish as she looked at her daughter’s radiant face was that she were marrying a different man in the spectacular dress. But this was what her daughter wanted, and she had to accept her choice of both, the man and the dress.

  —

  A week after they chose Izzie’s wedding dress and the location for the wedding, Bernard Michel came back to town, with a more detailed proposal. Kate met with him and Liam to discuss it. Because of Liam’s expertise, she always relied on him to advise her on financial matters, and she trusted him completely.

  The meeting was serious and took place at Bernard’s hotel, in his suite. He was staying at the Four Seasons this time, on the forty-eighth floor with a dizzying but amazing view. Liam was very pleased with their discussions, and so was Kate. Everything Bernard was suggesting to enhance her business and expand it made sense. It would never have occurred to her on her own. And as soon as someone had mentioned her remarkable shop to him, he had known that an online store would develop it exponentially, and be profitable for all involved. As they left the meeting, Liam told her that she had a good chance of making a great deal of money from the plan.

  “A lot of money,” he said as they shared a cab to go back downtown. Liam didn’t live far from her, in Tribeca. It allowed them to take walks together sometimes, to catch up on news, when they hadn’t had lunch together for a while, if either of them were too busy. They talked animatedly about the new project, and Bernard was sending the proposal to her lawyer. If all went well, she would be able to sign it soon, and move ahead. She was going to call their online shopping business Fabulous on the Net.

  She was surprised to hear from Bernard that night after she got home, when she was reading over her notes from the meeting. There were a couple of points she wanted to ask him about and had forgotten, so she was pleased he’d called. She went over them with him, and then he lingered on the phone, asking her what she was doing and how she spent her time when she wasn’t working. She laughed and said she worked all the time, and occasionally saw her mother and children when they had time. And she was delighted that the Internet component to her business was going to keep her very busy while she set it up.

  “Would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?” he asked her casually. She had enjoyed their meal at La Grenouille before, but didn’t expect him to take her out to fancy dinners as part of the deal, and said so. He laughed. “Don’t be so American, Kate,” he chided her. “Everything in life isn’t about business. Can’t a man take a beautiful woman out for dinner, without it being about work?” She was surprised by what he said.

  “I suppose so,” she said pensively, but she couldn’t see why. He lived in Paris, she lived here, and the deal was almost done. They had nothing crucial left to discuss, until the papers were signed and she got started setting it up. “That’s very nice of you.” She sounded almost shy. She hadn’t had a real date in years, and didn’t think of him as one. She didn’t like mixing business with romance, and never had. She had clear boundaries about things like that, just as she did with Liam, and so did he. They were friends. And Bernard was now a business associate, although he had brought her a terrific proposal and she was grateful for that.

  “Is there someplace casual you enjoy? It would be nice to have a relaxed evening.” She knew he had other meetings planned while he was in New York, and he had said as much to her.

  She suggested Da Silvano, if he liked Italian food. It was easy, relaxed, downtown, and the pasta was great. And the owner was always there himself, which kept everyone on their toes.

  “Perfect. I’ll make the reservation and pick you up at eight, if that works for you.” He sounded warm and friendly, and she couldn’t tell if he considered it a date. She hoped not. But there was no harm in being friends if they were going to have a business alliance. She was planning to keep it to that, in case he had any other ideas.

  He was wearing slacks and a blazer and a heavy coat when he picked her up at her apartment the next day, in a town car with a driver. At the restaurant, they were shown to a table, and Bernard ordered wine for both of them. He looked happy to see her, and was funny and good company as they chatted and ordered dinner. He wasn’t overtly seductive with her, but she had the feeling all night that he was courting her as a woman, not trying to get to know a business colleague better. And then he startled her with what he said as they ordered coffee and agreed to share a dessert.

  “I don’t know if it matters to you, Kate, but I want to be open with you. Technically, I’m married. Legally. But not in any real sense anymore. We haven’t been for years. We have an arrangement which is fairly common in France. It’s too complicated to get divorced and separate investments and properties that have been entwined for so long. So she leads her life, I lead mine. We’re cordial when we meet. We see the children separately, we have different friends. She’s like my sister now.” Kate had heard of those arrangements and wouldn’t have wanted one herself. But whatever worked for him was his business, and not hers. He didn’t need to explain it to her, and she had noticed immediately that he didn’t wear a wedding band, which most European men did, if they were married. “I just wanted you to know,” he continued, “so you don’t feel awkward if we spend an evening together. I enjoy your company. I’d like to see more of you while I’m here.” He was so direct about it that she was startled. No one had said anything like it to her for a long time, and never with a Continental flavor, explaining that he and his wife had an “arrangement,” and that even if he was legally married, he actually wasn’t in any real sense. He certainly had made his situation clear.

  “She doesn’t mind that you go out with other women?” Kate asked him as directly as he had been with her.

  “We don’t ask each other those questions,” he said discreetly. “It’s not my business what she does, nor hers what I do. We stayed married for the children, and now because it’s less financially complicated. The spirit of our marriage died years ago.”

  “How sad for both of you,” Kate said sympathetically, and meant it. She had been madly in love with Tom. And her parents had loved each other to the end.

  “Not really,” Bernard said comfortably. “It happens. In the States, people get divorced when the love affair is over. In France, people are more practical. We try to keep the family intact, in form anyway, and divorce is less familiar to us. It’s a Catholic country, and divorce came very late. Most of our friends have the same arrangement we do. Some have mistresses who are almost like wives.” He made it sound normal and acceptable, and almost desirable, as Kate listened.

  “I’m not comfortable dating a married man,” she said clearly, while he nodded and appeared to agree.

  “Most Americans aren’t. But I would like to see you for dinner when I’m here. Would you be amenable to that? Like tonight?” She felt silly objecting to it. He had been totally proper and good company and she smiled at him as the waiter brought their dessert.

  “That’s fine,” she said, and he made her laugh with stories about his children, work, and life in Paris, and some of his travels around the world. “You’d love meeting my mother. She loves to travel and she’s a character. She just got back from a month of tango lessons in Argentina. Last year she learned the samba in Brazil. And she’s
been studying Mandarin for a year, for a trip to China this summer. She makes the rest of us look boring by comparison.”

  “I’d love to meet her, and your children,” he said enthusiastically, and then she told him about Izzie’s wedding and how unhappy she was about it, since tonight was personal not business and he had told her so much about himself and his marriage. “We can’t control our children. My daughter in medical school has a boyfriend we all hate. He’s a dreadful, rough, uncivilized person, and she’s been with him for five years, with no sign of marriage fortunately. And my son lives with a woman we don’t like either. They have two children, but have no plans to marry. The children are very sweet, two boys. That’s common in France too, particularly now. Many of my friends’ children have children but don’t marry. I try not to say too much to my children, but it upsets me too at times.” Listening to him, Kate wasn’t sure what was better, staying married and cheating on your wife, or never marrying and having children out of wedlock. Both sounded dubious to her, and less than ideal. And then she thought of Justin and Richard, who were doing the same thing, with a surrogate no less.

  “My son is having a baby too, in August. And he’s not married.” She didn’t mention that he was gay, and didn’t know how Bernard would react to two unmarried men having a child. Despite their sometimes loose morals, the French were fairly conservative, although normally in the States she never hesitated to say she had a gay son who lived with his partner.

  “I can’t see you as a grandmother,” Bernard said with an appreciative look, and she laughed.

  “Neither can I. I’m not sure I’m ready for that.” She hadn’t even thought of it that way yet. For the moment, it was Justin’s baby, not her grandchild. It was a somewhat daunting prospect.

  They continued to chat long after they finished their coffee and he paid the check, and then he drove her home, and looked at her warmly before she got out of the car.

  “I really enjoyed tonight, Kate. Even more than last time. I can’t wait to see you again when I come back, in about a month.”

  “I’m hoping to come to Paris sometime in February, on a buying trip.”

  “Be sure you let me know before you come. I would love to see you there.” As he said it, she remembered his “arrangement,” and assumed his seeing other women really wasn’t a problem. He had a totally free and easy style, and clearly didn’t feel married. And he felt single to her too that night. None of his stories and anecdotes included his wife. He was a free agent, except on paper, and she felt totally at ease with him.

  He kissed her on both cheeks then, and she got out of the car, and let herself into the building. He watched until she was safely inside, waved, and then they drove away, as she went back to her apartment, thinking about him. He really was a nice person. He had done something wonderful for her business, was great to work with, and now she had a new friend. Thinking about all of it gave her a new lease on life. And she was smiling to herself as she took a bath, and went to bed. She had had a lovely time with Bernard.

  Chapter 10

  On the night before Valentine’s Day, there was a huge snowstorm in southern Vermont. Justin and Richard had invited friends over for dinner, and canceled at four o’clock when the roads became nearly impassable. And when the snow stopped and the temperatures dropped later that night, there were sheets of black ice on the road, and warnings on TV for people to stay home.

  They went to bed early, and were sound asleep when the phone rang at three A.M. Justin answered, and was groggy at first when he listened, and then sat bolt upright in bed.

  “How is she? Is she all right? What happened?” Richard came awake as he listened, and thought instantly of Justin’s grandmother in New York. They had had heavy snows there too, and all the way down the Eastern Seaboard to Washington, D.C. “Can we see her?” Justin asked in a shaking voice. “When will they know? Is she bleeding heavily?” Justin’s eyes were closed, and Richard gently touched his shoulder to reassure him. A moment later, Justin hung up, and turned to Richard with a look of panic.

  “Grandma Lou?” Richard asked and Justin shook his head.

  “Shirley. They were in a car accident. Jack’s mother fell at home and broke her hip, and they drove to the hospital to see her, and their truck skidded on the ice. They hit a tree, they’re okay, but she has a concussion, and she started bleeding a little while ago. It’s too soon to know what’s going to happen.” She was two and a half months pregnant, the most vulnerable time for miscarriages, and it didn’t sound good to either of them. “They’re doing a sonogram now, but they can still hear a heartbeat. The nurse said she can bleed and still not lose it. Shirley told her to call us.”

  “Can we see her?” Richard asked as he got out of bed and grabbed his jeans on the chair where he’d left them.

  “Yes,” Justin said, looking devastated. “Do you want to go? It’s dangerous as hell out there.” The night was freezing and the air crisp, the temperature was below zero, and the ice on the road would be lethal.

  “I’ll drive slowly. Do you want to stay here?” he offered and Justin looked shocked.

  “Of course not. Are you crazy?” They both dressed in five minutes, put on their warmest clothes, and walked gingerly out to their car, praying it would start. Justin shoveled a path while Richard tried to warm up the car. It failed to turn over a few times, and then sputtered to life, and they let it warm up for a few minutes, and then drove slowly out of their driveway. Richard was at the wheel, and they inched along, barely going five miles an hour, and trying to avoid the patches of ice they could see. They skidded once, but Richard regained control of the car. It took them half an hour to get to the hospital, which should normally have taken five minutes, and Shirley was still in the emergency room when they got there. She looked pale and shaken, and had thrown up from the concussion. She smiled wanly at them when they arrived and then started to cry.

  “I’m really sorry, guys,” she said as Justin’s heart nearly stopped, thinking she had already lost the baby.

  “Did you?…Is it…” he asked in a choked voice, and the nurse intervened.

  “Nothing’s happened, and the sonogram was fine. The fetus is fine, and the heartbeat is normal. Shirley is just a little shaken up.” She put a warm blanket on her, and the two men retreated to the waiting room, not to disturb her. She told them that Jack was being treated for a broken nose he had sustained from the air bag. The one in the passenger seat had hit Shirley hard too.

  Justin and Richard sat in the waiting room for four hours until seven-thirty in the morning. Shirley had been taken to a room by then, they said she was still spotting, but nothing further had happened. They were still there at noon, waiting for news, when a female resident came to see them. She was smiling, which they took as a good sign.

  “She’s doing fine. The bleeding stopped, but we’re going to keep her till tomorrow, just to be on the safe side. I think the baby will be okay. We told her to stay in bed for a few days, until everything settles down again. She got a hell of a jolt, but babies come through worse than that sometimes and make it.”

  “Thank God,” Justin said as he exhaled. They went to see Shirley in her room then. She looked tired and pale, but she said she felt better, except for a headache. She had no cramping, and as the resident had told them, the bleeding had stopped, and had never been major.

  “I’m so sorry. My mother-in-law broke her hip, and I thought I should go to the hospital with Jack. He was driving really careful too, but we hit a patch of black ice he didn’t see, and hit the tree.”

  “I’m glad it wasn’t any worse for either of you,” Justin said generously, relieved about the baby. “Can we do anything for you?”

  “I’m fine. I was just scared for the baby when I got here and started bleeding.”

  “So were we.” Justin smiled at her, and then left her to sleep. They went downstairs to the gift shop and bought magazines and a teddy bear for her. And they stopped at the florist on the way home and s
ent her flowers. And then they went home and climbed back into bed, and lay talking to each other. It had been a terrifying night, and they had both been sure she’d lose the baby, and were grateful she didn’t. Justin called Julie that afternoon and told her about it, and as always she was sympathetic. She couldn’t wait to be an aunt. And she was still disappointed they weren’t having twins.

  They drove Shirley home from the hospital the next day, since Jack’s truck was in the shop, badly damaged from when he hit the tree. Shirley seemed much better than she had the day before. Her sister-in-law had taken her children, and she promised to stay in bed for a few days, although the doctor had said she didn’t have to, if she felt all right and took it easy. But she promised to humor Justin and Richard. And Jack was staying home from work too.

  And more than anything, it had reminded Richard and Justin how fragile life could be, and how much they wanted the baby.

  —

  Kate went to Paris, as she had told Bernard she would, in February. She treated herself to a room at the Meurice, and set out to explore all her favorite haunts to find top-quality vintage and used clothes, among them the auctions at the Hôtel Drouot, and all the little shops she had been visiting for years all over Paris. She found a few interesting items on the first day, went for a walk along the Seine, and had a cup of tea at a café. She called Bernard the day after she arrived. They had signed the final papers on their deal the week before, and when she called him, he insisted they had to celebrate. He suggested dinner at Le Voltaire, which was one of her favorite restaurants in Paris. The small, elegant bistro had been the favorite place for chic Parisians and members of the fashion elite for many years. He picked her up at her hotel and drove her there in his Aston Martin. He had looked very dashing when he stopped and got out of the car at her hotel. He seemed more subdued in New York. He looked delighted to see her when he hugged her, kissed her on both cheeks, and helped her into the car. They sped off a moment later. The weather was beautiful, and felt almost like spring, which was unusual at that time of year.