Family Ties

by Danielle Steel

  “You’re amazing!” he said happily, and unlike Harry Ebersohl, he wasn’t worried about the cost. He just wanted something that would impress his friends and the women he wanted to date. And better than that, Annie was going to give him a home. She promised him a delivery date of nine months. And they stood on the terrace together looking out at Central Park as it started to snow.

  He was forty-five years old, and one of the richest men in New York. He was looking at Annie with interest, as she talked to him about the apartment. She was completely oblivious to the way he was looking at her. Any other single woman her age would have been doing her best to charm him, but she was always professional with her clients. All he was to her was a job. It made no difference to her whatsoever that he had a yacht in St. Barts and his own plane. She was interested in the apartment, not the man. Annie was friendly but totally businesslike in her manner. He suspected that she had a husband or boyfriend, but he didn’t dare ask.

  Annie left an hour after she arrived. She promised to send him plans within two weeks and wished him a happy Thanksgiving. She was totally clear on what he wanted and what she was going to do for him. He told her he was leaving for Aspen that night, to spend the holiday with friends. And he stood at the window, watching the snow fall on Central Park after she left.

  The apartment was silent and empty when Annie got home, just as it was every night. It was so different now than when the children still lived there. There were none of Kate’s clothes on the floor, strewn around the living room. Ted’s TV wasn’t on. Liz wasn’t dashing in and out, brandishing a curling iron, late for whatever she was doing, with no time to eat. The fridge wasn’t full. Kate’s briefly vegan meals weren’t left all over the sink. The music wasn’t on. Their friends weren’t there. The phone didn’t ring. The house was empty, neat, and clean, and Annie still wasn’t used to it, even three years after Kate had left for college. Annie suspected that it was a void she would never be able to fill. Her sister had given her the greatest gift in life, and time had slowly taken it from her. She knew that it was right for them to grow up and leave, but she hated it anyway, and nothing made her happier than when they came home.

  She went out to the kitchen and started organizing things for the next day. She had just stacked the good plates on the kitchen counter, getting ready to set the table, when she heard the front door slam and what sounded like a load of bricks being dumped in her front hall. She gave a start at the wall-shuddering sound and stuck her head out the kitchen door, as Kate dumped her backpack on the floor where her books lay. She had an enormous artist’s portfolio in one hand and stood grinning at Annie in a black miniskirt, a black hooded sweatshirt with a shocking pink skull on it, and silver combat boots that Annie knew she had found at a garage sale somewhere. She was wearing black-and white-striped tights that made her look like a punk Raggedy Ann, and her short jet-black hair stood up all over her head. What saved the whole look was her exquisite face. She came bounding across the living room and threw her arms around Annie’s neck. The two women hugged as Annie beamed. This was what she had lived for, for sixteen years.

  “Hi, Annie,” Kate said happily, then planted a kiss on her cheek and bounded toward the fridge. The look of bliss on her aunt’s face said it all.

  “Am I happy to see you! Are you vegan this week?” Annie teased her.

  “No, I gave it up. I missed meat too much.” She helped herself to a banana, sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, and smiled lovingly at her aunt. “Where’s everyone?” she asked as she peeled the banana and stuffed a chunk of it into her mouth. The way she did it made her look about five years old instead of twenty-one.

  “Ted should be here any minute. And Lizzie is coming tomorrow. She’s bringing Jean-Louis.” Katie looked unimpressed, went to get a CD out of her backpack, and put it in the machine that had been silent since the last time she’d been there. It was one by the Killers, which sounded like the rest of her music to Annie.

  “I got a new tattoo, wanna see?” she asked proudly as Annie groaned.

  “Can I still ground you at twenty-one?” Annie asked as Katie pulled up her sleeve to show off a colored Tweety Bird on her forearm. “You should get one too,” Kate teased her. She knew how much her aunt hated them. “I designed it myself. I did some designs for the tattoo parlor, and they gave me this one for free.”

  “I’d have paid you double not to do it. How are you going to feel about having Tweety Bird on your arm when you’re fifty?”

  “I’ll worry about it then,” Kate said, looking around the familiar kitchen, and obviously happy to be home. “I’ll set the table,” she volunteered. And when Annie went to get the tablecloth out of a drawer in the dining room, she saw Katie’s belongings spread all over the front hall. It looked good to her. The house was much too pristine without them. She loved the mess, the noise, the music, the funny hair, the silver boots. It was everything that she missed.

  They were setting the table together when Ted walked in half an hour later. He was wearing a heavy parka, a gray crew-neck sweater, jeans, and running shoes and had come straight from school. His hair was short, and he was clean shaven, a tall, handsome boy with dark hair and light gray eyes. He looked preppy and wholesome and of no possible relation to Katie, with her wild clothes, row of pierced earrings, and brand-new Tweety Bird tattoo. She showed it to him, and he made a face. The girls Ted went out with were always blond and blue eyed and looked like his mother and aunt. It was hard to believe that he and Katie had grown up in the same house.

  He gave his aunt a warm hug and turned the TV on to a hockey game. He didn’t want to miss the end. They ordered pizza for dinner, and the three of them laughed and chatted at the kitchen table when it came. Ted talked about law school, and Annie showed them some of the work she’d brought home in her portfolio, and it was very good. She had real talent. The TV and music were both on. The table was set for Thanksgiving, and as Annie looked at the two young people in her kitchen, all was well in her world. Katie’s things were still in a heap in the front hall at midnight, when Annie finally picked them up and took them to her room. There was a time when she would have complained about it and scolded Kate for the mess she made. Now it warmed her heart to see it, and she was just happy to have them home.

  Chapter 3

  Annie was up before dawn the next morning, moving silently around the kitchen, as she made the stuffing, put it in the turkey, and then slid the huge bird into the oven. She checked the dining room, and the table she and Katie had set the night before looked lovely. She was back in bed by seven, and decided to get a little more sleep before they all got up. She knew that Ted and Katie would sleep late.

  Annie managed to get two more hours’ sleep before her friend Whitney called and woke her at nine.

  “Did I wake you? You’re lucky. The boys have been driving me crazy for the past two hours. They’ve already had two breakfasts, the one I made them, and the one they made themselves.” Annie smiled when she heard her and stretched in her bed. She even slept better when the kids were home. She could no longer imagine what her life would have been like without them. Whitney always said that without her two nieces and nephew, Annie probably would have been married and had kids of her own. Annie wasn’t as sure. She might have just concentrated on her career. Since Seth, no Prince Charming had ever come along. At least not so far. Just a few men she had gotten briefly involved with but never fallen in love with. And within a short time the relationships had fallen apart. She had too much else to do to devote herself to a man, and their existence in her life always interfered with her main commitment, to her sister’s children. There had been no room for them and a man too. “Are all three of them home?” Whitney asked her.

  “No, just Ted and Katie. Liz is staying with her boyfriend.”

  “Is this one serious?” She would have loved to have a daughter and envied Annie the two girls. All her boys wanted to do was play sports. She missed having a daughter to fuss over, but hadn’t dared t
ry again for fear of having a fourth son, and always said that that much testosterone under one roof would have done her in. Three sons and a husband were enough for her.

  “He looks like all the others,” Annie said, referring to Jean-Louis. “He commutes between New York and Paris, and Liz works so hard she doesn’t see him much. She’s focused on her career.”

  “Guess who she takes after,” Whitney teased her. “You’ve set a lousy example to these kids. It’s about time you gave them a healthy role model and found a guy.”

  “I keep writing my name and phone number in public bathrooms, but no one calls.”

  “That’s pathetic. Fred has a friend I want you to meet. He’s a really nice guy. A surgeon. Why don’t you come on New Year’s Eve? He’ll be here.”

  “That’s not a night for blind dates. Besides, I don’t want to leave the kids.” It had been her battle cry for years.

  “Are you kidding? They’ll probably all be out with friends. They don’t want to spend New Year’s Eve with you. At least I hope not.”

  “I don’t know their plans,” Annie said vaguely. She didn’t want to meet a stranger on New Year’s Eve. It would be too depressing. Annie had had too many blind dates over the years, and none of them had panned out. Friends had been fixing her up with losers for years.

  “Well, keep it in mind, because they’re going to ditch you for their friends, I promise. I’d be surprised if they didn’t. You can spend the night with us.” Whitney and Fred gave a New Year’s Eve party every year, but it was never fun for Annie. Everyone was married, except for the creeps they set her up with. And as much as she loved Whitney, and had for years, being the wife of a doctor in New Jersey didn’t make for an interesting social life. Annie always wound up feeling like the odd man out at Whitney’s parties, or a freak for being single at forty-two. People just didn’t understand how busy she had been for all those years. And now that the kids were grown up, she was busy with her business. She had no time to go out looking for a man and no longer really cared.

  “You’ve done what you promised your sister. Now give yourself a break. Come to New Year’s Eve.”

  “I’ll let you know,” Annie said vaguely. She had the unpleasant feeling that Whitney was going to insist. She usually did. “So who’s coming to Thanksgiving?” she said, trying to change the subject and distract Whitney from her own nonexistent personal life.

  “The usual suspects. Fred’s sister and her husband and kids, and his parents. Her twins destroy my house. You’re lucky yours are civilized and grown up.”

  “Believe me, I miss the stage you’re at with yours,” Annie said nostalgically, with a wistful tone in her voice.

  “You just don’t remember what it was like. God save me from teenage boys.” Whitney sounded rueful, and they laughed. “I’ll come in for lunch next week. And I want you to think about New Year’s Eve. He’s a great guy.”

  “I’m sure he is. I just don’t have time.” Or the desire to meet another one of Fred’s dreary friends. They just weren’t fun, and there was no reason to think that this one would be any different. They never were. If she was going to fall for a man, Annie wanted it to be someone great. Otherwise, why bother? She had decided years before that she’d rather sit home alone than go out with a dud, just for the sake of going out. And everyone tried too hard on New Year’s Eve and drank too much, including Fred. Whitney thought he walked on water, which was nice. Annie’s role models for relationships were her late sister and brother-in-law, who had been madly in love until the end. She didn’t want less than that for herself or even for their kids. She had talked about them a lot to their children over the years, and there were photos of Jane and Bill everywhere. She had kept their memory alive for all of them.

  Annie got up to go check on the turkey, and Ted wandered in a few minutes later in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, looking like an overgrown boy. At twenty-four, he was a handsome man, like his father. And when she checked, the turkey was looking good and turning brown.

  “Do you need help?” Ted offered, as he poured himself a glass of orange juice and handed one to his aunt.

  “I think I’m fine. You can help me carve.”

  “That’s good. It’s great being here. I get tired of living with three guys at my apartment. They’re all such slobs.”

  “Like your sister,” Annie said with a rueful smile as they sat down at the kitchen table.

  “Actually they’re worse than Kate.” Ted grinned.

  “That’s scary,” Annie said, as her younger niece walked into the room. Her spiky hair was standing up straight, and she was wearing a flannel nightgown with skulls all over it.

  Annie made them both scrambled eggs and then basted the turkey, as the two young people thanked her for the breakfast and devoured it.

  “It’s nice to be home,” Kate said happily, as Annie smiled at her and leaned over and kissed her.

  “It’s nice for me too,” Annie said softly. “This place is a tomb without you.”

  “You need to meet a guy,” Kate said firmly, and Annie rolled her eyes.

  “You sound like Whitney. She says hi by the way.”

  “Hi to her,” Kate said easily, and then Annie saw that she had Tinkerbell on the other forearm.

  “What is that?” Ted commented with a look of disapproval that his sister was familiar with. “A tribute to Disney?”

  “You’re just jealous,” Katie said, and then put her plate in the dishwasher. “I think Annie should get a tattoo. It would give her a whole new look.”

  “What’s wrong with my old look? Besides, it would scare my clients.”

  “I’m sure they’d love it,” Katie insisted. “Don’t listen to Mr. Clean here. He wouldn’t know style if it bit him on the ass. He’s stuck in 1950. Leave it to Beaver.”

  “That’s better than the cartoon fest on your arms. What’s next? Cinderella or Snow White?”

  “I think I should get an eagle on my chest,” Annie said pensively, as Katie grinned.

  “I’ll design it for you if you want. You could do a butterfly on your back. I did a great one for the tattoo parlor last week. They’ve already used it for two people.”

  “There’s a career goal for you,” Ted commented drily. “Tattoo artist. I’ll bet Mom and Dad would have loved that.”

  “What do you know?” Kate looked annoyed by the comment. “Maybe they would have thought law school was boring. They had more pizzazz than that.”

  “They would have been proud of you both,” Annie intervened in the discussion, and basted the bird in the oven again. “We should probably get dressed.” It was eleven o’clock by then.

  “No rush. Liz will be an hour late and act surprised. She always does,” Katie commented.

  “She has a lot to do.” Annie defended her.

  “She just can’t tell time. Who’s she bringing?” Ted asked with interest.

  “The photographer she’s dating. Jean-Louis.”

  “Oh. A frog. He can watch football with me.”

  “Lucky guy,” Kate teased her older brother. “Football is such a redneck sport.” Ted looked murderous for a minute, and then he laughed. Katie had known how to get his goat ever since she could talk, and it was no different now.

  A few minutes later they all disappeared to their rooms and emerged again at noon. Ted was wearing gray slacks, a blazer, and a tie and looked heartbreakingly like his father to Annie. They were almost clones. And Katie looked like a more dressed-up version of herself. She was wearing a black leather miniskirt, a black fur-trimmed sweater that Annie had bought her, and black tights and high heels, and she’d put gel on her hair to spike it more, and wore makeup, which she rarely did. She looked beautiful, while still being faithful to her very individual style. And Annie was wearing a soft brown cashmere sweater-dress and high heels.

  It was nearly one o’clock when Liz walked into the apartment. She was wearing black leather pants, a white Chanel jacket, and towering high heels. Her blond hair was pull
ed back in a sleek bun, and she was wearing small diamond earrings that she had borrowed from the shoot, and they were glittering fiercely on her ears. The man who walked in behind her looked like a homeless person she had picked up on the street. He was wearing torn sneakers, jeans with holes in them, and a black hooded sweatshirt with holes in it too. His uncombed hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he had a beard. He was smiling and relaxed as he walked into the room, and he had brought flowers for Annie. His manners were impeccable, and his appearance was totally out of sync with Liz’s. She looked like one of the models from the magazine, and he looked like he had been shipwrecked for a year. And his French accent lent charm to his appearance. He kissed Annie and Katie on both cheeks and shook Ted’s hand. He was personable and friendly, and within minutes, they all forgot how he looked. He was one of the most successful young photographers in Paris, and in great demand in New York. He didn’t seem to care at all about what he wore, nor did Liz. She was obviously happy to be with him, as Annie silently wished her niece didn’t have a weakness for men who looked like that. They all stood around the kitchen while Ted carved the turkey, and then they sat down in the dining room, as Kate lit the candles, and Liz and Annie brought in the food. It was a feast. And by the time they got up from the table, they could hardly move.

  “I think it was your best Thanksgiving ever,” Ted complimented Annie, and she beamed. The turkey had been perfect. She had improved her culinary skills over the years, mostly by trial and error.

  Ted turned to Jean-Louis then and invited him to watch football with him. The young photographer was only a few years older than Ted but was far more sophisticated. He had talked about his five-year-old son at dinner. He had never been married to the boy’s mother but had lived with her for two years, and they had remained friends. And he said he saw the boy as often as he could. He was planning to spend Christmas with him. And Liz was meeting Jean-Louis in Paris the day after. She had a major jewelry shoot there after the first of the year, and she was going to spend a week with Jean-Louis between Christmas and New Year’s. Annie was intrigued to hear he had a son and wondered how Liz felt about it, but she didn’t seem to mind. It seemed so grown-up for Liz to be dating a man with a child. But she was old enough to take it on if that was what she wanted. Annie wasn’t quite sure. Liz seemed no more serious about Jean-Louis than she had about the look-alikes who came before him. And he seemed no more serious about her, although he was very flirtatious with her, and Annie found them kissing passionately in the kitchen. She suspected the relationship was about sex and enjoying each other’s company. It made her feel old to see it. And for a moment she wondered if Whitney was right. Annie had put that part of her life away on a shelf and forgotten all about it. But it seemed like too much trouble to remember. Those games belonged to youth. Watching Jean-Louis and Liz suddenly made her feel ancient. She had traded her own youth for surrogate motherhood to her sister’s children. Even now it seemed like the right thing to do, and a fair trade, and she didn’t regret it.