“You sound breathless. Where are you?” Jean sounded a little drunk.
“I’m at the airport…in Las Vegas…”
“You go, girl!” Jean said, beaming. Finally, something decent was happening in someone’s life. She was so pleased, she gave Fred a kiss on the cheek when she hung up.
“What’s that for?” he asked with a look of surprise.
“Because you’re cute, and I love your credit cards. Happy New Year,” she said, and he laughed.
“I love you, Jean, even if you are expensive as hell.” They went downstairs for dinner then, and he told her how nice she looked. She told him she should, her dress had cost him a fortune and was Lanvin. And they had a very nice dinner together.
By then, Stephanie had checked into the Wynn and had called the concierge. It was nine o’clock.
“I need a ticket for Chase Taylor’s show,” she said, sounding desperate.
“I have two seats left for tomorrow’s show at eight,” he said primly.
“I need one seat tonight, the eleven o’clock show, as close to the front as possible.”
“I’m sorry, we can’t—” he started to say, and then paused. “I have a comp seat that someone is selling for five hundred dollars.”
“That’s disgusting of them,” Stephanie said disapprovingly. “People who get comp seats should never sell them. They were a gift. But I’ll take it. Put it on my bill.”
“Of course.”
An hour later, she bathed, did her makeup, brushed her hair, and put on the jumpsuit. Pedro was eating sliced turkey, and seemed to like the room, and had slept on the plane. And at the last minute she took him when she left the room. She put a sweater over her arm to hide him, and was at the theater at ten to eleven. It was the same theater where she had seen him perform for the first time, which seemed fitting, and an usher took her to a seat in the front row, and never noticed Pedro, who went to sleep on her lap. He still had his sweater and Santa hat on.
The show began fifteen minutes late. It was the opening band that had replaced Bobby Joe, and they were better than he was. She didn’t see her son anywhere, and assumed he was backstage. And at twenty to twelve Chase came on, looking spectacular in black leather jeans and a black leather shirt she had bought him. He looked more beautiful than ever, and she just prayed he still wanted her. They had been apart for two months. The theater was pitch black as he started, and he opened with “The Country Boy and the Lady,” which she recognized immediately as one of the ones he had written to her. The audience was mesmerized and went wild when he finished. The fans were more excited than usual tonight, it was New Year’s Eve, they’d had a lot to drink, and Chase was more on than she’d ever seen him. He connected with his audience and was electric on stage. He warned everyone as midnight approached and timed it perfectly. He sang one of his biggest hits as midnight ticked closer, and she quietly left her seat, holding Pedro, and approached the stage. Fans had already pressed closer, and a rim of people were standing right beneath him as he sang, and then as though he sensed her, he looked down, and saw her gazing up at him in the shiny black jumpsuit, with Pedro in her hands. At first all he saw were her eyes, and he almost stopped singing, and then sang right to her. He sang his heart out, and as the song ended and the clock struck midnight, she held Pedro up so he could see him, and he burst out laughing, and then told the audience that the next song was to the woman he loved. Stephanie just stood there and watched him. It was a beautiful song she hadn’t heard yet. And his eyes never left hers as he sang it to her, while she watched him with all the love she felt for him in her eyes. The audience cheered at the end of the song, as an usher touched her shoulder and whispered to her.
“Mr. Taylor would like you to come backstage now.” He had taken a sip of water and must have signaled someone, and she followed the usher to the stage entrance, and into the wings, where Michael was standing, waiting for Sandy. His eyes grew wide when he saw his mother, and then the dog, and he grinned.
“I’m glad you’re here, Mom,” he whispered and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m not so sure about Pedro though.”
“I told him I’d spend New Year’s Eve with him,” she whispered back, and they watched the rest of the show, both of them proud of the people they loved. His eyes never left Sandy, and she was listening to Chase with her eyes closed.
The applause at the end of the show was thunderous. He did four encores, and when the curtain came down, he came to find her, waiting for him, and holding the dog.
“That is the ugliest dog I have ever seen,” he said, smiling at her. He looked like a man who’d been starving, and had just seen his first meal in two months. “I love you, Stevie. That’s all. I love you.”
“I love you too. I’m sorry I’ve been so stupid and took so long to figure it out.”
“You okay now?” he asked her, checking it out. He wanted to know now. The last two months had been the worst in his life.
“I’m fine,” she said, looking straight at him. “I’m not bringing you a damn thing except me, and the fact that I love you with all my heart, if that’s good enough…and Pedro, of course.”
“That’s all I ever wanted,” he said as he pulled her into his arms, put the dog down, and kissed her with all the force of the last lonely two months, when he had been terrified every day that he’d lost her. “I may have to get back to you about Pedro, though. I’ll have to discuss that with Frank and George.”
“Tell them we’re a package deal,” she said, as he looked at the Santa hat on the ridiculous dog with the blond mop of hair and laughed.
“Jesus, I love you, woman,” he said, as they walked toward his dressing room, and he smiled when he saw the bracelet on her arm. “You scared me to death.” Pedro was following them as though he knew this was where he belonged.
“I scared me too. But it’s okay now. I found my way back. Thank God you still want me,” Stephanie said softly.
“That was never in question,” he said as he kissed her again, and Michael and Sandy were smiling at them from the distance, but Stephanie and Chase didn’t see anything except each other as they kissed, and Chase held her in his powerful embrace, and then they disappeared into his dressing room with the dog.
A new year had begun. A new life. A new world for both of them. Carpe diem. Seize the day. They had.
To my so greatly loved children,
Beatrix, Trevor, Todd, Nick, Sam,
Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara,
May you seize the day,
and may life treat you kindly.
May your opportunities be abundant,
your joys immense and limitless,
and may all your dreams come true!
I love you so very much!
Mom/DS
By Danielle Steel
COUNTRY • PRODIGAL SON • PEGASUS • A PERFECT LIFE • POWER PLAY • WINNERS • FIRST SIGHT • UNTIL THE END OF TIME • THE SINS OF THE MOTHER • FRIENDS FOREVER • BETRAYAL • HOTEL VENDÔME • HAPPY BIRTHDAY • 44 CHARLES STREET • LEGACY • FAMILY TIES • BIG GIRL • SOUTHERN LIGHTS • MATTERS OF THE HEART • ONE DAY AT A TIME • A GOOD WOMAN • ROGUE • HONOR THYSELF • AMAZING GRACE • BUNGALOW 2 • SISTERS • H.R.H. • COMING OUT • THE HOUSE • TOXIC BACHELORS • MIRACLE • IMPOSSIBLE • ECHOES • SECOND CHANCE • RANSOM • SAFE HARBOUR • JOHNNY ANGEL • DATING GAME • ANSWERED PRAYERS • SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ • THE COTTAGE • THE KISS • LEAP OF FAITH • LONE EAGLE • JOURNEY • THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET • THE WEDDING • IRRESISTIBLE FORCES • GRANNY DAN • BITTERSWEET • MIRROR IMAGE • THE KLONE AND I • THE LONG ROAD HOME • THE GHOST • SPECIAL DELIVERY • THE RANCH • SILENT HONOR • MALICE • FIVE DAYS IN PARIS • LIGHTNING • WINGS • THE GIFT • ACCIDENT • VANISHED • MIXED BLESSINGS • JEWELS • NO GREATER LOVE • HEARTBEAT • MESSAGE FROM NAM • DADDY • STAR • ZOYA • KALEIDOSCOPE • FINE THINGS • WANDERLUST • SECRETS • FAMILY ALBUM • FULL CIRCLE • CHANGES • THURSTON HOUSE • CROSSINGS • ONCE IN
A LIFETIME • A PERFECT STRANGER • REMEMBRANCE • PALOMINO • LOVE: POEMS • THE RING • LOVING • TO LOVE AGAIN • SUMMER’S END • SEASON OF PASSION • THE PROMISE • NOW AND FOREVER • PASSION’S PROMISE • GOING HOME
Nonfiction
PURE JOY: The Dogs We Love
A GIFT OF HOPE: Helping the Homeless
HIS BRIGHT LIGHT: The Story of Nick Traina
For Children
PRETTY MINNIE IN PARIS
About the Author
DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 650 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Prodigal Son, Pegasus, A Perfect Life, Power Play, Winners, First Sight, Until the End of Time, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s book Pretty Minnie in Paris.
Visit the Danielle Steel website at daniellesteel.com.
Country Page 30