The Complete Legacy Series: Books 1 - 6

by Paula Kay

  “That’s so great. I knew that you’d be spectacular. Every young girl is going to want to be wearing ‘black-n-blu’. It’s so incredibly exciting. So how is everything with you and Chase? And Jemma? How’s my favorite little girl doing?”

  “Well, Jemma’s fine. You won’t believe how big she’s gotten. And she’s turned into a bit of terror, I might add. Well even more so than the last time you saw her.” Blu laughed, but in actuality Jemma’s behavior lately had been really bothering her. She had to get organized with her new busy travel schedule and how to handle that with Jemma. Thank God for Victoria, who had gladly taken Jemma for the few days that Blu would be in New York busy with the show. Jemma had no complaints about Blu’s being gone as long as she was able to spend the night with her best friend Claire. Blu made a mental note to pick up a nice gift for her friend for doing the huge favor.

  “And Chase?”

  Blu could hear the question in her friend’s voice. They’d learn to tread lightly with one another. Blu had watched Lia go through a lot during the beginning of her relationship with Antonio, and she’d tried not to interfere too much. On the other hand, they both wanted the best for one another. Blu knew this and she also respected the fact that Lia knew about the walls she’d put up when it came to men. It was something that she’d been working on, but she still had a long ways to go.

  “Things with Chase are fine.”

  “Do I hear a but?”

  “No but, just—you know—taking it slow.”

  “Okay. Well, you have been seeing him for awhile,” Lia said.

  “We have, yes. But it’s only recently, really, that we’ve started talking about anything resembling a relationship. In terms of being exclusive and all.” Blu really didn’t feel up to having this conversation at the moment, and was trying to think of how to get out of it without showing her annoyance. “How’s everything there? How’s the restaurant?”

  “Good job changing the subject.” Lia laughed and Blu knew that the conversation about herself and Chase would be let go for now. “Thyme is doing very well. Busy as ever since the write-up in the travel magazine a few months ago. I can hardly handle all of the business. But it’s a welcome problem. We’ve hired more people, and it’s a lot of fun being in the restaurant every day. I really do hope that you and Jemma can come to visit again soon. We miss having you here.”

  “Oh, I would love that. Well, with the shows I have scheduled in Europe, that is a very strong possibility. We’ll have to look at our schedules and see what we can coordinate.”

  “It’s so great to talk to you. And Blu…I’m so excited for you, for all of the opportunities. I can’t help but think how happy Ari would be for you.”

  Blu detected the wistfulness in Lia’s voice.

  “I know. I’ve been thinking a lot about her these past days. It’s hard not to, because none of this would have happened if she hadn’t believed in me. If she hadn’t gotten things started for me. I owe her a lot,” Blu said.

  “I think you just need to worry about being happy. Whatever that means for you. Well, we both know that it’s what Ari wanted for us.”

  “Yep, you’re right.” Blu peeked over her shoulder at the party going full swing inside the glass doors. “And on that note, I guess I better get back inside this party.”

  Lia laughed. “Oh, so I interrupted you at a big party? Why didn’t you tell me? Somehow I was imagining you sitting in your PJs in the hotel room, drinking a bottle of wine.”

  Blu laughed. “Those were the days, huh? I guess I’m going to have to learn how to schmooze a little better now. Thanks again for calling, Lia. I can’t wait to see you.”

  “Me too. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

  Blu put her phone away, checked her hair quickly in her small mirror, and took a deep breath before heading back inside. She’d stay for one more glass of champagne, and then…The idea of PJs in her hotel room suddenly sounded perfect to her.

  Chapter 2

  Blu listened to her message from Chase again as she made her way by taxi to the airport. He was sorry that he’d missed her the other night, and was really looking forward to making her a nice dinner upon her return. She didn’t believe him. She couldn’t stop the thoughts from entering her mind—that he was seeing other women, sleeping around—that he was just too good to be true.

  She knew that she was in dangerous territory. Something that she hadn’t allowed for much of her adult life. Men were not to be trusted. If there was one thing that she’d learned, that was a fact. She’d seen a lot of bad situations when she was younger, and every single one of them had involved a handsome man. Her stomach lurched, as her thoughts turned back to the interview and what any type of media exposure could mean for her.

  But as much as she’d tried to push Chase away, he kept coming for her with his endearing smile and handsome good looks. And the food. God, the food. Whoever said that food was the way to a man’s heart didn’t understand how amazing it was to be dating a male chef. She adored Chase’s cooking and loved to watch him prepare meals for her and Jemma in the kitchen. It was the first thing that she’d loved about him, after that smile, when she and Jemma first met him as Arianna’s chef at the beach house. She smiled as she thought about how funny Arianna would find it that all of her matchmaking had worked, years after her death. First Gigi and Douglas, then by some incredible miracle Lia and Antonio, and finally herself ending up with the man Arianna had called Chef Cutie-Pie the first time that they’d both met him. Time would tell, but in any case, she’d have Jemma tonight, which reminded her to give Victoria a quick call.

  Jemma and Claire had become best friends during their first year of school together, and Blu was delighted to find Victoria, Claire’s mom, not at all like many of the other pretentious wealthy parents from Jemma’s new private school.

  Blu hadn’t had many good girlfriends in her life, Arianna being the one real exception, and the fact that she was almost immediately able to be herself with Victoria meant a lot to her. It was good to know someone in the area; the move from San Francisco to San Diego had been an adjustment for both her and Jemma, even though everything about the beach home that Arianna had left her was absolutely life-changing.

  She waited for Victoria to pick up the phone on the other end.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, it’s Blu. Just checking in on my way to the airport. How’s everything? How’s Jemma, and is she behaving herself?” Blu laughed, knowing that the young girl really could be a handful at times. Thank God that Claire seemed to be a good influence on her, always on her best behavior, exhibiting the manners that she’d been taught from a young age.

  “Jemma’s great. The girls are just up in Claire’s room doing makeovers on one another.” Victoria laughed. “They’ve already raided my closet and make-up drawers several times, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I’ll call for Jemma in a minute, but first I’m dying to hear how the show went. Tell me everything.”

  Blu smiled at the genuine interest in her friend’s voice. Considering how closed off she was to relationships, she sure did have an amazing small circle of extremely supportive people in her life. Chase included. Even if she was unwilling to allow herself to admit it, she knew that it was true. She’d been lucky the last few years in that regard.

  “Everything was so great. The show could not have gone better. I’ll fill you in more when I see you, which is partly why I’m calling. My flight gets in around seven o’clock, so I thought I’d come straight there to pick up Jemma.”

  “The girls were actually asking me if Jemma could spend one more night. There’s some kind of movie marathon on TV that they want to watch together, I think. It’s fine by me if it’s okay with you,” Victoria said.

  “Hm, well, Chase did mention something about wanting to cook me dinner tonight—”

  “Say no more.” Victoria cut her off. “Done. You need a night with that handsome man of yours. And I say that you need to close the deal on tha
t one.” Victoria laughed.

  “Not happening tonight for sure,” Blu said and laughed, knowing that her friend was referring to the fact that the two of them hadn’t slept together yet. Blu had her reasons for wanting to wait. She definitely wasn’t going to go there, allowing herself to feel so vulnerable, until she felt a lot more confident in their relationship. But she did think that they needed to spend time together, to talk about the other night. She was sure that she’d been right about her concerns and needed to see his face when he answered her questions.

  “What am I going to do with you? You apparently don’t know a good guy when he is right in front of your nose. I’m serious, Blu. He’s one of the good ones,” Victoria said, and for some reason Blu felt that she was speaking a certain amount of truth.

  “Well, we’ll see. I’m not counting him out yet, and in any case, thanks for keeping Jemma another night. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled,” Blu said, suddenly missing the child something fierce.

  “Speaking of…someone wants to talk to you—”

  “Hi, mom,” Jemma said into the phone.

  “Hey, kiddo. Are you being good or did you just rip the phone out of Mrs. Banks’ hand?”

  Blu heard Jemma’s muffled apology on the other end of the phone. “Okay, I just told her I was sorry. When are you coming home?”

  “I’m on my way to the airport right now.”

  “Is it okay if I spend the night with Claire? Please? Mom, we are dying to see this movie marathon that’s on, and I promise that I’ll spend the whole day with you tomorrow. Please, Mom?”

  It was only just recently, and only with Claire, that Blu had relaxed just a bit when it came to who Jemma was allowed to hang around. She’d spent so many years being careful that learning to trust her at Victoria’s house had been a big deal at first. Lately, she had really relaxed though, and the time apart seemed to be doing both herself and Jemma some good.

  “Yes, you can. I’ve already talked about it with Claire’s mom. But you have to promise me that you’ll be on your best behavior, okay?”

  “As always,” Jemma said, and Blu imagined the child batting her thick long eyelashes up at her.

  Blu laughed. “And I’m going to hold you to your promise for tomorrow. I’ll walk over to pick you up at ten o’clock and we’ll plan to spend the day together at the beach, deal?”

  “Deal—”

  “I missed you, kiddo,” Blu said into the silence, now, at the other end of the line.

  “Sorry, they’re off and running.” Victoria laughed.

  “It’s okay. I’m actually pulling up to the airport right now. Thanks for keeping Jemma while I was here—and for everything. You’ve been really amazing. I’ll have to see if Chase can cook for the four of us one of these nights.”

  Victoria laughed. “Or we could actually go out for a meal and give the poor guy a chance to relax and be served for once.”

  Blu laughed too. “Oh, he loves cooking for us. Trust me. He wouldn’t do it if that weren’t the case.”

  “Whatever you say. Have a good flight, and we’ll see you in the morning. And have a good night with Chase.” Victoria added with a last laugh before hanging up.

  Chapter 3

  Settled into her comfortable seat in first class, Blu took out her phone for one final time before take-off. She’d been stalling on returning Chase’s phone message, and finally just decided to send him a quick text.

  About to take off. Will call you when I land. Dinner sounds great if you are still up for it.

  Short and to the point. She wondered briefly if he was angry at her for not calling him back. It took a lot to make him mad. In the ten months they’d been together, she’d only really seen him angry one time, and in retrospect he’d had every right to be upset.

  They had been going out for a couple months and had a nice dinner planned. Victoria’s husband had taken the kids to see a movie, and Blu and Victoria had gone out for a late lunch, which turned into numerous late-afternoon drinks—which turned into Blu’s getting home very late after ignoring all of Chase’s texts and phone calls, well past the time he’d scheduled the dinner at his place. Finally, concerned that she’d been in an accident, he had shown up at Blu’s door, waking her from a passed-out stupor, something that really wasn’t very common in Blu’s usually quite sensible world.

  Blu had lost her mind with anger that he was so upset. Every single wall had come up, and she couldn’t handle his concern or his blaming her for her lack of respect and of just plain common courtesy.

  After that night, Blu learned that Chase was not someone to be toyed with as she had done in the past with some of the men she’d dated. He didn’t like being treated poorly, and if that was what she thought of him, he was having none of it. Yes, he liked her a great deal; yes, he could see a potential future there and was interested in getting to know her better, and no, he was not interested in playing games. Period. End of story.

  It had taken a few days for Blu to realize that he meant everything that he’d said that night, and she spent a great deal of time convincing him to give her another chance, another occurrence that was not common for her.

  Yes, they’d come a long way. As she thought about his anger that night and his words about respect, she wondered if maybe she was judging him too harshly now. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to screw this up. She was trying to trust him, to make a real effort in this relationship.

  She let her thoughts turn towards everything that had happened during her time away in New York and the success of her runway show. She still couldn’t quite believe how well it had gone. Reading the paper that morning, she was stunned at the reviews that she’d received. No one had anything negative to say about her work, and all of the critics were calling her the next big designer to hit the States.

  Arianna had made so much possible for her. Not just with the house and money that she’d left her in the will, but all of the contacts and things that she’d put into motion before she died. Douglas and Gigi had told her later that Arianna had spent hours talking to people and showing them the pieces that Blu had made for her over the years. Her best friend had believed in her ever since she was sewing from her small corner stool in the cramped living room of her San Francisco apartment. Blu smiled, remembering all the good times they’d shared together in that tiny little apartment.

  She owed a lot of her success to Arianna. But even as she had the thought, she knew it wasn’t quite right. Arianna would have hated taking credit for anything, and especially where Blu was concerned. Finally Blu had been forced to accept some help from her friend, and when it came into her life she had struggled against it for quite some time, finally realizing that there was more than just herself to think of. She had Jemma to think of too, and her daughter deserved much more than Blu had been able to give her, not just in terms of monetary things, but in terms of the amount of time that Blu hadn’t been able to spend with her. Working two jobs at once before coming home to sew for half the night did not leave her energetic and happy around a small child. So she’d finally taken the leap, moving into the huge beach house in La Jolla to begin a new life for her and Jemma.

  She’d not regretted a single day since then; she’d not really second-guessed the move until now. Until that interview last night, she thought. God, it really was just a matter of time. She took a deep breath, wondering who she could trust and what her next move was going to be. She knew that she’d been taking a chance making her work public, but what choice did she have, really? It was either that, or just let the dream die. In the end, she’d gone forward thinking of Jemma. And now, ironically enough, it might be the very thing that had the power to destroy them.

  She willed herself to close her eyes and take a much-needed nap. She knew that she had a long evening ahead of her, assuming Chase was still up for dinner. She owed it to both of them to be as clear-headed as she could be. And she was anxious to see him. She surprised herself with this thought as she drifted off to sleep.
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br />   Blu phoned Chase as she waited for her luggage. She wanted to make it a quick call so that she could also return the message that Gigi had left her. He answered on the second ring, sounding a bit out of breath.

  “Hi, babe.”

  Blu smiled when she heard his voice and the term of endearment that he’d just started using with her lately.

  “Hey yourself. Are you running down the beach, or why are you so out of breath?” she teased.

  He laughed. “I’m just cooking you the most delicious seafood dinner that you’ve ever had.”

  “Oh, is that right?” God, she really couldn’t wait to see him, to be in his arms for the kisses that he lavished on her so generously.

  “That is absolutely right. I’ve missed you, monkey.”

  Another pet name—that he’d given her one night after an especially energetic game of charades with Jemma.

  “I’m on my way right now. Well, about to get in a cab. Shall I come straight to your place?”

  “Yes, please. Do we need to pick up Jemma?”

  Blu loved the sweet relationship that had developed between her daughter and Chase. For all that Jemma was unused to having a guy around, she’d grown close to him very quickly; and although Blu had had her reservations, she could see that he’d seemed to have had a positive effect on her daughter’s life.

  “Nope. She’s staying at Claire’s for one more night,” Blu said, wondering what reaction the simple statement would get from Chase.

  “Oh, is she now?” She imagined his teasing smile as he asked the question.

  “She is. And not to disappoint you, but I’m trying not to be dead tired—so I’m not sure how long I’ll last tonight.”

  She didn’t know when she’d be relaxed enough to spend the night with him. He’d certainly asked her to on plenty of occasions, or at least whenever Jemma happened to be spending the night at her girlfriend’s, which was often these days. She didn’t think tonight would be the night, though. As much as she enjoyed their flirty banter on the phone, she still had her doubts about the unreturned phone call from the night before. She tried to push the thought out of her mind.