The Complete Legacy Series: Books 1 - 6

by Paula Kay

  “Well…” She grinned at him, feeling excited to tell him about the decisions she’d made.

  “Yes?” He grinned back. “You look like someone who has really good news.”

  Isabella nodded. “I do, yes. I’ve just come from speaking with my grandparents about staying on a bit longer.”

  “Oh, yeah? That’s great, Isabella.”

  “Thanks.” She loved that she felt he was genuinely happy to hear the news. “So I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

  “I’m sure that I’d be happy to. What do you need?”

  “Well, I think that you said everything about the trust has been set up now; is that right?”

  “Yes, that’s right. It’s all there in your account now ready for you to use.”

  “Okay, great. I want to fly my parents out as soon as possible. Well, I still need to talk to them but my grandparents have said that they’d love to have them here.”

  “That’s wonderful. I’m sure that they’re quite welcome. It will be great for the others to meet the people responsible for the lovely woman you’ve turned out to be.”

  “Thanks. Can you help me with the tickets? I’d like to fly them first class.” Isabella was beyond excited because she knew that it was just the beginning of what would be many plane tickets she’d be purchasing very soon, and also the first of many things she planned to do for her parents.

  “Of course. I’ll call the travel agent that we use here. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

  “Also…”

  Isabella felt oddly fine asking the question that would have seemed crazy even a month ago.

  “Yes, what it is, my dear?”

  “Well, this seems a little frivolous but I’m trying to adjust to this idea that I can actually splurge a little bit.”

  Douglas smiled, instantly putting her at ease. “Of course you can. Your mom would have wanted that. I promise you that.”

  “Okay. So, I’d like to rent a convertible for while I’m here.”

  “Say no more. I know just the place and can have one over here for you in the morning.”

  “Perfect. Thanks, Douglas.”

  He nodded his head.

  “For everything, I mean. It’s clear to me that you meant a great deal to my mother and I want to be sure that you know how much everything you’re doing—how much you and everyone mean to me.”

  Douglas got up to come around the desk and Isabella stood to give him a big hug.

  “Well, you mean everything to us also. It’s completely my pleasure to help you with anything you need. Gigi and I will be heading back to the orphanage soon, but we’re always only a phone call or a text away. And you must come visit us. We’d love to have you and I think you’d like it there. The children will adore you.”

  Isabella loved it when Douglas spoke about the kids and the orphanage. His face seemed to light up and there was a certain energy about the way he talked that made her want to see more into this little world that he and Gigi talked so much about.

  “I’d love to come. And I am definitely adding that to my list of places to visit.” She winked at Douglas.

  “Oh, so there’s a list now, is there?” He laughed.

  “Oh, there’s a list alright.”

  Chapter 31

  Isabella had excused herself after a very festive dinner. Everyone was very pleased to hear that she was staying on for at least a few more weeks. She hadn’t even had a chance yet to talk to Jemma about her real plans, and she was anxious to hear her thoughts about everything that had been on her mind. They’d made a lunch plan for the next day, and by then Isabella thought that she might have an even clearer picture of how the next few months were going to go.

  There were two things that she needed to do before she moved forward with her plans. She’d already e-mailed Ms. Carlson, and she felt confident enough now to call her parents.

  She took a deep breath before pulling up the number on her phone, recognizing that she still felt slightly nervous even though she was sure about her decision. She did notice, though, that throughout her decision-making process, she’d not felt that anxious upset stomach at all—not for one second. She took this as a sign that everything she was doing was exactly the right thing for her. And she reminded herself that everything was going to be new for her parents. The daughter calling them now was not exactly the same daughter that had left them over a week ago.

  “Hello? Iz? Is that you, honey?” It was her father’s phone that she’d called, and hearing his voice in her ear made her smile.

  “Hi, Dad. Is Mom there too? I miss you guys.”

  “We miss you too, honey. Yes, let me get Mom—one sec.”

  She heard him call for her and seconds later, sounding slightly breathless, her Mom was on the phone too.

  “Honey, we’ve got you on speaker phone. Oh, it’s so good to hear your voice. We miss you and can’t wait for you to come home.”

  Isabella wouldn’t let the words deter her from the message that she needed to deliver.

  “I miss you guys too. Really. But that’s some of what I want to talk to you about.”

  She felt a quick pang of something slight but reminiscent of the anxiety that she knew well. She took another deep breath and willed it away.

  Just be honest, Isabella.

  And she smiled. What she was doing was good. It was the right thing for her. She was sure of that.

  “Go on, honey. But you’re making me feel nervous to hear what you’re going to say,” her mother said.

  “Don’t be nervous, just please hear me out, okay?”

  “Okay, Izzy. Go ahead,” her father said.

  “I’ve decided to stay here in Italy longer, but I want to fly you guys out. Lia and Antonio—and everyone here—want to meet you, and you can stay here at the villa. And the cost is no problem. Douglas made sure that the trust is all lined up now and before you say no, just please let me tell you everything.” Isabella stopped to catch her breath, and the silence that followed for several seconds was deafening to her.

  Please understand.

  “Iz, how long are you talking about staying?”

  It was her mom asking the question and Isabella definitely detected something in her voice—fear, maybe.

  “Well, I need to tell you guys that I’ve decided to defer my enrollment at Harvard. I’ve asked Ms. Carlson, my high school guidance counselor, to help me with everything, but from what I can see, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  She thought that this was the best way to break the news to them, but deep down she didn’t know if it was true that she’d ever be attending Harvard. She knew about not closing doors though, so deferment was the obvious best choice anyway—until she had more of an idea of what her year was going to look like.

  “Honey, are you sure that’s what you want? What are you going to do for the year?” her father asked.

  “I have some ideas, but really, Dad, I’d love to be able to share that all with you guys in person. Please say that you’ll come for the visit. I can get you on a flight as early as next week. I know it’s late notice but if you can make it work with your schedules—really, I need to talk to you about work. Maybe you guys don’t even need to be working so hard now—now that I have all this money just sitting in my bank account and—”

  “Isabella, don’t even talk like that. It’s your money.” Her mother was quick to interrupt her, and Isabella wasn’t surprised that they’d have strong feelings about what she should and shouldn’t do with the money.

  “Mom, it’s a lot of money. You know that it is. More than I could ever spend, really. But we’ll talk more about it. Right now, I just—I really miss you both. I want to do something nice for you and I want to see you. And I just know that you’re going to love it here. I’m sorry. I know it might seem kind of weird to meet everyone but I really think that everything will be fine—more than fine.”

  There was silence again on the other end of the line and then Isabella
could make out the whispers between her parents.

  “Honey, we’d love to come see you. Of course we will. But we can get our tickets. Don’t worry about that,” her father said.

  “No, really, Dad. I think they’ll be expensive to get them last-minute like this and I—just let me get them please. I want to do this for you.”

  More whispers, and then it was her mom’s voice. “Okay, honey. Sure. And I can’t wait to see you—and Italy for the first time.”

  They continued to talk about the upcoming trip, and finally Isabella heard excitement in their voices. She was actually shocked at how well her news about deferring school had gone over, even though she knew that there would still be more discussions to come about that. They promised to take care of getting the time off work right away, and Isabella said she’d be sending them the details for the tickets within the next day or two.

  This was a big hurdle overcome—maybe one of the biggest for her.

  Chapter 32

  Jemma talked a mile a minute when she was excited, and Isabella especially loved this about her new friend. They settled in at the outside table of the little trattoria and ordered their pizzas, Isabella excited to share more of her plans.

  “Bella—so can I call you that? Or no? Sorry. Just tell me.”

  Isabella laughed. The nickname still felt a little strange but she’d decided that it was something that she was going to officially accept.

  During the drive over, she’d told Jemma about the letter, not leaving anything out. It wasn’t necessarily usual for her to share something so personal, but she trusted Jemma completely. She’d shared a lot with her new friend over the past few days.

  “Yes, you can call me what you like.” Isabella was really enjoying the easy banter that they’d seemed to develop so early in their friendship.

  “So, I can’t wait to hear what you’re thinking. Tell me everything.”

  Isabella laughed and thought about where she should start. After she’d spoken with her parents the night before, she’d received a very enthusiastic e-mail back from Ms. Carlson assuring her that she’d be able to help her take care of the deferment request. Ms. Carlson had written that she was proud of Isabella for making the decisions that she’d made and absolutely ecstatic about the plans that Isabella had described to her.

  Isabella pulled Arianna’s folded map out from the large tote bag beside her and laid it on the table.

  “So, there’s something that I’ve not shared with you yet. It’s something I’ve only really shared with Thomas.”

  Isabella had told Jemma all about her best friend back home, already anxious for the day that he and Jemma would meet.

  “Oh, do tell.” Jemma grinned as she took a sip of her coffee and settled back into her chair.

  “For as long as I can remember, I’ve had these big travel dreams, collecting ridiculous numbers of travel books that it seemed I’d never use.” She noticed the question on Jemma’s face. “I mean, just ridiculous in the sense that they’ve been sitting in my closet, and for whatever reason I seemed to have this intense fear of flying.”

  “A fear that you’ve overcome.” Jemma grinned.

  “Exactly.” Isabella smiled and looked down at the folded map she’d laid on the table in front of them. She folded back the side that showed what Arianna had marked off in Europe. “So, now that I’ve fully embraced this idea that my mother left me this vast amount of money, I’ve been thinking more about my future and what I might really want. The thing is, Jemma—I honestly don’t know if I want to become a lawyer. It feels kind of weird to say that because it’s all that I’ve told myself for so many years.”

  Jemma was nodding her head, and everything on her face told Isabella that she was one hundred percent getting exactly what Isabella was saying.

  “Jemma, what if I take this journey that Arianna—that my mother—never got to take?”

  Isabella couldn’t stop the tears from coming. From the moment she’d unfolded the map and realized what it was—realized that she and her mother had shared this same dream to travel the world—she knew that she would do it.

  She’d take this magnificent trip of a lifetime, not only for herself, but for Arianna. When she’d read her mother’s wishes for her in the letter, she knew that it was the one thing that she could do to honor those wishes and honor the memory of a mother who’d loved her so much.

  Jemma’s eyes were teary now too as she listened to Isabella and watched her cry.

  Finally Isabella wiped away the last of her tears, ready to focus on the other point of the conversation that she’d wanted to have with Jemma. “You’ve mentioned that you want to travel too, and I just thought that maybe this would be something cool we could do together—something I think my mom would have really loved. Jemma, do you want to join me?”

  She watched her friend’s face in anticipation as Jemma’s grin only got wider.

  Jemma laughed. “It’s as if you read my mind. I had the exact same thought when we were looking at the map the other day, but I didn’t want to assume anything—and I had no idea if you really wanted to travel. I’ve been thinking about a trip.”

  “You have?”

  “I’ve been so inspired painting here in Tuscany. I’ve imagined how it might be to travel and just focus on my art.”

  “And I’ve been having the same thoughts about—”

  “—Your writing!” Jemma interrupted. “Oh, I bet you’d be so inspired. We have to do this, Iz. Yes, I’m so down with this idea.”

  They both laughed, and Isabella had the thought again of how lucky she was to have these new people in her life who had so quickly become her friends.

  “There’s so many places I want to see, including everything my mother had already mapped out, and of course you can add to that list as well. And we can always start with Europe as sort of a test—and just go from there.”

  Jemma was nodding her head

  “We’re gonna have a lot of fun planning this, aren’t we, Jem?”

  Jemma laughed. “I can’t wait. Oh, and we can meet up with Thomas if you want. I’m sure he’s gonna freak out when you tell him your plans.”

  “That’s for sure. I wanted to talk to you first, but yeah, he’s gonna be beside himself.”

  They ate their lunch and then spent hours poring over the map and adding places to the list in the notebook of ideas that Isabella had already started.

  Chapter 33

  Isabella stopped just inside the doorway to the outside patio, not yet noticed by everyone seated around the big table. It was their last dinner all together before her parents left in the morning.

  Emily and Richard had been able to get away from work for a week and the time had gone way too fast. Isabella had been right in her decision to invite them, and as she’d anticipated, her parents seemed just as taken with everyone as Isabella had been. It had been fun touring Tuscany with them and they’d also made a quick trip to Florence and the coast.

  Isabella loved watching them all interact—this extended family that she’d inherited.

  Her parents sat next to Lia and Antonio at one end of the table, her mom’s and Lia’s heads close together looking at what Isabella guessed were pictures on her mother’s phone.

  Douglas was so sweet with Gigi. Isabella smiled as he pulled her down on his lap while she seemed to be attempting to make her way back toward the kitchen.

  Blu and Chase were deeply involved with whatever Jemma was showing them on her sketchpad, and Gabriela and Kylie were giggling as they put away their card game at the other end of the table.

  Isabella felt that if she stood there one more moment looking at the scene in front of her, her heart would burst from contentment. She’d never imagined a time in her life when she’d feel this complete or this sure of herself.

  Lia looked up and her eyes connected with Isabella’s. “There she is. Come sit here with us.” She scooted over so that Isabella could sit between her and Emily. “Dinner’s ready.”
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br />   Isabella made her way over and sat down.

  “Honey, I was just showing Lia the pictures from our trip.”

  Isabella leaned over to kiss her mom on the cheek. “You got some really good shots during the drive, Mom.”

  Her mother nodded. “Your father and I are jealous of all the gorgeous scenery you have in your near future.”

  “And slightly nervous to think about you girls driving here on your—”

  “Dad.” Isabella interrupted him, the tone of her voice stern, but she was smiling. “You know we’re going to be fine. Jemma and I are both excellent drivers.”

  Jemma grinned from across the table when she heard her name. “Don’t worry, Mr. Dawson. We’re going to take great care of one another.”

  “We’re not worried,” Isabella’s mother said. “Well, okay. Maybe just slightly worried, but I know you kids will be fine.”

  Isabella had told her parents her full plan the day after they’d arrived in Italy, and she’d been completely shocked at how well they’d handled everything. The support that they were giving her about her plans to travel and write was beyond any best-case scenario that she could have imagined. They loved it that she and Jemma would be traveling together, rather than Isabella being on her own, especially after they’d now spent some time with Jemma.

  All eyes went toward Antonio as he stood up at the head of the table to lift his glass of wine in a toast.

  “To the Dawsons—Emily, Richard, and our darling Isabella. May this be the first of many wonderful times that we spend together. It’s been wonderful having you in our home, which we would love for you to consider as your home now too.”

  “Cheers,” rang out from around the table.

  Everyone raised their glasses, and Isabella’s father was the next to speak.

  “Thank you for having us—and for making this time so special for us—but more importantly for making it so special for Isabella—for welcoming her into your families and your lives.”